Over on cruftbox.com, Michael wrote about spoiler rules after a lunchtime discussion on the etiquette of spoilers. A variety of opinions were expressed in person as well as on blog commentary. I don’t think it’s reasonable to attempt a general spoiler rule, because there are so many variables to the situation — Books versus films, conversation (f2f or on-line) versus posting, genre (Michael’s “action vs whodunit” is a perfect example), familiarity with your friends’ reading/viewing habits, etc. I guess this places me in the “No blanket policy” camp.
The thing that really interests me about this topic is how the spoiler attitude breaks down viz a viz people with/without kids. I’ve got two children, and I’m not going to take them to every movie I want to watch. A current film featuring cannibalism comes to mind. I’ll probably see this on the big screen, but it’ll take me a while to get around to it. (I’m a parent, and parents are either very busy raising their kids, or they’re not very good parents imo.) In the meantime, I’d appreciate it if people would give me a “heads up” if they’re going to discuss current/recent movies so I have a chance to avoid hearing any spoilers.
If you have a comment on spoiler etiquette, feel free to post it here (especially if you have a parent/non-parent viewpoint) or on the original cruftbox post.
