Why not a spoiler-protected sub-list? (was: two knuts)

[davewitley]

> Neri:
> From the other posts around here it seems that those who won't read
> the book right away will be a minority, but still a minority that
> should be regarded. If so, why not reverse your suggestion and have 
an
> OOP sub-list that is protected from any HBP spoiler? This would be
> easier to monitor since the volume is expected to be low, it would be
> safer (a much smaller chance of a spoiler getting in by mistake) and
> it will be possible to keep for as much time as needed, even a month
> or three, while the majority of members will be free to post anything
> they like in the main list with RAYOR.

I must say this suggestion has a lot to commend it.  As well as the 
advantages Neri mentions, it is also easier to manage the long term 
implications.  I think that to have a spoiler-free main list and a 
RAYOR 'sub-list' would lead to the tail wagging the dog.  The sub-list 
would for practical purposes become the main list during the 
transitional period, yet new members would continue to join the 
spoiler-free list: we might , once the spoiler policy was lifted, end 
up with competing lists.  Or the elves would be put in the position of 
summarily closing a list that had started to develop a life of its own.

Doing this also, as I understand it, meets the need that some have for 
a space to go on discussing OOP and the earlier books while awaiting a 
delayed HBP, without making everyone else who wants to talk about HBP 
have to make major changes to their behaviour.

I do wonder, though, what the actual experience of such a list would 
be:  a dwindling band of the HBP-ignorant, experiencing successive 
losses as its members get the book and sign off with a "Yay! See you 
on the other side!" and then stop talking to those who are left.

Personally, what I think we really need is not a spoiler policy, but a 
few people who are prepared to make the supreme sacrifice for the sake 
of community, and go on discussing the earlier books with the deprived 
("HBP-challenged") *even though they have read HBP*.  Because I think 
that's the real issue: people now in the thick of things will suddenly 
find themselves on the outside, whether they avoid spoilers or not, 
purely through geographical or other accident, and no doubt will feel 
this keenly.

David