I don’t understand people who like to spoil surprises.
I don’t get angry with them. I don’t tell them how to live, or anything. I just don’t get them.
There have always been leaks surrounding new Apple announcements. This is why sites like MacRumors, 9to5Mac, and AppleInsider exist. There used to be more. There was a time I would read these sites fairly regularly, because most of the time all that was leaked were little tidbits, months in advance, which then got surrounded by a ton of idle speculation. And that was fun, guessing what might end up being announced at the next keynote.
Then there would be those times when something big got leaked, either accidentally, or otherwise, a few weeks or days before the show. We’d know exactly what was coming, and that become less fun for me. It never became the norm, but it would happen from time to time. Enough that the entire practice of speculating became far less interesting to me. I’d rather know nothing than everything.
So I basically stopped reading those sites. Problem solved, right?
I’m not about to tell 9to5Mac not to publish leaked information they are handed. That’s what they do. I don’t even blame sites like MacStories for publishing stories about the leak. They deal in Apple news, and a leak of this magnitude is definitely news. As long as everything is clearly labeled, I can easily choose to not read it. Or I can just not read any Apple sites for a few days.
But then there’s Twitter. And now we have a whole new problem. I don’t follow any rumor sites, so I should be safe. But I’m not, thanks to our friend the retweet.
Turns out, some of my friends on Twitter feel differently about spoilers than I do. And that’s fine. Free planet. Remember the golden rule of Twitter: Never tell anyone how to tweet. The unfollow button is your best friend.
I just don’t want to unfollow everyone I know, if I can avoid it.
At the same time, Twitter isn’t just about tech for me. I want to keep up with other things, like hurricanes, political disasters, and so on. I can’t just not read Twitter at all, the way I can avoid rumor sites.
So no judgements here, Twitter friends. I just ask that before you tweet, take a moment to ask yourself if everyone in your timeline really wants to see what you are about to insert into their timeline. Or better yet, if you see a leak like this, ask yourself if there’s a chance that anyone who really wants to see it hasn’t seen it already. If I were into spoilers, trust me. You’re not enlightening me. It’s fun to think you have the inside scoop on something, but you don’t. You’re only ruining the day of everyone who doesn’t want to see this stuff before Tuesday.
And if you must spoil, consider hashtags. Or open with SPOILER ALERT. Give me something I can muffle or mute. Or open with something that gives me enough info to know this is a spoiler tweet, so I can stop reading before anything is ruined.
Your spoiler-averse friends will thank you for it, I promise. Or, at least, they will be far less likely to silently judge you.
