Sooooo. Are spoilers worth getting upset over? Should people who put spoilers up (whether true or false) in a thread without first warning that they're spoilers to that book get in trouble? Should the decision to punish be decided on the book?

Discuss :)

Tee hee. I'll wait for responses before posting since I already gave my two cents... but you actually took me up on it. Cool.

I think that if people want to post up spoilers, it should be under the request of others, and that the spoilers should be clearly labeled, whether they are accurate or not. I am perfectly fine with people who post up "WARNING: SPOILERS." But if someone posts up a thread saying "What did you eat for dinner?" and lists out who dies in Harry Potter as soon as the person opens the thread, that is misleading and hurtful.

It's not possible to say whether people should or not get upset over spoilers. It's their own personal choice. People get into books and other sorts of things like anime, T.V. shows, video games, etc. because that is their own choice. A forum or any other person should not determine what people can be passionate about.

Either way, both sides lose by posting up spoilers, and both sides win nothing if none are posted. So the easy thing to do would be to grow up a little (on both sides) and either avoid all internet and rude people or stop posting spoilers. Let's guess which one is easier.

agreed 100%

Question: If I tell you guys or discuss with you that the main character of a book dies, without telling you that it's a spoiler, would that ruin the book for any of you?

Be back for this later... I'm heading to the bookstore... ironically, to pick up a book that I already know how it ends.

i don't understand the question i dont think
if u randomly came up to me and started telling me about the main character dying?

Yes, I don't understand your question either. Why would I discuss a book with someone if I don't know what happens? What productive or meaningful input would I give if I haven't read the book before? That's like going into an English class discussion about Shakespeare without never even reading any of his works.
I mean, I could make assumptions about the 7th Harry Potter book about whether he dies or not, but that's not really a spoiler, because it is simply a guess rather than stating what really happens.

I'm no Harry Potter fan, so I'll talk about my favorite show Prison Break. Yes, spoilers are something worth getting upset over. I remember one time my brother told me what was going to happen in the show, and I was SO mad... I didn't enjoy it as much. Another time, he told me what was "going to happen" and I was upset. However, it turned out he was lying, so I got over it and didn't care much.

So, yeah. I think one should be punished if in fact they are spoilers.

exactly
everyone has something that they enjoy that they don't want spoiled. whether its harry potter, a show, a movie, whatever, it shouldn't be spoiled at all. i personally see no reason that there needs to be spoilers around here. people who really want spoilers so they don't have to read the book ( which makes no sense at all to me) can go to a website specifically for that. because that website isn't a community, and this is a community where some are going to get upset over it, and that has to be taken into consideration.

if nobody posted spoilers there would be no problem, when people post them, there is a problem.

I think that their should be a warning about spoilers
it's not fair to people who are expecting to find out about the story
themselves. It ruins that feeling that you first get when you find something new in a book, like someone hooking up with someone
or something like that that might make the book a cool experience
for you, instead of someone ruining it in a spoiler

so efff spoilers.

Don't have much time, but an element worthy of being discussed here is when a spoiler turns out to be false.

Does the spoiler being false negate one's emotion when a spoiler is presented to them, before being proven false? Is the insult (for lack of a better word. I'm sure there is a more suitable way of putting it) no longer an insult?

The idea of intent. How does that factor in? Obviously intent is a tricky and subjective thing to look at, because I'm sure all of us have failed Mind Reading 101 at one point or another.

^ VERY INTERESTING last thought about intent. I'll comment on that the next time.

I'll not quote anyone yet, I want to clear up the confused looks in this thread before anything.

Elba has the right idea here, folks. I'm talking about any book, any book you've ever read... imagine with me instead of drawing a blank about what book I'm talking about.

Next, to make my point clear: when you discuss possible endings or when you discuss a book/tv show (whichever book you think) you take a chance at having things spoiled for you anyway. Not knowing if your discussion comes true or not isn't the matter, the fact that you people try to figure out what happens next is the same as wanting to know what happens next. You guys unconsciously fish for spoilers anyway and then lie yourselves about not wanting to know.

This is like being afraid to look at your test grade but really wanting to know what you got. Some people ask someone else to look at the grade for them and then blaming them for bringing the bad news.

The difference here is that I read for the adventure, not the ending. I don't care what happens at the end, it's how the plot captivates me that makes a good book/show, whatnot. I realize this is not the same for everyone.

Next question: If someone posted spoilers without tags and you accidentally come accross them. Are you going to be so upset that you'll grow an ulcer?

The thing is, I didn't discuss with very many people about what I thought would happen in Harry Potter 7 OR any other series I've read. I patiently waited for the book and ignored all other idiots who tried to tell me what would happen or what could happen or what should happen, etc. Those are not spoilers, b/c yes, the intent was not on causing a "hilarious" uprise from "fanatic" fans.

That question is invalid. I do not consider that a serious question. I will not grow an ulcer, but if it is something I care about like a show like Desperate Housewives or something, I would become slightly upset.

I don't see why people are arguing in favor of posting up spoilers for ANY show or book. Spoilers are called spoilers b/c the SPOIL things. -_-"

"I realize this is not the same for everyone."

If you realize this, then you should realize that keeping spoilers to yourself is fine. If you don't care what happens in the end of the book, and you'd like to know, then KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. You cannot speak for the millions of other people who would like to savor the ending and find out in the exact words what the author intended to do rather than some pathetic summary with page numbers of all the tragedies.

To answer your last question (because I don't have time for the others yet, I'm arguing that we all fish for spoilers when we enter any discussion about a book/show. If you're one of the ones that truly never discuss a book/show, then I agree with you. However, on the general stage, people do open discussions about books, that is where I'm coming from.

My question wasn't meant to be serious; it meant to provoke.

But, I can't say I'm arguing against the people who do open discussions about the book.

I'm arguing against people like Podomat (sp?), who almost ruined the book for me, because I was an "innocent thread reader" who opened it up, didn't know what the highlighted part was (it was days before the actual release of the book) and read a line, then immediately stopped. His thread was mislabled, and it was clearly the intent of his to cause some sort of upheaval.

Let's make this clear as well.

What Kryo did was commit a prank, therefore, to use things that he did as an example is... what you'd call an "invalid" example.

Had he posted real spoilers, I might be tempted to agree with you.

Anyway, I have to read some contracts now for work. So I'll get back to your other points later (I don't mean to skip over them because they are all very good counter arguments).

Have a good day.

(I was talking about Podomat, not Kryo, and I read his spoilers later, and they were all real spoilers under a misleading title.)

May I please make the request that this not turn into another thread dedicated to the whole James debacle? I know it's relevant, but there is already a venue for that particular topic.



Sorry, but no. I genuinely wanted to be surprised by the polt/ending, even if I did speculate on it. You can psychoanalyse that if you like, or project a logical extrapolation, but I think I'm the best judge of what I 'wanted' from discussing a possible plot, as is every other individual, thank you very much.

And as far as 'are spoilers wrong' in the more general sense goes, I think that it is puerile and spiteful to intentionally try to upset people by ruining things, be it a book, or a TV show, or whatever. But then, it isnt exactly genocide. So, no it isn't very nice. But some people are just pricks. You live.

i believe if you really don't want to spoil a book or movie for yourself, you would lock yourself in a room with no tv, internet, and all forms of communication, and just read the damn book or watch the damn movie asap before interacting with any human alive. 'cause humans can be asses. and we all know that.

as for tv shows... there's really no way out of getting accidentally spoiled by an inconsiderate bastard if you don't cut off communication.

^ Pretty sure people did that once they HAD the book.

^ i didn't get the book until yesterday, which is very late compared to a lot of fanatics. but i knew once the book was released, or even a couple of days PRIOR to release, that there would be a chance of seeing spoilers all over the internet, especially with a book of this magnitude.

if someone were that serious over a book or a movie, they would do as i did and cease to view anything that MIGHT give away anything, even prior to the release. and i'm not even that much of a fanatic. i'm just aware that i can't force people to NOT reveal anything, whether true or not is irrelevant. i think people complaining about something they see on a forum is their own fault. one should be aware that things like this can happen, and if you really want to shield yourself from it, you would.

of course, i'm mainly talking about spoilers on the internet or media... anything else would quite possibly out of your control. for example, one would not expect to hear a spoiler going to work, but there can still be those obnoxious coworkers that like ruining things for people. well, then, there's nothing that can be done about that but to kick the person's arse. -_-"

^I agree completely with "if you really want to shield yourself from it, you would".

You have better examples than I do. I suck at examples and people never understand me unless I spell it out. That's my fault most of the time, I guess.

Michelle, that last post about the referencing Kryo is for everyone.

Anyway, I promise I'll contribute something more mreaningful to this thread when I get home tonight (and if time allows).

I don't think its just about the book, its about the spoiler in general. I mean, sure there are many Harry Potter fans out there, but what about all the other things, like new episodes of shows or how the season finale of House will end. It would be nice if they indicated what type of spoiler it was first, ya know?

i get that this is true
but who wants to isolate themselves from the whole world so they don't have to hear spoilers? it's not really realistic to me. i think i should still be able to come into this forum and not have spoilers forced on me. by this i obviously mean unlabeled spoilers. if something is blacked out where i have to highlight it to see, thats fine if there must be spoilers, because i just won't highlight it and i don't have a problem resisting that. i'm talking about posting spoilers in headlines, or not clearly labeling that its a spoiler. like michelle said, with a lot of those topics that day, u didn't know they were spoilers until u were already in them. and like ersatz said, these things happened before the book was out. once the book is out, i'll isolate myself and read it and prevent it from being spoiled for me, but there's nothing i can do about it if the books not out yet.

^ yah, but then it becomes a matter of how much would a spoiler really upset you? or how important is that book/film/episode to you? would it be worth going to the extreme and shutting yourself off from the world? to some people, it is. if it's not, well then there's really not much else you can do about it, is there?

its kind of like when you're mad at a relative, but are you REALLY mad? would you be mad enough to kill? most people would say no, and all would be forgiven, most likely (or at least should be), no?

same with spoilers. how much does it really mean to you? for the extremists, they would know exactly what to do to avoid it.

of course, i'm not condoning the posting of spoilers. i mean, i would be pissed, too, if i were just browsing random threads, and out of nowhere was posted a crucial plot twist from a book. but if it really meant that much to me, i wouldn't have gone on the internet in the first place.

however, i guess spoilers benefit those who are curious, but not curious enough to actually read the book themselves or watch the movie themselves. (i, for one, am guilty of perusing the internet for movie spoilers, simply 'cause i know that i wouldn't want to actually watch the movie, but i'm still curious about it.) anyway, i digress.

my point is, spoilers will exist. you can make up all the rules you want, but there will always be people who would either disregard them intentionally or ignorantly. and more often than not, it'll be up to the individual to decide if they want to take the necessary precaution (lol @necessary precaution) to avoid them.