March 04, 2003

Harry Potter Spoilers

HPANA - The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator is something I've been subscribed to for a while, and I'm unsubscribing today because they are infuriatingly irresponsible about spoilers. Today in my feed there was a headline that said, (censored) Hints at (censored)'s Death. It's common knowledge there is a death in book 5, but this was just stupid, stupid, stupid. Even if it was a red herring, I don't like that either.

Update: - I had a pleasant conversation with Jeff, the editor of HPANA, and he explained that it is an automated service that doesn't have control over what spoilers are posted. That was unfortunately not obvious when I subscribed, and since most other services like this have editorial control, I wasn't really expecting it until after I was spoiled. It appears that he is developing a "No-Spoilers" mode - more details in the comment he leaves.

Posted by Curt at March 4, 2003 01:22 AM

Comments

none.

Posted by: Tayler at April 16, 2003 11:56 PM

In HPANA's defence, the news aggregation scripts can't read, so they don't know what a headline says. It's actually the fault of the sites that write the headlines, since HPANA is, for the most part, an unmoderated service.

I do edit the headlines and summaries after they've been posted, but sometimes not until hours later since I can't be at the computer all the time. Thanks to the discussion Curt and I had after he e-mailed me about this, I did put up a disclaimer explaining how HPANA works, and I'm developing a "No-Spoilers Mode" to protect the innocent.

-Jeff, editor of HPANA

Posted by: Jeff at April 29, 2003 02:22 PM

ummm...if i am meant to say if i think this site is good... i have nothin to say.
anyways, can't wait till the next harry potter book comes out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
laura
ps sorry if i was rude:(

Posted by: laura at June 16, 2003 10:11 PM