Making a spoiler-free filter

[pegkerr]

chaeche came up with this idea and I quite like it. I had the last Harry Potter book spoiled for me by a jerk who, several days before HBP was even released, thought it would be funny to post a picture of the crucial page with key words underlined in red (Snape killed Dumbledore). It happened on found_objects (a photography community, for heavens sake! I never dreamed I could have gotten spoiled there before the book even came out!)

Like chaeche, I DON'T want to be spoiled on this one, so it makes sense to set up a spoil-free filter. I will start by filtering out communities (and someone mentioned in chaeche's journal turning off icons, which I think is a smart idea. How do you do it?) So please, dear friends list, answer for me:

[Poll #998737]

As for my own policy, I will not post any spoilers for either the book or the movie before the release. After the release, I will put everything even slightly spoilerish behind a cut-tag.

Edited to add: To turn off communities on your friends page, add

?show=p

to the end of the URL, i.e., http://pegkerr.livejournal.com/friends/?show=p

Some good advice from commenters with further instructions on how to avoid spoilers:

From ceildh: If you are determined not to be spoiled, you may want to be careful if you are subscribed to LJ notices, and get notices when someone adds you as a friend - a troll with a spoilery username such as "ddore_dies" could friend you, which seemed to happen a lot last time. Also they could comment to you, which you'd get notification of, so you may want to temporarily enable commenting as friends-only.

From laurel: This is the page you want for turning off userpics in your LJ style/scheme (assuming you use a S2 style). 'Course that just applies to your theme so only works when viewing your f-list with your own journal style (not whatever the default LJ style is).

If you care about mood icons, you can adjust those settings from the look and feel tab and say that you want all mood icons anywhere to be the ones you set (rather than what others want in their LJ posts).

All this stuff should be under www.livejournal.com/customize/ (just in case my other links don't work).

Oh-- another simpler (maybe?) way is available from this page. You can have all icons replaced with a placeholder image. Took me a while to find that page, you think it'd be somewhere obvious!

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Potterdom doesn't drive me into a frenzy, so any source of spoilers would have to be second or third hand, anyway...

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I'm going to copy this idea. I had HBP spoiled too (by a person on my FRIENDLIST even - I'm still peeved), so making a spoiler-free filter makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the idea.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My answer applies in general -- I only read Harry Potter because I write YA and want to know what's going on in that field, so I guarantee I will not be the first one on my lj block to know anything about this book in particular or to post about it.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

"I am unlikely to read the book before you do, and would be quite careful about spoilers early on in any case."

[ceilidh]

I will probably read spoilers, but I wouldn't post about them except under a cut and a filter that consists of people who have specifically asked to be on it. I hate accidental spoiling.

Also if you are determined not to be spoiled, you may want to be careful if you are subscribed to LJ notices, and get notices when someone adds you as a friend - a troll with a spoilery username such as "ddore_dies" could friend you, which seemed to happen a lot last time. Also they could comment to you, which you'd get notification of, so you may want to temporarily enable commenting as friends-only.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

good tips, thanks.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of the HP books and am highly unlikely to read this one before you do and also highly unlikely to hear any spoilers.

[ciceronianus.livejournal.com]

I don't really make promises, but I won't post any spoilers before the book comes out. Afterwards, anything would be cut, of course.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

I'm going to avoid spoilers before I get the book (which will be a couple weeks after its released). I always use a cut for any spoilers.

[febobe.livejournal.com]

A note on my response (may post, but PROMISE to cut). . .

I absolutely do not plan to post about any spoilers prior to the book's release. I cannot possibly foresee myself doing so. It's just not something I'm into, and frankly I don't tend to get spoiler information floating my way anyhow, as I'm part of very few communities and definitely have very few ties with the HP fandom.

So if that makes you feel safer in deciding whether to include me on your Spoiler Free Filter, then. . .maybe that's useful information.

-Febobe, who strongly believes in the power of the LJ-cut

[rachet.livejournal.com]

OOoooh yeah! I remember that bastard. If I recall, he got ripped apart and said "It was just a joke." Yeah...really funny.

[ckd]

I haven't even read book 6 yet!

[naomikritzer]

I am trying to avoid spoilers regarding the book; I'm less worried about spoiling the movie (I mean, geez, I read the book, I already know what happens...) Once the book comes out, I may post about it after I've read it (and I read fast) but I will lj-cut anything I have to say about it.

[laurel]

'Course you just posted a big honking spoiler in this post-- not for the next book, for one that's out, but some of us are behind.

(I'd seen that idiotic spoiler post at the time it was posted, but hadn't known if it had any validity at all and had kinda forgotten about it.)

I know what constitutes a spoiler is tricky in this day and age where people watch things and read things at all different times, etc. I guess I wouldn't expect someone to post "spoiler warning" at this late date about that particular plot point. To save myself from too much spoilerage, I tend to just not read Harry Potter related posts, but read this one 'cuz it looked to be about spoiler policy not about content of the books. (I'm not mad, Harry Potter isn't a big deal to me really and my memory is such that I may space this by the time I read the book, but I figure some others might be cranky).

[naomikritzer]

This brings up an interesting tangential point, which is the expiration date of spoiler consideration.

I mean, I still worry about revealing the Big Secret of the movies The Crying Game and the one about the boy who Sees Dead People (I'm blanking on the title). And those really should be fair game at this point. On the other hand, I don't worry at all about revealing spoilers from the first six HP books -- I figure that if you care, you've read them by now.

And I have seen people bitch about spoilers from hundred-year-old stories, which is kind of a WTF moment for me. Elizabeth marries Mr. Darcy, Hamlet dies, and Abraham doesn't really kill Isaac -- these are all things I think we can agree that we don't need to spoiler-protect.

I will probably quit worrying about spoilers from HP7 about a month after it comes out. Peg, at least, will have read it (ten times) (at least) by then...

[laurel]

Yeah, it is tricky. When writing about episodes of TV shows that have already aired, I still try not to post anything especially spoilery. I'm less careful than I am with shows that haven't aired before; I'll give more detail re plot than I would with something brand new. But I'm usually careful not to reveal Big Things; I might hint more at things than I would with new stuff.

I tend to be very anti-spoiler and tend to proceed with possibly excess caution on my site, but I hear from readers who say they really do appreciate that; I figure there are enough sites that give spoilers out there if people want them (heck, I find plenty of press releases, TV listings, and commercials give away more than they should; ditto with movie trailers).

When I write about older movies, I still probably wouldn't say "Rosebud is a sled" unless it's something like that where *everyone* has heard it (even people who haven't seen the movie) and even then I'm more likely to play off of it than flat out say it.

Everyone has different sensibilities about this which makes it tricky.

I know some people feel that casting news (for TV or movies) is spoilery, but I think they may be going a bit too far. Though if I think a particular bit of casting or guest starring might spoil something big (or little), I'll be vague or link to something elsewhere (with a note that it contains casting info that might be spoilery to some).

Anyhoo. That's my long way of saying "yup, it's tricky." I end up thinking about this stuff almost every day 'cuz of what I do.

[aome.livejournal.com]

I don't mind being mildly spoiled for the movies (even if I've seen some movie spoilers, I'm not prone to talking about them until after I've seen it myself), but I cannot STAND HP book spoilers - I don't even read the table of contents to see what the chapter titles are ahead of time. My policy will pretty much be the same as yours. The most I might post without a cut are general things like "I liked it" or "My feelings are mixed" or whatnot, without any specifics at all.

Are you feeling any better this morning?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I am still feeling pretty shaky. Just took another Viocodin, and I really really needed it.

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

I dont post spoilers generally, but if I do after publication will put em behind a cut tag....

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I don't expect to know any spoilers beforehand - in the unlikely event that I do and post about them they will be flagged and placed behind a cut. I certainly will be posting spoilers after publication, but will use cuts for the first week or so. After that I figure anybody who cares all that much will have read it or else will be hibernating.

Spoilers don't bother me much - I peek at the endings of books, too, and it doesn't spoil my enjoyment - but so many others do hate them that I would be rude to post without warning.

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

The first week or so? I'll be lucky to have a copy of the book within the first week or so. ;-) And I care very much about not having the story spoiled. Any story, for that matter. Even with books that have been out for years, I try not to post spoilers in commenting on them, in case anyone reading my post hasn't read the book yet. But at a minimum, I think at least give it six months.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Really? Definitely don't friend me then! I can see myself doing spoilers for more than the first week to allow for slow readers, but after that....

If I'm writing about a book at all, I'm usually interersted in dissecting some element of it, not in doing a review. So I'd be talking about the development of Peter and Harriet's relationship in Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books, or the difference in mood between E. Nesbit's companion books House of Arden and Harding's Luck, or why I love L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle but dislike Colleen McCullough's Ladies of Missalonghi despite the similarities between the two books. (To give three examples that have been in print for very long times indeed.) It's difficult to do that sort of thing without spoilers.

Actually, on second thought (not wanting to sound unfriendly :-) you'd be safe with my LJ anyway, because it's not my main site (it has links to the main one) and if I posted spoilers they wouldn't be there anyway.

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

No worries about the f-list, because I don't have Internet at home, so I keep it small. And I sometimes like to comment on books I've read, but if it's something that was published fairly recently, I think it's only fair, and considerate, to put my analysis behind a cut with a warning of spoilers. It's easy enough to do, so it's no sweat off my back to do that tiny courtesy. But usually I'm just recommending books that I enjoyed and think people who enjoy reading my ramblings might like to read, so of course I'm not going to discuss any spoiler points, there!

Books like Lord of the Rings or The Great Gatsby, of course, have been around long enough that I figure it's OK to discuss them openly. Goddess knows my LJ is one giant spoiler for the last chapter of LOTR. And when I read books on writing that "spoil," say, The Grapes of Wrath, which I still haven't read but really should, I can hardly cry "no fair!" ;-) But taking longer than a week past release date to read a book isn't "slow," at least in the real world. (And especially given the size of the later HP volumes.) HP Fandom may be a different matter!

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

Spoilers are evil. I avoid them like the plague.

[laurel]

This is the page you want for turning off userpics in your LJ style/scheme (assuming you use a S2 style). 'Course that just applies to your theme so only works when viewing your f-list with your own journal style (not whatever the default LJ style is).

If you care about mood icons, you can adjust those settings from the look and feel tab and say that you want all mood icons anywhere to be the ones you set (rather than what others want in their LJ posts).

All this stuff should be under www.livejournal.com/customize/ (just in case my other links don't work).

Oh-- another simpler (maybe?) way is available from this page. You can have all icons replaced with a placeholder image. Took me a while to find that page, you think it'd be somewhere obvious!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Excellent, thank you!

[maribou]

To elaborate on my poll answer, my policy is exactly the same as yours.

[slrose.livejournal.com]

I don't personally mind spoilers -- which is fortunate, since part of my job is reading reviews.

But since I stalled in the middle of book 5, I am unlikely to be generating any of my own.

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Personally, I plan on getting it at midnight and finishing it the next day, so I'll probably be able to miss the spoilers (unless someone posts early). :-)

[eal.livejournal.com]

okay, so we're clear, when I'm talking about spoilers, I mean the discussion that a couple of friends and I have on lj after we've finished reading.

I'm usually done first, so everything I say goes behind a cut.

My usual policy is nothing Harry Potter spoiler-ish comes out from under a cut until my mother has finished reading (about a month and a half after the book comes out).

[aeditimi.livejournal.com]

I am anal about spoilers. I hate having things spoiled. I will plug my ears and leave the room if someone starts talking about a LOST episode I haven't seen yet. Here's my general policy: Before the book release, I say nothing, I want to know nothing, and I click no links about HP. Between the time of the release and the time I read the book, I don't so much as sign on to the internet. No kidding. I go totally dark. Someone sent me an email once, spoiling a movie (they had it in the subject line, for God's sake!), and I don't take any risks with HP. I did this for OOTP and HBP. When I get the book, I put a rubber band around the back 50-100 pages or so, because I don't want it to flip open and spoil something by accident. I've learned that one the hard way, too. Once I finish the book, I will post all reactions behind well-labeled cut tags (and I usually put "spoiler" and the movie/show/book in question in the subject, because i have a couple people who download my lj to email, which eliminates cut tags). After a month or two, I may post the normal stuff (ie, I liked it, I hated it, etc) un-cut, but spoilers remain behind tags for about a year. After that point, I get careless usually, but I figure if you haven't read it by then, you're not concerned about spoilers.

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Since I, uh, haven't really been keyed up at all about this one (or even really paying that much attention), it's probably safe to say that I won't be posting anything spoilerish.

Should I even be admitting that I'm not excited at all?

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I unfortunately got into the habit of ordering the British editions (because I object to the language changes they make to the American ones), so I never get to read the new books until a week or two after everyone else anyway. So I would be unlikely to post spoilers in any event and am very interested in avoiding them!

[skg.livejournal.com]

Oy, I will probably be taking an LJ hiatus when the book comes out. I have a 10 week old baby (she will only be 16wks when the book comes out) and I am going back to work full-time soon. I expect I will be desperately reading chapters on the subway, but waaaayyyyy behind everyone else.

[darkthirty.livejournal.com]

The more thorough the spoiler policies, the more likely they are to collide with a spoiler - in other words, the ultimately successful spoiler policy may be defined as one that finds all spoilers.

Be careful what you look for, is all I mean.

[lcohen]

i probably won't get to read the book until a few weeks later, so no spoiler dangers here!

and another hope that you feel better soon!

[morganmalfoy.livejournal.com]

I won't post spoilers, but man, I will be looking for them. I want to know how it ends before I start, so I can be sufficiently prepared. And because I'm taking classes I probably won't get to read it all in one go right away, so I guess that increases my chances of being spoiled...

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

Well, I never get a copy of the latest Harry Potter until I can borrow one for someone -- I'm waiting to buy a full 7-volume set after the last book is published ;-). So chances are you will have read it before I get around to reading it, let alone posting about it, but my standard operating procedure is to put spoilers behind cuts, especially if the book is one that was released within the last year.

As a rule, however, I rarely post spoilers, anyway. In any case, no worries here.

[redbird]

It's easy for me to promise not to post spoilers--I probably won't read the book until sometime between weeks and years after it comes out.

Then again, I use "contains spoilers for X" lj-cut labels on a lot of my book discussions, if they do--even for books that have been in print for years or decades, or sometimes that have been out of print that long.