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I think that I could make a pretty good case that this particular exception, were it approved, is not so far removed in principle from allowing people to discuss what is going to come in a full anime series before it airs. What makes a movie so special that it should be treated as a distinct case? After all, before an anime series airs, the people who will be most interested in the show and have the most to say are those who are already familiar with the source material. To say, "well it's a full series, so take your spoilers elsewhere" on the one hand, and also "well, it's a movie, so in this case spoilers are okay" seems... well, inconsistent. And I always prefer consistency unless there's simply no way around it.
In terms of the proposed exception, I don't really agree that these threads attract few or even fewer anime-only fans. It's simply that the anime-only fans do not have much to say at that point in time (other than "Are we there yet?"). They will, however, be interested in checking the thread regularly to see if any new news has been released about the movie -- for example, a release date, or a trailer, or any news from the staff. This is aside from spoilerific discussion of what will be contained within the movie, which many may prefer to keep a surprise. I think the idea of keeping the thread there for any legitimate production news and related discussion but without the end-game spoilers has some merit, and it is a bit more consistent with the traditional policy.
For this specific case, given the amount of folk familiar with the source material, I would prefer for us to consider a specific spoiler thread for the movie, where those familiar with the novels can speculate in particular about the movie and its contents. I say that although I'm still not entirely convinced that the existing threads aren't good enough. (Why is this so different from normal anime spoiler speculation that it needs to be kept distinct? Is it really better to keep it distinct? What if people want to speculate beyond the scope of the topic, as seems to often happen for this series?) But I would certainly prefer a new thread be created for this specific group of fans, then to make a broad exception that seems to open the door to a complete redefinition of what a "spoiler" is on these boards (which, frankly, would take some time to work through, and by then the movie might be over!).
Anyway, not sure if any other mods or admins will have their own thoughts or comments to add as well. Certainly all feedback is welcome.
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