Spoilers

[serafina20]

It is polite to put up cut tags and warnings to links in a person journal for spoilers. It's not anyone's responsiblity to protect anyone else in fandom, even though I think that if a community wants to truly "serve" the widest amount of people, they should, as a policy, put a warning up on spoilers. Again, they don't have to, but it's good business.

However ...

If you (generic you) don't want to put tags up, if you don't want to use warnings, or if you choose to make your warnings so vague that it's easy to read between the lines, and then tell spoiler-free people that it's "their responsiblity" and "not my fault," then don't bitch and whine when people defriend or filter you. Don't go into someone's journal who's put a post like, "So and so (or this community) has a spoiler up, so avoid or defriend if you want to remain spoiler free" and complain how rude that is. You're the ones telling us that we need to take responsibility, and it seems like trimming your f-list down to people you know don't post blatant spoilers is taking responsiblity.

Comments

[maveness.livejournal.com]

*nods* Exactly. And I'm not spoiler-free. But if someone else has to take responsibility for YOUR actions, then YOU shouldn't be whiney when they wave goodbye.

(generic "you")

[maveness.livejournal.com]

You know, it fits with my Martyr post too. LOL

[serafina20.livejournal.com]

Right. You can't have it both ways. It'd be nice if you could, but it's not possible. And you're right; it does fit in with your maytr thing perfectly.

[lexcorp-hope.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And thank you for saying it again, because it really needed to be said.

[serafina20.livejournal.com]

You've very welcome. :)

[chicklet73.livejournal.com]

I think what you're saying makes perfect sense.

And why would anyone be offended if Spoilerfree PersonX took them off their f-list to protect themselves from inadvertent spoilage? It doesn't sound personal to me, it sounds responsible.

I try my best NOT to spoil, but who knows if a vague comment I make might indicate something to someone they didn't want to know, and so they filter my butt out temporarily? If so, I'd understand and no hard feelings. We all have differing definitions of "spoiler-y" and it DOES come down to personal responsibility and respect.

Wow, some people are getting really wound up about this. Good to have some well-thought-out and logical, balanced posts to read too.

Thanks!

[serafina20.livejournal.com]

And why would anyone be offended if Spoilerfree PersonX took them off their f-list to protect themselves from inadvertent spoilage? It doesn't sound personal to me, it sounds responsible.

And yet, I see people get upset all the time. People will announce that they're defriending or filtering for spoiler season, and others get offended and, on occassion, rude about it. It's really frustrating.

Wow, some people are getting really wound up about this. Good to have some well-thought-out and logical, balanced posts to read too.

Thanks. I didn't feel locigal and balanced when I wrote it, but i"m glad it came across that way. ;)

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

Yep. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again:

There is a trade-off for being able to say whatever one wants to say. That trade-off is that other people *don't have to listen to what you're saying if they don't want to*. Ultimately, we each have to shape our fannish experiences to what's comfortable for us, as best we can. If it's comfortable for someone to talk about spoilers sans a cut-tag or spoiler-space or any kind of warnings for spoilers, then that's perfectly fine. For them. But it means that people who don't want to know about spoilers aren't going to read that person. So. A trade-off has to be considered: Do you (generic 'you') want the widest possible audience reading and discoursing with you OR do you want to be able to say whatever you feel like saying whenever you feel like saying it? If it's the latter, that's totally cool, but you need to accept that the trade-off for that is that some people are gonna walk away from you while you're talking if they *don't want to hear or don't like what you have to say*.

And it's their right to do so.