Spoilers

[ciphergoth]

Someone should invent a calibrated standard scale by which spoilers can be measured, something like the Beaufort or Richter scales so you could just write "Level 1 spoiler ahead for Battlestar Galactica webisode The Face of the Enemy" and people would know what you meant...

And how could I forget to link to Penny Arcade 2005-12-05: As Regards Spoilification

Comments

[djm4]

Indeed, although it would be difficult to describe the scale without giving spoilers.

"Level 5 spoiler - the Fight Club, so-called because a seminal example would be [level 5 spoiler for Fight Club]...

With Specific reference to TV shows but possibly useful for movies.

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

Spoilers, it seems to me, concern either characters or plots. So a two pronged scale may be necessary...for example.

1. Spoiler Concerning a Major Character.
2. Spoiler Concerning a Recurring yet Peripheral Character.
3. Spoiler Concerning a One-Off Character.
A. Spoiler Concerning The Main Story Arc.
B. Spoiler Concering a Seasonal Story Arc or Individual Episode plot.
C. Spoiler Concerning a minor or sub-Plot for an Individual Episode.

Example, in the fictitious Series Amanda.
Amanda dies in the third episode in a plot-twist that seems to negate the plot of the pilot, and previous episodes. This is a 1A spoiler.
Or, In episode six a background character is eaten alive by squirrels. This is a 3C spoiler (unless the squirrels are important in other episodes which would make it a 3B spoiler).

I would also include a 4D category for 'spoilers' about writers/actors etc 'Real Lifes'.

[babysimon]

Hmm. I assume you're measuring the "seriousness" of the spoiler independently of (say) the age of the show in question. But I'm not sure that really works - I mean, if I say "Vader is Luke's father", that's a *hell* of a spoiler, off the scale. For 1980.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Heh, I was worried about spoilering lovelybug on that one, who has just watched Ep 4 and will see Ep 5 as soon as my new hard drive arrives, but she'd heard that one before.

Excuse me, must edit post to link to inevitable Penny Arcade reference :-)

[devilgate.livejournal.com]

Of course, Toy Story 2 is a huge spoiler for that.

Charles M Schultz (in the persona of Lucy van Pelt (?sp Peldt?)) spoilered Citizen Kane for me years ago. Not that it matters that much, since it's the most overrated film of all time.

In the story, though, it was a deliberately cruel act: she told Linus while he was watching the film for the first time.

Penny Arcade's 'statute of limitations' point is a fair one, but there will always be someone who hasn't seen any work. Almost anything about BSG would be a spoiler for me, but only if I ever get round to seeing it.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Citizen Kane - me too!

[lovelybug.livejournal.com]

If for no other reason than that I'm a Simpsons Fan:

[Young Homer and Marge leave a showing of The Empire Strikes Back when originally in cinemas, walking past people still waiting in line]

Homer: Wow, what an ending. Who'd have thought that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father?

Man in line: [groans] Thanks, Mister Blow-the-Picture-For-Me!

[figg.livejournal.com]

Again, any information is a spoiler - even the amount that it spoils can be a spoiler.

I guess you want some way of gradual revelation of spoiler, where you can up the granularity.

A spoiler
A spoiler about a major character
A spoiler about X
etc

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

even the amount that it spoils can be a spoiler.

Don't you go all Douglas Hofstadter on me!

hofstaders spoiler corollary

[figg.livejournal.com]

Spoilers spoil more than you realise, even when you take hofstader's law into account

[simont]

I had a particularly frustrating moment once where I saw an online discussion in which some people appeared to have independently reinvented an idea that comes up in Greg Egan's Quarantine, and were enjoying discussing its implications. So I wanted to say "if you think that's a cool idea, you should read Quarantine" – except that because the thing they'd come up with was the unexpected plot twist, I couldn't give them that perfect book recommendation without it being a spoiler!