[FAQ] Spoiler Policy
P@rick
also find it at:
http://deadlock.et.tudelft.nl/~jonathan/abe/rules.html
When posting a message in a.b.e, please heed the
following rules concerning the use of spoiler protection.
***What is the dividing line between spoiler and non-spoiler material?***
In other words, which eps can we discuss or mention freely, without using
spoiler protection. A division is made between 'protected' epsiodes, which
fall under spoiler protection, and 'spoilerfree' episodes.
The dividing line is at the episode BBC2 airs on Wednesday. So all episodes
which have already aired in the current BBC2 schedule (including season 1
and 2) are spoilerfree, and can be freely discussed and mentioned. All
episodes which have not yet aired on BBC2 (including season 4 *and* 5) are
protected, and discussing or mentioning them requires the use of spoiler
protection.
***What exactly is a spoiler?***
A spoiler is any information about protected episodes that could ruin the
element of surprise of an episode. Of course we are talking about
substantial spoilers here. Mentioning who is going to die in a protected
episode is obviously a big spoiler. So is giving away information about
story developments. But mentioning that Buffy wears a pyama with rabbit
print in a certain ep is, although technically a spoiler, no big deal. And
mentioning the name of a character who is new in season 4, but not relating
it to any event or episode is not much of a spoiler either. It's left to
people's common sense to decide what they can say without spoiler
protection, and what not. An occasional slip-up can occur, so there's no
need to get nasty when that happens. Let's keep things peaceful.
***What kind of spoiler protection to use?***
For protected episodes:
- mentioning the episode season, number and name and the word 'spoiler' in
the message header
- doing the same in the message body, and adding a minimum of 15 lines of
spoilerspace (no blank lines)
For BBC2 eps that have aired on Wednesday, but not on Friday mentioning the
episode season, name and number in the message header is useful for people
who skip the Wednesday airing. In that way these people get the chance to
skip these messages until Friday. However, in this case using spoiler
protection is optional and matter of courtesy. People who purposely skip the
Wednesday airing automatically have the responsibility to avoid postings
about that ep until Friday. But to be able to do so, these postings should
at least have the episode title in the header.
***How about episodes of Angel?***
There is little information about which countries get Angel and at which
episode they are. We do know that Angel is at S1 EP16 in Holland. And C4
will start showing Angel this year. Therefore we use the C4 episodes as the
dividing line. Episodes that have not yet aired on C4 are protected, and
episodes that have aired on C4 are spoilerfree. The same spoilerprotection
we use for Buffy applies for Angel.
Bye, Patrick
--
Keeper of the Willowism, "And I'm eating this banana. Lunchtime be damned!"
Protector of Willow and Oz waking up together
Keeper of the Wily Willow Charms
ThreadMaker [tm]
--
Keeper of the Willowism, "And I'm eating this banana. Lunchtime be damned!"
Protector of Willow and Oz waking up together
Keeper of the Wily Willow Charms
ThreadMaker [tm]
ReviewMeister [tm]
P@rick
*** next week I will start another [meta] thread about the dividing lines
for spoiler policy. I intent to settle this, and keep score of the actual
Angel and Buffy eps in this FAQ ***
Bye, Patrick
--
Keeper of the Willowism, "And I'm eating this banana. Lunchtime be damned!"
Protector of Willow and Oz waking up together
Keeper of the Wily Willow Charms
ThreadMaker [tm]
ReviewMeister [tm]