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.

The official policy wasn't changed.

You're right in that the FAQ wasn't amended. But it DID hinder discussion. It absolutely did. There was a 2-week moratorium (or 1-week?) which meant we couldn't discuss Faith being on AtS, even though the entire Buffy arc was about the Slayer line. So we couldn't even say -- in a discussion about the Slayer line -- "Hey, since Faith is in LA, and we saw Angelus call Sunnydale, do you think she'll come to Sunnydale?"

The FAQ wasn't changed, so yes, the letter of the law wasn't changed, but the spirit of the law restricted the hell out of the discussion.

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.

Not Trudy, but I'd like to answer, too.

Trudy's whitefont may very well be widely known, sounds more and more like it is. The other cast thing I was spoiled for, Trudy does not know. There is apparently at least one more cast change out there that neither of us know about.

If the discussion was limited to the BCS - I have no objection to that (as long as we weren't egregiously spoiling the unspoiled). It's when the other things that Trudy or I don't know get discussed that would be a problem.

I do go to Spoilers, at least over the summer and about halfway through the year, since my personal definition of being spoiled only includes knowing what's in the last chapter/page, as it were. But (whitefonted for a reference to the (single) BCS) the general zeitgeist about the BCS there is such that I really feel like I'd be unwelcome talking about how excited I am to have Spike on the show, and to speculate on what his role may be. My impression is that the more general Angel thread would have a different vibe. Maybe I'm just being oversensitive and need to get over it, and if I just had the nerve to open my mouth, there would be others with similar views interested in discussing it. I just don't know.

Steph, I don't want to know earlier than necessary because I don't want to know ANYTHING earlier than necessary.

And, even though Joss has said nothing about how it happens, that doesn't stop him from yet doing so. I fear knowing more than I already do.