**Why did you become a moderator of Freefolk?**

I'm a project manager, coder, and compulsive organizer with a thirst for discussing GoT/asoiaf. The opportunity to develop and enhance a subreddit devoted to that really scratched an itch for me. I also felt very strongly about the sub's purpose: a place to discuss the show freely. I always wanted to know everything available, but it seemed like fully half of the information was off limits in any discussion. I was thrilled to find other people who felt like me. When a permanent community began forming in /r/FreeFolk (then called /r/piratesofthrones) I wanted a chance to help build it and to fight for its core function, so I asked if I could be involved.

**How long have you been a moderator for?**

I was a moderator on day one of /r/FreeFolk, so nearly two and a half years now. I changed my reddit username a few times in that period but have always been there with one name or another.

**What do you enjoy about spoilers and leaks?**

I was always that kid who turns to the last page of a book before reading it. Suspense just makes me anxious, while knowing where the story is going enhances the entire journey. Instead of wondering what's going to happen, I wonder how they're going to get to the final curtain. I notice and appreciate small clues along the way that I would have missed until my second read. I want to know everything there is to know, then investigate every nook and cranny to see how it builds into a whole. I'm going to learn the resolution sooner or later, and I enjoy learning it sooner.

**How do people seek out spoilers and leaks?**

It starts with curiosity and wanting to connect with others who share it. It's natural to turn to google or reddit or the internet in general, because there are both answers and communities there that meet that need. If one is persistent, you eventually run across the niche places online where both thrive.

**What do you think of the hatred and death threats towards people that share leaks and spoilers by the greater GOT/ASOIAF community?**

I understand it, though I wouldn't stoop to it. There a very strong general belief that spoilers are bad, ruin the story for everyone, and should be hidden away to protect everyone. Obviously many people don't feel the same, but that's regarded as strange and aberrant. Going against that general belief can make some people very angry, as though they're being personally harmed. I would never approach someone and spoil them against their will, but people need to take personal responsibility if they're trying to avoid information. Going online, where that information is being discussed, is a choice they make. It's an unfair overreaction to threaten people in any case. It's a fantasy story, not life and death.

**What involvement have you had in finding, tracking, sharing and organizing spoilers and leaks?**

I read online sources daily, wanting to stay abreast of the latest information. Every new piece of the puzzle found is a fun victory. I then share or discuss them in /r/FreeFolk. Once you've found reliable sources, or made yourself a useful clearinghouse of sources so that people with information come to you, the leaks and spoilers become a daily treat. As for organizing them, I love the challenge of making spoilers accessible to users who are looking for them. It's not as easy as it sounds, because people have wildly different browsing styles and platforms and can easily miss the headlines and FAQs you've provided.

**What are your motivations for this involvement?**

I started out wanting to strengthen and protect this space for myself; having a community of people with my same interests and principles was very rewarding. As time went on and we were constantly challenged and reviled, I was forced to defend why I thought the /r/FreeFolk space was justified. The grey areas of what I believed were examined and boundaries made more clear. I was surprised to find myself believing strongly in the importance of an unmoderated space, even when I personally felt some content was abhorrent or uninteresting. Not that I didn't believe in 'free speech' before, but I probably wouldn't have fought about it. Getting sworn at for defending it feels bad, but the joy of people just discovering us is awfully fun.

**How is freefolk changing the way we watch television?**

I'm old enough that most of my television-watching had to be done in front of a set, right at air time. There was no skipping commercials, pausing for bathroom breaks, or possessing a copy of the show. Now we can do all of those things and it allows incredible opportunities. A character reads a book which you see for one second onscreen, and you can pause and transcribe everything for later review. Details and clues can be captured and shared. If you miss a clue, someone who didn't is happy to point it out. Viewers can have much deeper understanding of the rich detail available in a production, which encourages producers to include more. The internet, and /r/FreeFolk as a part of it, has expanded the opportunities for quality storytelling. Watching television is a much deeper experience than it was when I was young.

**How do spoilers and leaks impact your viewing experience?**

I'm much more involved when stories unfold before me. Knowing ahead of time what a character will do frees me to watch for clues about motivations and feelings. Instead of thinking about what is happening, I'm absorbing why and how. The destination of the plot, already known through spoilers, fades behind the meaning of the journey. People everywhere experience this any time they watch a movie for the second time. I like to do it on my first watch.

**What work do you do to promote Freefolk?**

First and foremost, we keep the space accessible and free. Quality information can't flow unless there's a place for it. Secondarily we ask questions of people who appear to have information, encouraging them to share, and protect sources we know, which is rare due to reddit's anonymity. Thirdly we try to get our name out there in places that like-minded people will naturally go. We don't promote on the larger Game of Thrones subreddits, though individual users of ours have been known to, because the people there do want protection from spoilers. Mention of our subreddit is scrubbed from a lot of mainstream places, so we make or find the niches that will attract people who might love our sub if they knew about it. An example would be creating /r/FuckOlly, which attracted people who enjoyed sharing an irreverent group joke about the show. It also doesn't hurt us when the show is newsworthy, such as the drama over the HBO hacks. People can't interview the hackers, so they resort to those who compile the hackers' releases. I've been out googling for information about the show and seen myself listed as a source. It's very strange.

**What will you do once the show has ended?**

It'll take at least a year to exhaust all the discussions about what we saw. After that, I suppose we wait for the next book. If /r/FreeFolk doesn't really serve a need after the show, it'll die a natural death. If people still want it, it'll remain active.

**Why do you think Game Of Thrones fans hate spoilers?**

It's foreign to me, but some people want to be surprised. A sudden betrayal might come out of nowhere, and the shock and disbelief could be fun to experience. Of course, those people would have needed to ignore tons of foreshadowing and character motivations to be shocked, but there is a large viewing audience who only watch superficially. I have nothing against that, it's a valid way of consuming a show. I, and most FreeFolk, just aren't the people who enjoy a good jump scare. It's more fun to know it's coming and watch the build-up.

**Has HBO tried to fight the release of spoilers and leaks in Freefolk?**

HBO has never contacted us that I know of. We're a clearinghouse of spoilers, not a source.

**What was the biggest spoiler broken by the Freefolk? How did that story unfold?**

Our two most explosive spoilers were the deaths of Olly and Ramsay. Unbelievably, a lot of viewers did not see them coming and were very angry when they saw them mentioned openly on /r/FreeFolk. Reddit has a page called /r/all, which aggregates the most popular posts in other subs. It is not the default page so people who load it are choosing to see, ostensibly, all popular posts. People were incensed that we didn't use vague titles, hiding the information of the deaths. Those two weeks were filled with death threats, which was actually a little scary. However, we were also flooded with posts of joy from people who had no idea we existed and were thrilled to learn about /r/FreeFolk. We had a major jump in subscriptions. It doesn't feel good knowing that people were spoiled against their will, but those people did go to a non-censored page. It was their responsiblity to avoid it if they felt that strongly, not ours to protect them.

The truly "biggest" spoilers, however, are quieter and more gradual: the compilation of leaks and slow evaluation of their veracity. We knew the plot of every episode this season more than seven months ago. Someone would leak that Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen meet this season, and soon enough there was confirmation from set photos and social media posts showing both actors in the same town for filming. Everything is sifted until wee literally have a scene by scene breakdown of each episode.

**Many Freefolk like myself are former ASOIAF subredditors. Why do you think people have joined Freefolk?**

The reason I hear most is that the the other subs are too controlling and confusing. It's extremely hard to discuss a subject when you're not allowed to provide information your listener may not want to know, while not knowing what they don't know. It can be done, but it requires a ridiculously complex set of rules. Breaking those rules gets your content removed or even your account banned. There's obviously an audience for that, but there is also our audience, who just wants to talk freely. The expectation is that everyone knows everything, or wants to. It's a much more human way of discussing things.

**What does “We Do Not Kneel” mean to you?**

It's a rallying cry for our community, and a good touchstone. We identified with the FreeFolk characters, beset in an unwinnable war but refusing to stop fighting for their place. Our two rules are "say anything you want" and "do not kneel." We will always be under fire for saying out loud what others want us to keep quiet, and we will fight being silenced. It can be painful to us and others, but there's no such thing as mostly free.

Serious free speech philsophy aside, it's just fun to say. The community is full of jokes and laughter, and really respect people's right to say contrary things. Watching people get excited about finding a place to express themselves, in a group that insists everyone be allowed to say whay they want unapologetically, is one of the best parts of /r/FreeFolk.

**What were your motivations behind the thread “Who are the FreeFolk? A History and Treatise”?**

The sub is having explosive growth, with subscriptions snowballing at an amazing pace. Fully half of the users joined within the last two weeks. That's a lot of people with no grounding in our inside jokes, challenges, or culture. It seemed worthwhile to try and lay some history out, being very clear about what people were getting into. There are people who come in and have no idea we are pro-spoiler, despite our best efforts. It was a love letter to the subreddit, a welcome to new people, and a warning to those who didn't want to be involved in what we are.

**Who are the most prominent spoilers and leakers and what are their motivations for and methods of finding them?**

We don't go looking for leakers -- they come to us because we are a visible and safe place to leak. If someone is publishing information on another platform, we may personally invite them to share on /r/FreeFolk as well, but our true function is the compilation of information brought to us. The most prominent leakers are users named awayforthelads, frikidoctor, and truede. No one knows who they are (except for Frikidoctor, who publishes his real name) or how they come by their information, though of course people have some likely deductions. As to their motivations, I can only assume they feel like us: they want to discuss what they know. We're grateful each time.