Just a quick rant on spoilers after the break. Feel free to ignore this.
I just got into a discussion with some people on Twitter about spoilers. How long should an individual wait until it’s OK to reveal important plot points? The two examples I’m going to use are Doctor Who and Batman. It’s my opinion that a very important aspect of watching/reading something you enjoy is to share your feelings about it with others. At some point you should be allowed to discuss X character’s death or the big revelation about the universe in a season premier. I do most of this on Twitter. I don’t usually just blurt out a spoiler but I do discuss things with my Twitter pals. Here are my guidelines for spoilers:
- No spoilers until the TV show/movie/comic/etc. is available domestically.
- No ‘zero-day’ spoilers.
- No ‘blurting out’ spoilers but you can have a conversation with someone about it.
- If a movie/TV series is available on iTunes/DVD then it’s fair game.
- My opinion is that comics are fair game for spoilers after a week or so. This gives someone enough time to buy it at their local comic shop or download it digitally but this lets you discuss comics before the next issue appears. How much fun is it that Batman time travels if you can’t talk to your friends about how damn cool that is? Someone mentioned that a percentage of people wait for the trade of a comic to come out before buying it but I think this is a bit of a slippery-slope. Hard covers come out after a few weeks but TPBs can take months! Am I supposed to wait 6 months to discuss a comic because you can’t afford it?
What do you guys think? I might add more to my list as I think of them.