Kevin's Watch

So the Last Dark is about to come out. It's an exciting time for all of us here at Kevin's Watch, and also a dangerous time for those wishing to discuss the First and Second Chronicles but have not read the Last Chronicles.

So, since is THE END of ENDS, I've decided to be a bit more militant in the spoiling of Last Chronicles. Now, any whiff of Last Chronicles details should be spoilered. If you do not know how to do this, message me and just do not mention that detail. For those of you that have not read the Last Chronicles and do not want to them to be "spoiled", it is your responsibility to avoid these blocks of black and mine to make sure they are liberally applied. If posters find this tedious, I'd advise you to take your discussion to one of the Last Chronicles forum... or specifically to sign up for The Last Dark forum.

Now, I also want to make one thing clear:

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LAST DARK IS PERMITTED IN THESE, THE FIRST AND SECOND CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT FORUMS.

ANY POSTS REFERENCING OR TALKING ABOUT CONTENT FROM THE LAST DARK WILL BE DELETED. NOT EDITED, NOT SPOILERED, BUT DELETED AND THE OFFENDER WILL BE NOTIFIED. REPEAT OFFENDERS WILL BE REFERED TO ADMINISTRATORS THAT WILL BE ABLE TO BAN THE REPEAT OFFENDERS.

SPECULATION ABOUT "WHERE THE STORY MIGHT GO" WILL NOT BE TOLERATED AND WILL ALSO BE DELETED. THIS IS NOT THE PLACE FOR SPECULATION. ONCE MAY GET A WARNING, BUT MAY ALSO JUST BE IMMEDIATELY REFERRED TO THE ADMINISTRATORS. CLAIMS OF "NOT HAVING READ THE BOOK(S)" WILL NOT SAVE YOU FROM MY WRATH.

This is a little bit more draconian than how I normally do things, but this is the absolute culmination of speculations and I do not want this forum to ruin the experience for anyone.

Also, reviews of the Last Dark, or other Last Chronicles will not be tolerated and will be deleted. This is not the place to say whether one or all four of those books are great or suck. Take it to the proper Last Chronicles forum.

References to Linden in the Last Chronicles will need to be spoilered, whether good or bad. This applies to posts defaming her by THOOLAH, posts defending her by LA, or wishy-washy posts by OPAL.

And, as a further precaution, all Last Chronicle spoilers should be labeled as such before the spoiler block, for example:

Last Chronicles spoiler!

Spoiler

Darth Vader is Luke's Father! Search your heart, you'll know it to be true!

That's the only labeling. No "Against All Things Ending Spoilers" or "The Last Dark Spoilers" or the like, just "Last Chronicles Spoiler".

All right, with these in mind, enjoy yourself and you will also not ruin the experience for others. As a rule of thumb, if you don't know if something is a Last Chronicle spoiler, it is and should be treated as such.

Happy Posting!

Thank you!

I applaud this.

As far as I am concerned, there's no need to write a Last Chronicles spoiler AT ALL, with spoiler tag or without. Just don't do it. Not in any form, not at any time, not by any one. You want to discuss Last Dark, do it in the Last Dark forum.

Policing this will be a bit of a bear!

I just want to remind people, though, that the price of NOT doing this will be people avoiding the forum until they have finished the last book.

And also remember - Subjects are spoilers, too! People who avoid reading a post can still see the subject in a list of unread posts.

You can ruin someone's Thomas Covenant experience with one careless word.

"Ruin" is such a strong word. Knowing plot details doesn't eliminate the whole reading experience.

It doesn't eliminate the reading experience, but it can sure diminish it.

For example, if you were reading Game of Thrones and knew that

Spoiler

a certain character was beheaded near the end, it would certainly spoil the impact that scene has on you when you get there.

Yes, you can still read the scene and you'll get something out of it... but the impact will be much less if you know it's coming.

Added spoiler tags to demonstrate how intense my policy will be. Even stuff you are sure everyone knows will be spoilered

But Askari is correct: it's about a specific reading experience. The work itself will defend itself in the long run, but for people who have discussed and anticipated the volumes in this series for 12+ years, a premature reveal would ruin a part of that journey.

Like Wayfriend, I would prefer that any reference to the Last Chronicles would be abstained from... but it is not always easy or maybe during the Grand Re-read, you want to talk about what you think during that experience.

Ultimately, just be considerate, and we won't have any problems here. Also remember, I have Ultimate Authority here, and I will not play 'lawyering' with this policy. Any 'loopholes' I may have left due to inexperience, etc. is not an invitation to take advantage of, but an invitation to be a decent human being and follow what you know is the spirit of this new policy.

And if you claim to not understand the spirit of this new policy, I will see you banned. (Only semi-joking here )

What is this "Last Chronicles" you speak of?

When's it coming out? Amazon says October 15. Which isn't exactly right around the corner...

MsMary wrote:When's it coming out? Amazon says October 15. Which isn't exactly right around the corner...

The idea is to implement the policy well in advance of Advanced Reading Copies, chapter previews, and finally the publication date itself.

Ohhhh... I find your exteme absolute law/dictatorship rant simply hawt Hawt HAWT!!! Yeah Baby! Boss me around some more....

Orlion wrote:

MsMary wrote:When's it coming out? Amazon says October 15. Which isn't exactly right around the corner...

The idea is to implement the policy well in advance of Advanced Reading Copies, chapter previews, and finally the publication date itself.

Gotcha.

I just came across this interesting article, and thought it was somewhat relevant:

www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/ ... ilers.html

I'm not trying to say we should allow spoilers, I just find the debate interesting.

I know I enjoy surprises. Less surprise, less joy. Other people may be different than I, but I am the same as me.

For a fact there are people who enjoy anticipation and people who can't stand it. I am in the former group. I can see last-page-peekers being in the latter group. It may be okay for them, but it's not for me. Once I quite accidently read about ten words on a near-to-end page of a book, which were unfortunately quite revealing, and it bothered me to no end while I finished the story.

It appears that The Last Dark is now available for pre-order.

Does not SRD 'spoiler' his own story by releasing the pre-release chapter - I can never resist reading it even though I don't want to. Granted you have a choice in the matter - unless you're me!

Anyway, I figured I'd post to lessen this draconian policy in light of recent posts. We're far enough that I think only Jay hasn't read The Last Dark completely

Essentially, we are back to "spoil tagging" plot elements from the Last Chronicles. That's pretty much it, you can even quote passages on rare occasions, though I discourage it.

If there are questions or concerns, PM me. I might even respond