This is my impressed face

[pez]

Reading around on LJ, you know what makes me glad? You guys - my friends list - being sensible. Not all the time, of course, but sensible when sense is really needed. Really, the sort of things I read about on other people's LJ, flists and comments run along these lines:

• People demanding DL5, or anything really, to be shared. (Because it's their RIGHT to have it and people who own it have a DUTY to share, yeah baby.)


• People reuploading flocked things when specifically requested not to. (If I share it on a Chinese forum, surely the OP won't find out and what people don't know doesn't hurt them!!11omg1!)


• People commenting on an entry of someone celebrating Michael Phelp's Olympic win saying "the West Coast feed is three hours behind, please do not spoil" (WTF. It's swimming. It's an event that lasts for mere minutes, you haven't been spoiled for blow-by-blow action where Swimming A overtook Swimmer B who then did a left turn and crashed into Swimmer C. Honey, this isn't racing, tennis or football. And the Olympics has the whole world watching. If you don't want to be spoiled, stay off the World Wide Web. And the TV. And radio. Maybe don't go out too, in case you accidentally hear someone discussing it. Or, maybe you could stop getting your panties in a twist.)

etc, etc.

Ah, internet.

Comments

[factorielle.livejournal.com]

I never got the OMG SPOILER!11!! thing to begin with, so maybe there's something I'm not getting, but how is swimming diferent from racing in that aspect? (Or even tennis or football?) Since the whole point of the competition is to determine a winner, giving the winner counts as a spoiler too? THERE IS NO END TO THE THINGS THAT CAN BE SPOILED.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

What exactly is the difference between finding out who the winner is now, and finding out 3 hours later from the west coast feed (whatever it is)? Maybe you get to watch the replay of it to find out who the winner is if you waited 3 hours, but 1) it's Michael Phelps, liekomg big surprise? and 2) swimming takes a minute or two, it's not like she's been spoiled on huge amounts of action and told who the winner is.

With football or tennis, because the matches take a long time to finish, there's a lot of highs and lows the audience goes through before there's a winner. If somebody tells me how Federer led in the 1st set, Rafa took the 2nd, and they went on tie-break on the third with a never-ending point and Federer got so fed up he threw his racquet on the ground, but in the end he won the match - that spoils it completely. When I watch the rerun I know how every set is going to end and all that.

But anyway, at the end of the day, for an event as big as the Olympics, people should just get the fuck off the internet if they don't want to be spoiled. The end.

[factorielle.livejournal.com]

The exact same difference as there is between knowing Federer won and watching the rerun without knowing the one. Whether that's a spoiler or not is up for everyone to decide for themselves, but I see no difference between the two.

What you described isn't the tennis equivalent of 'Phelps won'. It's the equivalent of 'Swimmer A started on strong but Phelps caught up with him before the first turn, which he fumbled a little, making him lose some ground to Swimmer B...' and so on. So what if it only lasts a few minutes instead of long hours? There can be highs and lows just the same, and it's a level of 'spoiler' that I'd be more inclined to take seriously. But again; no fundamental difference.

So I guess my point is that yes, it IS ridiculous to whine about being spoiled for the winner in swimming, but not more thanresult whining about being spoiled for the result of the Roland-Garros finals.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

Actually that's more or less what I'm saying - she hasn't been spoiled for the action, so she should just STFU.

As for action of tennis vs action of swimming, it's something I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on. To me, because tennis is a drawn-out thing and the players are "visible" to me all the time, I can see their techniques, game plans, and in particular, their emotions changing as the game unfolds. To me, that is the fundamental difference. Or maybe I just don't know how to watch swimming.

iso-8859-1

[factorielle.livejournal.com]

Reading comprehension, I can has it. >_> (And even if she did, like you said: it's the Olympics. If you don't want to get spoiled, you hide under the bed.)

It's certainly a different kind of sport to watch. But since I follow neither (or any sport, really), I can't really argue the point. :3 To each their own, I guess?