Dear Twitter-verse,
As we all embark on another holiday movie season, I think we need to have a talk about what constitutes a spoiler.
I am of course, specifically speaking for those of us who have not seen “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.”
Specifically those of you sharing your dismay at where they chose to split the final book. Sharing how the movie ends is a huge spoiler. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. Don’t do it.
What I’m saying is, any reference to a plot point, however cleverly disguised should be appropriately labeled. Here are some suggestions:
- SPOILER: It’s simple, it’s to the point, it belongs at the beginning of your plot-spoiling tweets.
- SPOILER ALERT: Is the alert necessary? No, but if you have characters to burn, why not?
- Don’t tweet it: No one likes a spoiler…well that’s not true…some people do, but they can find their spoilers better if you label them appropriately.
For example: Just because you didn’t see it coming, doesn’t mean some of us didn’t call it years ago. Yes, I’ve read the books, so yes, I generally know what’s going to happen, (potential SPOILER ahead for anyone who’s read the books, skip to the final paragraph) and the final book only has one natural breaking point, so where “Mockingjay – Part 1″ would end is an obvious call. I still don’t appreciate the barely “veiled” references to how perfect it was. As certain as I was, I didn’t know. Now I do. I’ve been deprived of discovering I was right.
See how easy that was?
Now go forth, enjoy the holiday movie season, and let the rest of us enjoy it as well by keeping our Twitter streams spoiler free.
…bi-daily smile…