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Jim Early: The old days were done with lots of Google searches on players. You can find out things in their local papers. Family members talk, employees talk, pictures showing weight loss get published. So the old days were fun because you investigated more. Now I just pick up the phone and say, "hello".

Jim Van Nest: I do enjoy the seasonal spoil the cast game. With Facebook it seems to be a lot easier these, days too - checking friends of Survivors and all that good stuff.

Jim Early (missyae): Yes, lots of people can figure out who might be on a cast just by getting one name and then checking the friends list and the activity of the people.

David Mumpower: All right, I want to explore that more in a moment but let's backtrack first to cover a couple of areas for our readers. First of all, when you posted spoilers those first few times, what were you personally getting out of it? This is something that fascinates me about internet behavior. The concept of the spoiler was largely non-existent prior to the 2000s.

Jim Early (missyae): Well, I knew how I felt as a fan about reading spoilers and watching the show to see how they played out. So i felt like when I started getting the information there was a definite audience for the spoilers. I was one of the fans so I knew how much fun it was to know. I understand half the people want to see me wrong and half the people want to see me get it right, yet again, but the bottom line is, they all watch the show to see. In Mark Burnett's own words, I created a "BUZZ" for the show.

Kim Hollis: Have you been right more often or do you get some wrong?

Jim Early (missyae): I have never missed a boot pick.

Jim Van Nest: I was gonna say that I've been spoiled on a few seasons...accidentally every time. And they're always right.

Kim Hollis: Would you enjoy the show more or less if your information was wrong?

Jim Early (missyae): Kim, I enjoy being right. That's one of the things I think that the ones who appreciated the spoilers liked the most - that I hate to be wrong, I will go back and check with a source again if there is a question on my info just to be sure

David Mumpower: So, you were filling a niche market that was unprecedented, one that you felt added to the show's mystique? Do you feel the same situation would have occurred if you were spoiled a scripted show instead or is there something about reality television that lends itself better to spoilers?

Jim Early (missyae): I think it's more because it's a reality show. There are spoilers for soaps, movies, sitcoms, and wrestling, but it seems the reality shows create the most buzz.

David Mumpower:
As someone who doesn't read the Survivor Sucks forums frequently, can you tell me how popular your boot threads are? I presume that if CBS is singling you out, your reputation must precede itself.

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