How long should the protected spoilers period last?

I think 2 months is the way to go.

The books should have been released in most countries by then, giving most of us the chance to have bought the book.

Living down here in Australia The quickest I can get my hands on the latest book is between 1-3 weeks after it is
released in the U.S.

And as the great man himself said, Mastadge , it's not hard to write "Spoiler" and press enter a few times.

Some people forget how lucky they are to be able to get the books so quickly.

I agree with Mastadge and JADES_FIRE on this one. 2 months is a good idea.

2 months sounds good to me. Its not hard to write SPOILERS and then skip some lines. Its especially worth it if it saves ruining a book for someone.

I say one month. 2 months WOULD be reasonable, but after a while putting "spoilers" in a thread title gets a little boring.

I think one month is sufficient.

Yep, 2 months. Just having a further extended, heavily reinforced period should deter more people from being careless with their spoilers, in the titles (come on, how hard is it to say something like "New Destiny's Way info", instead of "Chewie's new startling revelation was wrong" ), the quotes, and most especially in the posts.

In general, i find that i get most spoiled in posts, not because they've forgotten the spoiler space before their revelation (though on rare occasions that does happen), but they're replying to something in the spoiler space without leaving a space of their own. The other big thing is the code system, on at least one occasion i have being spoilt BIG-TIME because someone didn't leave a space before revealing which code-names matched up to real names.

The one month period is more than enough. Putting is spoiler space in the middle of a heated debate is more annoying than it is worth. Make sure that the threads are marked as containing spoilers, that way if someone wanders into them they know what they are getting themselves into.

JMA

I'm not adverse to either one or two months.

As to what some people are referring to with spoiler space, that was 'outlawed' when I wrote the new guidelines, specifically for some of the reasons mentioned above. Unless a thread already has a spoiler tag in the title, you can not post any spoilers in that thread. If that's not clear in the guidelines, I'll revise them so it is.

One month.

Two months...

I think that for the most part, it should be around a month. Most of the people here line up before the store opens to get the book that most people will have it within that time. So for more popular books, such as star by star, it might be shorter, while a less- popular book might be longer.

I think we should go back to the 2-month waiting period. Not every member of the forums rushes out to buy the book the day or or the week of the release. Nor does every country get the book at the same time as the United States. Not everyone reads as fast as other people either. Some read at a leisurely pace; others rush through the books in less than a day. And finally, for those who borrow a book through the library, not everyone will be able to get the book in the 1-month time period.

The biggest issue is with the Hardcover novels. Not all kids can afford the much higher prices for the hardcover. Many of them have to request it as a Christmas or early Christmas present. I realize that Christmas is still more than 2 months away from Oct 1, so maybe hardcovers should have a 3 month waiting period.

EDIT: I completely forgot about the change I made to my subject line. See it? If posting massive amounts of spaces bothers people, why not institute a change that says the subject line must contain a spoiler announcement in addition to SPOILERS as the first word of a post.

I would absolutely disagree with a differing spoiler policy vs. different types of books...

That would be sheer chaos to remember. Would it be one week for a comic book at $2 a pop, 1 month for a softcover at $6.99 a pop and three months for a hardcover at $20 a pop? I mean, that'd be ridiculous...

Also -- and though I hesitate to point this out, it should be said -- there are those people who are no longer in school and can afford hardcovers at day one. A non-blanket spoiler rule specifically for hardcovers would penalize them as much as spoiling those without the book would penalize the people not purchasing it yet.

That's why I think the one month limit is good -- a new comic will be out the next month (covered), most anyone who's gonna buy a softcover would have done so by then (covered) and anyone who's likely to buy the hardcover on their own would have done so by then (covered). Anyone expecting a hardcover for a present might have to wait a very long time (Tatooine Ghost comes out in February, right? When's the next present-holiday?) and anyone waiting for a paperback version is waiting roughly a year.

Yeah, and most kids probably get their parents to buy the hardcover for them anyway, or pay for it themselves... It was just a thought.

However, I still say wait 2 MONTHS. There are many other reasons to wait 2 months: other countries different release dates, different reading paces, no everyone is desparate enough to buy it the first day or week of release, etc.

I agree with Mastadge and JADES_FIRE on this.

A two month spoiler period would suit me fine.

Being an Aussie, I simply cannot get my novels at the same time as you Yanks and others do, so by the time I do get it, I'm so keen to find out what's happening that I've probably read all the spoilers and reviews, despite my deep down really not wanting to know that such and such dies, or whatever major plot point turns out like this, or that for that matter. I think for Dark Journey (may have been Rebel Dream) we waited for over a months for its release.

Like someone else said, I think it was flying_fishi, about a thread title not being suitably cryptic, thus giving away a MAJOR plot point. That is not on.

What about compusary highlighting to read spoilers? That way no-one can grizzle about being spoiled, despite them having gone into a spoiler thread and reading...

I also think that the 2 month spoiler period should include from when those who get the book early, what(?), usually 2 weeks pre-release until maybe the other six (of 8) to give those of us down the release schedule time to get the book and have a chance to read it.

Bottom line: If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read until you've read!

Anyway, I'm gone!

Catcha' later,

See Ya'!

I voted Other. I feel it should be until the next book comes out.

one month is fine by me. I am a spoiler freak, and i want them as soon as possible.
personally they don't ruin things at all for me, because as much as you think you know about the book or movie there is always something at how and why that is not always revealed in the spoiler. I have never thought that a book or movie was bad b/c i already knew what was going to happen.

You know, if everybody could do the invisible posting thing, like this: (highlight to read)

Then a time limit would be a moot point, wouldn't it?

I?m surprised that no one seems to be voting for 90 days. Given that it looks like half of the forum wants a one month spoiler protection period, and the other half wants a two month period, why not split the difference and call it a month and a half?

I think we should go with two months. I know that when I did some spot moderating in there earlier this year, it was the standard I used. Two months is more than enough time for everyone to either get the book or get spoiled by being over-anxious and looking in a review thread. That is my experience.

Though a compromise to 45~ days wouldn't be a terrible idea.

Everyone here should understand basic math folks...

One month == 30 days.
Two months == 60 days.
THREE months == 90 days.

That's not a compromise... that's poor algebra skill usage...

EDIT: Also, as a side note, as it is now if you added up ALL the other choices it still wouldn't equal or surpass the voting numbers for "One Month"...

It's a mental trick because 90 days was placed between 1 month and 2 months.

I made a mistake when creating this poll, it should be 3 months and just below the two month mark. Or it should be 45 days and right where it is now. I'm not really that bad at math. I wondered how long it would be before someone caught me.

I think one month. After that, it should be fair game. One month is enough time.

Or, possibly two weeks after the UK release, cause I know sometimes they get the books later than we do.

bterrik

Gandolf -- why not the usual excuse? "The monkeys made me do it!"

And anyways, I caught it originally but didn't feel the need to say anything until people starting flexing their math skillz...