My goal in starting this thread was to see whether people thought there was any nuance to the argument of flagging/ not flagging spoilers. Your opinion seems to be fairly black and white, which is your right.

Nowhere have I advocated intentionally spoiling things for people.

Edit: just saw your other reply. Feels like we're more or less on the same page.

I agree that going out of your way to spoil something is a dick move.

But I feel like there needs to be a point where the burden of avoiding spoilers falls on the person who doesn't want something they haven't seen to be spoiled.

Like if I post an article or thread about Fight Club now, I shouldn't have to flag spoilers - if you're clicking then you probably know the movie and are coming for discussion about it, and should expect that spoilers might be unflagged.

On the other hand, it's reasonable that discussion around a movie like Knock at the Cabin should still have spoiler tags, because people are coming to articles and threads looking for opinions on whether the movie is worth seeing, not plot discussion.

So if a spoiler is always a spoiler regardless of cultural spread, do you take umbrage to all the "No, I am your father" references that have appeared over the years?

I was referring to the idea of certain cultural references growing beyond their source material (I think calling this a meme is still accurate, but to the idea of an internet meme).

I do like the "until it becomes a meme" measure of time. Some things never reach that status, so should always be flagged.

I agree, definitely it's good manners when in a conversation with someone. And I would always clarify in a conversation whether someone had seen something before discussing spoilers.

My question arose from spoilers in online discussions and articles, where rules of discourse are a bit different. Or do you think the same argument applies?

So you think it's still reasonable to flag spoilers for a movie like Fight Club?

To be clear, I'm not referring in person conversations here, more online discussions and articles.

But not everyone has the free time to watch something within the first weeks of release.

Not saying that gives them the right to get angry of something gets spoiled, but intentionally spoiling things that are still super fresh seems inconsiderate to me.

This feels reasonable to me.

Like once something reaches meme/ quotable status gloves are of. If it's been around for a while but it's pretty niche, probably need the spoiler warning still.

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