Episode threads

matrim

Can we have a clear guideline about episode discussion? This is based on both the the 2 threads this week and previous episode threads.

I know that most of this is specified in the charter \ episode discussion thread but should be cleared up so people know what the rules are.

From other forums on boards the general rule is

* Episode thread has a poll and is only posted on the day the episode airs.
The thread title specifies spoilers and there is no need for spoiler tags.

* If you want to discuss an episode before it airs, start a Pre-Airing discussion thread with this specified in the title. This is then separate from the episode thread

* No spoilers for future episodes in an episode thread (even in spoiler tags).
This one is debatable as it seems to vary depending on the forum but for me episode threads should be for episode discussion and speculation, not what spoilers other people have read about or seen in the preview

Overheal

HighTower did an interesting one today with the hybrid thread. Its different, not necessarily bad. I like to see at least a Poll and a Trailer. edit: I notice its since been deleted. Was this due to the format, or the piracy Ref?

I dont see a problem with an early poll as long as its not abused. Cast your opinion after watching, not before; etc.

The only backdraw is it melds pre-discussion speculation and post-airing fact: one minute youre reading someones guesses and the next youre hearing people say "Yep its true" before youve had a chance to enjoy the episode for yourself. Splitting the Pre-Air and Post-Air into 2 threads gives you a clear separation between the two. And its not like we're running out of space on the front page of the forum. Condensing 2 into 1 is a little OCD, even if it does make for neatness.

Discussion of future episodes was always allowed and IME best done when someone puts it into context like:

I read earlier that in a few episodes

Pam and jim get together

Instead of the always controversial

Jim and Pam get together next episode, according to the website.

You have to give people some way of knowing Generally what the spoiler is in reference to before they actually try and read it.

The use of a Pre-Air thread though which is meant to be about Speculation (with anything you know for sure, clearly spoiler tagged). The Thread tag used in the past was always **May Contain Spoilers** (ie. Strict Spoiler Policy - All spoilers tagged).

Then when an episode aired a new thread was always made with Poll and **SPOILERS** tag (Loose Enforcement - read at your own risk) - and while most of us do like to spoiler a little bit, its OK not to, just as long as it relates to That Episode and any episode before it. Anything relating to information about a future ep is always tagged (again, with Context: warn people before they read a spoiler, that it refers to a future episode).

Ixoy wrote this here in a new sticky: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=172775 and thats my interpretation of it. Future episode discussion outside of Pre-Airing discussion threads is discouraged but not against the rules. If you do, use tags. If you want to only discuss the next episode, consider starting the pre-discussion thread.

matrim

Overheal wrote: »

HighTower did an interesting one today with the hybrid thread. Its different, not necessarily bad. I like to see at least a Poll and a Trailer. edit: I notice its since been deleted. Was this due to the format, or the piracy Ref?

It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be annoying because when I open the episode thead I want to go straight into reading a discussion about the episode not have to go through pages of discussion of what could have happened. Although I don't know how popular SGU is at the moment for the pre-aired discussion to be too long

I dont see a problem with an early poll as long as its not abused. Cast your opinion after watching, not before; etc.

Once it's not abused it's fine, but there's always one

The only backdraw is it melds pre-discussion speculation and post-airing fact: one minute youre reading someones guesses and the next youre hearing people say "Yep its true" before youve had a chance to enjoy the episode for yourself. Splitting the Pre-Air and Post-Air into 2 threads gives you a clear separation between the two. And its not like we're running out of space on the front page of the forum. Condensing 2 into 1 is a little OCD, even if it does make for neatness.

I agree with this

Discussion of future episodes was always allowed and IME best done when someone puts it into context like:


Instead of the always controversial
You have to give people some way of knowing Generally what the spoiler is in reference to before they actually try and read it.

The use of a Pre-Air thread though which is meant to be about Speculation (with anything you know for sure, clearly spoiler tagged). The Thread tag used in the past was always **May Contain Spoilers** (ie. Strict Spoiler Policy - All spoilers tagged).

Then when an episode aired a new thread was always made with Poll and **SPOILERS** tag (Loose Enforcement - read at your own risk) - and while most of us do like to spoiler a little bit, its OK not to, just as long as it relates to That Episode and any episode before it. Anything relating to information about a future ep is always tagged (again, with Context: warn people before they read a spoiler, that it refers to a future episode).

Ixoy wrote this here in a new sticky: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=172775 and thats my interpretation of it. Future episode discussion outside of Pre-Airing discussion threads is discouraged but not against the rules. If you do, use tags. If you want to only discuss the next episode, consider starting the pre-discussion thread.

Well as I said this one is debatable and seems to be a per forum thing. Personally I find it annoying, as you can sometimes accidentally see the spoiler (e.g. quoting someone) or misreading the context and revealing it by accident.

There's also the fact that even having a spoiler there, can let you know that something is going to happen between two characters if you see it in context

e.g.

Post A
There looks like alot of tension between Jim and jack, I wonder if something will happen between them.

Post B

There looks like alot of tension between Jim and jack, I wonder if something will happen between them.

From the preview of next week

The have a fight

From something like the above, you are already spoilered that something is going to happen between them without knowing exactly what, even without reading the spoiler

User45701

I hate the current boards format for episode discussion and have for a while. i dont get the pre airing discussion but whatever. people posting polls about episodes before the episode airs is just stupid

Years ago a poll and thread would be created by the first person to watch the episode
WTF was the problem with that?

whats all this nonsence going on in all the tv forums?

Mr E

What nonsense? For most shows, the episode thread pops up (with a poll) the morning after it airs (or during the night if a boardsie is in the States and watched it as it aired).

Posting an episode thread with a poll 6 days before it airs is completely stupid, IMO. Even 2 days or 1 day before doesn't have any merit. People can vote on an episode before it even airs, which defeats the purpose of the poll and makes a mockery of it.

I have no influence here (Stargate is under sci-fi, not Television), but I think preair and general discussion should be in the big Stargate Universe thread (with spoiler tags where appropriate), and threads with polls should be created at (or after) airtime.

mr_angry

Personally, I'm a firm believer in self-regulation. If you really believe in a style of thread-posting, then you should concentrate your attention on creating / supporting that, and ignoring the rest. Assuming your posting is legal, I have little interest in creating rules that dictate the style in which you must discuss episodes. Even I was interested in doing that, I think the above discussion demonstrates that opinions on the subject differ wildly.

By all means, attempt to come to a consensus yourselves.

--
Angry

User45701

sorrry me E when i say nonsense in the tv forum its not a stab at you or your modding in the main TV forum i mean heroes prison break lost sg ect. i just remember enjoying boards more when there was 1 thread for episode episode with a poll posted by whoever watched it first. All the pre airing discussion threads just clog up all the fourms.

Overheal wrote: »

Discussion of future episodes was always allowed and IME best done when someone puts it into context like:


Quote:
I read earlier that in a few episodes Spoiler: Pam and jim get together
Instead of the always controversial
Quote:
Spoiler: Jim and Pam get together next episode, according to the website.
You have to give people some way of knowing Generally what the spoiler is in reference to before they actually try and read it.

Overheal wrote: »

Anything relating to information about a future ep is always tagged (again, with Context: warn people before they read a spoiler, that it refers to a future episode).

+ 1 on this. Can we not just have all pre airing discussion in the large stargate universe thread with spoilers?

matrim wrote: »

I

There's also the fact that even having a spoiler there, can let you know that something is going to happen between two characters if you see it in context

e.g.

Post A
There looks like alot of tension between Jim and jack, I wonder if something will happen between them.

Post B

From the preview of next week

The have a fight

From something like the above, you are already spoilered that something is going to happen between them without knowing exactly what, even without reading the spoiler

Thats a fair point!

i stopped going to the bsg forum beause of a post like that. my brain was melted trying to guess what was going to happen based off someone saying something like "i heard Saul

(i never read the spoiler)

"

Question - how many of you read up on episodes before they come out?

for me some shows i like to be kept in suspence so BSG, sopranos, shows with very heavy story lines i dont read up on but i always know whats comming in my comedy shows (except 30 rock and the office)

For SG1 & SGA i used to read what was comming up EXCEPT the season finalie's

SGU is a new show so i have not read about future episode and plots. Unless the show picks up by episode 10 i plan to read about the 2nd 1/2 of the season.

With that in mind i do not want to wait till the week before an episode to talk about it. So how about this. We create a thread for discussion of future episodes with heavy spoiler warning in the title and the first post and that page can be for the people who do read up on future episode and want to discuss?

Overheal

Yeah, I dont like the Idea of the Show Discussion thread being Spoilered. People wanna come on board and find out if people are enjoying it/if its worth watching without spoiling it for themselves.

As it is the existing one is riddled with it, so it needs to be marked as such (May Contain Spoilers) and User's thread with the wonky poll about the show we may as well just hang onto as the "What do you think so far" thread, which ought to be relatively spoiler-free. Or start a proper such thread where people can critique the show for things like production value, etc. without getting too involved with the plot.

BSG was a brain**** of a forum by the end of the 3rd season. So many people got frustrated in there from poorly tagged, very important, reveals. In half those cases though it was misplaced speculation that others read to be the facts. All it did was really foul up some peoples enjoyment. As such im not even sure I want to watch those BSG spinoffs at all.

ixoy

Was away for the weekend folks - haven't even had a chance to watch "Time" yet but I did come back to see an ever increasing amount of posts about spoilers.

It's a difficult one to make a firm decision on, but the idea of a "Pre-Air" thread might be good. It more clearly defines an episode thread being only about that episode and maybe preceding episodes. It's not a place for spoilers of course but speculation and certainly any spoilers should be tagged.

In the episode threads themselves, I think it's clear that - given the thread is tagged with "SPOILERS" that discussion of that episode does not need to be tagged but discussion of any future episodes is definitely tagged (and marked appropriately).
Should those tagged spoilers have any hint about episode they refer to? For example you could have Episode 1x03 discussion "Jim looks dead to me" and then someone could go "Spoilers for episode 6: " and thus we'd all infer episode 6 has some linkage to this rather than just a vague idea.

The 'Stargate: Universe' thread has been re-named to include spoiler notice as has the 'No Doctor' thread.

User45701

ixoy wrote: »

It's a difficult one to make a firm decision on, but the idea of a "Pre-Air" thread might be good. It more clearly defines an episode thread being only about that episode and maybe preceding episodes. It's not a place for spoilers of course but speculation and certainly any spoilers should be tagged.

And like i said above would you all mind having a single thread for all future episode discussion? People who are following info like trailers and episode plots could all discuss in there?

i would have liked to have one of them when SG1 & SGA where airing

Overheal

User45701 wrote: »

And like i said above would you all mind having a single thread for all future episode discussion? People who are following info like trailers and episode plots could all discuss in there?

i would have liked to have one of them when SG1 & SGA where airing

same problem I stated up the top, one post youre speculating on the coming weeks episode, the next youre speculating on the NEXT weeks episode based on the information from the episode you were just speculating about 2 hours ago. Not everyone gets to see it as it airs/at the weekend but they still like to speculate

Id rather separate them.

astrofool

pre-air and actual being seperated is probably a good idea. You have to be an idiot if you go reading a thread on an episode though, and haven't watched it. Pre-air is also risky enough if you hate reveals (exactly what would people talk about otherwise?).

Spoilering for future reveal (i.e. wiki information usually) is a good idea, and people who don't, should probably be banned.

User45701

+ 1 on the banning for not using spoiler tags where needed

but thats a mod decision

ixoy

User45701 wrote: »

+ 1 on the banning for not using spoiler tags where needed

Banning might be a bit harsh, but it will certainly get a card. If it's done in a particularly obnoxious manner, they may be shown the door.

Overheal

Well when is it ever done maliciously? Hardly ever. Whereas, when you insult someone its deliberate.

User45701

lol its funny i stopped posting on bsg forum for fear some person would post spoilers on purpuse just to be an asshole but ok banning might be a bit harsh and i dont care enough about SGU to get pissed off if something is spoiled but when i love a show i like be be sure there wont be any spoilers.

Banning would stop some poeple but to be fair most spoilers are not posted by regulars.

GSPfan

I'm loving the diplomacy of this thread. The people posting in the SGU threads are a breath of fresh air to boards. Keep the good spirited chat goin I say.

I can't understand the pre-air thread thing. Cause then its a new thread every week.

How about.......

Stargate Universe - General discussion (spoilers punishable by death)

Future Episode/Spoiler thread - Spoilers guaranteed

Episode thread (weekly) - Spoilers not needed after U.S. air time.

2 permanent threads and 1 weekly thread. + any specific topic threads created such as this one.

I actually don't really mind what happens cause I think when you click into the SGU threads you're asking for trouble so it always makes me laugh to see how freaked out people get about spoilers. When I sky plus UFC events the last thing I do is turn on the computer. Guaranteed to see something you don't want to. :mad:

Anyway..... loving the good natured attitudes of you lot. Its a pleasure.