Spoilers

[Zainox]

I had a bit of back and forth with @Clayton_n on this. I'm curious to see what others think.
When is it OK to give out spoilers after release? Whether it be anime, movies, books, etc.. A week? A month? A year?

I think a minimum of maybe 2-3 months. Though I personally try to avoid spoiling all together. It annoys me greatly when someone spoils something for me, so I try to avoid doing the same thing.

Also, despite the fact that we can now torrent/stream everything online now. I find being Australian we get everything much later than America, some shows don't air till months later and some anime doesn't get licensed here till (sometimes) years later. This can cause spoilers to be very annoying.

[Sustainna]

It varies. Seeing how its the internet and things leak out faster than they used to, it could differ. If its a video game, of course people are livestreaming it at launch, so nothing is really a suprise (take SSBB for example, thx nintendo). If its an anime, its pretty taboo to talk about. Id say for an anime episode, no spoilers til 2 episodes later.

[Nodoka LaMei]

Well, hype for a lot of books tends to die down a bit just a year or two after release, so book spoilers would probably be alright to give out a few months after most of the hype has gone down. It's probably the same way with movies, but with movies based on books, who knows how long it might be until hype dies down, even just a bit?

[Sympathy]

i don't think spoilers are good in any situation. the person doing the spoiling should shut the hell up because that anime could be on your To Watch list.

[Qoco]

If something has a spoiler usually it says so in the title of whatever it is (article, video, etc). Spoilers don't bother me unless I'm not being informed that there are spoilers, otherwise if I'm being spoiled it's by my own will.

[Sustainna]

If something has a spoiler usually it says so in the title of whatever it is (article, video, etc). Spoilers don't bother me unless I'm not being informed that there are spoilers, otherwise if I'm being spoiled it's by my own will.

This.

[someoneofforumpast]

I think that spoilers are only at the readers risk. As an enthusiast of anime/manga myself I hate to spoil anything for anyone. So when I start talking about something with someone I ask a few questions.

1. Have you seen this anime?
2. If yes. Where are you currently?
3. If no. Let me give you the rundown of it's awesomeness.
4. If I am ahead then I start talking about a scenario and I ask do you mind spoilers.
5. If yes. Then I do not spoil and let them experience it themselves.
6. If no. Then I tell them about what is happening just out of excitement.

There are golden rules to spoilers. Also there are tags for them as well. So you spoil things at your own risk and you read the spoilers on your own accord.

[Clayton_n]

So if people want to discuss a recent episode that millions of people have seen it should be considered a spoiler just because you haven't?

Is there a time limit on this stuff? A certain number of people who have seen it or read the book or whatever it's based on?


Like with the Korrasami finale, a lot of people were discussing it the moment it happened. Just because someone else hasn't kept up with the show why should the rest of us take special consideration?


Personally I like knowing what's going to happen before it happens. I read the Disney book of Maleficent (not as good as the movie) before even watching the movie. Do it all the time at the Barnes and Noble next to the book store.

But I don't tell people about it until after the movie or show is available to the general public. 3 seconds after that I figure it's fair game.

besides I could always be lying.

[Sympathy]

So if people want to discuss a recent episode that millions of people have seen it should be considered a spoiler just because you haven't?

Is there a time limit on this stuff? A certain number of people who have seen it or read the book or whatever it's based on?


Like with the Korrasami finale, a lot of people were discussing it the moment it happened. Just because someone else hasn't kept up with the show why should the rest of us take special consideration?


Personally I like knowing what's going to happen before it happens. I read the Disney book of Maleficent (not as good as the movie) before even watching the movie. Do it all the time at the Barnes and Noble next to the book store.

But I don't tell people about it until after the movie or show is available to the general public. 3 seconds after that I figure it's fair game.

besides I could always be lying.

fair point, but here's another: marking something as a spoiler is as easy as doing

 

this.

so with that amount of effort, you could avoid being an a**hole. easy enough, right?

[someoneofforumpast]

fair point, but here's another: marking something as a spoiler is as easy as doing

 

this.

so with that amount of effort, you could avoid being an a**hole. easy enough, right?

My sentiments exactly.

[Clayton_n]

It's a little harder not to mention pointless when it's the topic of the thread, don't you think? If I specifically start a thread to discuss such an event, which frankly millions of other people are doing too, I'm supposed to wait for everyone to catch up?

[Sympathy]

It's a little harder not to mention pointless when it's the topic of the thread, don't you think? If I specifically start a thread to discuss such an event, which frankly millions of other people are doing too, I'm supposed to wait for everyone to catch up?

in that situation it would have been fine to post spoilers because the thread is labeled in a way that makes it obvious there's gonna be some. but in the instance that sparked this whole controversy in the first place, you dropped a spoiler in a thread that wasn't marked in that way. so the way you did it, it was wrong.

[gobSIDES]

For me always and never.

For example if you're in a thread discussing said media it's not cool to just go in a talk spoilers in my opinion. But if you're in a thread where it clearly marks 'Spoilers' in the title or OP than it's fair game 100%

My though is to never really post spoilers unless I'm asked privately or in a spoiler thread discussing the ending of a movie or whatnot. Obvi in real life it's different you just play by feel and ask people in the group.

TL;DR Keep it discreet in gen discussion threads and people who are not 'up-to-date' stay out of threads reviewing or giving opinions about the said media.

[Ωmega]

Forums its easy to hide spoilers by using the spoiler tags, however social media doesnt have spoiler tags. When it comes to spoilers on places like FB, I offer a week grace period. You havent seen it in a weeks time then [to me] you arent really following the show closely and therefore I dont care if you get spoiled. Most shows air on a weekly basis, so I think its pretty generous to post about a previous episode over the current one.

Movies? Until their out of theaters, so roughly three months.

Games? About the same, three months. After three months the hype about most games have already died down and DLCs are probably being released by then.

Ive seen people get upset over spoilers from games 6 years old. Ridiculous. If you havent played/watched something in such a long time span, chances are you never will.

[Sympathy]

i was personally speaking strictly in the context of forums. social media and general word-of-mouth, i'd go with omega's limits.

[RyuTama]

Uh, well spoilers are always annoying. Unless the person that hasn't read/watched it says to just tell them what happened.

PERSONALLY, I hate, hate, HATE being spoiled. Getting something spoiled for me is one of my greatest peeves. I will literally avoid parts of the internet sometimes simply because I know those sites will contain spoilers 2 minutes after a movie/game is released. If my friends play/watch/read something before me, I will cut them off as soon as they try mentioning it to me lol. I'm that anxious about it.

I especially hate it when people try and make you 'guess' about what happens, because they consider it as not technically spoiling it for you. My nephew is the absolute WORST culprit when it comes to that sort of thing.

"Guess who dies?"
"I don't wanna know"
"Just guess"
"No"
"You'll hate it"

Thanks you derpwad, now I know one of my favorite characters died UGH.

[someoneofforumpast]

Forums its easy to hide spoilers by using the spoiler tags, however social media doesnt have spoiler tags. When it comes to spoilers on places like FB, I offer a week grace period. You havent seen it in a weeks time then [to me] you arent really following the show closely and therefore I dont care if you get spoiled. Most shows air on a weekly basis, so I think its pretty generous to post about a previous episode over the current one.

Movies? Until their out of theaters, so roughly three months.

Games? About the same, three months. After three months the hype about most games have already died down and DLCs are probably being released by then.

Ive seen people get upset over spoilers from games 6 years old. Ridiculous. If you havent played/watched something in such a long time span, chances are you never will.

But in the end the one spoiling does not know that they are committing unwritten treason. So say for instance if I am playing/watching/reading something that just came out and then I put on my social media. OMG I can't believe X happened to Y in this thing just made.

It is out of excitement. I can not be blamed for someone reading my comment about this even that just took place that they have not had the chance to experience. They should just overlook it. But on the same token. I am not one to get upset about spoilers. I think it is just a cool way to say man that would be awesome to see. Can't wait to find out.

[Eris]

I think it entirely depends on the magnitude of the spoiler.

Major plot twists should ideally not be talked about openly, unless they are extremely wide spread already. Like the ending of the Planet of the Apes from 1968 is fine. Althouh it's not okay to talk too much about the season finales of Dexter, even though they're 2-8 years old depending on season, it's concievable that someone might be watching that show, and learning of the twists will ruin it for them. The bigger unexpected events in Buffy may be so old they're almost acceptable to talk about without warning of spoilers.

Minor spoilers can be discussed openly after most people that are interested in the thing can be reasonably expected to catch up. For a TV-show, that's maybe 2-3 episodes.

It also depends a bit on the context. You should know better than to go into a thread about a video game or a movie some time after it's been released, hence weaker restrictions apply.

[Ωmega]

But in the end the one spoiling does not know that they are committing unwritten treason. So say for instance if I am playing/watching/reading something that just came out and then I put on my social media. OMG I can't believe X happened to Y in this thing just made.

It is out of excitement. I can not be blamed for someone reading my comment about this even that just took place that they have not had the chance to experience. They should just overlook it. But on the same token. I am not one to get upset about spoilers. I think it is just a cool way to say man that would be awesome to see. Can't wait to find out.

I agree, sometimes it happens. For example, a character in a show died, and I posted on Facebook. "Character name, noooo~"

That was it.

Please flipped that I spoiled/ruined the episode for them. Which I think is ridiculous.

[Hanamaru Kunikida]

We have a 2 day rule in my Walking Dead Discussion group. You basically have two days to catch up and if you discuss it prior then you get kicked for being an asshole, afterwards if you haven't watched the episode its your own fault since you knew the rules. Stay away if you don't want to be spoiled.

It's like you need to be considerate for people but at the same time, you know this is the Internet, and its smart to avoid it when it comes to spoilers. Example:

Latest [Insert Anime / Manga] Discussion Thread.

Like hello, latest? You want them to discuss stuff from 2 years ago? You don't want to get spoiled? Avoid the thread. However, don't just bluntly spoil something where it cannot be avoided.

[Darkandiel]

In general, spoiling without warning people is a pretty selfish thing to do in the first place. I know a lot of people like to wait for a show to finish airing before they start watching it, so if I've seen something, I tend to think about other people when making a post, using spoiler tags. I still do that with major plot giveaways even if a show is older.

It has never happened on my social media accounts actually. I have never had a friend who did that lol. They might say "OMG, that was such a great episode of X tonight." or whatever. A lot of people do realise that there are plenty of box set people out there lol. I am one of those. I watch boxed sets of non-anime shows. I think, if someone was in the habit of doing that, I would say nothing, just discreetly remove them from my feed so I don't get their idiot statuses. :lol:

EDIT:

As for books, since someone brought it up. It is NEVER okay to spoil a book, except in a specific discussion about said book. Then someone knows not to go in and read it. Books are timeless, and most people do not read them as soon as they come out. I read books that are more than 10 years old for goodness sake. Actually, I am planning to start an epic fantasy series soon that started 20 years ago. :P

[Hanamaru Kunikida]

Ive seen people get upset over spoilers from games 6 years old. Ridiculous. If you havent played/watched something in such a long time span, chances are you never will.

I agree, but then again, what about in the scenario of HD Remasters?

My friend never played ICO nor Shadow of the Colossus cause he never had the chance so he bought the HD Collection, another friend spoiled it for him like an asswipe while he was playing it and ruined the experience. It made me really mad too cause it took me a while to convince him to get it.

And I repeat, while he was playing it. He knew it was his first time too.

If it's an oldass games, yeah you aren't going to play it but in cases of HD Remasters, or like Persona 4 The Golden, then yeah, chances are bigger that the person will play it.

[Darkandiel]

I agree, but then again, what about in the scenario of HD Remasters?

My friend never played ICO nor Shadow of the Colossus cause he never had the chance so he bought the HD Collection, another friend spoiled it for him like an asswipe while he was playing it and ruined the experience. It made me really mad too cause it took me a while to convince him to get it.

And I repeat, while he was playing it. He knew it was his first time too.

Yeah, that was a pretty crappy thing to do.

A couple of years ago, I was watching Death Note. Now don't ask me how I ever escaped knowing the plot of that show given my involvement with an anime forum. However, my uncle was the one to loan me the boxed set of the series. Then not thinking he says "It's different from the live action... in the end..." I just stopped watching it around ep 14. I have never finished that series. lol.

[Clayton_n]

So everyone has to have seen something before we can talk about it?

Personally I enjoy spoilers. They let me know if I should bother in the first place

[Ωmega]

I agree, but then again, what about in the scenario of HD Remasters?

My friend never played ICO nor Shadow of the Colossus cause he never had the chance so he bought the HD Collection, another friend spoiled it for him like an asswipe while he was playing it and ruined the experience. It made me really mad too cause it took me a while to convince him to get it.

And I repeat, while he was playing it. He knew it was his first time too.

If it's an oldass games, yeah you aren't going to play it but in cases of HD Remasters, or like Persona 4 The Golden, then yeah, chances are bigger that the person will play it.

Its no longer an old game since you could classify an HD remake as a new game, thus my new game rules apply with a 3 month time period before I start spoiling stuff up