Rated E for Everyone. Editing threaders only, lurkers, non-spoilers, full-bore-spoilers, analyzers, speculators, this one's for everyone. If you don't yet know your ABCs get your Mommy to read it to you, you're welcome here too.So, a couple of rules for this thread are in order.
1. No Spoiling. This isn't the thread for that.
2. No Fighting. This is a thread for conversation, maybe some healthy debate, it is not an invitation to square off and go 15 rounds. Disagreements may arise, try to keep it civil and respectful, there is no reason to be disagreeable.
The topic of this thread is the Spoiler Forum itself. There are divisions among the forum users that are causing stress and frustration and anxiety and maybe a few pimples. Can we find a way to just peacefully co-exist, can't everyone who wants to enjoy themselves here just find a way to get along? Stuff like that.
In my view all of these forums are for one thing, for us to have fun with. Spoiling is a fun pastime. I am responsible for how I have fun and use these forums, you are responsible for how you do it. Getting in each other's way should not be anyone's intent, anyone with a confrontational attitude towards fellow posters around here you need to run a diagnostic and fix that programming, okay.
But getting in each other's way unintentionally is a problem where no one is to blame, it happens. No one is really at fault. No matter what we do it may continue to happen, but maybe not so much. Do we need to change things, how we do things? If so, how do we do it?
Okay, Veruca's editing thread is a great example of a thread having a topic, of spoiling in that topic being limited to the purpose of the thread. It's simple to understand, it is about analyzing the editing of what we've seen in the episodes after the fact, sometimes projecting from what we've been shown some things like what are so-and-so's chances of winning this game without undergoing a frontal lobotamy. Before the first episode airs we gather information there about the players, who they are and where they're from and what Jeff had to say about them before filming began and such. Once the first episode airs it is all about after-the-fact studies of what has aired.
Simple, easy to get, we all get it even if we may use different wording to get it by. Bingo, we have an example of a thread for a specific purpose and limited spoiling. And it is valuable and can be a spoiling tool for everyone.
We can do it!
But then there are things like Vidcap threads which serve conjoined purposes, straight analysis of visual evidence from promos, content story analysis of where the story is going. These threads have tremendous value for speculators who just want to get the visual evidence of, say, who ends up on what tribe because of the switch. But source spoilers can gleen information there valuable to their putting together the pieces of the puzzle they are playing with. Neither side is wrong but we have a problem because unintentionally we are interfering with each other having fun. Speculators are frustrated because they don't want the source spoiling stuff, source spoilers are frustrated trying to censor themselves when really they don't want to because they are in the hunt. Is there a solution, if so what's the answer.
Perhaps Vidcap threads can be sectioned somehow, visuals only section and jigsaw story section (lousy name, we can certainly do better). Or we may want to consider having threads that are marked Speculation Only, Spoiling Only, Limited Spoiling, Analysis Only. I hope it doesn't really have to get that complicated but a well organized forum for the demands of the time is a worthy goal.
Oh, and source spoiling people, can we get you all to agree to just one thing, please. You don't really know anything except what someone says happened/is going to happen. It is all really a guessing game. And nonsource spoiling people, you need to understand that as well. No matter how they word it, all that the source spoiling people really know is what someone said, nothing else. There are no assurances, it is all a guessing game.
Spoiling is for fun, however anyone chooses to do it. It is also a collaborative effort of everyone involved, even those people you may choose to ignore. That includes missy and whoever may be the telephone game sources for what missy says. As best as possible we need to all get along and remember that the real enemy, if you even need one, is MB.
If spoiling proves anything other than it just being a fun pastime, this is what it proves: Betting on events after they have occured is stupid. Not that the people placing the bets are stupid, the people running the betting parlors are.
Which brings me to the voting thread. For my own sanity I cannot take running the betting parlor that seriously, it's just for fun. Some of the threads here are supposed to be for everyone, like voting, like the EC thread during the blackout period, that's the way it is.
So, let's have a conversation, a discussion here, let's figure it out. Are there problems I haven't identified, please elaborate. Play nice.