In reference to Jenkins book, Convergence Culture, he talks about spoilers and how they came to bring a whole community of fans of the CBS hit show Survivor together. I thought this chapter was super interesting to read, I never thought that hunting for spoilers of a TV series had become such a popular activity. Although it was interesting to read, I do not get where the fun is in "spoiling".
It was even more interesting to read how the participants were getting really into this hobby. In the book Jenkins references a forum website called SurviorSucks. According to the book this forum was filled with posts about possible spoilers for the show. There was a mystery participant called ChillOne who was active on the forums spread his vacation information claiming to have all of these legitimate spoilers. The community got pretty fired up about it and spent months picking apart his information and analyzing it, there was even a book written about it.
I think that working so hard to "spoil" the show ruins the show to begin with. What is the fun in watching a show if you already know everything there is to know about the outcomes? One could argue that there is fun in the game itself, but isn't the show alone supposed to be what is fun in the first place?
Yeah, the Survivor Sucks chapter is very interesting. I think what the participants enjoy about the activity of "spoiling" is the activity of figuring out the puzzle (of who gets voted off the show and in what order). That's something I can understand. Although you are right, it would tend to ruin the fun of actually watching the show.
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