OT: A META Request: Please no olympic spoliers

Submitted by jcgold on

Seeing today's opening ceremonies thread, and the stories all over the internet showing pictures from it, reminded me how much I hate that I have to watch the olympics on tape delay. Often, the drama of the surprise is ruined by Cnn, Espn, and every other media outlet not named NBC.

Thus, I am asking that people on this board refrain from posting olympic spoliers for the next two weeks. If you must post one, please demarcate the title of your post with "OLYMPIC SPOILER". 

It would be really nice to have one source of news in the afternoon that doesn't bombard me with Olympic spoilers. Thank you everyone for your consideration.

Tater

July 27th, 2012 at 5:55 PM ^

I think that "SPOILER ALERT" or something similar in the headline is great.  That way, those who want to discuss the Olympics can do so, and those who don't want to don't have to read.  I have seen a lot of similar usage in a lot of other forums.

That way, tape delayers don't ruin it for live people by telling them what they can and can't discuss, and live people don't ruin it for tape delayers by giving them the results.  Everybody wins.

MGoBender

July 27th, 2012 at 11:30 PM ^

If you're dumb enough to see a thread titled "Olympics - Day 8" at 3pm and you are planning on watching the tape delay at 8pm, yet still click the thread, aren't you asking for things to be spoiled?

If you're going to wait, stay off the internet (or at least don't actively explore things that are likely to be discussing events).

chatster

July 27th, 2012 at 7:07 PM ^

Teams marched in to classic British rock music. Greece entered first and then put all of its team’s Opening Ceremonies uniforms up for sale on eBay. Usain Bolt just missed the world record for the fastest flag bearer sprint. Giorgio Armani outfitted the Italian team. Borat did not march with Kazakhstan’s team. Kobe Bryant paid Spanish flag bearer Pau Gasol $275 for the Spanish flag. Michigan alum NickWillis looked like he might’ve been wearing an animal skin slung around his neck and down his back. No one from Cuba defected to the United States. Most tweeted photo: Russian flag bearer Maria Sharapova. Neither the Queen nor Mitt Romney sang with the Arctic Monkeys on their cover of the Beatles' Come TogetherNeither the Queen nor Mitt Romney sang with the Arctic Monkeys on their cover of the Beatles' Come Together  

MrVociferous

July 27th, 2012 at 7:09 PM ^

Stay off the internet if you don't want spoilers.  Its just the way of the world man, get used to it.

jcgold

July 27th, 2012 at 7:16 PM ^

But it doesn't have to be if people just put some sort of spoiler warning in the title. 

I'm going to stay off cnn, espn, etc. because I'd like to avoid that info. But when I go to a Michigan site for Michigan news, I'm hoping to be able to read without having to worry that other sports stories are not ruined for me.

Like Tater said above, a fair warning allows those who want to discuss to do so and those who want to avoid to do so. No one is hurt.

MGoBender

July 27th, 2012 at 11:25 PM ^

I dunno man - if you want (or have to) wait until 8pm to watch something that happened at 2pm, it's your responsibility to avoid news. 

If you open a thread titled, say, "Olympics - Day 5" and get mad about seeing a soccer result that you were planning to watch later, who's fault is it.

I think we should just go on the assumption that every Olympic thread has spoilers.  People that are watching events live and want to discuss them should be able to.  If you are unable to watch live and don't want to be spoiled, then don't click a link.

jcgold

July 28th, 2012 at 12:41 AM ^

Honestly I don't disagree: my primary purpose is to avoid thread titles like "Usain bolt breaks 100m record by 5 seconds".

But at the same point, I don't think its too much to ask that anyone who creates an olympic thread demarcates it as a spoiler thread. If a thread is simply titled "olympic swimming", those of us who are waiting on tape delay shouldn't have to worry whether or not we're talking about  events already televised or those to come.

Again, this is a request, not a demand. I don't expect or demand that anyone follow through with what I am asking. I'm simply asking for a nice gesture from the MGoCommunity.

MGoBender

July 28th, 2012 at 12:44 AM ^

This makes a little more sense.

I envisioned the board attacking the Olympics in the manner I've mentioned above - there will probably be threads for each day - e.g. "Olympics - Day 5."

In that thread one should expect events to be discussed in real time.  But you're right - people should avoid putting spoilers in titles so that someone doesn't inadvertantly read something.