Spoilers

So this is likely going to be different for certain formats, and I'd like to get some feedback. I thought of making a poll, but it would be cumbersome.

I want this thread to apply to books, video games, films, and television.

What is the proper time frame to open up discussion without having to spoiler tag?

 

If the thread is dedicated to the piece of entertainment in question, there should be no need for these tags. If you have not read or seen or played it yet, it is up to you to stay out of it. However, if something has not released yet, that is something that perhaps should be hidden.

If it is a more general thread, it is fine to tag something "new", but after a while it is pointless. We should never be at a point where the shark's explosion at the end of Jaws is a spoiler.

 

If you don't want things spoiled, don't head into the thread until you're up to date. That said, there should not spoilers if something leaks before release for whatever reason. For movies, I think Thursday late night people should keep reactions spoiler free until actual release date.

The only thing this may be an issue on is TV shows. Someone late to the game should not be left out because they have over 100 episodes to watch to be up to date. I don't know the best solution though.

 

It's a matter of courtesy. In a world where the spoiler-tag function exists, I personally don't see why one can't take the time to be a good person and black out plot details. But I always ask if people have seen/read something in real life before I start talking about things in general, no matter how old something is. Again, it takes no extra effort whatsoever just to be kind to others and not potentially spoil something for them. And this applies doubly for television in the modern age of streaming and binging, where people are experiencing shows at different paces.

 

^ what he said.

It's just courteous to spoiler tag something. I agree that you shouldn't have to walk on eggshells to keep from spoiling something, but there's no reason to purposely spoil things for someone who's curious about something and reading through a thread to get more information about it before deciding to watch/read/listen to it.

 

How is television different? Once it has aired, it is out in the public.

 

Idk, I just feel like with a movie or a game, it's a singular experience. Where with TV, you could be X seasons behind etc. I'm just thinking that if I got into a show that's been around for a while, i'd want to get involved in conversation with it without getting future seasons spoiled? Idk, like I said, I don't know the answer.

 

Anyone who goes into a thread about something they're not caught up on is an idiot.

 

A little harsh, but generally yes. Who are these people that go into threads about a movie that people are seeing in the theater, or a show people are watching on TV, and expects everyone else to not discuss the narrative in a thread dedicated to talking about that movie/show?

 

It's not that anyone expects people to not discuss the narrative/plot. I just think if someone's gonna say something like "Bruce Willis was dead the whole time" that they should spoiler tag that.

Once again, it's more of a courtesy than anything. If I'm going into a thread about a movie I haven't seen yet, I'm cautious that it could be spoiled.

 

Nobody is. Just give a spoiler warning beforehand or, on this site and on others, spoiler-tag it. It takes zero effort to show some courtesy to others. Literally zero.

 

Who are you showing courtesy to if nobody is?

Courtesy comes from not forcing everyone to tag things that shouldn't be tagged. It ultimately leads to a dumbed down conversation about the movie/show/book/whatever is being discussed.

 

It dumbs nothing down because you can say whatever you want to say under the spoiler tag. You're just showing courtesy to people who haven't seen/read it yet and want to discuss how every feels about it before watching/reading it themselves. Nobody is expecting there to be no talk of spoilers, just. tag. them. It's not hard at all.

 

I'm going to consciously not use spoiler tags on here in the future, just to spite those kind of people.

 

No one is saying it is hard, although it is a bit harder than not going into a thread that is going to have the exact thing you want to avoid.

People ultimately skip over more or post less due to the spoiler tags. It is an unpleasant experience, easily fixed by not using them.

 

I would have to highly doubt that people who don't care about spoilers skip over spoiler tags. It's literally the whole point of them. Just because your eyes glaze over when you see them doesn't mean literally anyone else's do.

If you want a thread for freely spoiling things without a care for anyone else, just because you don't want to type the spoiler tag out, start a separate thread for spoilers on a given topic. I don't know what else to tell you, I just know that if I were simply trying to get a feel for what my peers in a community like this think about something before spending the money to experience it myself, I wouldn't want it spoiled for me in the process.

 

You're showing a courtesy to people that are interesting in something, but haven't yet seen it.

Personal Shopper for example, is a film I'd never heard of, knew nothing about and probably wouldn't have seen, but I stumbled across the thread and saw lots of praise so I checked it out and wound up loving it.

I don't think you should spoiler tag everything, but if you're discussing the ending or something unexpected in a film, it's courteous to spoiler tag it.

 

Besides, as a fan of something, especially smaller independent film, don't you want to welcome in a new potential audience rather than shut them out?

 

There is nothing to doubt; this whole silly fear of "spoiling" something (you can't spoil a movie or a TV show) leads to people avoiding the discussion altogether. When something is spoiler tagged, I usually do not read it and move on because it is likely not worth reading.

A thread is not a closed discussion that caters to you; people are going to say positive things, negative things, talk about the plot, talk about the politics of the film, and so on.

 

Of course. That has nothing to do with spoilers, though.

 

It is patently absurd to expect everyone to see a movie the day it comes out. If there's nothing about a film worth discussing that doesn't involve the plot, why do threads exist before the release day?

Edited because this wasn't a direct response to those last two posts.

 

What I mean to say is, there are obviously things worth discussing about a film that don't involve the plot. Given that, the act of essentially forcing anyone who can't see a film opening weekend out of the thread isn't more reasonable than using spoiler tags.

I mean Get Out came out just 4 months ago and it's the PERFECT example

 

This is just a selfish, inconsiderate position to take. Sorry but it just is. Saying "you can't spoil a movie or a tv show" is outrageous. And if anyone wants to be catered to, it's people that can't just type out a spoiler tag when discussing the plot because they just don't feel like it, and also don't want to be called out on it.

If that's actually how you feel then there's really no point in trying to argue any further.

 

It kind of does though. If I had gone into the Personal Shopper thread and read about the ending, I might have decided not to watch the film, or I may have watched it and it not had the same effect on me.

Not to say that the movie would have been ruined or spoiled, because there are many other aspects to a film, and I'd agree that if a film can be spoiled that easily, then it's probably not worth a shit to begin with, but...

 

No, the selfishness comes from people expecting everyone else who has seen the movie to edit and hide their conversations in order not to reveal something about the plot.

You can't spoil something because spoiling implies it is no longer worth consumption. Knowing the plot before you see it is something a lot of people want to avoid, but it is a mostly silly way to approach something.