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animorphslj2010-12-17 03:48 pm
blue_rampion) wrote in animorphslj2010-12-17 03:48 pm
Entry tags:
Spoiler Discussion
So! As some of you might have noticed, we have a re-release coming in May. You also might have noticed that there's a nice empty space on the profile titled "Spoiler Policy". Since we are hoping that the re-release will introduce the books to new fans and all, this does mean that we're going to need to decide how we're going to deal with spoilers.
Seeing as we could have people who have only read books 1 and 2 alongside people who have read book 54...well, this could be a little tricky to work out. I do already have a few thoughts on how we could approach this, which I'll detail below. But, we won't be deciding the new spoiler policy just yet - that'll be voted on by the community at a later date, and if need be we'll have multiple discussions before it comes to a vote.
For today, what I'd really like to hear is ideas and possible approaches. I'd also like to hear about your experiences in other fandoms, and how they've dealt with spoilers - what worked, what didn't.
Now, for some initial thoughts:
How to mark new spoilery posts/comments:
Some ways we could mark the spoilers:
How to mark old posts:
There is, quite literally, no way to retroactively change old spoilerish posts. I can't edit the content of posts: I can only delete them (and deleting old posts definitely will not be happening), so I can't go and put lj-cuts on all of them. But, we still need some way to mark them, and a few intitial ideas include:
Seeing as we could have people who have only read books 1 and 2 alongside people who have read book 54...well, this could be a little tricky to work out. I do already have a few thoughts on how we could approach this, which I'll detail below. But, we won't be deciding the new spoiler policy just yet - that'll be voted on by the community at a later date, and if need be we'll have multiple discussions before it comes to a vote.
For today, what I'd really like to hear is ideas and possible approaches. I'd also like to hear about your experiences in other fandoms, and how they've dealt with spoilers - what worked, what didn't.
Now, for some initial thoughts:
How to mark new spoilery posts/comments:
Some ways we could mark the spoilers:
- posts: lj-cuts, with all spoilery material having to be behind one.
- comments: lj-cuts obviously aren't possible, but a few options include putting a spoiler warning in the subject heading, or using whitetext to hide any spoilerish material.
- wording: personally, I kinda like stating the specific book that the spoiler is for, especially since even now we probably still have members who might not have read every book.
- what to mark: basically, should we decide that everything that reveals anything needs a cut, or should it be limited to say, major plot points & revelations. Also, we could decide that a certain time period after each book's published, it doesn't need warnings anymore.
How to mark old posts:
There is, quite literally, no way to retroactively change old spoilerish posts. I can't edit the content of posts: I can only delete them (and deleting old posts definitely will not be happening), so I can't go and put lj-cuts on all of them. But, we still need some way to mark them, and a few intitial ideas include:
- creating a "spoiler" tag, and going through and adding this to all the old spoilerish posts. This has a lot of drawbacks though, in that a) it would take forever and I'd need some tagging-helpers, b) it doesn't really help much when you have the spoiler tag at the bottom but something like "SUCH AND SUCH IS DEAD" at the beginning.
- creating a "Spoiler Warning!" post, which would basically consist of big gigantic red letters saying something like, "WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK." If we have every tag in the community attached to it, then anyone looking back through the comms posts would eventually come across it. It's much simpler than the first option, but also means that old non-spoilery posts will get lumped in with it as well.