User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-3969391-20170722133251

I would like to propose that the current spoiler policy is incompatible with events such as the recent BBC casting announcement. (We had a similar problem when Peter Capaldi was announced on prime-time TV.) As it stands we currently have a televised short, albeit in the form of a trailer, that was much publicised, available on the official site (later followed by the reveal itself with a big photo). This was on the BBC news (among many others) and national newspaper front pages. It was headline news internationally, and is being discussed across the internet, on fan sites, and others that may never have even mentioned Doctor Who before. I humbly submit, that with an announcement this big and wide-spread, the current policy simply cannot cope. At the very least it ironically makes this bastion of fandom knowledge one of the only places (apparently) ignoring this information. Indeed, some might read this failure to acknowledge the casting as an unspoken message about the site/staffs' attitude towards said actor. In short, whereas some casting announcements could genuinely be spoilers (eg, a hypothetical announcement of Georgia Moffat, or Julian Bleach) the casting of The Doctor tells us nothing more than that The Doctor will be in Doctor Who - a tautology as obvious as it is redundant - and I submit that The Doctor is an exception to the rule.