I've been rating and reviewing books on Dangerous Dan's Book Blog, Dantastic Comics, Shelf Inflicted, and my Goodreads account for the past eight years. I'm pretty careful about not giving away more than what's on the dust jacket and when I do, I hide content inside spoiler tags. Despite my efforts, every once in a while, someone leaves me a comment saying I spoiled something for them, which brings me to my point. What constitutes a spoiler?
I've been told a couple times that I shouldn't mention what happens in the book. What is a review without context? Should I just leave a smiley face or a frowny face and call it a day? How the hell does that tell anyone anything about my reading experience?
Is telling someone Moby Dick is about a man's obsession with a white whale considered a spoiler? Is writing a three line teaser that gives away less than the dust jacket a spoiler? And what if you mark the review as containing spoilers but someone reads it anyway?
What I'm getting at is that ultimately, the internet is a Pandora's Box of spoilers and if you google a book or movie, it's on your head if you release a swarm of flying monkeys into the world. Telling someone Moby Dick is about a whale isn't the same as blabbing the twist ending of Empire Strikes Back. At some point, people have to shoulder the responsibility for keeping themselves free of spoilers on the internet.
My rant is concluded. Go about your business.
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