TV show spoilers

Cafe Society
1

What is the etiquette on spoilers?

In the various threads on the show Survivors, I’ve been seeing people using spoiler boxes when discussing something which happened on a show that’s been aired. Personally, my spoiler policy is that you should:

1 - Not give away a spoiler in a thread title.

2 - Not casually give away a spoiler in a thread about another topic.

3 - Not give away a spoiler to a movie or book because people see these at different times.

4 - Not give away a spoiler that you got from a source other than the topic of the thread.

But what exactly is the point of hiding spoilers about what everyone who is reading the thread presumedly has already seen? For example, I’ve always gone by the assumption that anyone opening a thread about this week’s episode of Survivor has already seen it and knows who was voted out. Of if I was posting in a thread about this week’s Monday night football game, I would assume the people reading already knew what the final score was.

I understand that some people tape these shows and watch them later. In fact, I usually do this myself. For that very reason, I sometimes avoid reading these threads (and this is also the reason for rules #1 and #2). But when I read the thread I feel I shouldn’t be upset to find out anything about the show I already saw.

Am I off base in my assumptions? What do other people think?

2

For VCR viewers, primarily. Also, the are always spoilers on the Buffy threads since some people see the show Monday night.

3

Yep - once it’s aired for everyone in the U.S., I say no spoiler tags are needed.

On another note though, we usually use spoiler tags for discussing scenes shown in the preview for next week, as many dopers like to go in fresh without any prior knowledge of an episode.

4

There is a special case for “24”, since some people tape the whole season and then watch it in one sitting.

Brian

5

Of course, people like that avoid any '24" threads entirely.
But as Slacker says, many people don’t want to spolied by preview info.

Brian