Read to the end for a post about protecting butter.

Tuesday has come around again and it's time to dive in.

Finally, after over a year of waiting for it, I will embark on a new adventure with Link beginning on Friday. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is coming out. To say this is a hotly-anticipated game would be an understatement. Its predecessor was one of the best games of all time. But there's something important I've been doing since last month and will continue to do until I finish it: avoid all the spoilers people post online.

Being perpetually online is kind of my thing but with all the time I spend reading about interesting stuff, I also have to be careful with information and discussion on entertainment topics. I read a lot of stuff. But I'm always behind on TV shows and movies. I prefer to binge shows and that means waiting weeks or months before I begin a new season. That has consequences. People post tons about Ted Lasso and Star Trek: Picard. To avoid those spoilers means avoiding those discussions.

Through some Neo-like Kung Fu, I've been able to do a good job of not knowing what comes next. Some tools are built into places I frequent help too. Over on Reddit, people generally mark spoiler-worthy posts with NSFW tags. That obfuscates the content. In order to see anything you must deliberately click into it. There's nothing NSFW about the content, but it's a clever workaround. Further on Mastodon, people liberally use the Content Warning feature in similar ways. The idea is to give the reader the choice to opt-in to reading the particular post. Some people don't want to read about certain topics, but by also marking spoiler-worthy content with these "warnings", you are able to speak your mind without someone instantly jumping in that you ruined a show or movie for them.

Back in the day, people felt it was fun to spoil stuff. It was an early form of trolling. Earlier times of the internet saw endless posts (HP spoiler in that link!) that spoiled brand-new entries in the Harry Potter series. Now it seems people are a bit more comfortable with letting people enjoy the games, movies, and TV shows that are the New Hotness while also using simple mechanisms to still chat freely about their passions.

I for one love that setup.

May the rest of your week be fantastic.

-Aaron

PS: If you're enjoying my work here on TimeMachiner please forward this email to a friend who'd like it too. It helps me grow. Thank you. 😊

TODAY'S RANDOM FACTOID

The couple in the painting "American Gothic" are actually father and daughter and not husband and wife. Source