hey, feel free not to answer this, as i don't see it as your responsibility to educate ppl on fandom etiquette, but you're one of the big tma blogs to me and you've been around for a good while as far as i can tell. i'm personally super new to the magpod fandom (only really got into the show earlier this summer) and this is my first time really being in a fandom where there are regular updates that contain spoilers. i was pretty careful about avoiding spoilers while i was catching up, but now i am caught up and i'm on the other side. i really appreciate that i was able to avoid spoilers fairly well for a show that's been around and has a sizable fanbase for so long, so i really wanna be able to pay that forward to current and future fans.
so my question is: what's the best way to tag spoilers (if there is one), and is there any sort of timeline for when it's okay to not tag them? or should i just keep tagging spoilers indefinitely for anybody else who is where i was (that is, listening to a podcast with major revelatory moments that they want to be surprised by)? there's also an obvious difference between episodic spoilers about like the contents of a statement vs major spoilers like a character dying, so is there a good way to differentiate between those? the latter sounds like it would be important to tag indefinitely, while the former could probably be dropped off when most or all of the fanbase is caught up, no?
again, no pressure to answer all or any of these questions—i'm genuinely wanting to make my blog friendlier to any other fans who are new like i was (and am), and i'm just looking for some tips since i have no experience, but it's hardly your obligation! thank you! :D
(i wrote this like an email. i feel like i should sign it or something. best, ace.)
dear ace,
many thanks for your cordial letter. I shall readily admit that I'm far more lax about this kind of thing than many others, because for weekly episodic release schedules I only usually spoiler tag for a few days after a drop to give the main body of active audience members time to get around to the newest episode. my rule for protocol episodes is that I spoiler tag anything to do with the new material from the time it releases on thursday to whenever I wake up on monday, and then repeat this cycle for each successive episode.
however, I know other people are often more conscientious about this sort of thing, and I believe they tend to spoiler tag all major narrative revelations basically indefinitely if the spoiler is super blatant in the post. ex., I don't tend to see people spoiler tag discussions of later seasons that vaguely imply certain character deaths, but I do see people tag "god it was so impactful when blorbo bleebus beat glup shitto to death in episode 69 at timecode 04:20." I also see some people use different sets of spoiler tags for individual seasons with the idea the new fans can mute and unmute as they go along. if a person has listened through to the end of season two then they wouldn't need spoilers filtered for mid season one stuff anymore, but they might still not want to know what happens in three through five.
hope that helps!
dutifully yours,
marina
