IIRC, one crybaby (I can’t remember who; doesn’t matter who) made such a shitfit over book vs show spoilers that the mods, rather than spanking his ass for gross annoyance, developed a set of rules about posts that was unprecedented here. These rules still stand as a sticky in Cafe Society. This raises some questions:
Why did they kowtow to the demands of one bratty poster who could neither read faster nor wait to view the shows, and discuss them, when he caught up?
Why are the rules still posted and, presumably, still in effect?
Why do I care, as I don’t like medieval fantasy or George RR Martin and will neither watch the show nor read the books?
The answer to #3 is obvious; see #1. That’s what I don’t get. Most people know better than to spoil their fun by reading about things too early. Many people know that there is many a slip between a book and a show, and that they are separate artforms. This was shown in the book vs show comparison of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I didn’t stop reading the book because I saw the series. I stopped reading it because the twinkle of the Bronze Age caught my eye. It’s still in my trunk. I’ll get back to it.
So why did the mods make a singular exception to a long-standing policy of “don’t read it if you don’t want to be spoiled” for this one series? Can it go away?
All the excitement and ranting about a fictional story line on the boob tube is rather funny to watch. It’s like hockey. If you don’t like it, you probably enjoy the fights at least.
Is Game of Thrones actually a game? I did not know that.
Anyway, if it is, why wouldn’t the rules be in effect? Is it because everyone in the show behaves so abominably that there might as well NOT be any rules?
Read the OP. I am curious why we have this singular phenomenon (the rules) regarding a single product, brought about because one obsessive member can’t play well with others. It is unique, by board tradition it should not exist, and it has carried on long past when that one member should have been done with the books that have been written. Why are the mods still babying one member over one issue? It doesn’t seem right.
They aren’t babying one member. They’re protecting everybody else from the baby.
Apparently the TV show is considerably different from the books, yet still includes content from the books. One guy decided that the people who wanted to watch the TV show were being lazy and so told them repeatedly while spoiling stuff upcoming in the TV show, and then wouldn’t stop doing it.
So, I repeat, why does it matter to you? I could read the OP all day, and in the end it’s a complaint that doesn’t pertain to you. You want to carve out a special exception for yourself? Be my guest. It will take a lot of time, a lot of fighting, and no small amount of silliness (even for the Internet), and you run the risk of being banned if they get sick of you, but you can do it. Have at it.
I also have no dogs in this fight. Watching from the fringes I think it’s rather like colliding galaxies. Groups of people who want things one way versus groups who want things another. It’s all slow motion explosions that take eons to resolve. And now we have a third group. The group who really doesn’t care, but just doesn’t want to hear about it any more.
Although I have high hopes for this Pit thread. At least the explosions might be entertaining.
This is me, right? It’s funny, because I’ve always been the voice of reason in this, gave detailed, level-headed reasoning for the policies which solved a real problem, and people from the other side absolutely were childish and bratty and wanted to spoil shit for people just to be a vindictive and teach us some sort of lesson, and somehow people manage to conclude from this that I’m the bad guy.
The first season Game of Thrones threads were a trainwreck. More than half of the threads were bickering over the issue of spoilers. Angry someone spoiled something. Arguments over what constitutes a spoiler. Arguments over why people would ever want to avoid spoilers. The threads were fucking out of control. It was interfering with quality discussion.
So we discussed it and came up with a policy of separating discussion about the show and discussion about the books/show (and even a few threads just about the books IIRC), so that people who wanted one kind of discussion and not the others would have a place they could speak.
And it worked. The quality of the threads from season 2 onwards is dramatically better than in previous seasons. The change made things better for everyone.
For the faction that’s mysteriously butthurt about the existance of non-spoiled discussion of the TV show (it really fucking bothers some people that this exists even though it doesn’t hurt them and they have other discussions), somehow this becomes “only ONE GUY whines and the whole board policy changes!” but that’s not true. There are a whole lot of people who wanted to have spoiler-free discussions of the show, I’m just the guy who cares enough to try to get shit done. As another example, I lead the charge to get the game threads out of the game room that was suffocating beneath them.
Why are you even asking this? Do you mean because the show “caught up” to the books? Not quite - not all story lines are caught up, and some may show up later than they showed up in the books and could still very much be spoiled. The Ironborn plot this season, for example. There’s still potential for book knowledge to spoil someone’s enjoyment of the show/show discussion, so there’s no reason for the rules to change.
If you’re asking why the threads are actually stickied in the off-season - yeah, there’s no need for that. I don’t even think there’s a need for a sticky necesarily - the rules in the OP and maybe a link to a post would be adequate.
There’s enough discussion to justify taking the TV show as its own entity and discussing it. If that weren’t the case, we wouldn’t have 10 page threads for every episode doing exactly that. And we have open spoiler threads with discussion too. No one is being forced out of discussions that don’t suit them, everyone is happy. Except…
Tarded?
The policy can stand for any sort of intricate long form stories told in another medium, it just so happens that there isn’t anything really like that on TV now. If Breaking Bad was based on a series of books rather than an original TV show, I would certainly want to have discussions of Breaking Bad the TV show as its own entity. For movies based on books, they’re not really outgoing - the entirety of the story is told in one sitting.
We don’t have to have only one discussion, and no one is excluded by having spoiled and non-spoiled discussions.
On the other hand, why is “don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled” a better policy? It’s better that dozens, if not hundreds of people, simply abstain from Game of Thrones threads for years because they want to enjoy the TV show as its own entity? How does that benefit anyone?
Here’s the crux of the issue: Having separate threads allows people to participate in any/all discussions they’re interested in, but able to avoid the ones that would spoil their enjoyment. No one is taking your ability away to discuss the show with the current scheme. There are still threads in which you can talk about anything, unfuttered.
However, you butthurt retards want to do exactly that. You want people who want to watch the show and not be spoiled to simply not participate in Game of Thrones threads ever. You are attempting to suppress their discussion.
Your way is both inferior and assholish. Why do you even care? This is the weirdest issue for some people to have a huge stick in their ass.
I initially thought he meant your primary antagonist on the topic, but re-reading maybe not.
The simple answer was that the rules were an unfortunately necessary evil to deal with repeated problems. I find the rigidity a bit much on one level, but recognize the utility nonetheless. Better a little tight-assed on the rules than a bitchy free-for-all.
As a poster who came into the threads in season 3, I can say from my point of view the separation was and is appreciated. It makes for much better discussions and I have the option to stay in the thread about just the show, or head over to another thread to spoil stuff for myself. I found some of the book discussion, though I haven’t read them, to help understand some of the stuff in the show.
The sticky still applies, the show’s not over. It would be nice for things to stay as they are. I scroll past all the stickies in all the forums, I’m not sure why that’s such a bother. OMG one little extra line I have to scroll in addition to the others. My finger!
Oh, that’s true, but he wouldn’t discuss it then, either. He called me a coward multiple times for not showing up in the thread, but he never informed me the thread existed. I didn’t even know about it until a few days in, and then by the time I showed up he was hiding from the backfire.
Heh. I only paid a very little attention, but this analogy comes to mind…
A couple of kids in the back seat, antagonizing each other, mom and dad in the front. Lots of “He’s touching me!” “Brad, don’t touch your sister.” “He’s throwing gum wrappers at me, MOM!” “Dad, I’m not touching her!”
And so forth.
Now, the mods could have turned the car around and gone home - locked the thread and forbade discussion. Everybody loses.
What they did, though, is start taking separate cars - Mom and Brad in one, Dad and Suzie in the other.
Perfect? Oh, lord no. But since Brad and Suzie refused to play nice, about the only one that let them get to the beach and get stung by jellyfish.
The point is, there’s a number of posters who can’t/won’t settle for “don’t be a jerk”, but keep pushing the line. This sticky rule is an attempt to keep discussion flowing with restrictions that don’t particularly please anyone, but don’t hamper discourse within the bounds of the rule.
