Stop with the Spoiler Space warnings!!!!

I'm sorry, but it is really unfair and very inconveinent to ask that Americans put in 1,800 lines of spoiler space on every post talking about the show, just so that someone in Timbuktu who won't see the show for six months, will not find out who the father is.

Do we ask British people to put a spoiler space in everytime they want to discuss an episode of Coranation Street or Absolutely Fabulous? No!!! We have the sense to stay off the boards in order not to be spoiled, or go to a site other than the originating country's site to talk about the show.

This mewsgroup hosts a majority of American viewers. We have a right to discuss freely about the latest show because it's our show. If you do not want to be spoiled, may I make some suggestions?

1.) Don't read this board!

2.) Don't click on links that you may think gives away some information.

I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure that out, and it is ridiculous to ask that everyone put spoiler spaces in their posts for the next 12 months.

jw13 (who is still fuming...)

"Anonymous" wrote in message

How so?

Really? It takes about 3 seconds to put spoiler space in.

Well about 10 lines actually. And only in some posts.

Oops sorry got it now. You are talking hyperbole rather than sense.

alt.tv.friends is an INTERNATIONAL newsgroup. The Friends newsgroup devoted to North America is alt.tv.friends.north-america - there you there are no spoiler space rules.

You have a "right" because it's "your" show?? You really an idiot. You /are/ free to discuss whatever you want but out of common courtesy we ask you put the new stuff under spoiler space. Is scrolling down such an infringement of your liberty? I really don't think so.

atf has always been an international board with contributers from all over. The non-Americans have just as much "right" to contribute as the Americans.

It is very difficult when so many idiots put spoilers in the subject line.

Fume away my "staunch ally", your arrogance is breath-taking.

Pete

Yes it would be very inconvenient to put some space before your text. Certainly beyond some Americans. Fortunately not beyond the ability of 99% of your population. Whets it like to belong to a minority?

"Anonymous" wrote in message news:[email]...

So you're saying only Americans don't use spoiler space? Give me a break.

Some of the bickering in here is ridiculous. Maybe it is time to check out "alt.tv.northamerica"

on

I agree. Spoiler space is a pain, especially when I want to print something out, or when people put like 3 page of space in. Or maybe when maybe there are tons of "British" spoilers that I can't find any for Americans.

What I don't get is that if we are suppoesed to wait for the British episodes to air around a year later, what makes them so special we only have to wait for them. Portugal, and Spain are like 3 years behind. Not to metion the rest of the world, including other english speaking couuntries. Are we not supposed to discuss anything that pertains to a particular episode?

Not to mentioneed it's an american dominatedd internet. Why should we have to make consessions for one particular group and not another. More people watch friends in all the countries who have the episodes aired after them, so why do they not get more spoiler space?

Here's why people can post without spoilers, and why the people who do should not even bother:

It's an unmoderated group. It doesn't matter how long you do something, or how deep the traditions are, if one person doesn't want to follow (which there will always be) then it's ruined. Since there is a vocal group (unknown if a majority or minority, but irrelevant), then it's a waste of time to post spoiler space if someone lese isn't.

"Jared Wilson" wrote in message news:3bc26ba4$[email]...

something

there

Tennant usually marks those pretty distinctively. When you've been here awhile you will be able to tell it's a British spoiler.

have

Britain is special because there are so many English people here. There aren't that many from Portugal and Spain. It is the size (and the quality in posting skill) of the British contingent that makes their desire for spoiler space such a legitimate concern.

This had nothing to do with anything.

"Jared Wilson" wrote in message

something

there

It's not a big pain surely? Just a few button presses. There have been global spoilers in the past - though these have dried up recently because of the closed set filming so all we have is non-US spoilers.

have

British people aren't special. There needs to be some cut-off point whereafter spoiler space is not used. At present the convention is to have spoiler space until it has aired on Channel 4 in Britain. I could cope with pushing the barrier back to please Portugese and Spanish friends if there is a call for it.

have

You are such an arrogant pratt. "american dominatedd internet"??? Far far more non-US people use the internet than US people. Most other Americans on this group appreciate that you aren't the only people around - a pity you don't. As I said above - it's a compromise. Once the episode has aired on British terresterial TV I'd guess about 90% of the global readership of this group will have seen an episode. 90% seems a reasonable cut-off point to me. The idea that some have point forward - no spoiler space when the majority (i.e. 50%) have seen the episode seems ridiculous - it implies that having to add a few lines of spoiler spaces is at least as annoying as being spoiled for an episode.

(which

With respect that is a truly crap argument. You may aswell say "There's always going to be one nutter who wants to fly planes into buildings so why don't we all do it?"

Pete

"Pete Bartlett" wrote in message news:...

Boy, if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black...

"american dominatedd internet"??? Far far

Give me a break. Are you saying that 40% of this board is composed of British people? You guys usually average, what, 10 million viewers for a high rated episode of a show, whereas the U.S. averages 30-35 million per show. There are more American viewers of the show than international viewers, that is a point that can not be debated.

That's a pretty tasteless analogy. Guess you didn't have to dig deep for that one...

"Anonymous" wrote in message news:[email]...

news:...

Yep. Now, this does not count the lurkers, who are uncountable, but yes. I would not be surprised if 40% of this board was British.

There are more American viewers of the show than

Yes, but we are discussing the readership of this newsgroup. Not the entire viewership of the show. We are basing our decisions on those who will actually be affected by it.

On Tue, 9 Oct 2001, Anonymous stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

4-5 million actually - it's on one of the lesser channels.

for

That's still 1 in 12 of the population. Not counting those that don't watch on C4 because they've already seen it on E4 (probably another half or one million) and those who buy the videos...

A comparable figure, overall, to the US viewing figures.

Jac

In article , [email] (Anonymous) wrote:

Don't confuse the number of viewers with the proportion of people posting to ATF, especially as "Friends" is just another TV show to many Americans, while in Europe it's by far & away the most popular US sitcom ("Frasier" comes in at a distant second place, and all of the others are nowhere).

If you look people who've posted more than twice in the last six months, count up the different email addresses with country codes, reallocate all the others from the time zones, assume that anyone using GMT during the summer is an American, then this distribution table is what you get...

                      58%   North America
                      30%   Great Britain
                       3%   Holland
                       2%   Norway
                       1%   Australia
                       1%   Croatia
                       1%   Denmark
                       1%   France
                       1%   Germany
                       1%   New Zealand
                       1%   United Arab Emirates

Tennant Stuart

I just have to ask...is this newsgroup your whole life? i've never seen someone post so much...lol

"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...

"Sofya" wrote in message news:...

Pleeease don't start this again. Judging from reactions from the past two years, you'll be flamed out of this NG.

Priya

everyone is so sensitive...

"p r i y a" wrote in message news:[email]...

news:...

the

appreciate

said

this

point

when

least as

of

for

posting

Americans,

("Frasier"

nowhere).

months,

all

the

"Sofya" wrote in message news:9q2jg5$a4n$[email]...

Shh.. don't say that. They don't like it here. <w>

In article , "Sofya" wrote:

An hour or so a day is not a whole life. Think how much time people spend walking their dogs, or watering the lawn, or watching sports on TV...

Tennant

"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...

Tennant, that is easily the best and most useful statistic you've ever managed to give us. Thank you.

On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, abrahammy stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Yes, I've even forgiven him for stealing my 'trivia king' title. :)

In article , "abrahammy" wrote:

YW

Tennant

Whoa Tennant!!!

I am a statistics student and I think I really like you. ;-) But mate, where are your standard errors? ;-)

"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...

In article , "Jacqueline Rochelle" wrote:

Thanks, Jacqueline.

That wasn't really statistics, it was just a count. The only errors arise from rounding the percentages to the nearest integer greater than zero, with the biggest values receiving a bonus or the shaft.

Tennant

On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Cool stats, Tennant!

I guess you can only assume lurkers are in the same proportions too.

Bear in mind that a LOT of the formerly-active-now-dormant ATF regulars are also British... a look at past ATF birthday lists and so on will reflect a rough 50/40/10 division (not quite reflected above) (US/UK/RoW)

Jac (British, and you KNOW my opinions on spoiler space if you've been here for any length of time)

In article , "Jacqui" wrote:

That's because it tends to be regulars that put their names & ages on birthday lists. If I run the count again for people who have posted more than 100 times in the last six months, you get...

                          62%   Great Britain
                          25%   North America
                          13%   Norway

..which is a bit silly, but there you go.

Indeed. Jac, have you not seen my S7-13 thread, where Mari & I are appealing for you to explain precession of the equinoxes to us?

Tennant

In article , Paul Hyett wrote:

Thanks.

Who knows, but it's a good guess.

Tennant

On Wed, 10 Oct 2001 23:44:19 BST, Tennant Stuart wrote:

Thank you, Tennant. I hope this proves that we have been right all along when we have asked them to think about other countries. :)

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

YSW sweetie.

Tennant

"Anonymous" wrote in message news:[email]...

news:...

Hey Anonymous (nice touch) - your argument *is* a point that can be debated since not only do you give an incorrect stat and guess at another one, you create a false dichotomy. International viewers come from more than one country you know. After the last episode the news was:

For the second week in a row, NBC's "Friends" was the most popular prime-time show. It also had 30 million viewers two consecutive weeks for the first time since 1996. http://www.canoe.ca/TelevisionRatings/us.html

We also see a figure of roughly 20 million from http://tv.yahoo.com/nielsen/

I am looking for some international ratings figures but I cannot find any.... my guess is if we add all the countries up (Europe, South America, Australasia etc.) we will get more than 20 - 30 million.

But that is not your point, is it? You are talking about this newsgroup. You cannot find me any proof that the demographic of this newsgroup matches that of viewers of Friends.

why

His analogy, while 'tasteless' was especially apt. And no, he didn't have to dig deep because it is so *obvious*, right?

"Jacqueline Rochelle" wrote in message news:...

Hmm...I thought 30+ million viewers fell within the range of 30-35 million viewers. Gee, I guess we Americans don't know our math very well, do we?

Well this statement, just like your entire post, is so idiotic that it almost did not deserve a reply.

Almost...

On 8 Oct 2001 10:59:27 -0700, [email] (Anonymous) wrote:

Well said

People watch Brit shows in America?

wrote in message news:3bc3bc9f.6213972@news...

No the Americans take the British shows and turn them into American ones!

"Jacqueline Rochelle" wrote in message news:_P7x7.11324$[email]...

A lot. With variable success.