Trudy, FWIW, I'd want to be able to discuss any and all main cast changes, because IMO they don't happen in a vacuum--I'd want to speculate about how any new characters would fit in with existing characters, and how the absence of any characters who might be leaving would impact the relationships of all the remaining ones, new and returning.

And this is just why I'd prefer to wait until the promos come along. Because not all of the things that Susan wants to talk about are common knowledge. I know two of them - I believe that there is a least one more that would spoil me.

I fully understand why you want to talk about that, Susan. I do. And I understand that it must be frustrating for you to not have a place to go to talk about them (assuming that you do not go into spoilers for whatever reason).

Trudy, FWIW, I'd want to be able to discuss any and all main cast changes, because IMO they don't happen in a vacuum--I'd want to speculate about how any new characters would fit in with existing characters, and how the absence of any characters who might be leaving would impact the relationships of all the remaining ones, new and returning.

So that makes you a 2. Some people just want to discuss the over the summer as they assert has been the precedent.

As a 3 I'd rather watch the show unfold

The flip side of that, Steph, is why can't y'all just wait to discuss it on the thread until it airs? Why does it really matter?

Not Steph, but I think it stiffles the speculation discussions we could be having. Or, what Susan said much better than I did.

The flip side of that, Steph, is why can't y'all just wait to discuss it on the thread until it airs? Why does it really matter?

If I answer you (and I did on the phone last night, although nobody else knows that -- mwah ha ha), will you answer me? Because I do want to know.

It matters to me because, like Susan said above, I want to discuss how new casting fits into the existing show. As a spoiler ho, I can say that Joss hasn't said a peep about the hows and wherefores, etc. Just that the casting change will happen. And what we do here is speculate. And discuss. And speculate some more.

It might not be as widely known as "Buffy will rise," but it's pretty damn close. People have known it since the Buffy finale. And want to discuss it. Because this is, as Hec said way earlier, a discussion board.

Now. How about you? I do really want to know.

Months behind. I don't know if Buffy's even ended for all of them yet.

OZ is just getting Chosen now. Buffy will have ended for them in a week, IIRC. Depending. What with their mucked-up schedules.

I think for AtS, they've got one more.

This doesn't mean I have to hit Tara now, does it?

I'll drop her carcass off in an hour.

The spoiler policy was changed to reflect the Cross-Show Whitefont Rule.

My memory of the Cross-show whitefont was that it was a gentleman's agreement to help out a poster (or posters) who were either tape delayed or didn't get one or the other of the WB or UPN. The official policy wasn't changed.

I do know that when Atlantic Canada fell almost a week behind the US on AtS, I very much appreciated the white-fonting of AtS discussion in Buffy, because the discussion would have very badly spoiled me, and greatly diminished my enjoyment of AtS.

Kristen, I think that's a good idea.

Thanks. I thought that, at least, it's a very clear definition on what is and what isn't official.

I also like Kristen's idea.

In the example I gave, Cindy, we both know where I got my info. So I follow Lyra Jane's suggestion, googlenews Michelle Trachtenberg Angel and receive a hit for an article titled "Connor finds love" with the blurb "Michelle Trachtenberg's Dawn joins the Angel cast as a love interest for Victor Kartheiser's character ..." from scifi.com

Guess who's not happy? Me. And that's without clicking on the link, just the result posted on the results page.

How is this being overthought? It's the direct analogue to what happened when I wanted to see if the whited out casting speculation had been officially reported.

What is the purpose of your exercise though, ita? Why are you doing this? Are you doing it to determine how people can verify whether information is official? Are you doing it to determine if verifying whether or not information is official will spoil you further? (because there I say caveat spoilwhore, like I would to any websearch).

I see you repeatedly bringing this up, this idea of using a search engine, when that's never been part of a proposal, but rather was just an idea tossed at you, when you asked how people could verify. There are ways to verify. Checking the official site. Checking with the spoiler whores who can tell you if something was on the official site. In most cases, when there are official announcements, it is going to be from those very announcements that people got the information in the first place.

This is where I feel like an idiot again. I feel like there must be a point you are trying to make or a purpose this serves, but I can't see it.