Do spoilers really "ruin" things? Or make things more interesting?

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 168770

Leslie:
> I've been thinking about the latest DH related story, in which 
> Rowling is pleading with those that have knowledge of the plot not to 
> reveal it, lest that revelation "diminish (the readers') pleasure in 
> the book".

> I guess I just don't understand the hoopla over not "spoiling" 
> things.  I could read an elaborate description of the plot and the 
> book would not be spoiled for me at all.

Ceridwen:
I'm not as big on spoilers spoiling things for me, since I like the 
twists and such that go on between Beginning and End.  I phoned my 
elder daughter and threatened her, on pain of babysitting her younger 
sibs, to tell me who died in HBP.

That's all I wanted to know, though.  I didn't want to know when, or 
how, just who died.  She would have had to still be babysitting to have 
paid for slipping that one in!

Notice, that was me asking someone I know well, and asking of my own 
free will.

There are people who want to know all the dirt, and people who want to 
be surprised.  Posting spoilers on the internet removes the choice from 
most people, in my opinion, because the page will give a little too 
much information for some, and wa-a-a-a-ay too much information for 
others.  It isn't fair to a reader to spring it on them, removing their 
choice of whether to look or not.

And, it may be a violation of copyright as well (I'm not a lawyer, but 
one always has to be conscious of those things!).

All that said, I did check around, and there is a fanfic that is being 
erroneously linked as the actual text of Deathly Hallows.  Not by the 
fic author, by the way.  Apparently it's of sufficient length, and of 
such a similar style to Rowling's writing, that some people believe 
it's the Real Deal.  And, there are also "spoilers" based on this fic 
being posted to various message boards.

So, even if someone posted spoilers (not here, of course!), there's no 
guarantee that the spoilers are actually from Deathly Hallows, or from 
the fanfic being masqueraded as Deathly Hallows.

Ceridwen, who is against spoilers on General Principle as well as on 
other grounds.