http://www.wsj.com/articles/spoiler-alert-this-article-about-spoilers-is-full-of-spoilers-1467672881
On June 26 at 9:28 p.m., Matthew Taylor received a text message from an unrecognized phone number that gave away a huge plot twist in the season finale of his favorite television show, “Game of Thrones.”
“Holy crap, Cersei burned down all of King’s Landing with wildfire!” the message said. “I can’t believe Margaery died!”
Mr. Taylor, a 24-year-old marketing manager in Atlanta, was livid. He replied with a flurry of texts: “Who is this?” “Why would you do this to me?
ord-cutting has freed viewers to stream TV shows whenever they want. That has prompted online killjoys to come up with increasingly clever ways to ruin the surprise for fans of sporting events, TV shows and movies. (Walter White dies in “Breaking Bad.” Snape kills Dumbledore in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Lane Pryce commits suicide in “Mad Men.”)
More than 1,700 people have fallen victim to a service that allows spoilsports to anonymously send “Game of Thrones” revelations to friends, enemies or anyone else.
Mr. Taylor was betrayed by his older brother. “I’m still mad,” says Mr. Taylor, who tries to avoid spoilers for the hit HBO series by staying away from social media and warning his friends to keep quiet if they watch an episode before he does.
Hunter Lane co-founded the spoiler service, which costs 99 cents, just before the second-to-last episode of the sixth season of “Game of Thrones.” Mr. Lane, who lives in Chicago and works in the technology industry, expected maybe five or 10 people to sign up.
“The frenzy of the response that we got was shocking,” he says. Mr. Lane’s website is now polling visitors with the question “What should we ruin next?” The zombie TV series “The Walking Dead” is way ahead.
On June 26 at 9:28 p.m., Matthew Taylor received a text message from an unrecognized phone number that gave away a huge plot twist in the season finale of his favorite television show, “Game of Thrones.”
“Holy crap, Cersei burned down all of King’s Landing with wildfire!” the message said. “I can’t believe Margaery died!”
Mr. Taylor, a 24-year-old marketing manager in Atlanta, was livid. He replied with a flurry of texts: “Who is this?” “Why would you do this to me?
ord-cutting has freed viewers to stream TV shows whenever they want. That has prompted online killjoys to come up with increasingly clever ways to ruin the surprise for fans of sporting events, TV shows and movies. (Walter White dies in “Breaking Bad.” Snape kills Dumbledore in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Lane Pryce commits suicide in “Mad Men.”)
More than 1,700 people have fallen victim to a service that allows spoilsports to anonymously send “Game of Thrones” revelations to friends, enemies or anyone else.
Mr. Taylor was betrayed by his older brother. “I’m still mad,” says Mr. Taylor, who tries to avoid spoilers for the hit HBO series by staying away from social media and warning his friends to keep quiet if they watch an episode before he does.
Hunter Lane co-founded the spoiler service, which costs 99 cents, just before the second-to-last episode of the sixth season of “Game of Thrones.” Mr. Lane, who lives in Chicago and works in the technology industry, expected maybe five or 10 people to sign up.
“The frenzy of the response that we got was shocking,” he says. Mr. Lane’s website is now polling visitors with the question “What should we ruin next?” The zombie TV series “The Walking Dead” is way ahead.
