I'm trying to figure out what else would be good to add to the review index and I'd like some opinions as to what extent spoilers should be included in a review. Should only slight spoilers be allowed or is it anything goes like we'd find in some of the analysis of the in-depth comics section?
What does everyone think?
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They can't always be avoided, but the reviewer should make every attempt.
But how do you talk about an issue without talking about an issue?
Common sense: Don't give spoilers in topic titles. If you're posting a review ahead of when a comic comes out, put a spoiler warning in the topic title. If you're posting ahead of when many people can be expected to have seen and read the comic--or whatever it is being reviewed (allowing for time zones), hold off on giving away spoilers if you can. Give spoiler warnings in threads, so people can look away. Even when posting about a story that is old, don't give away spoilers about major surprises without warning the reader that you're about to give away a spoiler.
Jimmm has it right. As long as it is not in the title, and tou give the warnings, it should be good.
Hints, clues, nods, yes. Spoilers? Only of you can hide them (ala "[spoiler] ***** [/spoiler]")
But the previews of the posts that show up under latest activity show what your talking about and I've found that adding extra lines doesn't always work. I try to post only general stuff if I don't think anyone has read it.
Yeah, spoilers probably shouldn't be in the first few lines, either. Of the reviews, and, ideally, of the commentary. But studies have shown that spoliers actually tend to *increase* a person's enjoyment of a piece of entertainment, so it's not a capital crime.
At the same time, Spoiler warnings can go too far. Stating the premise of a story is not a significant spoiler, by any reasonable standard. If it's in the first 5 pages or so, it's fair game, IMO.
When we're looking at an old series or book, posting plot developments that happen in later books are definitely spoilers, but would summarizing the issue being reviewed or discussing plot elements also be considered a spoiler?
Does it matter when an old book is spoiled?
If you were to look at a review link for an old book, would you expect to be spoiled or would you expect information to be skirted the same as you might hope a new book would be?
More practically, should threads that discuss books where spoilers are revealed, like are often found in the In-Depth Comics section or Fig's new section, be linked to our review index?
I would expect anything in the In-Depth discussion to be fairly spoiler heavy otherwise it would be hard to get that in-depth. Actually I figure any kind of review will have some sort of spoiler involved. Not necessarily major plot points, but some.
I guess that one should expect to see spoilers on old stories within posts or blogs about them.
However, for myself personally when I'm writing about an old story, I often find myself omitting certain details about the story, because I want people to pick up the story and read it for themselves and have the same surprise that I had.
You have to give away something about the story in writing about it, but I don't think you always need to spoil crucial plot developments.
For example The Dynamic Duo's Double Death-Trap from DETECTIVE COMICS 361 is one of my favourite stories ever published, but there are certain details about the story that I omit whenever I discuss it.
On the other hand, The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman, from SUPERMAN 164, is another one of my favourite stories ever published and I've pretty much spoiled the whole story when I've talked about it, because I do give away its ending which is a plot twist. Yet that story is important to the whole development of all the Lexor stories--so you pretty much have to spoil it if you're going to talk about Lexor.
There's several surprise plot twists in DOCTOR WHO's An Unearthly Child--or they would have been surprises to people watching DW for the first time in 1963 (about Susan, what's inside the police box, Susan's grandfather, what Susan and her grandfather do with that police box)--yet all these spoilers are given away every time anyone discusses any DW story.
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