Spoiler tags and unmarked spoilers

Question regarding that, when does it go from "mark everything" to "eh, mark it if you feel like"? Is it a time frame or just when it seems to be pretty much common knowledge?

In this day and age, I'd call it a few months after the end of the series/season in question.

Not everyone has the chance to watch every series they're ever going to watch within a few months of its airing. Mark your spoilers.

Time from when the series has aired has no bearing on it. If it can spoil a plot element for anyone, mark it.

I think that it is more important if the series if ongoing when it comes to tagging, but comments should always be spoiler'd.

jjj14 said:
Time from when the series has aired has no bearing on it. If it can spoil a plot element for anyone, mark it.

Mm, I have no problem if this is the rule we're going with, but it just seems a bit superfluous to end up with things like SEPHIROTH KILLS AERIS in the comments.

sgcdonmai said:
Mm, I have no problem if this is the rule we're going with, but it just seems a bit superfluous to end up with things like SEPHIROTH KILLS AERIS in the comments.

I think it comes down to three things:

• how big of a spoiler is it (as in would knowing it ruin the entire series or just a minor element that's still important enough to warrant the tag if the series were new)?
• how many people would know it already? (as per sgcdonmai)
• Is it in any official material that would be readily seen in public, such as ads and trailers? (relates to #2, but it has the caveat that when people see these things, they don't know what the context is)

if we do the hardline approach, fine. There will be people who accidentally spoil, and they should be handled appropriately (1-2 warnings -> block if continues if you ask me, independent of series and how big of a spoiler). The only caveat is as what sgc said, there gets to be a point where certain things are just known by people who haven't even seen the series, such as Vader being Luke's father. That's what I mean by "common knowledge".

Regarding the spoiler function, I noticed that it is more commonly used for marking a section of a comment as a joke, similar to how people often use scratch lines. People are unwittingly spoiled because they expected a joke under the black.

I would think this has been discussed before, but will it help to add another functions to the comment, for the separation of joke comments from spoilers. I have seen scratch lines at use in a certain website, and I was highly impressed by how effective it is for both making a joke funnier (or making a funny joke in the first place) as well as emphasizing an assertion.

Yes, we are hard line on spoilers. Tag them. I don't care if you think it's old.

Let's face it, the vast vast majority of anime spoilers are not and never will be anywhere near the level of universal knowledge as Luke's family situation or the ingredients of Soylent Green.

Just tag it.

Lick_King said: Regarding the spoiler function, I noticed that it is more commonly used for marking a section of a comment as a joke, similar to how people often use scratch lines.

Yeah... I really don't like when people do that, honestly, and try to avoid it myself.