Policy on spoilers

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41

The thing is- the Unsullied/Illiterati are being bullies. The new policy, while very clear and well written is simply appeasement to the bullies.

Look at the newest thread. No spoilers. BUT there have been several instances of blatant Junior Modding.

What’s the Rule? What should I do if I discover inappropriate posts?
A: Do not Junior Mod. If someone posts inappropriately, report the post and walk away. Do not start fights. If one starts anyway, do not participate.

Heavy threats were made for violators, but I didn’t see even a whisper of a Mod note to that.

The thread I complain about here in ATMB? It was clearly labeled SPOILERS! yet the bullies had to hijack the thread, junior mod like mad and wear their little fingers to the bone reporting posts.

So, who *is *causing the problems in the GoT thread? It’s not the occasional naif who accidentally makes an offhand mention of the book, now is it? It’s the bullies who insist on having it THEIR way or else.

Giving in to bullies, appeasing them- never works, and is ethically wrong. Giving the big kid in the schoolyard your lunch money never works, he just wants more.

Now simster, I see your point, you’re trying to be reasonable. But the SDMB has never let the OP set the rules so much as they will be enforced by the staff. This is new & unique. Threads just have a way of going sometimes in a direction the OP doesn’t want, but that’s life in Grown-up world. I agree tho- we should be reasonable. Spoilers are not nice, they are not polite and they can be jerkish. But the issue is not with spoilers anymore. Those mostly stopped years ago. The issue is that the Unsullied dont want even a mention of the books to “sully” their thread- and they are going to yell and scream and be bullies until they get their way. But this is not a blog, it’s a public message board. Dissenting opinions are OK. We’re not dittoheads here.

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Honestly, I’m surprised GoT discussions haven’t been banned by now. I’m only half-kidding.

Oh, and Jesus…

Arose from the dead three days later

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For a TV series that is just a TV series, that’s easy enough to do. There are several “post the whole season in one thread” discussions I follow. Sometimes I’ll read up to the point in the thread I’ve reached, but often I end up participating less in those threads because I’m never caught up. But that’s on me.

But the situation is much different when there is a parent source material like a series of novels, and the show is following reasonably close so that continued parallels are evident. I mean, some shows divert and go a different direction, so continued comparisons become less available. But there are books that tell the story far in advance of what has aired, and it is reasonable to hold a discussion thread based solely on the TV show version without reference to the alternate incarnation (source).

How hard is it to allow a conversation that doesn’t mention the books?

For that specific question, I’m not sure that in itself would be a spoiler for me, but discussing the ramifications of those differences might lead to spoilers. Talking about how it reflects on the character differently might be a spoiler. Discussing how it affects relationships might be a spoiler.

Basically, knowing there is a source material makes it a challenge to have any “prediction” or anticipation discussions, because someone might say “I hope X happens”
or “I’m looking forward to Y”, and then someone else responds “Nope, it won’t” or “Sorry, he dies”. And even if nobody drops a definite spoiler in that manner, sometimes it can be hard to tell between someone predicting what they think will happen and someone saying what the book says will happen.

I suggest you consider the impression you are creating about yourself.

I agree you were unfairly attacked in that one thread. The title of the OP specifically said spoilers, and there were no limitations in the OP that book content wasn’t allowed, and the question itself seemed to be asking for information beyond what had aired on the show. I don’t think what you did was wrong, nor intentionally rude. And yes, you got piled on based upon a reputation that may or may not be fair.

But continuing to harp on the topic just makes their opinions about you seem more justified.

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You make some fair & reasonable points. But look at it my way- I was savagely attacked twice for doing nothing wrong. In the first case, it was a GoT thread, but one not started by SB. Nor did the OP mention anything about books. People were discussing the torture scenes and saying they were gratuitous. I agreed, and said the book hadn’t even shown them explicitly, just strongly alluded to them afterwards. This cause a giant shitstorm of personal attacks, junior modding, etc, and the Staff here did nothing. Mind you, many times in the GoT threads people have mentioned nudity and etc being gratuitous with no issues at all- what caused the shitstorm in my case was me saying 'the b-word". Not a spoiler. Just that word. Look at the current thread- there’s what a half dozen instances of blatant Junior modding every time someone sez 'the b-word"? Does that really help?

Then there’s that thread you talk about here, and I want to thank you for your neutral unbiased support (to a degree). Again- a shitstorm- lies, personal attacks junior modding and not only did the Staff not step in, but one of them *joined in *with great glee.

I had even dropped the issue of complaining about the special treatment for these bullies- until that second completely unprovoked series of attacks. And what made it worse was that a Mod had clearly been taken in by the Unsullied lies and also made a nasty little personal jab.

I’d love to drop the issue but the Unsullied won’t follow the rules. It’d be nice if the new rules, (which are very clear) actually meant “peacekeeping” but they clearly dont apply to the Unsullied. Not only Special treatment in a special set of rules, but special treatment in enforcement of those rules.

So, yes, I am pissed. The staff here seems to have completely given in to the Bullies in the interest of “Peace in Our Time”. And we all know how well *that *worked.

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Dr Deth, you have seized on this thread to once again rail against what has turned into a pet cause for you.

This has gone through several threads and a whole lot of complaining on your part. It’s been explained to you how we do things. That’s not going to change because you don’t like it or disagree with the people affected by it.

We acknowledge your disagreement with the ruling as made. There’s really nothing more to post about on that subject.

We ask that everyone be considerate of other people in re “spoiling” a plotline, the outcome of an episode or the ending of a movie, etc. Not “we’re putting our fingers in our ears and going ‘la-la-la’” kind of sillyness but basic common sense and consideration of others. With no judgment on those people and their situations. Be nice already.

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Deleted, Guinastasia beat me to it.

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I think there have been a few issues raised when East Coast people post before a TV show (idk if it has happened with GOT) plays on the West Coast. I got hit a few times when I go into a thread the day after a show that is still unwatched on my DVR but that’s my fault, not the poster’s.

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Exactly. And if you’re on the west coast and you open a thread about a show before its local air time, it’s your own fault if you see spoilers.

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Ok.

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It’s also worth noting that it can be weeks, months or even years before “popular” TV shows and movies make their way to other English speaking countries, especially in a format accessible to lots of people.

Take The Walking Dead - it’s on Pay TV here, but quite literally 65% of Australia does not have Pay TV. I’m a series behind because I’m waiting for the current series to come out on DVD here. I’ve avoided all the Walking Dead threads because of the inevitable spoilers, and the sad thing is by the time I get around to watching the new series no-one here will want to talk about it anymore since everyone will be onto the series after that.

Game Of Thrones is only available this series on that same Pay TV network most people don’t have, so the only way to legally acquire it is to either pay a fortune for a Pay TV service people don’t want, or wait until the series has finished and get it from iTunes, or wait even longer for the DVD to come out.

The last time I brought this up the response was basically “Too bad, it’s your fault for not living in America”, but I think it is a valid concern - I haven’t bothered with the third (or subsequent) series of Boardwalk Empire because of careless spoilers from people on the SDMB.

I would suggest, as a general courtesy plot points in major “event” TV shows (Game of Thrones, Mad Men, the Walking Dead, House of Cards, etc) and films should probably be spoilered for a couple of years after they screen as a courtesy to people elsewhere who haven’t been able to watch it through no fault of their own.

It’s not a huge amount of hassle for me to err on the side of caution and put spoiler boxes around something in a thread which might be an obvious spoiler to someone who hasn’t seen the TV show/movie in question, especially when the alternative is potentially spoiling people’s enjoyment of a work we all enjoy.

However, there are works which, thanks to pop culture osmosis, can safely be considered “spoiled” for anyone old enough to be using the messageboard - I think most people know Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father, Bruce Willis’ character was dead throughout The Sixth Sense and Rosebud was Charles Kane’s sled as a kid, for example. These things have been lampooned, parodied, pastiched and/or referenced in numerous other, later works (There’s even a Family Guy cutaway where Peter Griffin interrupts a Citizen Kane flashback with a direct to camera “It was his sled!”).

Being asked to put spoiler boxes around discussion of a recent TV series/film isn’t stifling your ability to talk about that work, but it enhances everyone’s enjoyment of it by giving as many people as possible a chance to see the work spoiler-free. Although this also has to be tempered by an acceptance that anyone who hasn’t seen Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Matrix by now probably isn’t going to anytime soon and the reality is they’ve probably either had the twists/ending spoiled long ago or they don’t care because they were never going to see those films anyway.

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For the BBC programme Sherlock, there are two separate threads; one for the original UK broadcast, and a second for the later broadcast on PBS. But I don’t know if there is enough interest among the Australian viewers of The Walking Dead to sustain a thread.

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I don’t think there’s enough Australian posters to sustain a thread on the subject, to be honest. I’d estimate there’s less than two dozen active Aussies on the boards, and the numbers with pay TV subsriptions to watch the show as it aired would be even lower than that.