Danbooru

Concerning Spoilers

Posted under General

I'd like top ask when a spoiler is considered a spoiler. What I mean is, should a series that's over 5 years old get a spoiler tag in case of spoiler?
I think the wiki should reflect a bit more what can be considered a spoiler.
spoiler for convenience

Updated by Shinjidude

Well, tags are supposed to be objective, and you could easily bump into something that's years old without having seen any spoilers if you weren't a fan, so it's probably more about how well known a spoiler is than how old.

I don't think "age of source" should be the only criteria. Rosebud/Luke's father/Soylent green/Aerith are all extremely common and well known even outside of those fanbases. However, what about plot points of more obscure (read "not uber-widespread") anime or games from decades past? I think those would definitely fall under spoilers.

So basically I agree with Pyrolight/Alignn.

It has to be an objective measurement. You shouldn't have to search the web to figure out how well-spread an event is to determine if it's worthy of spoiler use.

Something like beyond these measuring points:

The first 1/4 of a (visual) novel/movie.
The first book in a light novel series.
The first half of the first book in a proper novel (Harry Potter) series.
The first hour of a game. The first 1/4 of a game if it's total length is less than 5 hours.

That or just use the metric of "would I be pissed if I hadn't accessed this media and was spoiled on it beforehand" like we have been.

Sorry for the late answer, been having net problems for over a month now.

I guess as you say, it's better to stick to an undefined definition, also in accordance to the few ideas of guidelines you suggested.
It's just that, for myself, spoilers aren't actually a problem but instead makes you want to find out how something happened so I basically got a backward problem with spoilers.

Action_Kamen said:
I don't even think we need a spoiler tag for anything that isn't currently airing.

That's in complete disagreement with danbooru's policy. I think the wiki page needs to be brought up at this point.

about:spoilers says:
Spoilers can ruin one's desire to continue or finish a particular series or even cause that person to give up on following a canon entirely. All users on Danbooru are required to protect interests in the storyline of any piece of work.

Actually, I'm in favor of tagging spoilers on even widely-known things like Rosebud/Luke's father/Soylent green/Aerith. They are still major plot revelations, and people may wish to avoid them or search for them. They can't effectively do either one if they aren't tagged as spoilers.

I mean, imagine if we stopped tagging Mario because "hey everybody already knows Mario, so we shouldn't need to tag pics he's in". It's kind of like that.

Serlo said:
That's in complete disagreement with danbooru's policy.

The thread's about how long spoilers can stay spoilers before moving into the domain of general knowledge.

Let us start with a time line. Spoilers are spoilers while the media is being produced. Once the story is concluded and all the information made available is released to the public then the spoilers become public knowledge.

I don't think we have to bend over backwards for the sake of a few late readers.

Oh and spoilers:Shirou is the Redman

Action_Kamen said:
The thread's about how long spoilers can stay spoilers before moving into the domain of general knowledge.

Let us start with a time line. Spoilers are spoilers while the media is being produced. Once the story is concluded and all the information made available is released to the public then the spoilers become public knowledge.

I don't think we have to bend over backwards for the sake of a few late readers.

Oh and spoilers:Shirou is the Redman

So you expect everyone on the site to have read/watched every series in existence except for those that aren't finished yet?

Toks said:
So you expect everyone on the site to have read/watched every series in existence except for those that aren't finished yet?

Let's not start throwing loaded questions around; that's how discussions degrade.

Action_Kamen said:
The thread's about how long spoilers can stay spoilers before moving into the domain of general knowledge.

Strictly speaking, spoilers are spoilers for time immemorial, be they common knowledge or not. You're mistaken in thinking that a spoiler stops becoming a spoiler once it's well known.

The double-suicide of Romeo and Juliet is still strictly a spoiler, despite the play basically being part of our literary culture, because the play was not written with the intention of the audience knowing this whilst they watched the play. However, it's so well know that it isn't worth marking it a spoiler, because it's unlikely to actually save the ending for anyone.

Action_Kamen said:
I don't think we have to bend over backwards for the sake of a few late readers.

It's a question of how friendly to these readers you want to be and this is exactly what about:spoilers is trying to convey. It doesn't make this explicit, but in emphasising how important marking spoilers are, it was implying it.

There are some purist that think that we should snap our spines for spoilers, but I don't think even danbooru insists anyone go that far. However, danbooru does insist you go further than those who have no consideration for new readers that pick up a story after most of the fanbase has finished it, whether they didn't get around to it at the time or are new to the genre.

So different people have different views towards this, but on Danbooru you take spoilers as far as the rest of us do and that means making plots safe for everyone that comes to this site.

Updated

We need to be conservative with spoilers. Err on the side of caution and tag spoilers as such unless: 1. it is basically universal cultural knowledge (i.e. Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader), but be 100% sure that this is the case. 2. It is something that will be "spoiled" for the viewer reader extremely early in the storyline. It's better to be too cautious and use the tag where it may not apply than to miss it and ruin a series for someone who hasn't gotten around to seeing something. The same criteria should be considered before removing the spoiler tag from something.

@ Serlo and Jxh2154

For consistent organizational purposes we need a time frame and we're going to have to arbitrarily pick one and stick to it. I'm suggesting something not too long so we won't have cases of posts being tagged spoiler even after months have passed and inertial interests in the show has died down.

No, we really don't. If you don't want to use the tag don't but don't demand that it gets perpetually removed from images it still applies to just because time has passed. A spoiler is a spoiler.

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