Question About Spoilers

So I wasn't sure where to put this so I thought this was a good place for it. How long does something have to be out before it's ok to freely talk about details without giving a spoiler alert? At what point is it your own damn fault if something got spoiled for you. Like if you're talking with a bunch of friends that are all out of high school can you safely assume that you can mention the ending to Of Mice And Men with out spoiling it for someone? Or if a movie has been or DVD for at least a year is that ok? Does it vary depending on what the spoiler or media is? Also what really counts as a spoiler? I know endings almost always count, but what else? Like if it's a movie set in the past but has modern music (example: Rock music in a WW2 movie) would telling someone that be a spoiler?

For me, I say two weeks.

For everything? Two weeks sounds ok for TV, but books and movies that might be a little too soon.

Janson wrote:For everything? Two weeks sounds ok for TV, but books and movies that might be a little too soon.

Honestly, two weeks for tv and movies, because it's such an accessible medium and films only last 2hr, max. But you maybe onto something with books. Unless its a comic book or trade, books may take a while to get through. So maybe a month for books.

For me, I say one season after a show has ended it's run (so as of next season I'll talk about Lost without tagging things as "spoiler") because some people are like me and wait for things to be available on DVD/Netflix to watch, for movies, I'd say a few months after it's been released to home video.

If it's something that had a big twist and I'm talking to someone about it, I'll generally ask about it first. (Have you seen this? You haven't? well, I don't want to talk about it. Go see it, and get back to me)

If someone asks me not to continue talking about something they haven't seen, I'll respect the request (I'm not going to go out of my way to spoil something), but if they happen on my Facebook posts or it's a message board discussion, I think it's "viewer beware" after the times I noted.

TheeDoctorWhoHasDreads? wrote:...because it's such an accessible medium ...

True, but "accessible" doesn't take into account time available. Just because I could catch up with all of Dexter in a week or so (I've never seen an episode) doesn't mean that I have time too. It's a show I plan on watching, so I try to avoid discussions of it. I didn't watch Lost till after the 6th Season finished airing, and then I watched the hell out of it.

Gojiratoho wrote:

TheeDoctorWhoHasDreads? wrote:...because it's such an accessible medium ...

True, but "accessible" doesn't take into account time available. Just because I could catch up with all of Dexter in a week or so (I've never seen an episode) doesn't mean that I have time too. It's a show I plan on watching, so I try to avoid discussions of it. I didn't watch Lost till after the 6th Season finished airing, and then I watched the hell out of it.

That's true, I didn't think about that. When it comes to time and priorites, its very hard to say this is how long I'd wait before I watch, read, or play x,y, or z. I think this is one of those personal matters where everybody does it differently. I watched all four seasons of 30 Rock in two days, and before that, I caught up on season 1 and 2 of Parks and Recreation in one day. But not everybody can or wants to do that.

Gojiratoho wrote:For me, I say one season after a show has ended it's run (so as of next season I'll talk about Lost without tagging things as "spoiler") because some people are like me and wait for things to be available on DVD/Netflix to watch, for movies, I'd say a few months after it's been released to home video.

If it's something that had a big twist and I'm talking to someone about it, I'll generally ask about it first. (Have you seen this? You haven't? well, I don't want to talk about it. Go see it, and get back to me)

If someone asks me not to continue talking about something they haven't seen, I'll respect the request (I'm not going to go out of my way to spoil something), but if they happen on my Facebook posts or it's a message board discussion, I think it's "viewer beware" after the times I noted.

Ok yeah I pretty much agree with you on that.

Now how about what counts as a spoiler? Like I remember before Cloverfeild came out and none of the trailers showed the monster and people were wondering what it looked like and I found a picture of what at the time may or may not have been a concept drawing of the monster and posted it. It turned out it wasn't real, but that didn't stop people from acting like I gave away the ending to The Usual Suspects. Now I don't think something like that is worthy of being called a spoiler. You knew there was going to be a monster, why should it matter if you know what it may or may not look like before you see it? But then there are situations like Ra's in Batman Begins, anyone who knew the character could tell right away from the first cast pics and the trailer who Ra's was, but it wouldn't be fair to those who didn't know that the character has a distinct look to say

Spoiler:

. SO yeah where's the line?

I agree with you on Ra, but I think I was one of the complainers about your Cloverfield posts.

The whole premise of that movie was it was a monster movie shot by people "experiencing it". The entire ad campaign was shrouded in mystery and was mainly word of mouth and viral websites. For a while, you weren't even sure if you would ever see the monster in any detail, or if it would all end up being like the Patterson Bigfoot footage. So I felt that was a pretty big spoiler, even though it ended up not being the final monster.

I guess I see your point on that, but I still disagree. IDK I really hate campaigns like that, it always makes be think they are doing it because they know they don't have anything with out it. You know keeping it a secret because it's really not that cool but the mystery adds some flavor to an otherwise bland meal. Like if you had never seen the ad campaign for Cloverfeild and just picked it up at the store or netflix, wouldn't it just seem like any other cheap monster movie? I'm pretty sure that's kind of your point about it being a spoiler, but I see it as more of a forced spoiler.

Man, fuck spoilers. I know I'm weird to say this, but I don't mind spoilers because then it gives me something to look forward to in the show/movie/book. It really doesn't lessen my enjoyment of it.

For example, before going to see Inception I read the whole synopsis online. Why would I spoil the movie like that for myself? Because I knew that the story was going to be convoluted and I didn't want to get lost and frustrated during the movie. And because of that, I enjoyed the movie a hell of a lot more than I would have. Thanks to my short attention span, I would've been lost in the first 10 minutes.

Generally, if I'm giving a spoiler warning, it's because A) I'm making a joke about it, or B) I don't want to hear people complaining that I spoiled something for them. And if I'm saying that something got spoiled for me, I'm joking.

Gojiratoho wrote:If it's something that had a big twist and I'm talking to someone about it, I'll generally ask about it first. (Have you seen this? You haven't? well, I don't want to talk about it. Go see it, and get back to me)

If someone asks me not to continue talking about something they haven't seen, I'll respect the request (I'm not going to go out of my way to spoil something), but if they happen on my Facebook posts or it's a message board discussion, I think it's "viewer beware" after the times I noted.

This 100%. I won't intentionally spoil something for someone who tells me not to, but I'm not going to censor myself from talking about something awesome unless you tell me not to. The ball is in your court to say, "Hey, I haven't seen/read that, let's talk about something else."

Janson wrote:I guess I see your point on that, but I still disagree. IDK I really hate campaigns like that, it always makes be think they are doing it because they know they don't have anything with out it. You know keeping it a secret because it's really not that cool but the mystery adds some flavor to an otherwise bland meal. Like if you had never seen the ad campaign for Cloverfeild and just picked it up at the store or netflix, wouldn't it just seem like any other cheap monster movie? I'm pretty sure that's kind of your point about it being a spoiler, but I see it as more of a forced spoiler.

I get that, but that's what the whole movie was about. It was a monster movie, which is niche in and of itself, but it was also a "shaky cam" film, which is another niche market. Having two niches doesn't exactly draw the box office crowds, but a mystery does. "Did you see that trailer in front of Transformers? That 1-18-08 one? What was that all about? I don't know, but I'm gonna check it out."

It was less that you had spoilered (spoiled?) the movie than you spoilered the viral campaign I and many others were following. wouldn't have mattered if you'd posted that shortly after the film debuted, hell, even the first week it was out.

Though who ever had been running the supporting sites to that movie also spoilered it. All of the principal cast had MySpace pages, and Hudson (the cameraman) was listed as 6'4" or something and X lbs. Shortly after the movie came out his page was updated that he was only 2'8" and X lbs (he gets eaten at the very end of the film)

Well that's kind of lame that they did that. Not that part about the spoiler, but that they would make fun of something I'm sure was an emotional part of the movie. Especially since they were making it seem like these were real profiles made by the characters, that would mean that one of his friends that survived the attack went into their dead buddy's account and made light of his death. I get the joke, it is funny, but the flip flopping between pretending it's real and "running commentary" style jokes just proves to me why I hate viral ads. Nothing makes me want to see something less than stuff like that. Hell it pretty much ruined Dark Knight.

That's a discussion in it's own right. Does it matter what happens with the viral stuff once the target of it (Cloverfield, The Dark Knight, the NIN album whose name escapes me) has been unveiled?

The Hudson MySpace was probably either going to be deleted or never touched again, and the hype had died after the movie was released, so it was more of an in joke for those who had followed the campaign, kind of a final easter egg as it were.

Yes indeed you are right I almost derailed my own thread about spoilers to discuss my hate for viral campaigns. Maybe I will start a thread for that.

I am one of those people that don't like to be spoiled if it is something I really want to see. If a movie has been out for a couple of months and something gets spoiled about it...well then that's on me, but when the movie, comic, game or book has only been out for only 2 days after and everyone is running at the mouth about that I get a wee bit pissy >(

My prime example is the Last Exorcism. I had planned on seeing it. It came out on Friday and by Sunday Yahoo was running...People complain about the twist at the end...WTF..honestly could you wait at least a week. I understand that it is all about publicity but still....grrr.

Agree!

Yeah before the phrase Spoiler was coin Entertainment Weekly ruined Sixth Sense for me, two sentences or so in to their review. They were like "this happens at the beginning, but you don't find that out till the end" and as I read it I added or you just read this. I can sort of understand the reviewer not wanting to censor their review, but the editor should have done something about it seeing as the movie had only just come out.

Gojiratoho wrote:For me, I say one season after a show has ended it's run (so as of next season I'll talk about Lost without tagging things as "spoiler") because some people are like me and wait for things to be available on DVD/Netflix to watch, for movies, I'd say a few months after it's been released to home video.

If it's something that had a big twist and I'm talking to someone about it, I'll generally ask about it first. (Have you seen this? You haven't? well, I don't want to talk about it. Go see it, and get back to me)

If someone asks me not to continue talking about something they haven't seen, I'll respect the request (I'm not going to go out of my way to spoil something), but if they happen on my Facebook posts or it's a message board discussion, I think it's "viewer beware" after the times I noted.

I love you.

TENIME_art wrote:

I love you.

Dude! Spoilers!

I don't mind spoilers so much if i find out the ending to something no biggie I really care how they get to end rather than the ending and you don't want to end spoiled then tell people before you discuss something you haven't seen or read.

TENIME_art wrote:

I love you.

Shut up baby I know it!

I don't mind spoilers, they make you car look cool.