Spoilers on the Boards - Review & Feedback
Last week we announced a spoiler-free policy for the release of a much-anticipated movie: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip The Force Awakens. This was a new change to the Boards rules based on community feedback regarding prior highly anticipated TV show episodes, game launches, and movie releases.
In terms of actions & punishments, it was ultimately stated that any actual spoilers would result in the removal of the discussion/comment with a permanent suspension of their Boards account(s). Since these types of spoilers would generally be posted with obvious malicious intent, the action & punishment was held consistent with our general policy towards posts with obvious malicious intent (ie: phishing & scam links, pornography, etc).
Because we were removing actual spoilers, that meant joke spoilers directly referencing the movie, as well as posts that may encourage others to post spoilers, automatically got added to what we consider bait and got removed with a warning. Removing posts we classify as bait was not a new change for the Boards, though it is a rarer removal.
In general, removing spoilers is a difficult process for multiple reasons, all of which reared their head this past weekend. Let's take a look at them:
- Until someone on the moderation team has seen/played whatever is being spoiled, it's hard for us to know it's a spoiler and remove it. This also applies if the moderator(s) that have seen it aren't on shift.
We knew this was going to be difficult to enforce, especially our first time out. As we're painfully aware, during a period where no one was on shift that had seen the movie, one blatant spoiler sat on the Boards for hours before being removed. There were also some (much) shorter delays in removals in a couple other cases while moderators on shift checked with those off shift to see if something was bait or an actual spoiler. While the latter delay we feel is unavoidable for this type of removal, the former we definitely don't want to happen again in cases where we enforce spoiler rules.
- What is an effective punishment for posting a spoiler?
Initially we stated we were going to remove spoilers with warnings in case anyone wasn't clear of the rules. However, this was quickly changed to a permanent suspension. This change reflected our desire to discourage/prevent spoilers completely rather than remove them from someone who doesn't care if they get a warning or not. It also kept us consistent with removals for obvious malicious intent. Overall, while we did suspend multiple accounts, the Boards were spoiler-free for most of the weekend.
- Where do we draw the line between spoiler, review, and bait?
For this we looked at whether the post contained information that was only available after the first screening of the movie. If it did, then it was removed as a spoiler. If it just stated they didn't like it/liked it and left out details, then we left it as a review. If it stated it was a spoiler but then made a joke, or made it seem to others like they could post spoilers in that discussion, then it was removed as bait. Posts talking about the original trilogy, the prequels, or the books were left alone. When in doubt, we removed the post with a warning just to be safe.
- How long do we keep the "cone of silence" up regarding spoilers?
As the movie set records for pre-sales of tickets, we knew tons of people would be seeing it on opening weekend. It also got released mid-week unlike other movies, so putting up the cone of silence until the weekend was the call. While we understand that it was sold out completely in some areas which means some people may not see it opening weekend, 4-5 days felt like an adequate period of time to discourage spoilers.
Now that we've had a look back at our initial attempt at preventing spoilers, it's time to look at how this rule will work going forward and what it will apply to. We've discussed this internally and it's incredibly difficult to apply the rule to every single content release. Major releases will be easier because there's more of a chance we'll have the relevant knowledge to remove actual spoilers, but smaller releases will be difficult if not impossible. We also are taking into account feedback about what was removed as bait and what wasn't and how the timeline for the removals doesn’t really cover everyone.
With this in mind, one thing we wanted to present is the idea of an official spoiler discussion made by us with a very obvious [SPOILERS] tag in front of the topic. This would become the place for all discussion about the new release and would be up ahead of time so everyone would know which topics were covered under the “No Spoilers” rule. Any spoilers posted outside of this official discussion would be removed as before. This would allow everyone to discuss things right away, allow for a wider timeline for removals/redirects, and allow us to redirect any attempts at discussion to the appropriate place.
We feel this may address a lot of the issues/concerns we came across last week, but want to hear what you think. Let us know your thoughts on this solution as well as any feedback/concerns you don’t feel were addressed in regards to this specific rule going forward.
Thanks!
