Spoiler Policy

From WikiInDeath

• Spoilers about In Death books before their US release dates are prohibited.
• Do not create pages about future Books, characters, or storylines based on unofficial sources.

A spoiler, as far as this site is concerned is any information you are posting that comes directly from reading the book in question before the US release date.

Admittedly, this definition is very broad and very restrictive. It's meant to be. We have many different types of people here who all have a different opinion about spoilers. Some want to know ALL spoilers all the time. Some don't want any information at all beyond the public announcements put out by the publisher. A rule about spoilers here has to cover ALL of those people. So, unfortunately, it has to be very restrictive so that the people who want no information whatsoever are not disrespected.

Please keep in mind that this rule in no way says that no spoilers can be posted at all; they simply cannot be posted in the Wiki. We still encourage you to post spoilers for those who want them. We just want to restrict it to the spoiler forum (password 'spoiler' required), and, if you're not posting in the spoiler forum, for you to keep it in a spoiler tag, so that it can still be read by those who want to read it, but hidden from everyone else.

So, given that definition, here are some examples of what would be spoilers:

Major plot points like who the killer is, and/or who gets killed.

Major plot points involving the characters but not involving the case. For example: if McNab proposes to Peabody in a book. To tell people this is a spoiler.

But spoilers do not always have to give away a major part of the book:

In some cases minor things like names of characters are also spoilers. For example, before "Born" came out, we were asked not to reveal the name of Mavis and Leonardo's baby. To do so would have been a spoiler. Even though that is not in any way a "giveaway" of the plot, it's still considered a spoiler given our definition above.

All speculation of a plot or on parts of a book is prohibited in the Wiki. The Wiki is a resource of known fact; absolutely no speculation unless it comes directly from the books. Any information regarding speculative information belongs in the In Death Forum.

The point here is this: If you've read the book, or even just an excerpt of the book, please consider that anything you post from that point on might be a spoiler to someone else and put it in the spoiler forum.

It's really that simple.

Please don't try and "cheat the system" by saying, "well, this is really so general, nobody will see it as a spoiler." If you are posting something directly based on what you've read, and the book has not, yet, been released in the US, it's a spoiler.

Now ... for how long should that rule be in place for a book?

I would say the rule for spoilers should be the same as the rule for any of the trivia games. Until the book actually comes out in paperback and everyone has had the opportunity to read it, the spoiler rule for that book is still valid. After that time, you can freely post information about the book, and others will just have to read at their own peril.

I hope that's clear to everyone. If not, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about Spoilers here.

Thank You.

~ AJ Arend - InDeath.net Webmistress