Question Am I the only one that thinks things are getting too spread out

[jcoffman99]

So in the Entertainment forum we now have pre release and post release threads with current movies. The problem I'm seeing is although the pre release are spoiler free, after the movie comes out people still talk about it in there as well as the spoiler thread.

Now we have a Costume Showcase forum where people are posting asking about the builds, while the same builds are being discussed in the Replica Costume thread.

I feel that we're becoming redundant and it's getting harder to find a cohesive discussion. Plus now the already overloaded search function is getting double hits for the same things.

Am I the only one?

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

So in the Entertainment forum we now have pre release and post release threads with current movies. The problem I'm seeing is although the pre release are spoiler free, after the movie comes out people still talk about it in there as well as the spoiler thread.

Now we have a Costume Showcase forum where people are posting asking about the builds, while the same builds are being discussed in the Replica Costume thread.

I feel that we're becoming redundant and it's getting harder to find a cohesive discussion. Plus now the already overloaded search function is getting double hits for the same things.

Am I the only one?

Short answer...no you are not.

 

[Art Andrews]

I am sure you aren't the only one (as Hector pointed out). It is a constant balancing act to try not to spread things too thin, but to also not have things move to quickly because they are so consolidated. One of the main complaints we get is that people post great content and it moves off the front page in a matter of hours, which means many people will never see it. A number of other sites have had great success with a "Showcase" forum for members to show off their finished work. The number of build threads to completed threads is very skewed so having completed costumes threads in their own forum means they move much less quickly and have a better chance of being seen. Of course that is considering that people actually go to the showcase forum.

Again, it is all a balancing act and there is no perfect solution. We simply provide solutions that we hope will serve the most people and if they don't work out, we stop and change them until they do.

 

[Vivek]

The problem I'm seeing is although the pre release are spoiler free, after the movie comes out people still talk about it in there as well as the spoiler thread.

It's something I wondered myself and whether we can streamline it better. I am guessing the current example for this is the Skyfall threads.

Now in this case once some people are done discussing the current Bond film, the pre-release thread is also serving as a general Bond discussion thread beyond Skyfall.

For other movies we could look into closing the pre-release thread once the post-release thread is open for discussion, though again that would prevent people from participating in post-release threads who haven't watched the film but still want to discuss it until they have seen it. And with some movies releasing in international markets much prior to US, some exceptions need to be made as it won't be suitable to close pre-release threads weeks before the US release though the post-release thread will be up before that.

 

[Sundowner]

It's something I wondered myself and whether we can streamline it better. I am guessing the current example for this is the Skyfall threads.

Now in this case once some people are done discussing the current Bond film, the pre-release thread is also serving as a general Bond discussion thread beyond Skyfall.

For other movies we could look into closing the pre-release thread once the post-release thread is open for discussion, though again that would prevent people from participating in post-release threads who haven't watched the film but still want to discuss it until they have seen it. And with some movies releasing in international markets much prior to US, some exceptions need to be made as it won't be suitable to close pre-release threads weeks before the US release though the post-release thread will be up before that.

I mentioned this in the Skyfall thread as I'm posting in both currently. I asked if we could consolidate them into one thread. I understand that not everyone has seen the movie but perhaps after a certain time frame combine the threads. I kind of see it like, we don't have tv shows like Walking Dead pre or post release. Chances are if your posting in a film thread, you'll be seeing it at some point. I stayed away from the Skyfall thread on a different forum because I had known that it had already came out in the UK.

 

[jcoffman99]

It just needs to be a spoiler free until the release date and then changed to spoilers allowed when it comes out. That way everybody knows, "Oh I haven't seen it yet, I'd better stay out." All you'd have to do is add SPOLIERS to the title.

I'm a librarian and I thrive on order and organization. We seem to be going backwards here.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

It just needs to be a spoiler free until the release date and then changed to spoilers allowed when it comes out. That way everybody knows, "Oh I haven't seen it yet, I'd better stay out." All you'd have to do is add SPOLIERS to the title.

I'm a librarian and I thrive on order and organization. We seem to be going backwards here.

Except there are plenty of spoilers generally out there before the film actually is released. Not as tidy I'm afraid.

I do get what you're saying though. The costume showcase seems redundant but I also see that Art is trying to slow down an area in which threads disappear in an hour.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Also actually, with release dates varying dependant on the area (Skyfall released in Europe first for example) it further makes things muddy.

 

[Sundowner]

Also actually, with release dates varying dependant on the area (Skyfall released in Europe first for example) it further makes things muddy.

Yep that does complicate things. When it comes to spoilers, not everyone knows how to use the spoiler tags but then what good is a thread completely filled with spoiler tags! So I can see both sides.

 

[jcoffman99]

Except there are plenty of spoilers generally out there before the film actually is released. Not as tidy I'm afraid.

I do get what you're saying though. The costume showcase seems redundant but I also see that Art is trying to slow down an area in which threads disappear in an hour.

But the rules are already in place. No spoliers in a pre thread. So the title of the thread reflects that. They day it comes out you change the title. All you doing is consolidating two threads into one. People just need to learn that if you don't want to know, don't look upon release. Doesn't matter what country or when.

 

[DrewSmith007]

Let me preface this by saying I know nothing about how these forums work, on a coding level. But...

What if there was a way to flag entire posts as spoilers, similar to youtube's spam flagging? Or, a button like the "insert image" or "wrap quote" that would do the spoiler wrapping. What is so hard to understand with "Type spoiler. Highlight text. Click 'wrap spoiler''

 

[Michael Bergeron]

But the rules are already in place. No spoliers in a pre thread. So the title of the thread reflects that. They day it comes out you change the title. All you doing is consolidating two threads into one. People just need to learn that if you don't want to know, don't look upon release. Doesn't matter what country or when.

Then what happens to folks who want to discuss spoilers prior to a release?

 

[Vivek]

I mentioned this in the Skyfall thread as I'm posting in both currently. I asked if we could consolidate them into one thread. I understand that not everyone has seen the movie but perhaps after a certain time frame combine the threads.

Yes the discussion has skewed into the pre-release thread for now, but we will look into this.

It just needs to be a spoiler free until the release date and then changed to spoilers allowed when it comes out. That way everybody knows, "Oh I haven't seen it yet, I'd better stay out." All you'd have to do is add SPOLIERS to the title.

We are doing this for some movie threads which didn't have lot of pre-release discussion. So we are adding "post-release" in the title to those existing threads so that spoiler discussion can continue in the same thread once the movie is released.

Certain big franchise movie threads tend to have dozens of pages of pre-release discussion, which is months and sometimes even couple of years prior to its release. Besides the intention to keep the spoilers separate, it also acts as a quick clean start for readers wanting to participate or catch up on the discussion made only after the movie's release.

I am glad all this got brought up. As Art mentioned it's a balancing act, our current system of threads is not perfect but it's something we wanted to implement and see how it evolves. Also it's hard to arrive on a proper general consensus when it comes to spoiler discussion. Still we have been discussing better and alternate ways to improve this, the changes may not happen or may not happen right away, but we are on to it.

 

[jcoffman99]

Then what happens to folks who want to discuss spoilers prior to a release?

Then we discuss it. I think we get too hung up on watching out for everybody. If you don't want spoliers, stay out until you've seen the film. Our lives would be so much simpler.

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Then we discuss it. I think we get too hung up on watching out for everybody. If you don't want spoliers, stay out until you've seen the film. Our lives would be so much simpler.

This is something I can agree with. Do we need to be Netnannied to death with worrying over every little potential for spoilers? I haven't seen Skyfall, but want to, so guess which threads I am avoiding all together? I did it for the Avengers as well. Did not even crack a thread with "Avengers" in the title.

Self control, people.

 

[Rylo]

Agreed 100%

It's big-boy pants time! :thumbsup

This is something I can agree with. Do we need to be Netnannied to death with worrying over every little potential for spoilers? I haven't seen Skyfall, but want to, so guess which threads I am avoiding all together? I did it for the Avengers as well. Did not even crack a thread with "Avengers" in the title.

Self control, people.

 

[Art Andrews]

I mentioned this in the Skyfall thread as I'm posting in both currently. I asked if we could consolidate them into one thread. I understand that not everyone has seen the movie but perhaps after a certain time frame combine the threads.

Great idea conceptually. Terrible idea in reality. Here is why. When you combine two separate threads that have been going in paralleled, you intermix the responses. There is no way to organize them aside from date/time. That means that the comments are technically linear but don't follow a single line of discussion and create a huge mess for anyone reading the thread at a later time. Worse than that, responses that don't quote who they are responding to can seem to be responding to a post which comes before them, but was actually from the other thread. Just confusing as can be.

 

[Art Andrews]

People just need to learn that if you don't want to know, don't look upon release. Doesn't matter what country or when.

I understand what you are driving at, and you guys are welcome to continue to give suggestions (as we don't have all the answers), but I can tell you that this exclusionary line of thinking isn't the way we like to handle things.

What you are suggesting, instead of simply having two threads, have a single thread that members who don't want spoilers are no longer welcome in after the earliest release date, until they have seen the film.

This is a discussion forum. People come here to discuss. You are suggesting we provide them no alternative to discussing a released film until they have seen it.

Can you see how that somewhat goes in the face of what we are here to provide?

Tidy? Yes. Contrary to our purpose. Yes. Something we are going to do? Unlikely.

 

[Art Andrews]

If you don't want spoliers, stay out until you've seen the film. Our lives would be so much simpler.

This is not only in response to you, but to Qui and Rylo too.

Doing something for the sake of simplicity, while ostracized a segment of our membership is a super slippery slope.

No, we don't want to be net-nannies and no, we can't protect everyone from everything. However, spoilers have ALWAYS been an issue for a considerable percentage of our membership (and society as a whole). You are essentially suggesting we punish and ostracize those people because they don't hold the same values as you. Is that REALLY a road you want to start down, because historically, it doesn't end in pretty places...

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

How is it punishing or ostracizing anyone? There are spoiler tags AND self control that can be used. People know if they are posting spoilers and despite all of the nannying that DOES go on here, there are still jagoffs who post them.