Gaertk at aol.com writes: > Now that we've heard all the arguments for and against > spoiler protection, let's see if anyone actually needs it. This can't be conclusive; new people are still joining the list, and I hope continue to do so for years. Some people *definitely* need it. The fact that the early books are still in print shows that people are still buying them, which means mostly they haven't read them but are starting to. > I intend to spoiler protect the Greater Revelation of Orca > regardless of what anyone else thinks, since that is the > one thing that *I* would have been upset had it been > spoiled. I suspect that there are a *few* things that are *both* surprises *and* have far-reaching importance that people will regret having spoiled, whatever policy we adopt. I think that the policy we adopt should try to protect those things, and distinguish them from "moderate" spoilers which, frankly, on a list devoted to the works of one author, are so ubiquitous that it would be remarkably annoying to label each and every one. But things like... s - p - o - i - l - e - r - s - - c - o - m - i - n - g - ...Sethra and Kiera being the same person, or Lady Teldra becoming part of a Great Weapon that Vlad gets to keep, or whatever Spellbreaker really is (which we probably don't know yet), would be a shame to spoil for people. On the other hand, I'm not so clear on Vlad having Aliera's brother's soul. It's a surprise, but it hasn't had much in the way of consequences yet. It's not the "point" of the book it's revealed in, to my eyes, despite it's positioning. And any policy allowing any leeway at all is an invitation to endless discussions about classification of things, which I don't think would be that much fun really. This is *very* clearly one of those issues where there are a few moderately unsatisfactory solutions, a few disastrous solutions, and no clearly good solutions around (at least nobody has exhibited a good one yet to my taste). -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net / New TMDA anti-spam in test John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Book log: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/Ouroboros/booknotes/ New Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info