A Rant About Spoilers

[DrOswald]

I have a guideline for when it is ok to talk about spoilers.

First of all, if you specifically know the person you are talking directly to has not seen the piece in question and intends to then it is never ok to talk major spoilers unless they specifically state they do not care. Even if it is something like Empire Strikes Back.

Second, I don't talk about major spoilers in a public setting without some sort of spoiler tag like "spoilers: Captain America 2" until after a set amount of time. Generally, 1 year for video games, 6 months from DVD release date, or 6 months from first air date. After this period I will avoid spoilers if there is not good reason not to. Of course, context matters. If you come into a Game of Thrones discussion thread and complain about spoilers you are a moron and deserve to have the plot spoiled. In addition, how well known the piece is plays into the calculation. Less well know will mean I will wait longer for spoilers to give people a chance to find it and watch it.

Minor spoilers are always fair game, but I generally try to avoid them if it isn't any trouble.

Once 5 years have past since the release I assume everyone who cares has seen it and will no longer attempt to avoid spoilers in any real sense.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I don't want to have to avoid the internet for ages, just because I don't have the right channel to watch GoT (I have to wait a full year for the DVD boxset. Man, I could rant about HBO's shitty shit for ages).

Of course, you could always read the books in the meantime. Then you'd hold all the spoiler cards

Actually, I've been trying to read the books for ages. I was ahead of the series until the end of season three. I'm a very slow reader, thanks to a tiny attention span.

Funny story! I spoiled the end of season three (The Red Wedding) on my own, after avoiding spoilers like the lague. I finished Book three and all I had heard is that people refused to watch the show ever again after the wedding. People went fucking crazy after that. I had no idea why. I decided to look it up. Little did I know, the third book is split in two in Europe, so when I thought I'd finished book three, I was actually only half way through. Ok, maybe that's not funny.

 

[Olas]

6 months. That is the longest I am giving you to get acclimatized to spoilers. That is me being generous. If you haven't seen a show or something within 6 months of it coming out, then you have no right to complain about spoilers. We cant't be expected to walk on eggshells forever to accommodate your lack of initiative in catching up. There are some exceptions, such as when dealing with adapted works, such as comic book movies or something like Game of Thrones. And I would like to point out that people who go out of their way to spoil stories for people before they even have a chance to experience them are just... the worst.

I never got this. Why is the amount of time after a certain thing has aired relevant at all? There are some people who haven't watched Citizen Kane or The Empire Strikes back and I wouldn't want to spoil the ending for them any more than for something that came out yesterday. There are so many shows and movies and books out there it's ridiculous to expect everyone to keep up to date on all of them. I bet a lot of people who watch Game of Thrones and think they should have the right to spoil season 1 wouldn't enjoy having books 4 and 5 spoiled to them. But it's their fault for not keeping up right?

But don't worry about spoiling A Song of Ice and Fire for me, I've only read the first book but I already know basically everything that happens.