From: mwgertz+@cs.cmu.edu (Matthew Gertz)
Subject: R.A.S.* SPOILER LIST (11/15/92 version) **READ ME!**
Organization: Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 14:28:53 GMT


			REC.ARTS.STARTREK.* SPOILER LIST
			  (how to protect spoilers)
			  a semi-monthly posted list

		         Last updated November 2, 1992.

  	   List maintained by Matt Gertz (mwgertz+@cs.cmu.edu)

========================================================================

PURPOSE:  To discuss the protection of SPOILER information -- information
about upcoming and current episodes which, if others found out about it
accidentally, might spoil their enjoyment of the episode when they
finally see it.  New readers are urged to read this post.  

========================================================================

Changes from 11/1/92 version:  Minor revisions.

[Matt's notes:  I received a e-mail note from a Mr. Bernd Onasch of the
Informatik Rechnerabteilung [IRA], University of Karlsruhe [FRG], who is
the author of VMS NEWS.  After mildly chewing me out for what he
perceived to be slams against VMS NEWS (:-), he went on to mention that
he has implemented a ^L pauser on that newsreader, a solution that "is 
not stupid-hacked like in Unix."  Sounds good to me... this feature
will be available on the next version of VMS NEWS (you'll have to
wait until your site gets a copy).]

========================================================================

This post contains answers to the following questions about SPOILERS.
By charter, spoilers about new episodes should only be posted to
r.a.s.current or, if technical in nature, to r.a.s.tech.  Please do not
post such spoilers to r.a.s.misc or r.a.s.fandom.  To learn more about
spoilers, read on:

A.  "What is a 'spoiler?'"
B.  "Where should they be posted?"
C.  "Can old episodes be spoiled?"
D.  "I put the word 'SPOILER' in my subject line.  Is that good enough?"
E.  "Well, then, how do I protect spoiler information?" (Control-L, etc.)
F.  "Can I put the Control-L anywhere?" (No.)
G.  "I absolutely can't get this Control-L thing to work.  What can I do?".
H.  "Do I need to protect spoilers in r.a.s.current?" (Yes.)
I.  "What about using rot13?" (Some people can't read rot13.


A.  "What is a 'spoiler?'"

A spoiler is information about an episode or movie which gives away some
part of the plot.  For instance, the statement:

	 "Yeah, I really liked the part where Lwaxana Troi was
	  eaten by Worf after she called him 'Mr. Woof.'"

is a spoiler, whereas

	"I really liked the music in this episode." 

is not.  (Note:  All "spoilers" in this posting are ficticious, by the 
way.)  It is considered very bad manners to spoil an episode or movie for
anyone else.  It's an important thing to think about because ST:TNG is 
syndicated.  Other people on the net might not see the episode until 
perhaps two weeks after you do (or even several months, if they missed it
the first time around), so it's unfortunately very easy to spoil episodes
for them.


B.  "Where should they be posted?"

Since spoilers are current, obviously there are many of them on rec.arts.
startrek.current.  Furthermore, discussions of new technology shown in a
recent episode are often discussed in rec.arts.startrek.tech.

rec.arts.startrek.misc is really for the discussion of non-current episodes
and other aspects of Star Trek, and so spoilers really don't belong there.
If your discussion does reference a current episode, it's best to move
the discussion over to .current.

Spoilers do not really belong in rec.arts.startrek.fandom either.  Although
advance info on upcoming episodes and movies is often to be found at
conventions and other establishments of fandom, such information really
belongs on .current when made available to your fellow r.a.s.*'ers.


C.  "They're showing season 4 episodes right now.  Does that mean that
info about season 2 is okay to spoil?"

Opinion is divided on this.  Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and
France, are several seasons behind us, and so may have not seen those
episodes yet.  Also, other people in the USA and Canada may have missed that
episode, and haven't caught it in re-runs yet.  The consensus is that
protecting spoilers for previous seasons is optional, but we suggest that
you may wish to consider limiting distribution of the post to (for instance,
North America) if folk in other countries might not have seen it yet.
Discussion of older episodes is generally done on r.a.s.misc.


D.  "I put the word 'SPOILER' in my subject line.  Is that good enough?"

Unfortunately not.  Certain newsreader programs, such as rn, not only 
display the subject line but also the first 15 or so lines of text in 
the message.  Certain words in your text may be very visible to readers, 
no matter how fast they move to the next message, words such as "killed,"
"Tasha Yar," etc.  By all means, please *DO* put "SPOILERS" in the subject
line, but also add other spoiler protection.


E.  "Well, then, how do I protect spoiler information?"

To protect spoiler information, here are several things you can do (and 
are urged to do) to protect spoiler information.  First, make sure you 
are posting to the appropriate newsgroup (generally r.a.s.current or 
r.a.s.tech).  Next, choose an appropriate subject line.  Include the 
episode/movie name, "*SPOILERS*", and the main subject (if necessary), (in 
no particular order) like so:

	Subj: "Redemption" (*SPOILERS*) My review of the episode.

On the other hand, avoid subject lines like the one that follows:

	Subj:  Hey guys, do you think that Riker is really dead?

(If you are replying to a message with the word "SPOILERS" in the subject
line, but remove the spoilers from the quoted message, then add a 
"*SPOILERS REMOVED*" or something similar so that no one will be scared 
away... after all, we want to read what you have to say!)

Second (optional), set your distribution appropriately.  For instance, if
this is the latest episode, then you might not wish to post your message
to (for instance) England, where they won't have seen the episode for two 
more years.  This is really up to you; there are folk overseas who don't
mind having the new episodes spoiled for them, but others do.  If you 
adequately protect your text, then this won't be much of a problem.

You can limit distribution to North America by adding this line to the header
information:

Distribution: na

Finally (and this is *NOT* considered optional by many r.a.s.'ers), you
add the spoiler protector.  This is the infamous Control-L.   Some 
newsreader programs will pause on a Control-L, so that the reader can 
decide if he or she wants to read the spoiler or not.  Upon reading this
message from the net, it will look like a , but it is not simply a 
"^" plus a "L" !!  It looks like two characters, but is only one.  This 
is how you add a Control-L:

Using emacs:  Type "Control" and "Q" at the same time, then "Control" and 
		"L"  You'll see \014, which is the octal representation of
		the character.  (Some people will see a ^L instead.)
		Some versions of Emacs apparently allow you to use
		a ` (quote) instead of Control-Q, but I haven't been
		able to get this to work myself.
Using MicroEmacs:  If Control-Q Control-L doesn't work, try "Esc-X, quote 
		^L" (where the ^L is a "Control" and "L" typed at the same 
		time).  You must put a space after quote, as it completes
		the command "quote-character." (thanks to Mike Rosen and 
		"The Technicolor Throw-up" (yeccch! 8^))
Using vi:     Type "Control" and "L" at the same time in insert mode.  
		(Some versions of vi require that you type "Control" and 
		"V" at the same time, then "Control" and "L".)  You'll 
		see a ^L.
Using TPU:    Type "Control" and "L" at the same time.  (Unfortunately, if
		you are using TPU, you are probably also using VMSNEWS to, 
		to read the posts on r.a.s.  John Whelan tells me VMSNEWS
		doesn't respond to Control-L's, and Mike Kelsey tells me 
		that VM/CMS machines in general won't respond to them.
		A solution is on the works, I am told...)  If you are
		using Newsrdr, then it *will* pause on a Control-L
		(thanks for the tip, Mike Weber!).
Using JOVE:  If Control-Q Control-L doesn't work, try Control-^, Control-L.
		If that doesn't work, then try Esc-X/Meta-X "quoted-insert"
		and then Control-L (similar to MicroEmacs, above).  (Thanks
		to Alan Coopersmith for this tip!)
Using HP/Apollo display manager:  Press the "Mark" key, type "x", press the
		"Cmd" key, type "s/x/@f/"  This will replace the "x" with
		the form feed character @f (^L).  (Thanks Dave Sp.!)
Other editors:  I don't know.  I sure would like to, so send me mail!  In
		general, the ASCII character code 12 (014,0x0C) must be
		added.
Other options:  Create a file containing only the ASCII code 12 in it and
		insert in your messages wherever you need a Control-L.  To
		create this file, you can download this message to your
		machine, and cut away everything except the Control-L
		in the following line:

   The Control-L is between the two quotation marks on this line: ""

	Adding one Control-L at the beginning is sufficient.  Adding 
more than one can be annoying to the readers who keep on having to hit 
the space-bar to get to the meat of the conversation.


F.  "Can I put the Control-L anywhere?"

No.  It *must* be the first character on the line.  That means that if 
you are replaying to a message, and your editor puts a ">" or some other
character in front of the quoted text, you must remove the ones in front
of the Control-L's, or they won't work for people who use rn (though nn 
users don't have this problem).

So, here's an example of a spoilerproof message:

=============
From: spock@sehlat.vsa.vul
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: "The Dolphin" (*SPOILERS*) Wesley's date
Distribution: na

Spoilers ahead, so press the space bar to continue, or 'n' to avoid them:



I found the part where Wesley fell in love with the alien princess, 
Flipper, to be most illogical.

--Spock
=============

On the other hand, this next person who responded forgot to remove the
">" from in front of the Control-L, so now it won't work (of course, for
those of you using VM/CMS machines, it doesn't work anyway -- though it
may work in the future.)

=============
From: troi@feel.great.pain.anguish
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: "The Dolphin" (*SPOILERS*) Wesley's date
Distribution: na

In <123ABCcomewithme>, spock@sehlat.vsa.vul writes:
>Spoilers ahead, so press the space bar to continue, or 'n' to avoid them:
>
>
>
>I found the part where Wesley fell in love with the alien princess,
>Flipper, to be most illogical.
>
>--Spock

I thought it was beautiful, Wesley coming to terms with a forbidden love.
Rumor has it that you know something about this yourself, Spock... 8^)

--Deanna
=============

"Deanna" has just made a lot of people unhappy!


G.  "I absolutely can't get this Control-L thing to work.  What can I do?"

If you can't get it to work for some reason, or if you can't tell if it's
working, then add a spoiler warning and 25 or so carriage returns in front
of the spoiler.  This is the best thing to do if (as some people claim)
your posting program strips out control characters.  Remember, it never 
hurts to add blank lines if you're unsure of whether or not it's working!


H.  "Do I need to protect spoilers in r.a.s.current?"

Yes.  Remember that many episodes can be considered current, due to lags
in receiving TNG around the country.  One person might have just seen
episode 12 of the new season, while another just saw episode 13.  
Discussions of episode 13 might spoil the plot for the former r.a.s.*'er,
and therefore spoiler protection is advised *even when posting to
.current.*

Spoilers will also appear on r.a.s.tech, and should be protected.
Spoilers really don't belong on r.a.s.misc or r.a.s.fandom, but if you
feel you absolutely *must*, then please protect them.


I.  "What about using rot13?"

The responses on the net to this question so far seem to be that this 
would cause more problems than those caused by Control-L protection. 
"rot13" is an encryption process by which "a" -> "n", "b -> o", "z" -> 
"l" and so forth.  Each character is rotated 13 characters.  Some news-
reader programs have a means for encrypting and decrypting rot13, others
do not.  For those that don't, the post would most likely have to be 
downloaded and run through a (admittedly trivial) decryption program.
This would be a hassle for those who are not programmers and those who 
wish to speed through posts.  While rot13 would indeed protect spoilers,
to many people they would effectively be unreadable.

************************

Many thanks to the people who had suggestions for this list, or merely words
of encouragement.  These include, among others:  James P. Callison
<jpcallis@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, Mike Kelsey <KELSEY@SLACVM.BITNET> (thanks
for proofing, Mike!), Albert Crosby <acrosby@uafhp.uark.edu>, Dorothy Bowe
<dot@athena.mit.edu> (oh super proof-reader!), Dave Spensley
<davesp@ecs.comm.mot.com>, Cindy Brown
<@BITNET.CC.CMU.EDU:ICSPROFS@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU>, John Whelan
<YZEY@VAX5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU>, hackman@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Otto "Hack-Man"
Heuer) (big thanks for the help and encouragement), Andrew Hackard
(andy@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu), Brian A. Cole (tuc%jomby.cs.wisc.edu@cs.wisc.edu),
Tim Lynch (tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu) (the Supreme Summarizer), Mark Holtz
(mholtz@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US) (thanks for the error corrections!),
Michael.Rosen@samba.acs.unc.edu, Alan Coopersmith (alanc@ocf.berkeley.edu),
Jamesena Talbott <jt1v+@andrew.cmu.edu>, Eric Rossing <rossing@cs.hope.edu>,
markl@stat.tamu.edu (Mark A. Lindsay), starpath@bard.MIT.EDU (David E. 
Hollingsworth), chisnall@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz (The Technicolour Throw-up),
sharonc@meaddata.com (Sharon Crichton),John G Dobnick<jgd@convex.csd.uwm.edu>,
botteron@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Carol J. Botteron), David Richardson, b645zax@utarlg.
uta.edu,ahernsd@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Sean Ahern), Suman Chakrabarti 
<scstr@orville.psu.edu>, vicki@stout.atd.ucar.EDU (Vicki Holzhauer),
fau@po.CWRU.Edu (Francis A. Uy), romain@shadow.eng.pyramid.com (Romain Kang),
Windsor A. Morgan <wmorgan@stsci.edu>,Bernd Onasch <ONASCH@irav17.ira.uka.de>,
Mike Weber <MIWEBER@apollo.davidson.edu>, gregm@wpi.WPI.EDU (Gregory M Marr).


Comments are welcome and appreciated!


-- 
Matt Gertz, mwgertz+@cs.cmu.edu
Dept. of ECE, The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.