So, what the fuck is this Game of Thrones thing? Aren’t the books some phony Medieval shit plus swords and sorcery, written by a second-rate SF author whom I never liked even before he gave his career a nudge by cashing in on the fake Hobbit crap that’s been inexplicably popular since the '70s? Isn’t the show more of the same with visible boobs and Peter Dinklage, both of which I’ll watch in most anything other than this? And how the fuck do you spoil fantasy when it’s all the same? Christ, I’ve known dungeon masters with more imagination and flair with words than George RR Martin.
Read some history if you want sleazy intrigue, and watch some porn if you want boobs. You might be related to the participants of either, which makes it more fun than fiction.
Okay, I did somehow skip page 5. Duh. Thanks for the links. And now I also understand why everyone plays along that there aren’t any books at all. Looks like when there’s even the slightest mention of them, the pedantic police steps in to make the argument that they’re really not talking about the books, and that they’re following the no spoiler rule instead.
How annoying that someone simply can’t adhere to the general wishes if the masses, especially when there’s other threads and ways to discuss whatever angle they’re after. Also, it appears that the OP has some sort of history with that issue and then colors any dissent by classifying the opponent derogatorily like a little kid? Then I believe I’m of the opinion that the other people are in the right.
Speaking as a poster who hasn’t read any of the GoT threads here:
Uhhhhh… yeah? Especially WRT CafeSoc, allowing exactly that is standard etiquette. Duh?
1 - re:said tradition - sure, in the Pit.
2 - again, CafeSoc has different expectations. It’s not specifically “no posting here unless you agree with me”, but surely you know that threadshitting is very much frowned upon, especially in CafeSoc.
SO. FUCKING. WHAT?? I’d almost see your beef if, for some reason, Senor Beef’s GoT threads and only Senor Beef’s GoT threads were allowed. But there are other fucking threads you can post to. If everyone else also felt Senor Beef was being ridiculous, no one would reply to them. Is that the case? No? Then shut the fuck up and post in the other threads. All this is doing is letting everyone know what an entitled asshole you’re being. “waaaaaahhhhh waaaaaahhhh, mommmmy I don’t like his GoT threads!!! I knoooooow there are other threads I can post innnnn that’s not the point!!! I WANT THIS THREAAAAADDDDDDD TOOOOOOOOO!”
I just thought of the perfect analogy. SenorBeef and DrDeth are two siblings in the backseat of the family car. DrDeth keeps poking SenorBeef until SenorBeef yells to stop touching him. Then DrDeth holds his finger an inch away from SenorBeef’s face and repeatedly says “i’mnottouchingyoui’mnottouchingyoui’mnottouchingyoui’mnottouchingyoui’mnottouchingyoui’mnottouchingyou.” Then SenorBeef has to add a bunch of different things DrDeth is not to do, which WOULD sound like an overreaction until you see that DrDeth will do his damnedest to find any fucking loophole for the sole reason of pissing off SenorBeef. And then have the brass balls to bitch about how unreasonable and stupid SenorBeef is.
True, which is why I verified its location, but one of my points still stands: How do you spoil a TV show or a series of novels? They ain’t art. They are written for a mass audience, which means that certain rules are followed. Joss Whedon gets massive shit for killing off the occasional popular character, and is considered daring for it, but he is not going to end this week’s episode with, “Suddenly, everyone is run over by a truck,” because there is another episode next week and the actors are contracted for the whole season. Fiction, especially serial fiction, moves along from one trope to the next cliche, satisfying the viewer because that’s how it’s supposed to go. The surprises are slight and a viewer aware of the rules is rarely surprised. What open spoilers can do is teach a person like Senor Beef the rules of fiction so he can enjoy it for what it is: snappy writing and well-developed characters interacting in a well-drawn world, whether it is this one or another of the author’s invention. I just wish some of the imagined ones could be further from this one; a world with unicorns and magic would develop very much differently from this. But that could be too outre for a mass audience.
ETA: Oh, and this feud between Senor Beef and DrDeth is funny because it is stupid and has gone on for so long that I can’t help looking in these threads.
Ethilrist, Zeisamkeit basically nailed what happened in the first two seasons of “Game of Thrones.” SenorBeef and Snarky_Kong tried very hard to set simple rules so that people who had not read the books would not be spoiled. Basically what happened is that every thread devolved into an interminable argument about what was a spoiler and what wasn’t. The final, workable solution was that for the purpose of the “no spoiler” threads, people were to post as if the books did not exist. It made for very happy posters. People who didn’t want to be spoiled were happy. People who didn’t care about being spoiled had their own thread.
But someone just couldn’t live with that.
I really don’t get why you think you have some special insight about literature or storytelling that the rest of us don’t know. I have been reading since the age of three. For much of my life, books—novels, novellas, short stories, etc.—were the major source of fantasy and science fiction stories. I’m not the best-read person in the world, but I have always read regularly. I also watch television and movies.
Are you kidding? Do you really think the people who don’t want to be spoiled really don’t understand that books exist or what literature is?
At least one of the sources of pleasure in experiencing a work of fiction is being surprised by an author’s choices in the series of events. In every case in which I have known in advance what a plot point is, whether major or minor, it always diminished the enjoyment of the experience of reading or watching.
But I can’t believe I actually have to say this as if you don’t know it. I’m half suspecting that you’re whooshing.
I watched Season 1 and Season 2 of the TV show of “Game of Thrones” largely without being spoiled and I was delightfully surprised by several turns of events. There were some things that I did inadvertently get spoiled on and it was disappointing. After Season 2, I accidentally got spoiled on a few things again, so I just threw up my hands and went ahead and read all the books. I managed to be unspoiled for several major plot points, which were again quite pleasurable.
Now, I spend most of my time in the spoiled thread, but I am very careful when I step into the no spoiler thread, which means I post very little. I remember how good it was watching the show unspoiled and I would not deprive that from anyone else who has managed to stay that way.
It’s a simple pleasure. Let people have it. It costs you nothing.
This is a really good rant, rather better than mine, spoiled by the tiny little fact that until today I have hardly ever posted in any of SeñorBeefs “special” thread and in fact did so today only because SeñorBistec wasn’t actually the OP. I did see the "No Spoilers’ but since my post was in no way a spoiler, I wasn’t concerned.
Little did I know that I had accidentally stumbled into a group of SrBeef suck ups, Junior Mods and sycophants. sigh. Mea Culpa.
I’d like to remind people, that these rules were put in place after things got really crazy. Quixotic78 got so worked up about SenorBeef’s spoiler rules that he got himself banned after he pretended to be a mod and threatened to discipline SenorBeef.
And DrDeth is basically re-running his shtik from a year ago:
Those thread rules weren’t the sole domain of SenorBeef. There were several of us who wanted a discussion with those rules, and wanted to continue it through Season 1, Season 2, and any subsequent season. There was no basis for you to think that this season’s “no spoiler” threads were going to be any different. In fact, I don’t believe for a minute that you did. I suspect that you saw an opportunity for a loophole and jumped through it with the full knowledge that you would be annoying people.
Really, if it’s so hard for you to follow that rule, why don’t you just stick to the spoiled thread?
Absolutely. However, I had nothing to do with that train wreck.
There was a train wreck a couple of years ago,sure- so? We then have to assume there will be one again? Note that my recent post was innocuous, barely a mention of the “b” word, yet the resultant jr. mod pile on completely hijacked the thread. The Jr Mods and Mr hamburger sycophants are who hijacked and derailed the thread, not me.
Why not just go back to one set of rules for everyone? Why make Sr. Beefstakio such a ‘special" OP? Let us just say "No spoilers’ like hundreds of thread have done? Why does even the mention of the “b word” have to set off a shitstorm?
I have no problem at all with "No spoilers’. What I have an issue with is special rules for a special poster- *just because he can’t read the book. *
