Danbooru

Overuse of the spoilers tag? [Madoka spoilers within]

Posted under General

I guess others may feel different on the issue since they use it for blacklists, but I really think the spoilers should only be used for images that are unmistakably clear spoilers. Using it on ambiguous images kind of makes it worse by drawing attention to the fact it happens in the series, and some of these are pretty trivial. It seems like almost everything even remotely related to a new episode of Madoka Magica gets tagged as spoilers for instance, which I think is too much. If Homura with twin braids simply being present is enough to tag "spoilers", we might as well go through all (from Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu) "Yuki showing emotions" images and tag them with spoiler as well. I think (maybe I could be wrong on that, though) we used to have a more restrained use of the tag, only when it was really appropriate.

jxh edit: added warning to the thread title since the discussion is overwhelmingly about Madoka.

Updated by Aristocrat

I thought spoilers were there for anything you wouldn't want to see before being fully up-to-date with a show. A surge of images featuring nerd Homura is something I'd certainly like to have shielded before I finish ep. 10.

I noticed this last week and mailed rantuyetmai about the many spoilers tags on images of Kyouko with hair down which I don't even consider a spoiler.
I also removed the tag from some images like post #870276. What really deserves the tag is post #872367, but should it also be fusion?

If a character wears the costume of his/her alternate personality, would you tag if cosplay instead of spoilers? I'm for cosplay. (Looks like NWF_Renim tagged it cosplay after I discussed this with rantuyetmai)
Examples:
Spoiler Madoka post #868749
Spoiler Umineko post #810545

rantuyetmai's answer to my mail:
A few days ago Hazuki told me to mark up visual references of latest Madoka episodes. Those posts are quite new ("wow, that was fast") by the time of uploading so I think his concern is appropriate. After 3 days or so I don't care marking spoiler for Kyouko's praying + alternate hairstyle anymore, like ep 7's Sayaka silhouette fighting witch scene - only spoiling when they're too new.

Edit:
Akemi Homura with glasses bespectacled or not?

Updated

I can see Heparine's point, though my preferred solution in that case is blacklisting the copyright by itself or avoiding Danbooru entirely until the episode is seen. Not sure if it's helpful to people unfamiliar with the series who end up being interested in watching later if so many vague images are tagged as "spoilers". For instance, I played Disgaea 1 for the first time pretty late (after the PSP version was out), and though I had seen images of Fallen Angel Flonne here I didn't really think too much of it. May have been different if "spoilers" was tagged on every single image of her.

First of all, whether a spoiler is tagged or not shouldn't depend on how old it is.

Only if the spoiled fact enters popular culture to such an extent that even people who haven't watched it become aware of it (for instance that Aeris dies or Soylent Green is people etc.), then there's no need to tag it anymore.

That doesn't answer what to tag however. The wiki says to use spoilers for plot elements only, and I think that's a good way of putting it.

It definitely shouldn't be used for trivial stuff like changes in hairstyle, unusually wearing glasses, etc. This is made only slightly more difficult by the fact that sometimes, such a subtle change is only later revealed to be an actual plot point, but then it's not really a spoiler either if you can't even tell that it is one until well after you know of it.

But trivial things like that happen in fanart all the time, for random reasons or artist's whims, and tagging it a spoiler only draws attention to the fact that this might be an important event in the series, when anyone who doesn't know that it's a spoiler wouldn't even have been able to tell.

There are many such images recently. I haven't watched the latest Madoka episodes, and I still have no idea how Homura wearing glasses is a spoiler. (But don't tell me, if it is indeed one. Just stop tagging it...)

tl;dr use the spoilers tag for plot elements, and only if someone who doesn't know it's a spoiler would even notice it as such

S1eth said:
Akemi Homura with glasses bespectacled or not?

I say yes. But not a spoiler.

I don't consider an image change significant enough to warrant a spoiler tag. They could've changed appearance for a variety of reasons, none of them apparent from looking at an image alone. The ambiguity prevents major plot points from being revealed. If you want to ignore these sorts of ambiguous pictures also, then you should blacklist the copyright.

It's different if, say in MSMM, a character gains a magical girl costume that is consistent across images. I would consider that a major plot point and it should be marked as spoilers.

And that's exactly what happens. The change in image is extremely major, consistent, and for completely plot-related reasons. If after a new ep broadcasts you suddenly see a flood of X being depicted in the same way, which is different than what it used to be, it's pretty damn obvious it's a spoiler.

Akemi Homura being depicted in her shy nerd incarnation

*is* a spoiler, because it's everything she isn't shown as up to that point.

Agreed with EB, the spoiler tag seems to appear on a whole lot of images that in and of themselves wouldn't spoil anything unless you were told they spoiled something.

Relying on spoilers to avoid information about the latest episode of a show is unlikely to be really effective anyway. You're better off avoiding all images of the show, period, until you see the episode. I despise the two groups who release Madoka first, so I know what it's like to wait a day or two while art is flying all over the internet - I just avoid /msmm art, threads, news, etc entirely from Thursday afternoon until Saturday or so when I get time to watch.

So you would not tag Akemi Homura with braids as spoilers? If so, I can't really agree. There's no difference between that, and images revealing that "X's true identity is Y", which we've always treated as major spoilers. In fact, in the entire show, I'd say the three most important plot points are Mami dying in ep3, Sayaka becoming a witch (with all it implies), and the "true" personality of Akemi Homura. I just can't see how you could possibly not see it as a spoiler. And for the record, I also avoid /msmm like plague until yesy releases, so I know perfectly well what you're talking about.

Unless the image spoils that Homura with glasses and braids is from another time line and that the Homura with glasses will later become the other Homura, it's just an alternate style. The original could be important to the plot, a dream sequence/imagination, moe fanservice not related to the plot or even fanart (post #858829).

But there's a very big difference between isolated fanart, and having a sudden flood of images depicting a personality being the exact opposite of what she is presented as up until this point. Again, that's no different than revealing the true identity of somebody, which we rightly treat as a spoiler.

Okay, so by that criterion we'd also want to tag all images of shurelia not wearing armor (95% of them, if not more) as spoilers, since one doesn't know she looks like a little girl beneath it until halfway through Ar Tonelico. Or for its sequel jakuri outside Jakuri-Robo, though that reveal happens sooner.

I understand that image changes are a spoiler to some minor degree, but I think we need to be pragmatic with use of the tag. Personally, I wouldn't tag an image spoilers unless there's an inarguable risk that it could ruin the source copyright for someone unfamiliar with it, and I am very skeptical that the sight of Homura in braids and glasses is capable of that.

葉月 said:
But there's a very big difference between isolated fanart, and having a sudden flood of images depicting a personality being the exact opposite of what she is presented as up until this point. Again, that's no different than revealing the true identity of somebody, which we rightly treat as a spoiler.

I don't think it qualifies since a change in clothing is not indicative of anything. Characters have different sets of clothing, and there are times that they a certain set of clothing may become really popular, but it can't be marked as a spoiler since its existence as a major plot point won't be apparent until after the user sees the episode.

So I can't support this, its a bit too different from true identity and this seems to be too nitpicky.

Dogenzaka said:
I was wondering, after the "spoiler" period has passed on a series, do we have people who actively remove the spoilers tag from relevant images?

piespy said:
Whether a spoiler is tagged or not shouldn't depend on how old it is.

So I'm not sure what you mean by the "spoiler period passing".

I do think sometimes people overuse the spoiler tag, like on post #874918. And as far as glasses Homura goes, it's not like the appearance change in itself would reveal that she's a time traveler. If I were to see a bunch of images depicting her like that before I watched episode 10, my first assumption would be that she disguised herself for some reason in that episode. A simple change in appearance like that doesn't reveal the plot point behind it.

Updated

Dogenzaka said:
I was wondering, after the "spoiler" period has passed on a series, do we have people who actively remove the spoilers tag from relevant images?

Why would they? It doesn't stop being a spoiler. There'll always be people who just started watching a show and are looking for pictures without wanting to be spoiled.

Yeah, but the true form is revealed within the same episode as the first form. (IIRC, it was within minutes, at the most.) I don't think we need to be quite that zealous.

Updated

piespy said:
Why would they? It doesn't stop being a spoiler. There'll always be people who just started watching a show and are looking for pictures without wanting to be spoiled.

It just seems like after a while, and with the internet being as popular as it is, lots of spoilers would become common knowledge after long enough(FF7 anyone?).

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