ADMIN: DH Spoiler Policy

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 167822

Greetings from Hexquarters!

As we all count down the days until the release of Deathly
Hallows, the rumour-mill is beginning to spin faster and
faster, spitting out tidbits (whether true or false) about
what we'll find between the covers come 21 July.

While each of the publishers of DH is reputed to be a superb
Occlumens, certain unauthorised persons with equally superb
Legilimency skills may leak portions of the book before
July 21.

Do Not Discuss Any Such Leaks on the HPFGU Lists. They are
violations of the Wizarding Statute of Secrecy (not to mention
copyright laws). If you violate this rule, the elves reserve
the right to confiscate, or even destroy, your wand.

Unlike leaks, sometimes tidbits of information are released
ahead of time which are authorized by JKR herself; these we
consider 'spoilers'.  Beginning today, we would like members
to use the "DH" prefix for any post to any of our lists that 
contains spoilers for DH. Subject headers should not, of course,
contain spoilers themselves: "DH: JKR released chapter title
called 'Petunia's Plan'!" rather defeats the point of the DH
prefix.

For example, an appropriate subject header might be,
"DH: Harry, Horcruxes" since we know the Horcruxes will be part
of the story. "DH: Longbottoms to play important role" on the
other hand *would* be a spoiler since that's new information
which gives too much away in the subject line.

Spoiler text is a wonderful thing...when it works. Please keep
in mind we have members reading in three different formats:
individual e-mails, digests and webview, and each one requires
a different length of spoiler text.

What works best is to write letters vertically down the side of the
page, original text WITHOUT chevrons (> >), and then add three
or more lines of original text underneath with no spoiler information.

Here's an example of a spoiler text which was tested and works
for all formats:

Spoiler********************
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
A
H
E
A
D************************************************************
After you write out a vertical line of letters (and you can be
creative, the word 'Spoiler' isn't required), please write out at
least three lines of text like we're doing here before you get
to the juicy part.

What's a spoiler? Use common sense. A spoiler is anything you
KNOW will be in Book 7.  Not as in 'I saw it in a dream'; more
'I saw it in the Scholastic catalog/ on the press release/ on
JKR's website.'  Anything that you THINK will be in DH based
on evidence in Books 1-6, or your own wild speculation, is 
*not* a spoiler.  We've been speculating about what we THINK
will be in DH for the last couple of years, after all...

So, if you KNOW that parts of your post include information
that will be in DH, you need the DH: prefix and spoiler space.

Please begin using the new "DH" prefix and spoiler space on
all of our lists --especially the main list and OT-Chatter -- 
beginning today.  And if you don't use it, don't be surprised if
you suddenly find yourself being hung upside down over the
Slytherin Common Room fire. ;-)

And remember, if you have any comments about any DH
release issues, holler at us:

hpforgrownups-owner at yahoogroups.com

Or post on the Feedback list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-Feedback/

"The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible
thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution." [PS/SS
Chapter 17]

Be like Dumbledore.  Tell people as little as possible. ;-)

Counting down to 21 July,

The Administration Team