I only have one major gripe with Tumblr’s Comic Community. When Wednesday hits, or sometimes the night before when people get early copies, Tumblr peeps think that it’s fair game to whip out a scanner and start scanning pages.
Why does this seem to be okay on Tumblr and no where else? In fact some weeks it seems to be fairly reblogged. Not too long ago I ragged on Zatanna for doing this, she was very nice in apologizing and even stated that she stopped using her normal spoiler image covers because no one else was. I’m a little upset that others in the Comics Community on Tumblr are polluting one of the best Comics Blogs on Tumblr with their lack of common courtesy.
Seriously I can take Previews spoiling stuff for me, because I still get a chance to read the comic when it comes out. But people who are scanning multiple pages/panels from the current Wednesday’s comics are really starting to piss me off. You’re taking away my enjoyment of reading a comic. Sometimes all I have left as a reader is the story and art.
Before you respond with, “Then you should unfollow us.” I would end up unfollowing some quality comic book tumblr blogs in the Comics Community on Tumblr for myself and Graphic.ly. People who generally post fantastic stuff that I like to share and communicate would be taken out of my stream. I’d rather not do that. All I’m asking is, please wait to turn on the scanners till later if you can’t I have some tips below.
My tips on how this could be best avoided:
Post it as a link. I’ve posted things on The Couch where I only had the link for people to click through. An example that I can think of were pictures from the Green Lantern set. I remember someone sending me a message to thank me for making it a link so I didn’t spoil anything.
Put up a spoiler image to cover what’s there. You can do this by posting a Blurred image and linking back to the real one. It’s simple enough to post the image on Flickr for the link through.
Wait a week, maybe two. I even feel if I haven’t read my books in a week it’s fair game to spoil it for me. The defense of “I posted this and now you can save 3.99 on a shitty book.” is a poor one. Maybe I want to waste that money OR with the rise of people ordering online, maybe I ordered that book a month or two ago. In that case you’ve spoiled money that has already been spent.
I hope that people actually take this to heart and I ask that if you feel the same way to reblog this with any additional comments or advice you have. I know what I have above as far as advice may not be perfect. I’d also like to hear from people who think it’s okay to post things the day they come out and why they think it’s okay. Keep in mind I’ve already mentioned above that saving me money is a poor defense. It’s my money and I’ll spend it whichever way I please.