Should threads in the recommendation forum contain spoiler warnings?

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Interesting question.

Similarly, what about fiction that is old but obscure? Sure, most people probably know how Romeo & Juliet or Jane Eyre turned out. But what about other fiction from those eras that is less widely known?

Also, in the case of older books in general, how old would a book have to be before it was old enough for spoilers to not be necessary?

In a regular thread, I think you should be careful of spoiling less well-known books, even books like The Moonstone.

In a thread about a specific book, I’d expect spoilers, but it’s not hard to label them or tag them anyway.

As an example, the Monster Attack podcast discusses older “monster movies.” They discuss the plot, characters, acting, etc. in detail. They know people will have probably seen a lot of these, but they’ll still mention when they’re about to spoil the plot. (“OK, we’re about to spoil a 60-year-ok’d movie.”) But if the movie is less well-known, they’ll warn listeners to watch the movie and come back later.

[Uncle Robin]

I cast my vote for personal responsibility - if I see a title mentioned of a book that I wan to read, I'll skip the thread until I've read the book. In a curious twist, one book whose ending IS now spoiled for me from this very thread has gone on my "maybe I should read it after all" list, when it previously held zero appeal.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I cast my vote for personal responsibility - if I see a title mentioned of a book that I wan to read, I'll skip the thread until I've read the book.

Playing devil's advocate here - What if you don't already know if you want to read the book?

Maybe the post has no spoilers and is just someone saying "Hey everybody, I just read ______ and I highly recommend it. It's very well written and the plot is gripping." Maybe you never even heard of the book before, but the recommendation puts it on your TBR list.

Or maybe the post is simply saying "I just read ______. It was badly written, full of plot holes and anachronisms, and I don't recommend it at all".

So if you don't open the thread to see what it is, you could potentially miss out on such a recommendation.

[4691mls]

I remember that my mom, when looking at a new-to-her book in the public library, would sometimes flip to the end to see how it turned out before deciding whether to read it. I guess if she were still around and joined Mobileread she probably would have liked the spoilers

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Playing devil's advocate here - What if you don't already know if you want to read the book? ...

So if you don't open the thread to see what it is, you could potentially miss out on such a recommendation.

With around 1200 books unread in my current Calibre library, that's a risk I'll live with

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

With around 1200 books unread in my current Calibre library, that's a risk I'll live with

I would think that a recommendation (as opposed to a discussion containing spoilers) might help you narrow down which of those books you'd actually like to read