ADMIN: Pre-DH Spoiler Policy (repost from April 21)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 171401

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