I don't think it will ruin anything for anyone as long as no one also give away story spoilers with the casting like "I just read on TheWB site that Xander is joining the cast of Angel to fix and marry Cordelia!"

Wrod. I would suggest adding to the proposal something along the lines of: "Any plot points related to the character's (not the actor's) arrival or departure are to be treated as spoilers."

In Angel season 1, was Doyle leaving and Wesley coming on advertised ahead of time? That's the sort of main-credits-casting-spoiler I definitely would not have wanted to read about here ahead of time.

No, not that I recall.

And I wouldn't want to know (if I wasn't a ho) about, say AB's addition in Seeing Red, or Lorne's last season.

But if AB had been added to the credits before S6? That I'd like to have discussed.

Did we discuss Fred prior to S3?

t edit Between Pylea and S3, once we knew Fred would be a regular, did we discuss her in the main Angel thread? Because that's exactly the kind of situation this proposal covers.

Between Pylea and S3, once we knew Fred would be a regular, did we discuss her in the main Angel thread? Because that's exactly the kind of situation this proposal covers.

I believe we did.

What Jess PMoon said.

Also?

Part of me wants to request that we split this question in half, with one question concerning summer additions to the cast, and a separate one concerning summer departures.

I want this, because I'm not entirely sure the "additions" one won't be rejected, but I find it patently ridiculous that we can't openly discuss someone who left after the old season ended, but before the new one begins. When that happens, the actor is not going to be playing a character on the show, and so it is not spoiling the show in any way. I am frustrated, because this unspoiler banning means it is impossible to talk about the ME cast plans outside of ME projects. Now, for example, if AD signed on to Law and Order, I'd be as likely to watch that, as I would to watch a Whedon or Minear show, but as it stands now, we can't discuss it outside of a spoiler thread.

Part of me wants to request that we split this question in half, with one question concerning summer additions to the cast, and a separate one concerning summer departures.

As much as I hate complicating simple things, this may be a worthy idea.

[And dude, that sounded way snottier than I intended it to -- I'm sorry. What I meant was, this is probably a good idea, in spite of the fact that it makes the proposal and vote slightly more complicated.]

I don't understand the need to split.

Well, maybe it's just too complicated for me.

I don't see a need to split.

I haven't seen an overwhelming groundswell of arguments against, and I find both things equally off-pissing.

Candy, I don't know that there's a need. But I think there are a large number of Buffistas who, although they know the big casting spoiler for A:ts, agree that it should stay in spoiler threads and that our old policy was good enough not to change. I'm not sure as worded that this proposal will pass. It might get voted down.

While I don't agree with those who would vote it down, it chafes me a lot more that I can't say, "So-n-so (who left after S4) has a new show on NBC" outside of the spoiler thread, than it does that I have to keep the cast addition talk to the spoiler thread.

They both chafe. It's just that one chafes me more. YCMV.

eta...

This isn't a deal breaker for me. It's just a preference. I'm voting in favor, either way.

The arguments against announcing cast departures (or new projects, which imply departures) have used phrases like "anti-spoiler," which I find more irritating than our existing definition of "spoiler," (which would seem to only include cast additions, but in practice, don't, because of the aforementioned "anti-spoiler" concept).

But I'm pretty much going to vote yes regardless.

Also, I volunteer to be the vote-counter on this thing, when the time comes.