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Issues with B5LR Spoilers

C

channe

Regular
Hey, folks, I just wanted to address this issue before it got out of hand.

Remember when you post to the Rangers forum that there are people out there who would like to not be spoiled. Reading a thread, someone spoiled something very important for me. Although I wanted to know what the enemy was called, I didn't wanna know where they were from, or any other sort of detail that would spoil the story itself outside of what they wanted me to see in the trailer.

I think speculation is fine, pure speculation that says "well, maybe it's this, and maybe it's that." However...

IF YOU HAVE A DIRECT SPOILER - and you know for certain that it's a spoiler, such as you got it from that online review or any other source, STICK IT IN A BLACK SPOILER BOX.

I think we forget this because we're so used to talking about B5, a show that can't by definition *have* spoilers anymore.

The reason I took so long to post to this board was that while I was watching B5 for the first time it was so easy to go through these threads and see out of the corner of my eye spoilers for the series. Can we try to make this different for Rangers?

Thanks.

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Channe, Freelance Writer Extraordinaire and the next JMS.

"I have 15 things to do, all of them annoying... -Ivanova
 
Sorry if my reply to Chris managed to spoil their origins for you. I'll try to keep it in mind and use spoiler boxes when necessary.

I rarely consider this issue when talking about Babylon 5 -- but often fail to remember that Rangers isn't out yet.

[This message has been edited by Lennier (edited October 09, 2001).]
 
Just a quick note, though: if I'm not mistaken, a frequent poster here has said that WebTv users can't open up the "spoiler" boxes. Does anyone know how a WebTv user can open up a "spoiler" box?

If not, maybe we should go to the less-technical method of:

spoiler
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

A friend of mine used to use WebTv, and if they really CAN'T read the spoiler boxes, it would make sense not to use them.

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo
 
The problem with leaving spoiler space such as that - on a message board with this particular kind of layout - is that it is *very* hard to avoid catching the spoiler from the corner of the eye while scrolling on to the next message.

Also, sometimes not all the post contains spoilers, and it doesn't always make sense to stick the non-spoiler part in the beginning. Again, if you scroll to the non-spoiler part, you might still catch the spoiler, however hard you try to avoid reading it.

I do wish someone found out for sure whether it's possible for WebTV users to somehow open spoiler boxes or not.

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"It's animal magnetism. What can I say?"
- G'Kar, A Tragedy of Telepaths
The One and Only True Kribu Board
 
I'm the Webtv user, & I can't open up those spoiler-boxes at all! Webtv puts a yellow box around anything you can click on, & it won't put a yellow box around the spoiler-boxes. Everything else on this site seems to work for me, though.

Any way to change the spoiler-boxes, Antony? I'd hate to miss out on the Rangers discussions when it airs!

Tammy

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"We're in here! Can anyone hear us?"
"I hear you." [giggle, laugh]
"In here!"
"We are here." [giggle, laugh]
-- Londo and G'Kar in Babylon 5:"Convictions"

Tammy's Station
http://community.webtv.net/gkarfan/TammysStation
 
Sometimes it's hard to remember that something you know may be a spoiler for someone else.

Maybe we should open a SPOILER thread with an exhortation to post anything there which might constitute a spoiler. Then those of us who are spoiler junkies could read it to our hearts'content
crazy.gif


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I do think that something should be done about the spoiler warnings... the box is a brilliant thing as such but if WebTV users can't indeed see what's in them, then they ought to be avoided.

And this is just going to get worse in January - after the lucky Americans with SciFi access have seen the movie and the others haven't!

Of course, then it would probably be wisest to put a huge SPOILER warning in the forum description and just live with the knowledge that everything discussed in the forum includes spoilers!
shocked.gif


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"It's animal magnetism. What can I say?"
- G'Kar, A Tragedy of Telepaths
The One and Only True Kribu Board
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jomar:
Maybe we should open a SPOILER thread with an exhortation to post anything there which might constitute a spoiler. Then those of us who are spoiler junkies could read it to our hearts'content.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is what I did with the "Anyone else apprehensive about The Hand?" thread a while back. If the topic being introduced by the person starting the thread involves spoilers, then it seems silly to use spoiler boxes on every single post in that thread. Why not just allow the thread starter to start out with something like "Spoilers through Episode 1.2 of Rangers"? Then everyone can can post on anything up through Episode 1.2, but later events can only be discussed in spoiler boxes. Otherwise, we'll have to use spoiler boxes on every post once the show hits the air.


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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>I can't see how anything viewed in the rather spendid trailer can be referred to as a 'spoiler'<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I believe the spoiling details came not from the trailer but from an earlier review -- by someone who had seen the almost-complete cut. Speculation basing on the trailers is most, most welcome.

As for the connection of "The Hand" to the Shadows... I'm not sure. If they did teach the Shadows, we may conclude that the Shadows learned well, proceeding to outclass their teachers -- building more stylish ships, perfecting the art & science of Shadow (TM) Tech.

[This message has been edited by Lennier (edited October 09, 2001).]
 
Lennier, I never meant to implicate you, so I didn't name your name. You probably forgot entirely, so it's all good.

Orac, there are a few reviews out on the Web that have really bad spoilers for the movie - stuff we HAVEN'T seen in either trailer, on official websites, here, etc. This stuff is stuff that people might not want to see.

As to being hypersensitive to spoilers, I myself want to watch the movie all the way through, without knowing what's gonna happen next. I don't want to be spoiled. Is that too much to ask?
smile.gif


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Channe, Freelance Writer Extraordinaire and the next JMS.

"I have 15 things to do, all of them annoying... -Ivanova
 
The nature of B5, what we know of Crusade, and hopefully Rangers makes warning about spoiler information all the more important. In a show where the eps are more independant knowing what happens later is not all that important. Chances are it won't affect viewing earlier episodes. However in shows with arcs and dynamic characters knowing say, that G'Kar ends up a religious figure could seriously change how you view early season one of B5.

As long as JMS shows avoid the reset button we should be kind to others and use spoiler warnings.

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Bus

"Yeah, we could start our own game where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing's the way it seems."-Homer
 
This from a techno illiterate: could one not set up a spoiler page that could be linked to in order to read spoiler material?

i dunno www.b5lr.com/spoilers or something? perhaps it could be like a guest book or something...a place where what you post is there for people to read or not read as they see fit? I dunno.... just a thought.
laugh.gif


Something should definitely be done; I won't be here if I can't be sure I won't be inundated with information I don't want to know about for a show I have no idea when I will see ...

Perhaps a section set up the way the NC-17 one is... ?

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The avalance has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
 
Good ideas, terrytvgal. But it might be unmanageable. "Spoilers" can come up in any thread at any time. It would make following the thread very difficult, wouldn't it?

I just hate to think that a segment of the internet population will be basically banned from reading the "spoiler" information if they want to.

And everyoen is right: this will only get to be a greater problem once "To Live and Die in Starlight" airs in the USA.

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo
 
Possible ways of alleviating the WebTV/spoiler problem:

1. Adding a link like "display spoiler contents" to the header of each page. Clicking it would reload the page, sending the UBB board program an additional CGI variable -- to make it display spoilers as ordinary text. If UBB supports such functionality, this might be the easiest way.

2. It might also be possible to record spoiler preferences in user profiles. WebTV users could then select something like "display spoiler contents" in their B5LR user profile.

Even if UBB doesn't check profiles during loading threads, it might be possible to store this setting as a cookie. Unfortunately, having neither used nor seen a WebTV, I don't know if it supports cookies.

[This message has been edited by Lennier (edited October 09, 2001).]
 
I can't wait for Antony to respond to this, or anyone who does know what this site can and cannot do. I have absolutely no idea, Lennier. Maybe someone here does.

It may not be possible, I know WebTV is a tricky thing, since it cannot accept any form of downloading, or something like that. I don't understand it at all, actually. But its a great way to get internet access if you have little money and/or little experience with computers.

I, personally, couldn't use it. But over $10,000 a year of my salary is teaching online, so mine is a different story!
laugh.gif


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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo
 
Personally, I think the idea of having to identify spoilers for shows that have ALREADY aired is crazy.

I understand that there are some that still have not even seen B5 all the way through yet, but come on that show has been out since what 1993. Some of us actually took the time to watch it the first run through and we are still scolded for not putting spoiler boxes regarding eppisodes that have been aired 6+ times.

If the show has been aired, there should be no need for spoiler boxes. There is however, no excuse for mentioning spoilers in the titles. This was done on another board for the Technomage books and understanablly made a few people mad.



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Aren't some people just a little too hyper sensitive to spoilers? I can't see how anything viewed in the rather spendid trailer can be referred to as a 'spoiler'.
Someone jumped down my back for mentioning a Farscape plot element from an episode that had already aired in the UK simply because they never bothered to watch it!
The Rangers trailer opens up a lot of new speculation that people will quite naturally want to discuss.
Judging by the design of the enemy ships, I'm beginning to think that this ancient race could have been responsible for the Shadows...the Daddy race
smile.gif


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'I plan to live forever, or die trying' - Villa Blake's 7
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hypatia:
I can't wait for Antony to respond to this, or anyone who does know what this site can and cannot do. I have absolutely no idea, Lennier. Maybe someone here does.


<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

best to get his attention in the questions and sudjestions forum.

I am going to send this thread over there..spoiler's is a big issue and have been brought up before and I have no idea about web tv.

moving it over there now.



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Deviot
Lincbot@yahoo.com.au
 
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