That's an interesting idea.

In a way, TV is getting more like movies - it's available on X day but we might individually watch it any time after that. So maybe the spoiler policies should converge.

As of yet, we have proved more resilient than the vast majority of online (and a good number of offline) communities of which I am aware.

OMG, yes. I've been away from the board for years, and having posted now for a couple of weeks I still know virtually everyone. It's unreal.

One advantage to this approach is that it puts more people together rather than increasing the number of silos.

Speaking only for myself, the more shows a thread encompasses, the less of a chance that I'll participate in that thread because of spoiler issues. For example, I'm behind on this season of Justified but have 7 episodes sitting on my DVR. I am current on Mad Men. Last week I really wanted to discuss the latter, but jumping into Cable Drama made it clear that I would spoil myself for the former so I stayed away. Had a similar issue with Daredevil (that I'd seen) and GoT (that's on my DVR) in Premium Cable.

Ideally there'd by a Wolfram thread where everyone can only discuss the shows I'm caught up on.

I still know virtually everyone.

But only virtually.

Ideally there'd by a Wolfram thread where everyone can only discuss the shows I'm caught up on.

Proliferationist!

But seriously, the assumption that there's any way to assume a particular broadcast date for an episode -- or even that there will be one in any meaningful way, in the case of streaming-only shows, where the date is really for a season rather than an ep -- has been broken for me for years now. It doesn't keep me out of threads, because I don't care about being spoiled, but it does keep me from starting any discussions there, because I honestly have no clue any more what or when or where...

I don't know what the answer is for this, and I don't want to hijack the specific matter of MCU discussion (which is awesome!) with a lot of navelgazing about the future of television, release schedules, what a sensible unit to discuss might be, whether it's sensible to think in terms of broadcast, cable or whatever else, and whether the magic elves in the box really are talking just to me me me me. But just like in the industry itself, the problem isn't going to go away.

I know what you mean, Wolfram. I currently need to keep a list of what I need to catch up on before I resubscribe to Boxed Set, and if we go to a number-of-episodes algorithm for streaming I will have to make a chart.

Which is not a bad thing, making charts is not exactly a hardship for me.

it does keep me from starting any discussions there, because I honestly have no clue any more what or when or where...

That seems like the bigger problem to me, than spoilers. ANd I don't really even know how to state the problem.

But only virtually.

Relatively.

Proliferationist!

Unapologetically.

But just like in the industry itself, the problem isn't going to go away.

Nope. Further complicating things is that while Netflix streaming is bingeable, I don't think Amazon Prime is, and I know that Hulu and Yahoo Screen (Community!) and even obscure ones like the Playstation Network (anyone watching Powers?) are not bingeable at all and come out weekly like regular broadcast/cable shows do.

I'm finding the changing nature of entertainment distribution fascinating. As for spoilers, I guess the people who care about spoilers are going to have to come up with a configuration that works for them.

I strongly agree with Ginger about simplifying the parameters of any given thread which, I think, also addresses David's point about fostering richer conversation than can be found in silos.

I actively seek spoilers and conversation about them, so I have no good solution for that issue in thread except for the methods I've seen already in place. Like when someone says something like 'I've jumped to the end of the thread/unsubscribed to avoid spoilers.

If the cocktail party analogy can be used for the community, the spoiler policy might simply be tied to choice. If you don't want to hear the discussion, change rooms.

ita used to give me the hardest time around whitefonting for sake of politeness when something had aired.

In general (not just due to this) I honestly felt like I could not win for losing when it came to the right time to say something...so I stopped posting until WELL after the conversation was either relevant or interesting...then I stopped altogether.

In the age of streaming, and being in a community that spans the globe, my sense of 'broadcast' is that it is always NOW somewhere in the world.

It's really too bad we don't have something like tumblr savior, it would solve the problem of white-fonting completely.