Sorry if this is in the wrong place, so mods, feel free to move this thread if it’s better suited for somewhere else.
I know this is going to make me sound really nit-picky, but I’ve had a few concerns over the last couple of days especially about signatures that seem to be revealing certain scenes in Up that I, personally, didn’t know about and I’m guessing others don’t know about either. I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers for a little while now and although a previously unseen image from the film might not relate a lot of information, some of the signatures in particular do give away things that might not have been obvious from the trailer and general syopsis of the film (for example, [spoil]I never realised that we actually do get to see Carl when he was younger in the film. It might be obvious to some that this would happen, but I never thought of it. [/spoil])
Sorry if I’m seeming to be a bit nit-picky, as I said, it’s just that I really don’t want to know anything else about Up until I go to the cinema and see it for myself, and I know others are the same as me, and with members’ signatures they appear everywhere on the boards so simply avoiding the Up section doesn’t mean I’m avoiding all spoilers at the moment.
Ha-ha! Well, I guess I qualify as one of those who’s guilty of this. Sorry about that. Would you like me to change my signature?
That said, you do make a good point. I can understand how some would prefer to not know a fair amount of information about the film early on, be it via an article or an image. I’ll leave the final decision to rachel and/or bawpcwpn on this one, though.
While I saw that image before Mitch posted her new one up, I can understand where lizardgirl is coming from. It may be quite difficult to enforce an ‘embargo’ on this one, though. Like we have to come up with some way of alerting everyone on the forum not to post Up-related sigs and avatars… and for how long? Which images qualify as ‘spoilers’?
It’s not that I don’t support the idea, it’s just that we have to come up with a feasible solution that will please all parties. Although I’m one of the ones who doesn’t mind watching the trailers and ‘Upisode’ clips, I don’t like to be spoiled beyond Pixar’s ‘officially-sanctioned’ released footage, and if someone got hold of an illegal torrent copy of the movie or a leaked image not supposed to be available to the public, and made a graphic and posted it as a sig and avatar, it sort of ruins the experience for me and those in other countries yet to see it. I live in Oz, which is getting it centuries after America, so the Up threads will be off-limits until September, but I don’t want all my efforts to go to waste because an overenthusiastic fan assumed everyone has already seen the movie.
This is going to be to tricky to sort out… maybe one way to solve it would be for no one to wear Up-related graphics, but they can continue posting them in their own respective fan graphics threads? A spoiler line (like “Caution! If you haven’t watched the movie yet, view the below images at your own risk!”) can be placed at the top of each post of new graphics as a disclaimer.
Yeah, I’ll admit, I’m not sure what a solution could be, which isn’t very helpful. I mean, if no-one else is bothered by it then I guess changing anything would be unnecessary, but maybe something like not using images from exclusive preview clips and that sort of thing until the movie is released in the States might be an idea. Of course, that doesn’t help with international members, but making everyone wait until the film is released in every country would be a very long wait. So…I’m not sure. I don’t want to spoil everyone else’s fun.
It does bother me a bit, too. I’m trying to stay away from Up images and such, but without even trying I’ve seen a lot of stills from the film already in people signatures. I’d want to solve this problem without stifling people’s creativity and expression, but also keeping in mind people who haven’t seen the movie due to staggered release dates. This is a tough one. All we can do is ask members to be aware that some people are keeping clear of images and extra footage… As far as I know, moderators don’t have the power to edit people’s profiles, so it would be a self-moderating thing. bawpcwpn might be able to, though, but I wouldn’t want that to happen because it would be like censorship.
I had a avatar that was sourced from a spoiler-ish photo that I had up for about a day because of this - changed it to Russell, because, well, everyone knows Russell!
That said, in defense of those who may have objectionable content, many spoiler-ish member graphics arn’t really spoiler-ish and don’t reveal much. I’m sure everyone knows that some members arn’t trying to ruin the experience the first time, and I’m sure everyone respects that. A nudge, like this thread, is all that is needed.
Unless some sort of robotic warning was implemented into the Pixar Planet system so that everyone received a generic message stating that any spoiler images of any kind should be either banned or kept to a minimum before an upcoming Pixar film is released, I’d find it to be rather difficult to alert every member of the boards to refrain from posting up such content in their avatar and signature boxes. Not everyone is going to read a thread (such as this one) on the matter, unfortunately.
That said, I changed my signature so as it’s not spoiler-laden anymore, although I’m going to continue wearing my current avatar. I take it that fan artwork that contains spoiler content should be kept out of signature boxes, as well. I drew a mini-collage of expressions of Ellie, Carl’s wife, as a young girl, and I’d like to paste it up as a signature, but if it’s too much of a spoiler than I’ll refrain from doing so.
Well, you know, I don’t want people going out of their way or anything. Most avatars and signaturs, even if using unseen footage from the film, don’t tend to give away much but some do and I guess it’s up to each individual if they want to use a signature that reveals something about Up or not. I guess it depends on the extremities of the spoilers and just common sense. So, Mitch, for example, the signature that you’re proposing sounds fine to me. I’ll admit, I don’t know anything about Ellie or who she is but I doubt a few (probably very lovely) sketches of her are going to spoil that much.
The only reason I brought this up in the first place was because the number of spoiler-ish signatures were increasing and they were using stills from the film that revealed stuff that really couldn’t have been deduced from the trailer and that sort of thing. But I’m sorry if this has bothered anyone- I just thought it’d be a useful thing to bring up, and I apologise if I’ve offended you Mitch. I certainly don’t want to stifle that wonderful creativity of yours!
lizardgirl - Actually, I’m thankful that you brought this issue up, since I never would have thought about it otherwise. It didn’t occur to me that some users may see various images as spoilers, but this is probably because I’m used to spoiling myself. I should be more conscientious in this respect. So, thank you for brining it up!
No offense taken at all. The collage of drawings which I wished to upload is one which you’ve seen before in my art thread, so it’s not entirely new. However, it may be a bit of a spoiler for others, so I’ll simply refrain from adding it to my signature box until after the film is released here in the U.S. Believe me, I don’t mind a bit as far as waiting to post up this kind of content goes. I’d rather not reveal any potential spoilers if it will ruin the experience for others.
– Mitch
P.S. Thanks, by the way. I don’t particularly like my artwork, so I’m flattered that you find it lovely. blushes
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