I wanted to provide some feedback on Anime Suki's
Spoiler Policy.
For the most part, I feel that the Spoiler Policy is very well-structured. I certainly see its rationale as it pertains to anime
episodes, which are typically watched in, near, or shortly after, "real time" - hence drawing in fans and thread commentators that aren't necessarily fans of the source material.
However, as it pertains to upcoming anime
movies to be shown in theaters, and based on particular manga sections, or novel source material...
My view here is that these discussions tend to naturally attract people who are fans of the source material being turned into the anime movie. In other words, there's already familiarity with the source material there for thread commentators.
These discussions aren't likely to attract anime-only fans since the actual content of these movies won't be available for several months... as with live-action movies that are adaptations of, say, a popular cartoon series (Transformers, for example), the only people that'll be talking about the movie several months in advance are folks that are actually already fans of the cartoon/of the source material.
Likewise, the same, I think, pretty much holds true for discussions on upcoming anime movies.
So... I would argue that perhaps Anime Suki's Spoiler Policy should be edited to include a special exception for Movie Threads. It really has been my experience that these threads attract very few, if any, anime-only fans.
While it would probably be a good idea to still insist upon using spoiler tags in these threads for the benefit of the few anime-only fans that may decide to check out the thread, I don't think that any more than this is necessary.
Anyway, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm writing this post largely in response to recent moderator actions taken concerning the Haruhi Suzumiya forum's
The Movie of the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya thread. While these moderator actions are, of course, perfectly consistent with the Spoiler Policy itself, it does, for me, raise issues with the policy itself.
Simply put, I believe that this Disappearance thread would be best served as the catch-all thread for Novel 4 discussion, particularly since Novel 4 discussion is likely going to be very dominant on the Haurhi subform for the next few months, and precisely because a movie of it is coming out.
While I understand the admirable principles behind the Spoiler Policy of this site, I think that some... pragmatic alterations, perhaps... should be made to that policy to ensure that this forum is as strong and dynamic and conducive a place for healthy discussion as it can be (and that 'can be' has a lot of potential, frequently realized, to AS' credit).
I fear that having Novel 4 discussions spread out between a few different Haruhi subforum threads (each arguably being a decent place for such discussions) will lead to disjointed Novel 4 discussion that would best be served as discussion all on one thread. The best thread for that purpose is, in my view, the Movie of the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya thread.
Anyway, that's just my take. Thanks for taking the time to read and consider it.
