In defense of the moderators, I stopped watching
Erin for a while, and when I returned to the thread it was a spoiler minefield. That thread raises some difficult issues about how to handle shows that are being distributed in raws, subs, and on Crunchy, along with the usual problems of handling the original manga or novel sources. Now it may be that
Erin is an anomaly because CR picked it up midstream, then preceded to out-pace the sub group. We won't know the answer to this until we've all had more experience with shows that are licensed by Crunchy. For shows that are licensed from the outset by CR, it shouldn't be any different than handling speed-subbed episodes as we've done in the past. In cases where CR jumps into an already ongoing series with pre-existing subs, the situation is more cloudy.
As for novel readers, if you want to talk about the novel, go start a thread in the manga/novels area and do it there. I'd like to see a general ban on the discussion of manga/novel material in all anime threads, since the possibilities for spoilage are just too great. Might I make a humble suggestion to the moderators, though, that the "manga" section be renamed to "manga/novels" to make it clear that both forms of printed material are to be housed there? The description for the forum includes a mention of "light novels," but the forum thread uses simply the word "manga." Perhaps this isn't enough of a beacon to novel readers to carry on their conversations in this locale?
Spoiler for some key events in Erin:
I've even had issues with making avatars based on this show. I had a couple of
avatars that touched on Soyon's
death but had to be very cautious not to spoil such a critical event in the story. I made an
avatar of Erin and Lilan together but chose not to use it in order to avoid spoiling a major story line. My current avatar is another version of the Erin/Lilan connection, but I specifically chose an image which is sufficiently abstract that only someone who knows something about the story would realize what it symbolizes.