Mostly, I agree with you. I also think we've gotten a little obsessive about just what a spoiler is, to the point that I know I'm cutting for things that I shouldn't need to cut for.
I think too that once something (say, the death of Sirius Black) has worked its way into the general fannish consciousness, it's fair game. Of course, I say that as someone whose spouse got annoyed over being spoiled that Gandalf was coming back.
That said...I think this is another one of those "the price of LJ" things as much as the reaction to the Firefly squee is. We all marched over to this place trumpeting that we wouldn't have to deal with people we didn't like anymore. But the price for that has been that you can't control the content you see. I suspect that's one reason why people are so hyper-sensitive to it. I can imagine someone whom I didn't even know has seen Farscape posting about a major plot point, and while I recognize that it's in part the price I pay for waiting so long to watch it, I don't actually think LJ-cut for major plot points, no matter how old the source is, is that much bother. Unless we're prepared to go back to exclusively topic-focused venues, it's just something we have to continue negotiating. Me, personally? I don't mind cutting for major plot spoilers for things like B5 or the Dark Tower series because I want people to have the same experience I did.
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I think too that once something (say, the death of Sirius Black) has worked its way into the general fannish consciousness, it's fair game. Of course, I say that as someone whose spouse got annoyed over being spoiled that Gandalf was coming back.
That said...I think this is another one of those "the price of LJ" things as much as the reaction to the Firefly squee is. We all marched over to this place trumpeting that we wouldn't have to deal with people we didn't like anymore. But the price for that has been that you can't control the content you see. I suspect that's one reason why people are so hyper-sensitive to it. I can imagine someone whom I didn't even know has seen Farscape posting about a major plot point, and while I recognize that it's in part the price I pay for waiting so long to watch it, I don't actually think LJ-cut for major plot points, no matter how old the source is, is that much bother. Unless we're prepared to go back to exclusively topic-focused venues, it's just something we have to continue negotiating. Me, personally? I don't mind cutting for major plot spoilers for things like B5 or the Dark Tower series because I want people to have the same experience I did.