Rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Last updated

rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated is a moderated Usenet newsgroup that focuses on the science fiction television series Babylon 5 and the works of writer J. Michael Straczynski. It was spun off from its un-moderated version, rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5, in 1996. The newsgroup counts Straczynski as a frequent contributor, and was among the first internet-based forums where fans interacted directly with a 'showrunner'.

Contents

History

In the early 1990s, several newsgroups were created that focused on the sci-fi show Babylon 5. One of these groups, rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5, became well known for the participation of Babylon 5 creator and writer J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski had long participated in many online forums since the 1980s, and is widely credited as being the first notable artist and celebrity to interact with fans online, even before the advent of the Internet as it is now known. [1]

Straczynski interacted with Babylon 5 fans on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 and similar groups on GEnie and CompuServe, however rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 slowly turned into a morass of spam and 'flame wars' (usually perpetrated and carried forward by a rather small group of people). The more Babylon 5's ratings increased, and the more attention was drawn to Straczynski's involvement in the group, the more extensive and vitriolic the many flame wars got. By the end of 1995, Straczynski was also being 'net-stalked', [2] and had to scrap a script in pre-production because fans were posting story ideas. [3] Eventually, Straczynski left rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5, focusing on the moderated Internet based forums.

A group of fans then proposed the creation of a moderated version of rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5. The resultant Request For Discussion [4] became the most replied to RFD in the history of Usenet at the time (surpassed only by the rec.music.white-power newsgroup vote),[ citation needed ] and the proposal overwhelmingly passed, creating rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated. The majority of rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 contributors, as well as Straczynski and other Usenet personalities, flocked to the new group, essentially continuing rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 in a more controlled environment.

Straczynski continues to post to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated to this day, engaging in discussions with fans about many subjects in addition to answering questions about his works and using the group to make announcements about new projects. [5] The various independent websites that archive his Usenet posts or the group itself are usually mis-cited in the media as being his official websites.

The group is actively moderated on a volunteer basis by two Babylon 5 fans, and the computer equipment and bandwidth costs are supported by donations from other fans. Posts can be made through normal Usenet methods (via a newsreader or the World Wide Web through Google Groups), or via e-mail.

Moderation

Per the group's charter, no topic is "off topic". Most discussions at first naturally focused on Babylon 5, and since the show ended, on Straczynski's recent works in comics, film, radio and television. The group can be looked at as more of a general discussion group.

The only things that are not allowed in the group are spam, trolling, story ideas about Babylon 5 or other projects Straczynski may be working on, and flame wars. [6]

Posts from new contributors or new threads go through the moderators for approval first ("hand moderation"). Posts to existing threads from experienced contributors are automatically allowed through by computer. Discussion threads on particularly heated subjects (usually politics) are continuously hand moderated to prevent flame wars from occurring, and if they do, the thread can be shut down. The system is not perfect: posts can be lost and the group can be down to new posts if the moderation computers are being moved or during power outages, etc. Appearance of new threads are dependent on the availability of the moderators, and may sometimes take more than a day to appear. Occasionally, complaints of censorship arise, though these complaints are often from people who were making posts that violated the clearly set rules. Nevertheless, the forum is still a popular discussion ground for Straczynski's fans, with the main selling point being the opportunity to interact with Straczynski.

Jay Denebeim, a volunteer moderator for Rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, was profiled in a Wall Street Journal article that covered the travails that beset the Usenet in the late 1990s. [7]

Legacy

Straczynski's involvement with rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 and its successor, rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, has had great influence on his works, especially Babylon 5. Straczynski's involvement on these groups also paved the way for similar online discussion involvement by many artists and celebrities today. [8] [9] [10]

At the time, the word "blog" had not yet been coined, and yet Straczynski's discussion of every episode of the show prior to its airing remains a critical milestone in the history of production-related blogging. [11]

Straczynski's contributions

Straczynski began his postings on GEnie with background information about the setting and history of the major races and station. By the time he began posting to Usenet, the pilot was over and episodes were in production. [12] Discussion of upcoming projects was a frequent topic throughout, and began as early as July 1993 with information about upcoming comic book adaptations. [13]

Early in the first season, Straczynski began to divulge details of upcoming plot threads, though he did so sparingly. One such comment set up the homosexual themes that would not be revealed until the second season between two of the female characters ("Divided Loyalties"). [14] This particular plot thread eventually led to one of the most discussed editing choices in the show's history. A kiss between the two women during the second season was edited in such a way that it was strongly suggestive, but not a definitive kiss.

Religion played a large role in Babylon 5, and yet in many of his postings, Straczynski discussed his atheism. During the first season, he commented that

religion [...] has always been present. And it will be present 200 years from now. That may not thrill me, but when one is a writer, one must deal with realities, and that's one of them. To totally ignore that part of the human equation would be as false and wrong-headed as ignoring the fact that people get mad, or passionate, or strive for better lives. [...] In the Babylon 5 universe, all the things that make us human—our obsessions, our interests, our language, our culture, our flaws and our wonderfulnesses—are all still intact. [15]

In addition to his discussion of the show itself, Straczynski often fielded questions related to the writing process in general or regarding the business side of Babylon 5. [16] Many posters asked about topics such as the demands of writing for a series, and how to break into the industry.

As the seasons progressed, ratings were a frequent topic because of the concern surrounding seasonal renewal of the show. [17] For similar reasons, awards such as Emmys that the show received were also discussed on a regular basis. [18]

Departures from the show were often highly emotional topics for the fans, and for Straczynski. The three primary departures which sparked the most commentary were those of Michael O'Hare (between seasons 1 and 2), Andrea Thompson (mid-season 2) and Claudia Christian (between seasons 4 and 5). These departures were also a great source of speculation which ignited strong responses from Straczynski. [19] Straczynski shared information regarding the death of Richard Biggs [20] [21] [22] and Andreas Katsulas. [23]

Details of production and business choices to which fans are not always privy were often shared. Some examples include:

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Babylon 5</i> American space opera television series (1994–1998)

Babylon 5 is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Television. After the successful airing of a test pilot movie on February 22, 1993, Babylon 5: The Gathering, Warner Bros. commissioned the series for production in May 1993 as part of its Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). The show premiered in the US on January 26, 1994, and ran for five 22-episode seasons.

A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web. Newsreader software is used to read the content of newsgroups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Michael Straczynski</span> American writer and filmmaker (born 1954)

Joseph Michael Straczynski is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series Babylon 5 (1993–1998) and its spinoff Crusade (1999), as well as the series Jeremiah (2002–2004) and Sense8 (2015–2018). He is the executor of the estate of Harlan Ellison.

The Great Renaming was a restructuring of Usenet newsgroups that took place in 1987. B News maintainer and UUNET founder Rick Adams is generally considered to be the initiator of the Renaming.

<i>alt.*</i> hierarchy Subclass of Usenet newsgroups

The alt.* hierarchy is a major class of newsgroups in Usenet, containing all newsgroups whose name begins with "alt.", organized hierarchically. The alt.* hierarchy is not confined to newsgroups of any specific subject or type, although in practice more formally organized groups tend not to occur in alt.*. The alt.* hierarchy was created by John Gilmore and Brian Reid.

"Midnight on the Firing Line" is the first episode of the first season of the science fiction television series, Babylon 5, following the pilot movie, "The Gathering". It first aired on January 26, 1994. It was notable for being the first regular television episode which used computer-generated imagery rather than physical models for its special visual effects. The episode also marked the beginning of the first science fiction television series where the entire series had an overarching storyline, which the writer J. Michael Straczynski described as "a novel for television".

"Infection" is the fourth episode of the first season of the science fiction television series, Babylon 5. "Infection" was the first script written for a regular Babylon 5 episode, and involves the arrival aboard the station of an extremely powerful ancient bio-weapon created by the Ikarrans, a long-extinct alien race.

"The War Prayer" is the seventh episode of the first season of the science fiction television series, Babylon 5. It first aired on 9 March 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyta Alexander</span> Fictional character

Lyta Alexander [Lyta pronounced as: ] is a fictional character portrayed by Patricia Tallman in the science fiction television series Babylon 5.

talk.origins is a moderated Usenet discussion forum concerning the origins of life, and evolution. It remains a major venue for debate in the creation–evolution controversy, and its official purpose is to draw such debates out of the science newsgroups, such as sci.bio.evolution and sci.bio.paleontology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Tallman</span> American actress and stunt performer

Patricia J. Tallman is an American actress, stunt performer, and studio executive best known for her roles in Night of the Living Dead, Star Trek and Babylon 5. She is the former CEO and executive producer of Studio JMS.

<i>Babylon 5</i>s use of the Internet A study of science fiction fan interactions in the early Internet

Beginning around 1991, the creator of the television series Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, participated in a number of Internet venues to discuss elements of his work with his fans, including the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 Usenet newsgroup, where he continued to communicate as late as March 2007. This flow of information and feedback had a substantial impact on Babylon 5, as well as Straczynski's other shows and his fan base. This interaction pre-dated the coining of the term "blog", but is functionally similar.

<i>The Lurkers Guide to Babylon 5</i>

The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 is a fan-run website that includes detailed episode guides and analyses, production history notes, background materials, references and other information related to the science fiction epic, Babylon 5. The name is derived from the term lurker, which creator J. Michael Straczynski adopted to refer to the underclass residents on the Babylon 5 station.

<i>Babylon 5: The Lost Tales</i> 2007 film

Babylon 5: The Lost Tales was intended to be an anthology show set in the Babylon 5 universe. It was announced by J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2006. Straczynski has described the stories as ideas he had for the Babylon 5 television series but never had the time to produce. Only one installment, titled Voices in the Dark, was produced before the project was shelved.

David G. Potter was a computer technician at California State University, Sacramento who was widely known for acerbic, scathingly humorous and knowledgeable postings to Usenet science fiction newsgroups. He assumed the name of Gharlane of Eddore, a character from the Lensman series, as a Usenet pseudonym for Usenet postings and carefully guarded his true identity for many years before his death. He is best known for authoring the Lensman FAQ and voluminous Usenet postings. He died on June 13, 2001 following a heart attack.

A Usenet personality was a particular kind of Internet celebrity, being an individual who gained a certain level of notoriety from posting on Usenet, a global network of computer users with a vast array of topics for discussion. The platform is usually anonymous, although users can get celebrity status, usually by being deemed different from other posters in some way.

Stellar Occasion was a three-day science fiction convention held in the Dallas, Texas area in the mid to late 1990s. It blended science fiction literary and media guests with space science in an unusual, fan-oriented cross between the traditional science fiction convention and a commercial media event. Stellar Occasion is notable for being an early proponent of the television series Babylon 5 and featuring both writers and actors from the show each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Usenet</span> Worldwide computer-based distributed discussion system

Usenet, USENET, or, "in full", User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was established in 1980. Users read and post messages to one or more topic categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles a bulletin board system (BBS) in many respects and is the precursor to the Internet forums that have become widely used. Discussions are threaded, as with web forums and BBSes, though posts are stored on the server sequentially.

<i>Babylon 5</i> (franchise) American space opera franchise

Babylon 5 is an American space opera media franchise created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label in association with Straczynski’s Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Television. After the successful airing of a pilot movie, Warner Bros. commissioned the series as part of the second year schedule of programs provided by its Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). It premiered in the United States on January 26, 1994 and ran for the intended five seasons. Describing it as having "always been conceived as, fundamentally, a five year story, a novel for television", Straczynski wrote 92 of the 110 episodes and served as executive producer, along with Douglas Netter.

References

  1. Bacon-Smith, Camille (2000). Science Fiction Culture. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 87–89. ISBN   0-8122-1530-3.
  2. Plume, Kenneth (September 7, 2000). "Interview with J. Michael Straczynski (Part 3 of 4)". IGN . Archived from the original on August 27, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2008.
  3. Straczynski, J. Michael (July 13, 2004). "Guide: Passing Through Gethsemane (JMS Speaks)". The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 . Retrieved July 27, 2008.
  4. "RFD: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.info". January 31, 1996. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  5. Straczynski, J. Michael (May 27, 1997). "B5 newsgroup?". JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  6. Bell, David; Kennedy, Barbara M. (2000). The Cybercultures Reader. Routledge. pp.  225–226. ISBN   0-415-18378-2.
  7. Hanrahan, Timothy (December 8, 1997). "Behind the Scenes --- The Moderator: Running a newsgroup means walking a fine line between discussion and chaos; And it's getting finer all the time". The Wall Street Journal . Vol. 230, no. 112. p. R.26. As a volunteer moderator for rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, the busy Usenet newsgroup dedicated to the four-year-old science-fiction TV drama "Babylon 5," the Internet veteran spends as much as 30 hours a week sifting through hundreds of e-mail submissions about the show, separating the good from the bad and the ugly. The good ones -- most of the e-mails -- go onto a computer server hooked to the Internet, where anyone can read them. The rest go nowhere.
  8. Wexelblat, Alan (2002). "An Auteur in the Age of the Internet: JMS, Babylon 5, and the Net". In Jenkins, Henry (ed.). Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture. Duke University Press. ISBN   0-8223-2737-6.
  9. Lancaster, Kurt; Jenkins, Henry (2001). Interacting with Babylon 5: Fan Performance in a Media Universe. University of Texas Press. ISBN   0-292-74722-5.
  10. Vint, Sherryl (2008). "Babylon 5: Our First, Best Hope for Mature Science Fiction Television". In Telotte, J. P. (ed.). The Essential Science Fiction Television Reader. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN   978-0-8131-2492-6.
  11. Askwith, Ivan D. (September 2007). "Television 2.0: Reconceptualizing TV as an Engagement Medium" (PDF). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. p. 91.
  12. Straczynski, J. Michael (July 9, 1993). "Passage through jumpgates". JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  13. Straczynski, J. Michael (July 19, 1993). "A Couple of Questions..." JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  14. Straczynski, J. Michael (August 29, 1993). "Homosexuality in Space!". JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  15. Straczynski, J. Michael (September 9, 1993). "Religion in B5". JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  16. Straczynski, J. Michael (May 31, 1996). "Re: Attn JMS: Writing questions". JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  17. Straczynski, J. Michael (June 1, 1996). "Re: Attn JMS: B5 Demos Was: JMS on CompuServe..." JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  18. Straczynski, J. Michael (July 7, 1995). "Question on Emmys". JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  19. Straczynski, J. Michael (July 22, 1997). "Claudia Opts Out-JMS". JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  20. "'Babylon 5' actor dies: Richard Biggs played Dr. Stephen Franklin on sci-fi series". CNN . May 25, 2004. Retrieved July 27, 2008.
  21. 1 2 "Richard Biggs dies: Babylon 5's Dr Stephen Franklin dies aged only 44". BBC News . May 25, 2004. Retrieved July 27, 2008.[ dead link ]
  22. Straczynski, J. Michael (May 22, 2004). "Today We Lost Richard Biggs". JMSNews. Retrieved July 27, 2008.
  23. Straczynski, J. Michael (January 15, 2006). "Andreas Katsulas is gone". JMSNews. Retrieved July 27, 2008.
  24. Straczynski, J. Michael (May 27, 1997). "How will this play out". JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  25. Straczynski, J. Michael (October 27, 1999). "ATTN JMS: *sigh* a quick Question". JMSNews. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  26. "Sheridan, Lochley, Galen, And More!! 'Babylon 5: The Lost Tales' Begins Production!!". Ain't It Cool News . November 13, 2006. Archived from the original on March 8, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2008.
  27. Tyler, Josh (January 15, 2008). "Straczynski Adapting E.E. Doc Smith's Lensman For Ron Howard". Cinema Blend. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  28. Gustavo, Leao (July 15, 2008). "J. Michael Straczynski Says Babylon 5 Will only Return as a Feature Film". TrekWeb. Archived from the original on August 9, 2008. Retrieved July 30, 2008.