Open post to moderator and staff

The level of discussion on this site is rapidly deteriationg at a time when fans need to be acting uniformly with direction and purpose. Rangers hangs in the balance. If we fans are to have a say we must act immediatly with one voice.

Sadly, Emails to the Rangers board at SFC will not be enough. Anyone can do this with very little effort. What matters most are letters (handwritten) to SFC and more importantly letters to the sponsors. This shows committment and depth of loyalty.

Right now SFC has lost a lot of money. They sold a show to advertisers at a 2.6 rating. They are going to have to give that money back. In addition they lost money on the advertisement campaign. If I was in the programming department at SFC I would be fearing for my job right now due to the scheduling mishap.

The only thing SFC has is evidence that Rangers COULD be a big hit (West Coast ratings and all).

We must sway SFC and the sponsors. Writing letters of support to SFC and the sponsors is a better alternative then attacking one another.

To this end, I suggest that this site make readily available, at a place where everyone can see, the relevant addresses of both SFC and the sponsors. I also suggest that those that run this site encourage everyone to write these letters immediatly. I believe that such letters do make a difference and in this case they may be the deciding factor.

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westtim -

I don't know if you've been beyond the Rim or just haven't been reading the site, but those addresses are all over the place, in at least half of the posted threads - especially in those that have a high reply count. We've had quite a few people already write the Sci-Fi Channel, Warner Brothers, and the Sponsors (which you can find on the thread that says "Rangers Sponsors"). Once again, PLEASE CHECK TO SEE IF YOUR INFORMATION HAS ALREADY BEEN POSTED ON THIS BOARD, as there's only a limited amount of information on Rangers out there. Trust me, if it's out there, it's probably on this site. Read the disclaimer.

I'm at work right now, so I can only post in a very limited fashion. Maybe someone else can post the addresses for Tom Olson and Bonnie Hammer here.

I agree. It is very important to write regular letters, and write them to as many people as you can - especially to the sponsors, such as Jeep, CDW, and the others, who are probably very peeved that Rangers didn't get the right ratings. So write. Write your hands off. Real letters are the only way to go.

HOWEVER, I highly suggest that you ACCOMPANY those letters with comments on the Sci-Fi Board and through the email addresses on th Sci-Fi Feedback site (anybody have those?) The Sci-Fi Channel is a very net-oriented channel, so e-mails can't hurt - they can only help. But don't ONLY do e-mails.

Especially write if you were a B5 fan who taped Rangers and watched the game. That's one of the most important demographics out there.

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channe@[url="http://cryoterrace.tripod.com"]cryoterrace[/url] | "I wonder," said Frodo, "but I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale."

[This message has been edited by channe (edited January 28, 2002).]

I've sent out some letters, & I've made it very clear that I think the 1.7 rating isn't what a Rangers series would normally get, since it wouldn't be up against huge sports-events every week. I live in San Diego, which got a 3.2 beause the game was over when Rangers came on. I think our 3.2 is a better indicator of what Rangers would get, ratings-wise, as a series. I also mentioned that the B5 DVD did better than expected in sales, & also that the B5 reruns do well on SFC. Just some suggestions on what to tell the advertisers. I also said that all of this is an unfortunate result of 9/11, which is true because 9/11 caused the NFL to change the date of the game to the 19th of January.

Tammy

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"We're in here! Can anyone hear us?"
"I hear you." [giggle, laugh]
"In here!"
"We are here." [giggle, laugh]
-- Londo and G'Kar in Babylon 5:"Convictions"

Tammy's Station
http://community.webtv.net/gkarfan/TammysStation

Channe-

Please reread my post. I said the addresses and sponsor information should be in a place where they are easily accesible. One should not have to go searching through threads and posts to find it. Through the Crusade campaign we learned that the smaller the number of obstacles a person has to doing something the more likely they will be to do it. Why the antagonism?

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Tim - most (if not all) of the addresses in question are contained here:
http://www.b5lr.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000693.html

I just added a reply to it to bring it back to the top of the topics list, at least for a while.

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-Londo's Hair
"Vir, intelligence has nothing to do with politics!"

For Channe and Londoshair, Tim KNOWS that the information is in a thread or two. What he is doing is asking Antony to make an ENTIRE PAGE of this site, dedicated to containing this information that is outisde this message board. If you look at the menu of this site you have:

Main Index
Showguide
Features
Community, etc....

Add something there for 'HELP THE RANGERS' or something. A dedicated, STATIC page that will not move, but contains all we need to know and where we need to write to. Having it in threads is great, but it really should be elsewhere as well.

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'I don't believe in the no-win scenario' - JTK

It's a good idea. Not all visitors to the site participate in the message board. They may just stop by for news and updates.

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"You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it."

We Trust In Netter.

I should just stop posting altogether until the end of next week. If you can believe it, I've actually been poting *less*.

Sometimes I overreact, especially now. I haven't slept in two days because of work - I should just stay away from the boards when that occurs, methinks!

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channe@[url="http://cryoterrace.tripod.com"]cryoterrace[/url] | "I wonder," said Frodo, "but I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale."

I agree that Netter is the man right now. But I think we would all like to give the man a little more ammunition to shoot with. Remember he is not negotiating from a position of strength. Had the West coast ratings been the national ratings Warner Bros. could have named their price and got it. But now things are different. We must give Netter all the help he can get

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>The movie's trend of a growing audience (rather then an eroding one) has alot going for it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, as I believe either Allyson or B5Savant explained to me some time ago, this is typical of ratings for any show. Lots of people lose track of time and don't tune in right at the start of even a favorite program. Or people clicking around the dial see something that catches their eye and stay. While declining ratings during an airing are very bad news (indicating that people don't like what they're seeing and are leaving in droves) increasing ratings of the course of a broadcast are nothing exceptional.

As for the letters: It is unlikely that any single factor is going to make up Sci-Fi's mind at this point, not even Netter's powers of persuasion. They're still going to look for independent confirmation of Netter's assertions, both within the ratings and demo numbers and elsewhere. If the decision stands on a knife's edge, even a tiny push - such as the letters and positive feedback from advertisers might provide - could make the difference between getting a series and not getting one.

If the ratings had been uniformly awful, a million letters wouldn't help, even if such a number could be generated. If the ratings were 3.2 across the board, letters wouldn't be needed. But we are in precisely the rare situation where letters actually can make a difference, and I think we have a duty (those of us who want a series, in any case ) to do what we can.

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Sometimes I overreact, especially now. I haven't slept in two days because of work - I should just stay away from the boards when that occurs, methinks!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah Channe, speaking of which, I thought you were gonna take some time off last week?

"Just when I thought I was out for good... they pull me back in." -- Dustin Runnels, aka Goldust (WWF)

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-Londo's Hair
"Vir, intelligence has nothing to do with politics!"

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR> "Just when I thought I was out for good... they pull me back in." -- Dustin Runnels, aka Goldust (WWF) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

"Just when I thought I was out for good... they pull me back in."
-Michael Corleone, The Godfather III

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"You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it."

LondosHair -

I have been. I have posted much less this week than any other in the past month and a half.

The Internet's not the problem - I'm just very tired...

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channe@[url="http://cryoterrace.tripod.com"]cryoterrace[/url] | "I wonder," said Frodo, "but I don't know. And that's the way of a real tale."

[This message has been edited by channe (edited January 28, 2002).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Joseph DeMartino:
Actually, as I believe either Allyson or B5Savant explained to me some time ago, this is typical of ratings for any show. Lots of people lose track of time and don't tune in right at the start of even a favorite program. Or people clicking around the dial see something that catches their eye and stay. While declining ratings during an airing are very bad news (indicating that people don't like what they're seeing and are leaving in droves) increasing ratings of the course of a broadcast are nothing exceptional.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Although with a program that's two hours long, it's feasible that people would watch the first hour and then start channel surfing at the hour. That's not unheard of.

Maybe I'm being too pragmatic and too optimistic here, but I assume that the reason the ratings were so important was to gauge interest in a series under normal circumstances. I gotta think that Sci Fi is smart enough to figure out which data is accurate to that end and which is not. Hpefully the letters will give them the psychological push to do what their analysis should indicate is the right move.

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Dave Thomer
This Is Not News

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR> I gotta think that Sci Fi is smart enough to figure out which data is accurate to that end and which is not. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Never underestimate the intelligence (or lack thereof) of a TV Network Executive.

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'I don't believe in the no-win scenario' - JTK

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Recoil:
I hope Monica's site can handle the increased traffic. I would hate for her site to become another 'IBM e@business Solutions' TV commercial

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ha! Now that would be funny and well I wouldn't mind too much if I got a lot of traffic. So far, there hasn't been but the day is still early. Besides, I asked my husband to keep an eye on things so hopefully, we will be fine.

I am glad JoeD is promoting it as I don't have much time (gotta work ya know) but I will be sending out a few emails myself shortly.

PS: Hehe, it wasn't that long ago when I was getting used to people calling me "Lyta" and now I have to get used to people using my real name.

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Monica Hübinette | Abyss : B5 <- New & Improved!
Pouch-sucking spawn of a bladder fish! Son of a fitch piece of smelt! Tok-swallowing fenbarger! Thrak it! --Na'Feel swearing in B5LR

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by westtim:
Bingo!! This is exactly what I mean. If you folks want to see Rangers survive then this site is going to have to take on a different look. All information pertinent to the survival of Rangers must be presented up front. It must be clearly labeled. Also the situation must be made clear to the casual fan who visited this site after seeing Rangers. You are NOT going to reach this person by simply having the relevant information buried in the messageboard which the casual visiter may not even see.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Westtim the best place to get Antonys attention about changing/adding to the web site etc is in teh forum Questions and sudjestions forum. I personally agree on you idea.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lyta:

PS: Hehe, it wasn't that long ago when I was getting used to people calling me "Lyta" and now I have to get used to people using my real name.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


So what do you prefer to be called?

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Deviot
Lincbot@yahoo.com.au

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Deviot:

So what do you prefer to be called?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm ... George!

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Monica Hübinette | Abyss : B5 | Rangers Sponsor List
Pouch-sucking spawn of a bladder fish! Son of a fitch piece of smelt! Tok-swallowing fenbarger! Thrak it! --Na'Feel swearing in B5LR

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lyta:
Hmm ... George!

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well hello George nice to meet you! LOL



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Deviot
Lincbot@yahoo.com.au

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lyta:
Hmm ... George<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's a great website you have there, by George.

(B5 and Toad the Wet Sprocket? I applaud your taste. )

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Dave Thomer
This Is Not News