Discussion Is Spoiler Free a Laser-brained Delusion???

Short of living in a cave or a hermit's shack on Tatooine, it's pretty difficult to avoid things like main casting, but major plot points are fairly easily avoided I find. Then again, apart from here, I basically don't exist on the internet.

 

Nice use of the quotes from Empire

 

It is pretty easy to remain spoiler free, but that means there is no reason to come to this forum. Unlike the PT, we know zero about the story, so we can't even speculate. I will be watching the trailers and the "official" news, but otherwise I am feeling restless and frustrated with the SW universe right now.

 

I don't know if it's because I'm that much older or if it's because of my experience with the PT, but I'm really just not that bothered about the details of the ST. I'm glad it's happening, I'm interested and will get excited about it come the time, but I just don't feel a need to know what's going on with it at this point. If the news finds me, then fine, but I'm not spending any time searching for it.

 

OK, since my other thread was locked, I'll try again in here. This forum is averaging less than 2 posts per day. And most of those posts this month are in this thread. So basically, no one in this forum is talking ABOUT star wars, they're merely talking about how to NOT talk about star wars. Honestly, this forum is completely dead. If it is to survive and be useful, something needs to change. If we are going to consider "official news" to be spoilers then we won't really have a single thing to talk about between now and December 2015. Essentially the rules here lock us down with what we knew in 1983 regarding what comes after ROTJ. We've already spent the past 30 years debating that, there's nothing left to say. I come here less and less, because there is no conversation, no back and forth dialogue.

Previous incarnations of spoiler free areas on this website allowed discussion of trailers, cast, and Hyperspace, and that spawned nice conversations without revealing unauthorized set photos and leaked scripts and whatnot. If we can't talk about official news, then what else can we do to make this a place worth coming to? Because I'm close to done. Not because I am ragequitting, but because there is no reason to come here - nothing is happening.

I am very serious about spoilers, and I have the utmost respect for those who want to avoid EVERYTHING, even things like cast names and official photos. But that mentality is not conducive to an ongoing dialogue. Perhaps that contingent could be served by a single thread that they could bookmark?

Mods, I would hope that you want this forum to thrive. Are you spoiler free yourselves? If not, and you're over playing in 7SA and merely coming over here to enforce the rules, then you may not understand how frustrating it is to have a star wars movie coming out and not be able to discuss it. I'd ask a former spoiler free mod pal Garth Maul to weigh in on PT spoiler free experiences.

 

stormcloud8 : First of all, don't act like your thread got locked without any response whatsoever from us. My post in that thread, which I then locked, stated the following:

So, as you can see, I gave examples of things that are officially confirmed that are being discussed here in NSA, and also said that, "If there's another specific facet of the film that has been made official, which people want to discuss here, it can probably be made into its own thread too; it will just need to be clear that it's also "open at your own risk" like the Casting News thread is. PM a mod if you have a question on that."

How is that difficult? We are trying to keep things here "safe" for everyone, while still making it such that new threads for discussions on other official topics can be created too. They just need to be clearly marked, and they need to be more of a catch-all thread than they would be in the 7SA forum. Again, the Casting News thread is the perfect example. People are welcome to discuss the actors and the casting announcements here, but it must take place within that thread and only that thread. As we keep saying, no one poster gets to decide where the line is on spoilers for everyone else, so things in NSA just can't be discussed as freely as they are in SA.

 

The precedent on this website is to allow official movie news to be discussed in non spoiler forums. This forum breaks that precedent, and by doing so, it seems to be failing. I mean, talk to some of the people who did this for ROTS, it was a lot more lively than this.

I'm actually not trying to be a jerk here, I enthusiastically want this forum to succeed. And you're not addressing that point. No one comes in here and no one is posting. It may be "safe" but it is not useful or engaging.

Is it possible to hang a subforum below it, for the hardcore spoiler free? I'd wager that the "100% spoiler free" crowd is much smaller than the "official news only" crowd. How about a poll?

 

First, we don't need a poll, and we already have a thread where people are discussing how spoiler free they are or intend to be. Second, we aren't creating another subforum. We have three forums for discussion of the new films (SA for E7, to be followed by E8 and E9; SA for the Spin-Offs; and NSA for all New Films discussions). We aren't trying to cater to just "hardcore spoiler free" users... "official news only" users probably are the majority here, and official things CAN be discussed in here. They just need to be organized (see below for more on that).

We are not breaking a precedent; I just said above that the actors can be discussed in the Casting News thread, again as an example, and all we ask is that conversations in here get consolidated to catch-all threads for more broadly defined topics than they would in the SA forum. For example: NSA: A thread on ALL officially confirmed shooting locations. SA: A thread on one specific officially confirmed location, as well as other threads on rumored locations. And AGAIN: I said above, "If there's another specific facet of the film that has been made official, which people want to discuss here, it can probably be made into its own thread too; it will just need to be clear that it's also "open at your own risk" like the Casting News thread is." So feel free to go into the Officially Confirmed Info thread, which is conveniently linked to from a stickied post here in the NSA forum, and take a look there. That is everything that's been officially announced so far. If you think something listed there deserves its own discussion thread, let us know here in this thread.

Regarding the comparison to the PT era forums: I think what may be causing the difference, so far anyway, is that there have not been that many things officially confirmed yet to even be discussed here (see above mention of the Officially Confirmed Info thread). Things will probably pick up as more things get announced, and definitely when official teasers, trailers, and TV spots come out (which, as I said, will surely get their own discussion threads here).

Regarding the point you say I'm not addressing: people do come here and post, but it limits itself by its very nature of it being a no-spoilers forum (again, see above points about lack of official stuff to even discuss so far). We can't make it more fun for some users by loosening up the rules that make the forum a no-spoilers forum in the first place; at this point, that would mean allowing discussions of spoilers and rumors, which would defeat the point of even having an NSA forum. The users who consider themselves to be "no spoilers" posters can and do post here (granted it can be slow, and goes through ups and downs), and nothing is stopping people from posting more.

 

Well I appreciate you detailing your thinking on it, thanks. And I do appreciate you standing up for those who want to avoid spoilers, as that is important. In most cases I am close to 100% spoiler free on stuff, but with Star Wars I want to have some limited discussion. My main frustration is a personal one, that the OH MY GOD SEQUEL TO RETURN OF THE JEDI is in the works, and the only place I can discuss it regularly with a large group of people is in a spoilers-allowed forum that will ruin the experience. When the ST was announced I did a headstand for joy, anticipating not only the movies, but the joy of thinking/chatting about them for the next 9 years. Instead, I find myself 2 years in having nothing to think about and no one to talk to - in the midst of the filming of the movie, no less. My real life friends/family/wife really don't care about the ST so there's no joy to be had there.

I could probably live with the "post official news in limited threads" concept, though I think this is essentially megathreading, which isn't terribly fun. But whether official news is discussed in specific threads or openly in the forum, that doesn't solve the main problem - there is really no reason to come here any more, it is a ghost town. There's nothing happening, and it is getting worse. Did we even discuss spin-off film directors in here? I don't think we did, and I don't see a thread for that. That is huge news, and I think it passed without any/much comment. There was one official photo posted by Bad Robot that I can think of, a photo that revealed something cool, and I don't recall that being discussed, either. It is possible that the morsels Abrams will parcel out will encourage people to come over, but those will likely be infrequent and reveal next to nothing. Trailers might lead to a small bump, but that's probably going to be it.

I'd wager that participation here is going to get worse, as people like myself will probably just move on and write it off as being dead. It seems like from time to time, someone new pops in, posts a few replies, gets no answer, and then disappears. 7NSA is kind of like a bad restaurant - people look in the window and see empty tables, so they move on down the street.

Anyways, sorry to rant. No offense intended towards you EHT, I hope none was taken. I hope things will pick up, but I'm not optimistic...I think this forum has lost the will to live.

 

Thanks stormcloud8 . But at this point I'm not totally sure what you want done about the issue. We can't have people discussing spoilers or rumors in here; we can have people discussing official things in here... they just need to be organized in such a way that users who may consider those things to be spoilers don't see them by accident. And... that's it.

All we're left with is the simple fact that there hasn't been that much officially announced, but even more than that may be the point you even made that things that could be getting discussed more aren't getting discussed very much. If you (or anyone else) think more discussions about any of these official things could be taking place but aren't, then please start some new discussions or breathe new life into existing threads. If threads need to be merged or retitled, we'll do that as needed (not to stifle conversation, just to organize it and protect those who may consider it to be a spoiler). Just keep it about officially announced stuff, not rumors or spoilers... that's the most important thing. And ask a mod if unsure.

 

Oh, I have no desire to ruin anyone's experience, no worries there.

How about an official photos thread? I can only think of 2 or 3, but I have been off the SA forum for a while.

 

I was thinking the same thing... see the new thread above this. It contains a link to the official photos thread in SA, and discussion of the photos can take place here in that new NSA forum thread.

 

hey stormcloud8 I appreciate your frustration. It was not easy to mod 3NS and I think we tried to get a balance on those who want to discuss all official info, those who wanted to discuss say the trailers, and those who were "hardcore spoiler free" or HCSF. By the end, especially with ROTS, we did make specific threads for discussion about general threads, as EHT mentions above, for the HCSF. So: [HCSF] Episode III Locations (no spoilers allowed).

or "Revenge of the Sith: Trailer Discussion (Official info only)

But I agree with EHT that much of the frustration here is with the total lockdown by JJ Abrams, especially because for the first time since ROTJ, we really have no idea what is going to happen.

You'll see the discussion pick up once some official information comes out I think. I've stayed away from here because as you mentioned, there's nothing to discuss in many ways.

 

Yes, I think the Abrams lockdown is going to be tough for both spoiler and non-spoiler people.

I also think that the explosion of social media since the PT will probably pull a fair number of people - people who may have been spoiler free in 2005 - over to the dark side.

Regarding official info, we've had several nice small nuggets released (including today) and there has been no real reaction in here, so I am skeptical that will move things forward.

 

Yes, I encourage those in here who have already gone full "no spoiler" to make sure you're as engaged in conversations as you want to be... there may be more to discuss than you think, while possibly still not going too far for your own spoiler limits. Just be careful.

I would also say that there are still posters in the SA forum who've stated that they will reach a point where they move over here full time, but that they just haven't reached that point yet. So things could pick up when more people migrate.

 

Hee hee, there are headlines warning of information today, which I have avoided, yet one on the main page mentioned a type of ship, jeez. Okay, it's time to only go to a few topics in the Community forum, or none.

 

My wife read whatever it is by accident (the big spoiler that is, not the ship). She doesn't care either way, but I was trying (against my better judgment) to coax her into giving me a clue. Fortunately, she is looking out for my best interests and won't divulge!

 

Aside from the potential big spoiler, what about the video released today by JJ Abrams? Where would that warrant a discussion? Can I not mention what is in the video in a headline? Is that official info?

 

We are discussing that in the images thread, jump in!

 

I'm honestly still deciding which side of the spoiler fence I am going to stay on. I was 100% spoiled for each prequel, but since we don't know the overarching story for this one, I feel like it's a different ballgame. Therefore, I was planning on staying spoiler free. Problem is, social media is more or less directly related to my job (basically, I am required to spend a good amount of time on multiple social media platforms every day) and everything officially released or leaked so far has ended up in my feed (repeatedly). I am starting to feel as if it will be impossible for me to remain spoiler free on any level. I hope to jump over to this forum soon, but I also don't know if there is much of a point for me to try...

 

I hear you on the social media stuff, at some point I am pretty sure someone I know will throw a spoiler bomb out there in a status update or something, and I will not be happy.

The front page of TFN is starting to scare me, too. They do a good job of hiding the spoiler content from the headlines, but they still tease you just a bit.

 

Yeah, just in case you might want to just come straight here to the JCF and bypass the main TFN page.

 

That's what I do.

 

I'd put your "not needing to know" down to just common sense. Why seek out spoilers and ruin the enjoyment of the experience.

I, too exist online only here. I'm Ghost Protocol.