 
JUNE 2004
Q: What do you think of GateWorld's spoiler policy?
This month's Letters question was more of a sneak-up, as the topic was inside Darren's latest column, "Let's Stop Spoiling Stargate." Based on the free-flying spoilers on the Internet these days and the ease with which some fans accidentally learn about pivotal plot points yet to come, we believed it was an important issue to address.
For those wanting the quick version: Darren suggested to Stargate fandom that Web sites and fans posting on forums limit spoilers to the first 45 minutes of the show, for the greater good of the gating community. Below are some of the responses we received. See you next month! - David
I agree wholeheartedly with your decision to limit the information revealed in your spoiler coverage. In the months I have spent perusing this site, I have found your coverage of past episodes to be nearly exhaustive, and quite useful to a recent Stargate fan such as myself. ("Let's see ... which episodes haven't I seen?")
But for previously unaired episodes, I much prefer the surprise. I would hate to stumble upon a spoiler while innocently exploring your site. Thanks for helping me keep my state of expectancy, and keep up the good work.
Emily W.
While I tend to agree that completely spoiling an episode is a bad thing, I do like the way spoilers are currently presented on GateWorld. It is the reader's choice wheather or not to spoil the episode. Perhaps you could take advantage of GateWorld's blue background image and color the spoiling part of the spoilers that same blue, so people would have to highlight it to read it!
arb1099
This is indeed something we have considered, and actually used a bit in the past. Unfortunately, GateWorld's readers arrive on the site in all shapes and forms, from WebTV to Internet Explorer. While you might be able to highlight text, others cannot. Ultimately, it comes down to what works for everyone. - David
I'm not sure what The Powers That Be are worried about -- plenty of other TV shows have a Net presence, official and unofficial and have survived. SG-1 is about to go into its eighth season. Clearly, the spoilers have not done it any harm. Lazy writing and stories full of plot-holes are, however, bad for business. I wouldn't recommend killing off your characters just to spice up a season too often, either.
Frankly, I think they should be more concerned with putting out a good product than with fan enthusiasm expressing itself in the form of "spoiler spreading."
Samantha Ward
I think you're going a bit over the top. Different people like to watch shows in different ways. Some people never read fan sites. Some people read them but don't read any spoilers. And so on and so on. As long as things are clearly labeled and as long as people respect the ways other people watch the show, I don't see anything wrong. Your article seems to lay out how you like to watch the show. And good for you, glad you've thought it out. But telling other people how they should watch the show is, well, lame.
Kevin Lyda
I have to agree with you that spoilers can kill the show. I no longer look at your spoilers. I have been staying away from the Season Eight spoilers for Stargate. I hope you do treat your spoilers with more care in the future. I remember the days when you would supply five-paragraph explanations of each episode from sources. I do not agree with this anymore. I have realised that since I started reading spoilers my enjoyment of SG-1 has decreased. Maybe part of the reason people found the earlier seasons of SG-1 more enjoyable was because of the lack of spoilers available on the Internet.
I'd like to add my concern over the reporting of character deaths. Reporting of character deaths takes away the mystery of who might die in an episode. We can all sit and say, "Well, Jacob isn't going to die. You know how I know? I did not read it on GateWorld." I think if we have one surprise death from a character, which is not reported among the fandom, it could bring back a sense of danger to the series.
Colin Ross Smith
Nice thought about spoilers. There are many ills in the world that I wish I could uninvent, but hey, it ain't happenin'. Like violence or other objectionable material on television (or the Internet), we humans can still make a choice -- don't read the spoiler if you enjoy watching SG-1 in that fashion or read them if you want. Merely because things are available doesn't mean I have to use them.
Gregory
First off, may I say that GateWorld is probably the best Stargate fan site I have come across. Its information is top-notch and the different reviews and bits and pieces are second to none.
In regards to the open letter about episode spoilers, I think that a good system would be to make it so that people, when coming to the site, would kindly be asked if the site may display potential spoilers. I mean obviously there are people out there like myself who want an idea of what to expect, but still be left in the dark on the major plotlines. Yes, there are also those out there who feel that nothing should be revealed so that we are taken by complete surprise. But if I am unable to watch an episode and know this for a fact in advance, I at least want to know the gist of what goes on without losing out.
David McCarthy
I think your spoiler policy is an excellent idea. Quite frankly, much of Season Seven was a disappointment for me because of the spoilers I was reading. I spent many of the episodes waiting for what I "knew" or I thought was going to happen, and when it did happen, I was either disappointed with the execution of the spoiler as I understood it, or ticked that the spoiler I read turned out not to be true and the show ended up taking a turn I didn't like.
I remember when Stargate was new, fun and exciting for me every week. I missed that "first love" feeling and actually blamed it on the show ... until I made the decision to go "spoiler-free." And when I did, that "first love" experience came back. No more spoilers for me!
Darlene
I agree that too much of a good thing can spoil the fun. I am tempted to read the spoilers because they are there. When too much information is given I find myself waiting till the "good parts" and do not enjoy the whole experience. I am trying not to read the spoilers so that I can enjoy Season Eight more. It is my choice to read spoilers or not, but when it is out there it is hard to resist.
Deanne Colley
"Let's Stop Spoiling Stargate" -- when reading the headline, I was very worried that you had a sudden change of heart and would stop writing any new spoilers. I am happy you're not.
I live ouside the U.K. / U.S., so many months go by before I get to see the new episodes. Still, I enjoy reading spoilers, partly because a year goes by between reading the spoiler and my watching (and I will have forgotten most if not all about the new episode anyway).
Ulrike Kroenert
I agree with and appreciate your stance on spoilers. But what you fail to recognize is that the fans have to make this choice for themselves. Asking for other people not to post spoilers relating to the final act is nice, but probably impossible. Thus fans will always be able to decide how much they wish to read. We are certainly aware of the enjoyment factor that comes from too many or no spoilers, and many of us discipline ourselves in this regard. My personal opinion is that your letter should be aimed not at other webmasters, but at convincing the fans to make their own choices.
muldermoses
I co-run a Stargate site, and part of my job is to get as many spoilers as I can together. Ironically (I guess), I'm going to have to put a spoiler warning on this letter for Season Seven.
Actual spoiling spoilers don't come along very often. I can think of two instances, "Chimera" and "Lost City," where there was information available about the very last scenes. With "Lost City," it was kind of obvious what would happen to Anubis, and another major site had already published what would happen to Jack. I felt it neccessary for this to be known, purely because of the amount of fake spoilers going around about the episode.
Teal'c
Loved your open letter about spoilers. I'm currently one of very few that do spoilers for Navy NCIS. I, along with my partner in crime, don't like giving away the details of the episode's last act -- which is great for me, because without all the talk all over the Net about it, I usually forget how the episode ends, and am still surprised along with everyone else.
I do this for other shows as well, but usually within a day of my taste of the episode, everything I didn't want to give away is all over the Internet. I'm guilty of giving away too much for Stargate, due largely to the fact that I know it will be out anyways.
bat22
I've found GateWorld's policy on spoilers to be excellent. There have been a few episodes that I thought I knew everything about, but I turned out to be wrong, and I was glad about that.
What isn't good, however, are the pictures from upcoming episodes. Taking "Death Knell" for example, the pictures showed the final confrontation between the drone and Carter, how she's use the missile on the U.A.V., etc. The spoilers may be kept out of the text, but the pictures you post often contain things that we don't want to see.
Maybe it's impossible to know when the pictures happen in the episode, which makes culling the particulary "spoiler-iffic" ones hard, but it'd be nice to see the same effort that goes into the text spoilers go into the visual spoilers.
It's akin to not telling how Anakin falls to the Dark Side in "Star Wars: Episode III," but then posting pics of the defining moment when he does fall.
Alphablu
Darren Responds
A few brief points of clarification, based on the terrific response we got to the editorial (both positive and negative):
First and foremost, the call for a change in fandom is by no means limited to Web sites like GateWorld. Sites like ours can protect innocent eyes from spoilers, and do so with copious warnings and by segmenting such material in specific parts of the site. Those who don't want to know when they visit GateWorld simply don't have to look. But the problem is much bigger on the many hundreds of discussion forums and mailing lists, many of which are unmoderated, where enthusiastic fans pass along those spoilers with little regard for the aforementioned innocent eyes. We arrived long ago at a point where any participation in fandom, beyond visiting a Web site or two, carries the perils of being spoiled.
This is a big part of what I suggest needs to change, and this is why I believe that every fan bears some responsibility. Don't be one of those people who blabs the end of "The Sixth Sense" on the way out of the theater when a hundred people lined up for the 7 o'clock show are within earshot.
The second point has to do with the origins of the editorial. (GateWorld's actual spoiler policy, remember, has been in effect for a couple of years now.) It was not prompted by the show's producers in any way, as if I was able to convince them that I could make all of fandom bend to my will because I run a popular fan site. Far from it. Earlier this year I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and interview the show's producers, actors, and even studio heads, and in no way felt pressure to change the way we do things. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that they made no such "suggestions" in any form, but instead expressed an appreciation for the fans and for this site.
Internet spoilers are indeed changing the face of how we watch television, as a recent New York Times article examined. "Television is unlikely to return to its prelapsarian state of happy ignorance. Kristen Baldwin, a senior editor at Entertainment Weekly, which publishes low-grade plot twists prefaced with warnings, admits 'that way of watching TV, where everything is just a complete pure innocent surprise every week, is probably dead.' There are simply too many informants out there, and if one doesn't blab, another surely will."
Finally, my sincere apologies to anyone who felt offended by the piece, or who felt that it was too heavy-handed. My intention in writing it was simply to share my opinion about an obviously heated topic, in the hopes of making our corner of television fandom a little more fun. Our thanks to everyone who offered up their thoughts on this important issue, both in public letters and in private e-mail.
Post your thoughts on this topic at GateWorld Forum! Keep it locked on GateWorld, and we'll continue to do our best to bring you the latest info on upcoming episodes ... without crossing the line.
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