Hey all,

So, we're less than a week out from what is probably going to end up being one of the biggest movies releases of all time. Spoilers are going to be a pig to avoid all across the internet, especially for us fans, and I'd like to request that we show each other the courtesy to avoiding spoilers for our fellow fans here on the FFG boards. Personally I don't think I'll get to see the movie until after release weekend, and I and I'm sure others like me who aren't going to be lucky enough to see it on launch night would very much appreciate if those of you who are luckier would confine Ep VII talk to threads clearly marked with

I'm going total lockdown. NO INTERNET! From 16th December until I've seen the movie.

My viewing is on 21st December so that's five days of no Internet.

What is a good week that start talking about the content of the movie, one or two weeks after the release?

Here, some spoilers to keep you tied over until then:

What is a good week that start talking about the content of the movie, one or two weeks after the release?

I think the point is to at least keep it to a marked spoiler thread. As people see it they can chime in, but try not to bring it up aside from that.

Seems like a perfectly reasonable request. No reason everyone can't do this until a month following release.

How long shall we maintain this self imposed spoiler free zone? Opening weekend? A week? Two? Month?

For the record, I'm fine with spoilers as long as they are in threads clearly marked as having spoilers or in those spoiler dropdown window things.

Last night I decided to annoy some geeks, so I wrote on Twitter: “Note to Watchmen fans: THERE IS NO CONSPIRACY. THE COMEDIAN JUMPED.” Which immediately returned a series of death threats and furious rebukes, so, you know, mission accomplished (note: no, I don’t think any of those people were actually upset). But along with those were a couple of people who twittered back, “Uh, dude? Did you just, like, do a spoiler? ‘Cause that’s not cool.”

It’s not a spoiler, since, among other things, within the first three pages of the comic it becomes evident that jumping is not precisely what the Comedian did (see above comic panel). Also, given the placement of the Comedian’s death in the novel (i.e., right at the beginning), and its being highlighted in the various movie trailers, discussing it is no more spoiling Watchmen than noting that, say, Marley was dead, to begin with — or, alternately saying that Marley wasn’t dead to begin with, he just moved to Jamaica and picked up the guitar.

That said, even if it were a spoiler, the thing is: Look, Watchmen is twenty three years old. Surely the statute of limitations on spoiling the book has run out by now. SPOILER ALERTS should not be in effect forever. Yes, they have their place: If I had run out of The Crying Game screaming “The chick’s a dude!” as people were waiting to see it for the first time, it would be a case of justifiable homicide. But now, in 2009? Sorry, man. You missed your window to be outraged.

(Funny story about that particular movie is that I actually first saw it at home: I was a movie critic and Miramax sent me a screener on tape. I remember getting to that part and going “wait, what?” and actually rewinding. And then I remember writing a very careful review.)

If there is, in fact, a spoiler statute of limitations, the question then becomes, well, how long is it? I throw that question open to the crowd, but here are my suggestions:

Television: One week (because it’s generally episodic, and that’s how long you have until the next episode)

Movies: One year (time enough for everyone to see it in the theaters, on DVD and on cable)

Books: Five years (because books don’t reach nearly as many people at one time)

So, for example, the big spoiler in Old Man’s War (gung Wnar Fntna vf Wbua Creel’f qrnq jvsr’f pybar!) should probably remain a spoiler until next January, the five year anniversary of OMW. But the big spoiler of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense (Oehpr Jvyyvf vf gbgnyyl qrnq!) expired on August 6, 2000, and the big spoiler of the same director’s The Happening (Z. Avtug Fulnznyna’f fugvpx unf orra fhpxrq qevre guna n urzbcuvyvnp ng n inzcver pbairagvba!) runs out next June 13, although in that case, it won’t be that much of a surprise to anyone.

Spoil away. You'll save me the cost of a rental.

Going to a theater around here sucks. It's run by kids who sell to kids, and kids ruin the experience. I quit going. I got tired of paying for 200 db of ear-bleeding volume that still can't compete with the ad lib from the peanut gallery years ago.

And while I'm at it, get off my lawn.

I'm going dark for a few days, gives me a good excuse to catch up on some video gaming, can't wait to see it on the 20th!

Spoil away. You'll save me the cost of a rental.

Going to a theater around here sucks. It's run by kids who sell to kids, and kids ruin the experience. I quit going. I got tired of paying for 200 db of ear-bleeding volume that still can't compete with the ad lib from the peanut gallery years ago.

And while I'm at it, get off my lawn.

We have this thing here in Quebec called the VIP experience.

20$ per ticket, you get basically a single person sofa to loaf on. There is an order menu for all sorts of food, including all the alcohool at the bar, and the whole thing is 18+

Man is it awesome. Plus ultra clean semiprivate bathrooms

Hmm. Rot13. I haven’t seen that method of “encryption” for a while.

We have this thing here in Quebec called the VIP experience.

In Austin, we have iPic movie theaters (see https://www.ipictheaters.com).

They have the “peanut gallery” down front, with the nicest non-reclining movie theater seats I’ve ever seen. Then there is “Premium Plus” seating one half-level above:

Premium Plus Seating includes regular popcorn, blankets, pillows, extra comfortable reserved seats that recline, waiter service at your seat and no internet booking fees.

For most movies that my wife and I are going to see, if it is showing at iPic, that is usually a better choice for us, if we can get decent seats together, at a decent time. Otherwise, we’ll go to Regal Arbor 8 or Regal Gateway 16 and put up with the crowds, the kids, and all the other drawbacks.

Are kids allowed?

Are kids allowed?

I’ve seen kids at iPic. If you’re willing to pay the price, they shouldn’t be a problem.

Now, they do serve alcohol at iPic, but so long as the kids don’t get near those drinks, there shouldn’t be any legal issues.

There’s an old ad for one of their local theaters at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjcaEzBPhtA. That’ll give you an idea of the seating, etc….

My local theater has two screens and is built into the basement of a shopping center from the 80s. The front lobby is small enough to spit across. I think my food pantry has more square footage than the restrooms.They used to have a deal with the upstairs ice cream and gelato parlor that if you bring in your ticket you'd get a dollar off, although new owners and different business hours have axed that. But I've gone sometimes where it's so empty I could have entire rows all to myself. I'm hoping close to a full work week after opening night, in the middle of the week during early evening, it'll be a relatively empty room.

Are kids allowed?

I’ve seen kids at iPic. If you’re willing to pay the price, they shouldn’t be a problem.

Now, they do serve alcohol at iPic, but so long as the kids don’t get near those drinks, there shouldn’t be any legal issues.

There’s an old ad for one of their local theaters at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjcaEzBPhtA. That’ll give you an idea of the seating, etc….

Actually, if the kids are with their legal guardians and don't get publicly intoxicated, then there is nothing illegal about a kid drinking alcohol, in most states, heheh

http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2013/10/legal-for-kids-to-drink-alcohol-with-parents.html

Spoil away. You'll save me the cost of a rental.

Going to a theater around here sucks. It's run by kids who sell to kids, and kids ruin the experience. I quit going. I got tired of paying for 200 db of ear-bleeding volume that still can't compete with the ad lib from the peanut gallery years ago.

And while I'm at it, get off my lawn.

We have this thing here in Quebec called the VIP experience.

20$ per ticket, you get basically a single person sofa to loaf on. There is an order menu for all sorts of food, including all the alcohool at the bar, and the whole thing is 18+

Man is it awesome. Plus ultra clean semiprivate bathrooms

AMC has some upper-scale theaters that are basically diner and a movie type settings. You pay for specific seats, so you know in advance where in the theater you'll be sitting. They do drinks and food before and during the movie. Pricey. I think I paid about $20 for the movie and another $30 for food and a drink for myself and my friend paid about the same.

How long shall we maintain this self imposed spoiler free zone? Opening weekend? A week? Two? Month?

For the record, I'm fine with spoilers as long as they are in threads clearly marked as having spoilers or in those spoiler dropdown window things.

Absolutely, hence my comment about keeping them in marked threads - if people want to discuss the movie as soon as they get out of the opening night premiere, go for it - just keep it to marked thread(s) for a while. How long for is a matter for the community as a whole, but to me it should be until at least DVD/BluRay release worldwide plus a month or so. Thoughts?

seeing it the 16th at 23:59.

If i get would get a strong enough urge to talk about the movie I will label it very very clearly and I'd expect everybody else to do the same.

Also, I don't expect something spoilerable in the first movie.

How long shall we maintain this self imposed spoiler free zone? Opening weekend? A week? Two? Month?

For the record, I'm fine with spoilers as long as they are in threads clearly marked as having spoilers or in those spoiler dropdown window things.

Absolutely, hence my comment about keeping them in marked threads - if people want to discuss the movie as soon as they get out of the opening night premiere, go for it - just keep it to marked thread(s) for a while. How long for is a matter for the community as a whole, but to me it should be until at least DVD/BluRay release worldwide plus a month or so. Thoughts?

And you're welcome to try and "demand" something, but given the number of members here and how many repeat threads about given topics are already made, people aren't going to do so. So, really, avoiding spoilers is up to the reader as there are also different definitions of spoilers depending on who you ask. Does talking about what has been shown in the trailers constitute spoilers? What about information released at a panel at a convention? or a twitter post by one of the actors or extras from the sets?

You know, using the [spoiler] tag takes no time at all, and a little bit of caution isnt all that hard, so people erring on the side of caution for the first week or so is not that unreasonable.

Me, I'm in opening day, so what others have to say about the flick is irrelevant to me. But being a nice guy is always a worthwhile endeavor.

My local theater has two screens and is built into the basement of a shopping center from the 80s. The front lobby is small enough to spit across. I think my food pantry has more square footage than the restrooms.They used to have a deal with the upstairs ice cream and gelato parlor that if you bring in your ticket you'd get a dollar off, although new owners and different business hours have axed that. But I've gone sometimes where it's so empty I could have entire rows all to myself. I'm hoping close to a full work week after opening night, in the middle of the week during early evening, it'll be a relatively empty room.

I don't know what your town is like, but waiting a week after launch is putting you smack into the middle of winter break for many schools....so there will likely be an abundence of kids roaming the streets...........................

I would suggest anyone that not wanting spoilers avoid any and all Star Wars sites, Facebook, Twitter, etc. until you see the movie. Just to be safe.

I'm simply going to avoid TV, radio, internet etc until I see it on Sunday 20th... A friend of mine has blagged red carpet tickets for the UK premier so I'll avoid all his texts, phone calls or if he pops over 'for a quick visit' before that. He's SW crazy...:

http://www.lichfieldmercury.co.uk/Burntwood-Star-Wars-fan-Mark-walk-red-carpet/story-28341629-detail/story.html