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I don’t think the guidelines changed. It’s just jack taking things too far as usual. Ever since he got elected to the mod team he’s been jumping the gun on several cases that shouldn’t have been like that. Giving warnings where cautions are due and even sometimes giving warnings for minor in fractions

@Exodus and @mechaSkyGuardian: You're forgetting that a caution is in fact exactly what I gave out at first. And then some people said wait, shouldn't that be a warning? And on further reflection, I agreed, after all, Simba did get a warning for blatantly posting a spoiler then refusing to edit it. Bradp did the same thing, minus the excessive kickback to communal response. So here we have a warning. And Exodus does have a good point re: guidelines. If anyone is moving the goalposts, it's the community saying wait, do this, no wait, do this, no wait, this is going too far, or wait this is too soft. What is it that you guys want?

This only blew up because of how big the Stormlight Archive is. Had it been anything smaller in scope, no one would've cared.
Actually OP also spoiled it to us in a private server, but I told him I don't really care since I have the memory of a stage 3 dimentia patient and it'll be long since forgotten in a year when Graphic audio comes out with the book.
I'd read it in text / audio format but I've read the rest in GA so it'd be weird to change that now.

29:
Simba/sightlessHorseman's warning back then was shitty, heavy handed and about as structurally sound as a wet paper bag.
Again the guidelines (NOT THE RULES!!!) state:
You will not face punishment for failing to adhere to our guidelines unless you are doing so repeatedly for a prolonged period of time.
Simba/sightlessHorseman's post history indicates that he does not have a history of intentionally spoiling things for people, aka he was not repeatedly failing to adhere to  the guidelines for a long period of time. His warning though given and elapsed should not be held against him in any future decisions that the staff have to take as it was given unfairly using bad logic.
Also:
From the guidelines again, not the rules:
we ask that you clearly mark any game info that could constitute a spoiler with some sort of text which denotes it as such.
We ask means that we do not require, you can ask me for money but I am not required to give it to you. You can ask me to tag my spoilers as such, but I'm not required to do so. If I continue to do so over a period of time, the by all means take whatever punitive action you feel is necessary. Per the current guidelines though, I nor anyone else (bradp for example) can be punished for flouting them a single time.
In this particular situation 29, you allowed yourself to be led by the nose by people who essentially used you as a weapon to club someone who did a thing that they did not like instead of referring to the guidelines that we follow on both sides to prevent this kind of situation from happening. This is a failing on your side of things, not the community shifting goalposts like you're attempting to gaslight the community into believing.
Perhaps instead of taking liberties with the guidelines you could pole the forum's userbase to see if they would like a no spoiler rule that's punishable immediately?
I personally think that such a rule would be a bad idea as it would just lead to situations where people would end up policing the people they do not like, waiting for them to slip up so they can point the mod team at them and fire. The current guidelines if enforced  consistently seem like the best way to handle spoilers given that the forum currently lacks a way for people to tag posts as spoilers. Under the current guidelines spoiler posting assholes will swiftly make themselves apparent to everyone else who will then know that anything they post in threads titled with a book/tv show/game/movie name. should be avoided. If they continue to stink up the place then they can also be punished.

@Exodus: Owing to how a lot of people react to spoilers on here, I have a feeling if we did poll for it people might actually vote in favor of it being a guideline. Problem? As you said, the forum's got no way of facilitating this. I searched up and down for pun-bb extensions that would allow this and any of them that got released have since fallen out of date with the latest pun-bb builds. Still, BSC/other list members survived just fine with spoiler tags being an enforced rule actually, and compared to other forums we are almost too nice when it comes to spoilers as most forums have a don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out policy when it comes to spoilers.
Again. Nothing we do will satisfy everyone. Defender wanted a warning, as he rightfully pointed out that the o p practically made a hit-and-run. Incidentally, when this was brought up internally, one of us had initially suggested a warning and I was the one that had suggested to give a caution. Lots of time passed after that caution, time in which the post was not edited. Had he gone in and edited the post, we would not have been at this still. But he didn't, and such is the result.

Also, warnings generally do not fall under staff majority agreement, it's community failure clause that does.
Keeping in mind as well that I made damn sure there was, for example, a link to order Pokemon Yellow in place before removing the rom link from the highly commendable accessibility mod post.
As far as interpretation goes we all interpret things differently, and spoilers are more of a moral grayarea that some of us are willing to admit. Part of the problem is really fanning the flames, which is why decisive action is becoming more and more of a problem as for what to do, as we need to make good on providing due punishment before the fuck you posts start to stack up.
That being said, I do have a proposal. And this is nothing official, just gathering data here. Given how different people react to spoilers, for some it's extremely touchy and for others not so much, would there be any objections to potentially starting a poll as to whether or spoilers should be a guideline or a rule. BEcause I do agree that consistency needs to be at play here.

On another point here lundin you should read the spoken narration audiobook version of the books. I checked and there is a significant difference in time. For example, words of radience is aprox 47 hrs, and oathbringer is around 55. But the ga book is  37 vs 40. Also  I am reading alot of comments online that some parts of  the plot were totally cut out.

Jayde, as there were many comments on forums etc of ga cutting out side plots or certain scenes, I thought it would be a good idea to read the regular versions. As for chaptering, programs like inaudible or similar, that convert the audible format into any format  you choose can read the chapter markers on the file, and split the file into individual chapters.
But yeah, according to ga's release schedule, rhythm of war will not be complete  until the end of October.

@42 wow now I want to read it even more. I've always been a fan of cultivation but that escalated quickly. Neat.

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Yeah, she's set apart Dalinar, Lyft, and Terravangian. For some reason. It looks like Terravangian is done, but Dalinar and Lyft... I think Dalinar will fix Honor, who was slintered by Odium, and become Honor's vessel. Maybe Lyft will become Cultivation's new Vessel? I mean, I don't know, maybe Cultivation knows that the Intent of the Shard is making the Vessel less able to actually control it? Hmm. Gosh the Cosmere is amazing!

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I'm at the part where Shallon is trying to find the ghost blood spy in her crew while they're all in shadesmar, after Teft and Kaladin find that guy with one arm. It seems like a pretty low point in the book, with some of my favourite main characters being relligated to side roles. These books usually make awesome comebacks though, so I'm excited.
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I like how all the universes of his books are coming together. I'm recognizing lots of them from other books, and it's cool to see.
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Pretty sure the before chapter things in part 2 are Sazed (I know I'm spelling that wrong,) talking to the new Odium. I am just at the beginning of part 3 now, it's getting really interesting