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?


http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k138/Clayton_n/1_zps5bcb977e.jpeg

[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

[Hanamaru Kunikida]

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

So your spoiler span basically resets is what you're saying? Remaster, or Remake (different, but same idea).

I agree with you for the most part though, unless I KNOW the person for sure that the person WILL play certain game. Otherwise like you said, I'll spoil it up since they will be no victims.

---------- Post added at 11:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:16 PM ----------


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

Plot Twists is part of what makes an story great so, if you expect it, it kills what the author intended, and believe it or not, lessens the experience.

[Clayton_n]

Agreed. But what I'm saying is that if it's already out there then it's too late. It's going to happen unless you avoid looking it up until you see it.

If however you say, go to a website about cartoons and anime after the finale of a cartoon or anime series, then you have to expect the people there to be discussing it.

If say someone forgot about Legend of Korra and did not watch said finale, and then are reminded of it because we're discussing said finale, that's not a spoiler. That's them slipping.

We're all otaku here. If you don't obsessively watch your series then it's your fault for not knowing what's going on. If that person had been following the announced last episodes like everyone else (including a hundred people who put themselves watching it fresh on youtube) then it's on you.

I feel the same way if someone happens to know how something I wanted to see ends and tells me. It's the risk of hanging out on sites like this where people come specifically to discuss that sort of thing. The first pics of Katara and Asami walking hand in hand into the spirit world were on Google images less than an hour after it aired.
Besides there's no way we can give every detail here and even if you know what's going to happen it's not like you aren't going to watch it anyway and find it quite entertaining. Plus like I said, the person giving the information could also be lying and you have to check, right?

I mean when you saw the Korra finale, did you really believe it would happen until it happened? Even as you watched? No nagging doubts that the images you may have seen were just fan art, like that kiss in my signature?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agusDATduWQ

[Zainox]

Clayton_n

I think you seem to be missing the message here. It's OK to spoil, but only if you're doing it right. Use spoiler tags, put it in specific topics warning people of spoilers inside. If people don't want spoilers than they can avoid those topics or not open those spoiler tags. Though if people just blatantly throw a spoiler in a middle of a thread with no warning for those who have yet to see it, I personally think it's doing disrespect for others.

As for the social media news feed thing, I personally HATE when people put spoilers on there. It's a lot more difficult to avoid. But it's very simple to just block their feeds, I've deleted a few people who have done this. I just feel in this instance, people should private message instead of announcing to the world. I have seen some people spam the beginning of their message with 'SPOILER ALERT' and the rest is hidden under 'continue reading'. That I am fine with.

[gobSIDES]

Label thread spoilers/non spoilers in the title and people who disrupt this can get banned. If not labelled people should always use the hide function. I don't care about other place like social media as most should know it's very very easy to have something spoiled by FB/Twitter/Google New/etc so you should stay away and not complain if you see a spoiler on these places.


But it's nothing new on a forums, do people just look at the hide/spoiler features and wonder why people use it? Common sense-gen discussion is almost 100% considered to be spoiler safe on forums and has been as long as I can remember-no time limit BS.

[Darkandiel]

Question is, why bother spoiling something in the first place. I mean if it's an online discussion, the thread can easily be marked "contains spoilers" and you can spoil away all you want. Most people know not to enter a thread if they are planning on watching something unless they are looking for info on whether or not they should watch it. That's why labelling, and use of spoiler tags in an unlableled thread is essential.

I disagree with the whole time limit on spoilers. If someone hasn't seen a show, why would you want to talk to them about what happened in it in the first place? That makes 0 sense since they cannot identify with the story. It's almost like saying "screw you, you didn't watch it when you should have, now I'll make sure that you never do." It's spoiling plainly for the sake of spoiling if you are consciously doing it. If I thought some movie was awesome and my friend hadn't seen it, I'd tell them how great the story is without giving away major plot that would ruin it for them. If people know how something ends, they'll likely not watch it. Why does everyone have to watch something within your timeframe? I mean, not everyone has the time to watch every new show/movie. But if enough people talk about how awesome something is, they'll eventually find time for it.

[Clayton_n]

When does something stop being a spoiler?

[DeathBlade/13.666]

When does something stop being a spoiler?After 180 years.

[someoneofforumpast]

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

But then again I think there is a a way around a spoiler and a recommendation. I can recommend something without spoiling by giving a very vague synopsis of the series.

[Clayton_n]

What would be the point of that?

[Zainox]

What would be the point of that?

Seriously?

[Clayton_n]

yes. I like discussing these things in depth. I'm not going to pussy foot around because someone is late to the party.

[Astral_Mage]

For me spoiler is a spoiler even after a 100 years XD
I guess its a safe bet to keep everything not asked about as spoilers, you know some of us didn't even watch titanic yet! XD

[Clayton_n]

Lucky you.

Anyway by this logic every new episode is a spoiler

[Zainox]

Lucky you.

Anyway by this logic every new episode is a spoiler

The points that have been made here are really not that difficult to understand, yet you seem to have difficulty to grasp them...

Clearly you still think openly spoiling is justifiable, just be ready for the repercussions if you don't do it appropriately.

[DeathBlade/13.666]

Don't care, spoil it for me away. If it really warrants my attention I'll read/view it with or without spoilers. ie: Legend of the Seeker, Game of Thrones, Marvel Movies...