When are spoilers no longer spoilers?

[Redd the Sock]

Spoilers never really die. I had to explain to a coworker Rosebud, and my Mother avoided the twist to psycho for nearly 50 years (she was surprised I knew it without seeing the movie).

That said, after a year or so, just about anything should be fair game in open conversation. If you're worried about spoilers, get to it sooner. We can try and by considerate if you try and stop us, but people do need to understand that we can't not talk about hings (especially online) until everyone that is sure they're interested has had their spoiler free run.

And of course, there is a reset button. Game of Thrones and Walking Dead are based off material several years old, but the TV shows are some people's first exposure, so as much as we want to get into adaptation over what can be old material, it's polite to be quiet.

 

[Eeeee0000]

I think about a year is a good one, but like what Redd the Sock says - a reset when the thing comes out in new media. I won't spoil Game of Thrones, even though people have had plenty of time to read the books, some people just watch the show.

I don't mind being spoiled about soylent green or darth vader, even though I've still never seen the movies - if I really cared about them, I would have watched them by now. I was mildly annoyed when finding out the ending to breaking bad a week after the show ended, but I only watched the first 2 seasons and then quit. If I read about it by now it would be my own fault.
I think Harry Potter is fair game by now - almost everyone has read or at least seen it. If they haven't, they don't care about it enough to get angry about spoilers.

 

[Nielas]

Bar some contextual exceptions, spoilers are always tag/warning worthy. Say if you're in your final year of film school and the guys are talking about Citizen Kane's ending, don't cover your ears and say SPOILER! You should've watched it by now. But in a pretty broad geek website like Escapist where there's no rule of thumb regarding users you shouldn't take for granted EVERYBODY has seen or read or played that one thing you totally just spoiled.

Well I'm not talking about overtly spoiling something. I'm talking about saying something in passing that your'e not even thinking about that you're sure everyone knows about. Like comparing your friend to a character that turns out to be a traitor in a show or movie they haven't seen. And then when they say "huh?", you clarify, thinking your joke just went over their head, only to realize you've spoiled it for them when they get upset.

Well I guess if you compare them to Judas then they don't have much claim to being pissed off. But if you go with a Game of Thrones character then you obviously should be treading carefully.

Hey there are still plenty of people out there who have not read the Bible. No fair spoiling the ending for them.

 

[COMaestro]

I would say it depends on the pop culture relevance of the spoiler in question. If you are talking about something that was really big in pop culture for a while, say Star Wars, Harry Potter, Twilight, Marvel movies, things like that where you have heard about it whether you wanted to or not and continue to have some kind of impact years after they're finished have a spoiler notification end-date of one year. Additionally, things that are considered classics, such as Citizen Kane, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, etc are past the point of getting spoiler warnings.

Lesser known things that didn't hit it big in pop culture should always have some kind of warning.

This adds some subjectivity, of course, as some people may have different opinions about what was big in pop culture and what wasn't, but I think there would be a reasonable consensus in most cases.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Depends on the subject at hand. My usual rule of thumb is as follows.

Movies: In person. If it's still in theatres or just out on DVD then I'll actively avoid spoilers or at least warn folks before hand.
Online, I'll tag spoilers within the same criteria, after that I assume that the person reading doesn't care if I tell them that the killer is actually Jason's Mother.

Books: In person. Establish how far the other person is in the story and discuss accordingly.
Online: Tag any spoilers. The discussions are probably about the book as a whole and there's no way to know how far any one participant is in the book.

TV: You have one week.

 

[Quazimofo]

With that said, if a property is "ruined" by you knowing a spoiler before experiencing it, it's probably not particularly good in the first place.

Like murder mysteries? Or just mysteries in general?

Well of course genres which rely on mystery are somewhat more susceptible to spoilers killing the enjoyment, but at the same time if a work was particularly well made knowledge of the twist could make the work more entertaining. While it's better for a second viewing, there certainly is entertainment to be found in noticing the small subtle hints leading up to the twist.


As for the topic on the whole? It really depends on how popular the work is or how significant the spoiler in question is. Something such as Star Wars where the twist in "Empire Strikes Back" was not only so long ago some children who first saw it are grandparents now (some!), but also doesn't really have much of an effect on one's enjoyment of the movie, as the rest of it is pretty damn good anyway. Not to mention Star Wars is practically culturally ubiquitous and there are more people who know that Darth Vader is Luke's father than there are people who have actually seen the movie. When something reaches that level of common knowledge it's hard to classify it as a spoiler.

 

[Something Amyss]

When enough time has passed to the point where everyone knows about the spoilers in question.

For all practical intents, this. Once it reaches a certain level of ubiquity, it really is only a spoiler in the loosest sense of the word. I'm sorry if you haven't seen Planet of the Apes (for example), but it's become a cultural reference point now.

 

[Something Amyss]

As for the topic on the whole? It really depends on how popular the work is or how significant the spoiler in question is. Something such as Star Wars where the twist in "Empire Strikes Back" was not only so long ago some children who first saw it are grandparents now (some!), but also doesn't really have much of an effect on one's enjoyment of the movie, as the rest of it is pretty damn good anyway. Not to mention Star Wars is practically culturally ubiquitous and there are more people who know that Darth Vader is Luke's father than there are people who have actually seen the movie. When something reaches that level of common knowledge it's hard to classify it as a spoiler.

Not to mention we now have three prequels which chronicle Anakin's fall to the Dark Side.

Edit: Hit send too soon. Meant to add "and were actively marketed that way."

 

[Casper Andersen]

Well it is kinda fluid. Take Game of Thrones, the books are pretty old by now (even the newest is from 2011), but because of the tv series being the version everyone is most familiar with, all those old spoilers are suddenly new again. In fact after I saw season one, I plowed my way through all the books because it was simply not possible to visit dedicated websites and discuss ASOIAF online without walking into a minefield of spoilers.
But it seems to be about a decade before a spoiler becomes a regular pop-culture reference, but then again there is always someone new to experience this old media, for the first time and get their tiny minds blown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbV5hn_ET0U

So I guess, use common sense or at least ask if someone is familiar with the thing you are about to spoil, and use a warning if it online.

 

[Archangel768]

Forever. I played Final Fantasy VIII 10 years after it came out and loved it. I played Final Fantasy VII 13 years after it came out and loved it. Unfortunately VII had already been spoiled (I'm sure everyone knows what part I'm talking about).

So waiting some arbitrary amount of time until you start throwing spoilers around doesn't really work because there are plenty of people out there that are experiencing the thing for the first time which you may spoil.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

These sum up my take on it:

TLR avoid spoilers, even for old stuff, it's not hard.

So waiting some arbitrary amount of time until you start throwing spoilers around doesn't really work because there are plenty of people out there that are experiencing the thing for the first time which you may spoil.

Giving an arbitrary '1 year, 6 months, 8 days, and maybe 16-- no! 19 hours' is ridiculous, as it ignores contexts, cultural familiarity, and so on.

I don't even drop the Citizen Kane spoiler easily. Why? Because, yes, it's practically ingrained into pop culture and has been for decades, and yet some people haven't seen it. Avoiding spoilers is just basic courtesy.

I hate knowing what may happen in a film or game before experiencing it, so much so that I've started to ignore trailers because they simply reveal far too much (and that's months before a work is released to the public).

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I think when anyone who gives a fuck has already seen/played/whatever the thing in question. Though usually if its a big plot twist that will completely ruin or change an experience it's a spoiler forever. I'd still consider it a dick move to tell someone how fight club ends despite it being a huge film that came out 15 years ago.

It's kind of a tough line to draw honestly. Kind of depends a lot on the culture surrounding it as well. Darth Vader being luke's father is definitely a plot twist that I wouldn't disclose under normal circumstances but it's common knowledge to the point where there's probably a darth vader toy somewhere with a button that makes him say "luke, I am your father." I haven't watched/read Harry potter past the third one and I know snape kills dumbledore, but I don't even give a shit that I know because I don't give a shit about harry potter, and I think it'd be pretty rare to find someone who's like "IM A HUGE HARRY POTTER FAN AND IM ON BOOK 4 NOW!"

 

[Darren716]

I say it depends on how much the spoiler effects the rest of the experience, something like say Bioshock should always have its spoiler covered because of how integral it is to the plot and how much the game changes if you play through the first two/thirds when you know the twist. Other than that I think the 1 year rule should apply to all other media.

 

[Mr C]

I'm not sure what the sell-by-date on spoilers should be, though I mostly agree if it is in pop-culure ala Soylent Green it is fair game. The exception to the rule should be The Usual Suspects, that should never be spoiled for anyone, no matter how old the movie is.

 

[kommando367]

Technically, spoilers will always be spoilers because there will always be a few billion people that have never heard of any given show/video game/movie/book/comic/whatever.

Usually though, most people stop caring about spoiling a story around half a year after the story has appeared.

 

[Username Redacted]

I'm not sure what the sell-by-date on spoilers should be, though I mostly agree if it is in pop-culure ala Soylent Green it is fair game. The exception to the rule should be The Usual Suspects, that should never be spoiled for anyone, no matter how old the movie is.

You actually mentioned the movie that I was most thinking of with regards to this topic (The Usual Suspects) and I totally disagree. That movie came out nearly 19 years ago. One of its principal actors died...3 years ago. It's been a long time. I have no guilt about spoiling this movie. Either you found the requisite hour and a half to watch it some time in the last two decades or watching it just wasn't that important to you. I will not, in the event that it comes up, dance around this movies ending in conversation at all (especially if someone gets uppity about it being spoiled).

 

[Mr C]

I'm not sure what the sell-by-date on spoilers should be, though I mostly agree if it is in pop-culure ala Soylent Green it is fair game. The exception to the rule should be The Usual Suspects, that should never be spoiled for anyone, no matter how old the movie is.

You actually mentioned the movie that I was most thinking of with regards to this topic (The Usual Suspects) and I totally disagree. That movie came out nearly 19 years ago. One of its principal actors died...3 years ago. It's been a long time. I have no guilt about spoiling this movie. Either you found the requisite hour and a half to watch it some time in the last two decades or watching it just wasn't that important to you. I will not, in the event that it comes up, dance around this movies ending in conversation at all (especially if someone gets uppity about it being spoiled).

You are welcome to disagree, but I think that it is a very important movie and people in their early teens for example should see the movie without knowing what it is about. I appreciate I am not being realistic, but I can't help it.

Is it really 2 decades, I'm bloody old