What about posting a link to a review of an episode after it has aired from ScoopMe! (who are usually very prompt in posting reviews) or some other site so people could discuss it.

The link to the Bring on the Night review got a lot of comments.

Simon | January 08, 18:03 CET

I don't have any suggestions, just a comment:

This is one of the reasons I have not switched off the spoiler thing - so that I can pick and choose among the spoilers based on the article description and whether I've seen the episode in question.

melsta | January 08, 18:47 CET

Option 1 probably won't work if the post already is a couple of days old. Maybe it's just me, but I think most people don't browse back that far.

mcbash | January 08, 18:49 CET

i'm w/ melsta - i do the exact same thing. having a spoiler tag works, so i don't just go 'click' and then cry afterwards.

after getting spoiled for last season, i so do NOT want to be spoiled for this season. it just wasn't as gut-wrenching, knowing what was coming. and gut-wrenching tv is a good thing.

i guess i think the current system works. but if we can come up with something better, that's good too.

leenah | January 08, 18:53 CET

The biggest problem I see is that most of the "spoiler" posts have different levels of spoilerage, if that's a word. I don't think that speculation should be counted as spoilers, for example, in the link just before this one, it says in the first paragraph that it is just speculation, not spoilers.

I would recommend that there be a labeling of speculation, then spoilers, and then people can choose from that. That's why I pick and choose from among spoiler articles as well. I don't want to be spoiled, but I like the conjecture.

brother_grady | January 08, 19:17 CET

I think your second idea would work best - I suggest shortly after the episode has aired, post a new item prefixed with [EPISODE TALKBACK] or something, with just the episode title and the airdate in the header too.

That way those who've seen it can respond should they want and don't have to trawl back through the posts to where the episode was mentioned.

I think posting further reviews of the ep as and when they appear online might also be a good idea, although this does increase the possibility of the episode discussion to more than one post, but I don't think that would be a big problem.

barry | January 08, 19:44 CET

brother_grady, the link you're speaking of, where you say "for example, in the link just before this one, it says in the first paragraph that it is just speculation, not spoilers" - actually HAS A MAJOR SPOILER in the middle of it. Granted, it's one of those that most people seem to know already, but it is spoilage. So, it is marked appropriately.

It's so difficult to be spoiler free and surf the web, you know?

leenah | January 08, 20:04 CET

I have to admit I didn't like posting a spoiler warning for that article but it did have to be done. The trouble is there are a lot of good well-written articles with spoilers in them that people will be forced to ignore if they want to stay spoiler-free.

Personally, I'm going to try and stay spoiler-free for the last couple of episodes of Buffy, I did it for the last season. Sheer torture it was but it was worth it.

Simon | January 08, 20:25 CET

today, i'm in pain trying to remain spoiler free. don't know what it is. new ep got me going, i guess. i'm even reading angel spoilers, and i don't CARE about angel.

it's mid season, isn't it? that's when i went wild for spoilers last season. bad, BAD spoilers. must not read any more.

leenah | January 08, 23:15 CET

Sweeps in February and again in May, with the Season Ending Episode---I could promise to remain unSpoiled, but I don't like to break promises. I'll just have to try, very, very hard! :D

The Lady Pele | January 08, 23:54 CET

Do remember too our international audience. Just because an episode has aired in the US doesn't mean it won't be a spoiler in Australia.

In fact, anything on Season 7 would just about constitute a spoiler in Oz, since they haven't even started here :-(

ironclad | January 09, 03:49 CET

What about readers in other countries?

Season 7 hasn't even started in Australia. Even when Buffy is running, Tasmania runs about 6 weeks behind the mainland. So "a couple of days" is totally insufficient - a very US-centric idea.

The point is a good one, though - and I like the "Episode Discussion" idea. As long as no spoilers show on the front page, I think people on non-US schedules can choose whether they want to be spoiled or not.

I don't use spoiler-hiding as I'm nearly always cool with the headlines (once or twice it's lapsed). But I never click a spoiler-labelled link or 'read more'.

I would like to see the spoiler warning enhanced with a season and ideally even an episode number eg, "Spoiler for season 7.4 onwards". Sadly I think that would be too hard - spoilers for (say) 7.12 might refer to 7.3, so people would have to do too much looking up to be sure where to put it.

cajela | January 09, 03:56 CET

*SNAP* Nice post timing, eh, ironclad?

cajela | January 09, 03:57 CET

"Do remember too our international audience. Just because an episode has aired in the US doesn't mean it won't be a spoiler in Australia. "

I AM international audience. The makers of this site live in the Netherlands. We're not thinking US-centric, far from it.

But when I set up this site I decided we cannot wait for the series to be aired in every corner of the world to discuss it. That would take the thrill out it, really. So, if it has aired in North America, it's fair game.

Caroline | January 09, 11:04 CET

Err, not all of us live in North America! And I do not want to be spoiled on Season 7 episodes of Buffy. (Ep 7.1 won't screen till March 2003 for me, so I DON'T want to know anything!!)

Isn't that the whole point of being able to view this site with spoilers turned off??

Angsty | January 10, 06:34 CET