How do you feel about spoilers?

[BetoJR]

I come from a culture where people who watch soaps like to be spoiled about what's going to happen weeks and even months in advance. So, I don't mind them - too much. If it's a show I start watching and invest some reasonable amount of interest, I prefer to watch it clean. Sometimes, it's very hard. I started watching School Days, for instance, after being told what happened in the ending.

Now, some things are just stupid. Once, I got in a big argument because of a joke I made with the words "Luke, I'm your father" as the epithet. The dude stormed out saying he hadn't watched Star Wars yet, and I had just spoiled it for him. Note: this happened LAST YEAR!!! My friends actually helped me in venting out our disbelief, but, honestly... how can you be spoiled over something that's almost thirty years old?

[othera]

^ I also read the spoiler for school days D: i was on like ep 3 at the time and it kinda scuked :/

I often read them, but if they are not marked they are really annoying.

I usually only hate spoilers for series i am currently watching, and only MAJOR ones for ones i plan to watch.

[Fahd]

Originally Posted by BetoJR

how can you be spoiled over something that's almost thirty years old?

To answer the topic-starter: For series that have their own forums here, I avoid the episode thread till it's been watched, and after I've seen it I stay 1-2 pages away from the thread end. 1-2 pages away is where the mods will be cleaning up deleting game/manga spoiler posts. For series that don't have their own forums... I just avoid the thread altogether until the series is over; the odds of being spoiled by the raw-watches is just too high. Now that's not their fault, it's just that it's not obvious where one episode discussion ends, and the next begins. For series that have finished (but that I haven't seen), every day alive carries a chance of being spoiled, so I don't worry too much about it.

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by Fahd

You just ruined the Bible for me! I wasn't up to that part yet and you just gave away the ending.

[Autumn Demon]

I hardly ever watch opening or ending themes until halfway through the series because they contain tons of spoilers. Well, i also don't watch them because they have crappy music 95% of the time, but that's besides the point.

[BetoJR]

Now, as for the OPs and EDs, I've probably been spoiled once or twice, but most of the time it's something so minor that I don't mind. Trailers, on the other hand, sometimes have VERY big spoilers...

[fallenAnvil]

i see nothing wrong w/ spoilers, a show that is good will still be good no matter how much i know about it. Ne ways i'm used to watching the same series mutiple times and still enjoy it every time =D

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by fallenAnvil

i see nothing wrong w/ spoilers, a show that is good will still be good no matter how much i know about it. Ne ways i'm used to watching the same series mutiple times and still enjoy it every time =D

That doesn't work if the series is using plot twist or if its very essence is mystery/thriller and whatnot.

[Falkor]

I feel very irritated/annoyed every time I click on a spoiler that I wasn’t supposed to encounter, especially when they don’t really have a purpose within the discussion:

1. they are about future events that have not occurred in the anime.
2. they are very specific. (e.g. X character dies—being this the most common one)
3. they have no tags and labels whatsoever indicating its nature as spoiler.
4. the post only contains the said spoiler with no tags and labels.
5. Lastly, the belief that posting the spoiler (major or minor) under a spoiler tag makes it correct to do so. i.e. in episode discussion threads.

This mostly applies to adaptations, though—but this also happens because it’s an adaptation.

It would be great if people would post in this fashion, making sure to warn fellow posters that they are about to post a spoiler:

This is a spoiler from the manga/novel that is likely to occur in the anime. Don’t click if you haven’t read the source material:

Spoiler for don't click unless you are familiar with the source material.:

e.g. they should be revealing very soon that Y character is a nymphomaniac.

Well, it’s too much for people to be this considerate. Most will attach the spoiler tag and have it done in the quickest fashion as possible—in a last attempt to let others know about the dangerous nature of the events that are going to come—and in so doing to make sure that fellow members are mentally and emotionally prepared for it. Thanks, but not thanks.

But I wonder if there’s a purpose to post this kind of spoiler in the first place. Do we need to know what is going to happen in the future in order to enjoy the anime, or do need to know it in order to have a more relevant and intelligent discussion?

I pretty much avoid any discussion thread if the anime itself is plot-driven, or very popular. The likelihood of getting spoiled increases in direct proportion to the show’s popularity. More people watch it, more people want to talk about it, but very few are those polite enough to refrain from posting spoilers.

[SeedFreedom]

Originally Posted by Falkor

Cut for space

[rant]
See, here is where i disagree. I hate huge fonts that simply take up have a page. Just image one spoiler comes up, and people reply to that spoiler in other spoiler tags. Do you know how large that page would be. Its not about being lazy or inconsiderate. Hell if the person was simply lazy they wouldn't even use a spoiler tag. It just makes the forum too darn hard to read. If your someone who's going to be upset by spoilers Dont Open The TAG. It honestly isn't my fault your habit is to click everything in site. If you care so much, protect yourself, I've done my job by putting it in a spoiler tag; don't open it. This is also why i was hugely disappointed in the overall simple ban of spoilers in the ep discussion thread. If its in a spoiler, then people wont be spoiled unless they open it themselves. Alas, im not a mod, nor have i receive hundreds of hate mail about spoilers that enviably led them to that decision.
[/rant]

Now that that is over with. I generally don't mind spoilers. I try to watch shows without reading them, but i just can't stay away. Overall i do feel a little loss from knowing what will happen ahead of time, but its a really small effect so i really don't care.

[Klashikari]

The thing is that spoilers tags should be enough IF... ONLY IF people actually know HOW to use them properly.
The major problem here is, as falkor said:
-some people just don't care or bother to use them.

But the most silly point is that many of them just don't put a label on the tags.
That is quite an issue because in many instance, spoiler tags are used to hide large chunk of text or pictures, so in some case, without any label, one wouldn't know its content, therefore, they would fall in a pit trap they couldn't have a chance to avoid.

This is especially true for cross series spoilers.

The biggest example of such occurence would be Code Geass with Death note.
Tons of people do comparisons, but they also use the endings of one or another. With a unlabeled spoiler, one who isn't used with the other series might get a very stupid spoiler without having a chance to avoid it (yet, until you don't read any discussion thread, which goes against the intended purpose of a forum).

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by SeedFreedom

It honestly isn't my fault your habit is to click everything in site. If you care so much, protect yourself, I've done my job by putting it in a spoiler tag; don't open it. This is also why i was hugely disappointed in the overall simple ban of spoilers in the ep discussion thread. If its in a spoiler, then people wont be spoiled unless they open it themselves.

I agree and I truly wish it was that simple. It would be that simple if people could figure out how to use spoiler tags, but people finally convinced us that it wasn't possible to expect them to be considerate. I'll explain:

People use spoiler tags, not only for spoilers, but for a number of different purposes. People use spoiler tags to hide pictures, to conceal speculation even though it doesn't contain spoilers, to make really long posts look short, to be cute about hiding the final point of their argument, to play guessing games or just because they really like using spoiler tags. That is a lot of reasons that someone might want to click on a spoiler tag even if they never want to see a spoiler in their entire lives.

Despite this, people could still navigate the maze of spoiler tags if only they were clearly marked as to their purpose. We've tried to educate folk about how to properly mark a tag so that others can know that they should or should not click on it. Oh my, how we've tried! What I've discovered is that even when people try to give a useful title for the spoiler tags, some people (not everyone, but some) still cannot give the most basic information to indicate if it actually hides a real spoiler.

In the end we discovered that the only way we could guarantee that people could discuss a specific episode without being spoiled by future episodes is simply to remove ALL spoilers from the episode discussion thread. Since any episode should be able to be discussed, spoiler free, we decided to make it law. We don't like the rule either, but we discovered through trial and much error, that nuking them from orbit is the only way to be sure.

Edit: Kalshikari posted the main gist while I was still typing so see his post for the tl;dr version.

[Irenicus]

TL;DR: I'm going to murder the latest *expletive* who spoils Code Geass outside the goddamn subforum. And I'm going to make it slow and bloody.

People just suck that way I guess. How can you be more inconsiderate that posting the ultimate spoiler in a completely unrelated thread dealing with a completely unrelated topic?

Although, this thread reminds me that I need to return to my habit of double-spoiler-ing sensitive information (say, a big twist ending) when I feel like I need to be extra considerate for the click-all-buttons types.

[SeedFreedom]

I already know that there are multiple reasons why you took the course of action you did, but i still cant help but be a little disappointed. IMO we need a second hide system so people wont use spoilers unless its actually a spoiler, and the spoiler tag/system should be outlined in red.

P.S.

Spoiler for Bible:

He comes back

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by SeedFreedom

I already know that there are multiple reasons why you took the course of action you did, but i still cant help but be a little disappointed. IMO we need a second hide system so people wont use spoilers unless its actually a spoiler, and the spoiler tag/system should be outlined in red.

That's a nice idea. Big red warning boxes around spoiler tags. LOL! Unfortunately it would be troublesome for legacy posts. All the old spoiler tags full of pictures and so forth would suddenly get the red outline treatment instead of the less alarming [HIDE] tags.

P.S.

Spoiler for Bible:

He comes back

Thanks for marking the spoiler tag. Then I go and quote your thread... unfortunately I saw the spoiler in the quote.

Spoiler for my speculation about that Bible spoiler:

Ah well... I can guess who "He" must be. Fortunately you were non-specific enough that I can't really guess where he comes back to. So, in the Terminator, was Arnold Schwarzenegger quoting Jesus? It doesn't really give anything away though to say that he returns someplace. It's not nearly as surprising as that earlier spoiler where it was revealed that he dies in the end.

[Daniel E.]

Was gonna skip on this but whatever.............

Really hate spoilers in image threads.

I know I'll be seeing artwork from characters that have not appeared in the given show yet, but can't understand why people start asking things about them and why others reply to said questions.

Is it that hard to wait for the anime to reach that point? >_<

[Slice of Life]

I have a very large spoiler tolerance. Normally I don't mind knowing the essence of a story when I start watching an anime. I'm more interested in the execution and the little things. For example, I watched and greatly enjoyed Higurashi knowing roughly what would happen and who the main protagonist and antagonist were.

Once in a while, there are a twists with such an impact that knowing them beforehand would significantly reduce my enjoyment. I can't even think of an anime example at the moment but my standard example is 'Sixth Sense'. Knowing that in ep 25 of some generic anime, the Dark Lord turns out to be none else but the lost twin brother of Ron the Righteous however ... *shrug* ...

Knowing a story in detail to the point that you feel like watching a rerun is a different thing. I think in most cases I couldn't read a manga and then enjoy a 1:1 anime conversion. Or read a detailed episode description in a blog. But such extensive spoilers are of course nothing you read by accident.

I try to avoid spoilering people but not to the point where I feel that it hurts the discussion more than it protects the participants because comparing to other, older anime becomes impossible.

In other news

Spoiler for Spike:

He dies.

[NoSanninWa]

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

Spoiler for Spike:

He dies.

You know, that is a perfect example of a bad spoiler title. It conveys so little information that the reader is left wondering... "Spike? Is he referring to a sharp rise in a trend? A volleyball move? Is that a dogs name? Does he mean Spike from Buffy?" The word is so generic that I didn't connect it with Cowboy Bebop until I clicked the link and I've seen Cowboy Bebop. You should really try using titles like this:

Spoiler for Spike's fate in Cowboy Bebop:

He dies.

or better yet, this:

Spoiler for The End of Cowboy Bebop:

Spike dies.

As I said earlier, most people don't do smart things with spoiler titles...

[Slice of Life]

Actually that was just meant as a funny example for a too restrictive spoiler policy where ancient anime 101 knowledge is declared classified.

But apart form that I think we disagree on the use of spoiler titles. If you're not sure what it means and fear to be spoilered then stay the hell out of that spoiler box. It's as simple as that. On the other hand elaborate spoiler titles sometimes make the central content an easy guess. When I read "Fate of character X" well ...

[Vexx]

It gets really hard when a basic tool of anime analysis is "compare and contrast". One begins to wonder what IS the statute of limitations on cross-spoilage.

Spoiler for Moby Dick and what happens to Captain Ahab:

In Moby Dick, Captain Ahab dies...

The Penny Arcade comic is classic though...

I will say the spoiler tagging button is a wondrous tool (even pops up a field to write the tag in). Even an old dinosaur like me figured it out (snort, chuckle).