We all agree that there shouldnt be spoilers, and no one wants to ruin the show/books for anyone. If that was the intent, it could be done very very easily. Therefore, those that read the books are already doing what they can not to spoil it for everyone else. They understand that ppl havent read the books, and also understand that these ppl want to talk about the show. If through their best efforts, however, someone is gonna jump down their throat for a silly thing then why bother even posting in the thread? What incentive does a book reader have to post here instead of just making another thread?

Again, important is relative anyway. Personally i dont like davos, hated reading of him, and dont think hes very important at all. Is that a spoiler? Surely some ppl already have opinions on him since hes been in two episodes now, some will think hes important some wont, some will like him some wont.

I see no reason why Melisandre wouldnt be considered important, considering she appears to be unpoisonable or at least magical as of s02e01 (which is fucking cool), and gave Stannis this firesword thing! Appears like shes important to me.

So again, i dont see the issue unless your slippery slope nonsense is true. However, I think its pretty clear at this point that your spoiler atmosphere isnt gonna happen now.

As to your counterexamples, IMO, jory was important. I believe his death by Jaime was an important event that changed Ned's way of handling the position of Hand of the King. Also, jory's death was also fucking cool. Hodor is Bran's legs at the moment, so that depends on what you think of bran as a character. I <3 Hodor. Hodor hodor hodor. Theres a picture in the "Pictures that make you lul" thread of valentines day cards with hodor on one just going "hodor hodor hodor". Is he important? Idk, i like him though.