CC1: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

I had no idea this "spoiling" thing was a big deal. Crazy! The most interesting idea I came across when reading about spoiling came from Shawn the history student and Suckster/Spoiler. He related the skills he learned in class for his major to the skills used in spoiling. In an interview with Jenkins he explained "I like to dig. I like to look at primary source information. I like to find official manuscripts of an event. I like to find out who were the people there, what did they see. I want to hear it from them. That's part of my love of spoiling. I like to dig to the bottom. I like it when people don't just say here's who got booted--here you go, but elaborate a little bit about where they get their information" (52-53). Reading Shawn's motivation for spoiling changed my mind about it. When I began the chapter, I thought these spoilers had no friends and no social lives, but it really isn't about that. The process is a mystery and a treasure hunt where the tools aren't a magnifying glass or a shovel, but every form of interactive media available combined with brain power. If someone introduced me to Shawn, the nerdy history student with a crazy fascination with discovering information about Survivor, I would have judged him in a snap. But thinking about what I've read, Shawn is getting a head start on some graduate level research with a more current topic.

Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: How perfect is this slogan? The whole game of spoiling is about finding out the information about Survivor that is supposed to be kept secret before it airs. It's also about discerning real truth from fake truth by using any means of technology available, including thought. Can the producers outwit the spoilers by posting fake info? Can the spoilers outplay the producers and the spoiler spoilers by figuring out which info is fake? Can the spoilers outlast the series by figuring out all the answers? Or will the series outlast the spoilers? Will technology step up and provide better means for solving the problems? Just something to think about...