Spoiler Policy

[kkersey_austin]

First of all, may I respectfully suggest that the email addresses of
the survey respondents not be listed with the poll results? Not
because I think that anonymous voting is prefeable; it's just that
after a few hundred (or thousand!) more list members vote, viewing the
results is going to be next to impossible.

I agree with Catkind that spoiler-free subject lines are a hindrance
to navigating the list, especially when combined with the surge in
volume that the list will certainly experience. When OoP came out, I
very quickly became annoyed with repeatedly having to scroll past all
the spoiler space, especially when vague subject headings made it
difficult to choose which posts were likely to be of interest. There
was no way I could begin to read everything! After a while, to be
honest, I gave up even trying, and only recently came back to reading
the main list with any sort of regularity.

On the other hand, I do recognize that there are some list members who
for various reasons will lag behind the majority of us in obtaining a
copy of or reading HBP, yet still want to remain a part of the HPfGU
community. I don't think any of want to be inconsiderate of their
needs, but the purpose of the main list *is* to discuss the HP books,
and when HBP is published, I think it should be fair game - all of
it. 

Perhaps there are ways that those who wish to avoid spoilers can still
participate in the HPfGU community after July 16 - for instance OT
Chatter could be designated a spoiler-free zone or require spoiler
space. That should not inconvenience those who want to discuss HBP on
the main list, while still allowing members of the HPfGU community to
stay connected regardless of their having been able to read HBP or
not. Another option would be to create (yet another!) secondary list
for those who are still waiting for HBP after July 16.

The suggestions I'm making are, I'm sure, based on speculation on my
part about what those who are wanting spoiler space are wanting from
the list(s). I'd like to hear more specifics from those folks about
what they are hoping for in terms of participating in the HPfGU
community, and specifically the main list, during the first few weeks
after HBP is released. (If there has been a discussion about this
elsewhere while I was out of town, please just direct me there and
forgive me for jumping into this without catching up on the other
lists first.)

As I mentioned earlier, I don't think the spoiler space thing worked
so well last time around; certainly it didn't work for me.

Myself, I can hardly wait to get my hands on a copy of HBP and also am
looking forward to reading what everyone else thinks about it!

Karen, whose vote is firmly for RAYOR, at least until I hear a
compeling argument that changes my mind. :-)