The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
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  52. <h1 align=center><a name="TOP">Lurker's Guide Help and FAQs</a></h1>
  53. <p>
  54. <b>See Also:</b>
  55. <a href="/lurk/ftp/babylon-5-faq">[Babylon 5 FAQ]</a> -
  56. <a href="/lurk/toc.html">[Table of Contents]</a>
  57. <p>
  58. This document answers the most common questions I see in my capacity as
  59. maintainer of the Lurker's Guide. Before you send me mail, have a look
  60. at this list and see if your question is answered -- it'll save you the
  61. delay of waiting for my response (and if I'm busy, I might not reply to
  62. questions that're answered here.)
  63. <ul>
  64. <li> <a href="#fanclubsite">I can't get to the fan club site. Help!</a>
  65. <li> About the Guide
  66. <ul>
  67. <li> <a href="#general">General information</a>
  68. <li> <a href="#authors">About the authors</a>
  69. <li> <a href="#about-jms">Who's JMS talking to?</a>
  70. <li> <a href="#notyet">Why isn't the guide page/synopsis/credits page
  71. filled in for episode X yet?</a>
  72. <li> <a href="#awards">Awards and accolades</a>
  73. <li> <a href="#link">Linking to the Guide</a>
  74. <li> <a href="#forward">Why aren't there links to the episodes that
  75. answer the unanswered questions on the guide pages?</a>
  76. <li> <a href="#dates">Why are there dates next to some of the
  77. entries on the guide pages?</a>
  78. <li> <a href="#nodates">Why aren't there any recent dates on a guide
  79. page that was recently changed?</a>
  80. <li> <a href="#mirror">I want to mirror the Guide. How do I
  81. do it?</a>
  82. <li> <a href="#crusade">Will the Lurker's Guide cover</a>
  83. <a href="/lurk/guide/113.html">"Crusade?"</a>
  84. <li> <a href="#amazon">Why are there links to Amazon.com all
  85. over?</a>
  86. </ul>
  87. <li> Can you tell me...
  88. <ul>
  89. <li> <a href="#video">where to find episodes on video?</a>
  90. <li> <a href="#rerun">when older episodes will be rerun?</a>
  91. <li> <a href="#restart">when B5 will start (or resume) in my
  92. country?</a>
  93. <li> <a href="#items">when the next episode/novel/comic/toy/etc.
  94. will be out?</a>
  95. <li> <a href="#stations">where and when B5 is on in my area?</a>
  96. <li> <a href="#future">what will happen to the show after the
  97. five-year storyline is finished?</a>
  98. <li> <a href="#font">where to get the font Babylon 5 uses?</a>
  99. </ul>
  100. <li> Why don't you have...
  101. <ul>
  102. <li> <a href="#pics">more pictures?</a>
  103. <li> <a href="#sounds">sound clips?</a>
  104. <li> <a href="#videoclips">video clips?</a>
  105. <li> <a href="#bios">bios on characters, more background, etc.?</a>
  106. <li> <a href="#old">complete guide pages for older episodes?</a>
  107. <li> <a href="#download">a downloadable copy of the whole Guide?</a>
  108. <li> <a href="#modified">a page that lists the modification times
  109. of all the guide pages?</a>
  110. </ul>
  111. <li> How do I...
  112. <ul>
  113. <li> <a href="#HT-current">add "This Week's Episode" to my hotlist?</a>
  114. <li> <a href="#HT-jms">send mail to JMS?</a>
  115. </ul>
  116. </ul>
  117. <hr size=6>
  118. <h2><a name="about">About the Guide</a></h2>
  119. <h3><a name="general">General information</a></h3>
  120. <p>
  121. The Lurker's Guide is a volunteer effort encompassing documents maintained
  122. by many <cite>Babylon 5</cite> fans, as well as a lot of original material
  123. not found elsewhere. It's not associated in any kind of official way with
  124. the show (but thanks for thinking so!)
  125. <p>
  126. It started off before the airing of the
  127. <a href="guide/000.html">pilot movie</a>
  128. as a simple HTMLized version of the
  129. <a href="/lurk/ftp/babylon-5-faq">Babylon 5 Frequently
  130. Asked Questions List,</a>
  131. and in fact a lot of the FAQ List's text can still be found here.
  132. Once the series began airing, maintaining a huge monolithic document became
  133. impractical, and the Lurker's Guide was born.
  134. <p>
  135. The main thing you'll find in the Guide that didn't originate elsewhere
  136. is the extensive
  137. <a href="episodes.php">episode list</a>
  138. with several pages for each episode. Each episode has a "guide page,"
  139. with some generic, non-spoiler information (guest stars, airdate, brief
  140. description) at the top and spoilers below a dividing line. From the
  141. guide page you can jump to a synopsis, the credits, and so forth.
  142. <p>
  143. <hr>
  144. <h3><a name="authors">About the authors</a></h3>
  145. <p>
  146. <a href="http://www.midwinter.com/~koreth/">Steven Grimm</a>
  147. is more or less the editor-in-chief of the Guide, pulling together all the
  148. pieces and doing some of the writing himself. But most of the credit goes
  149. to the Guide's many contributors, who include: (<em>not</em> a complete list)
  150. <p>
  151. <ul>
  152. <li> <a href="mailto:shawn.bayern@yale.edu">Shawn Bayern</a> - first-season
  153. synopses
  154. <li> <a href="mailto:kat@midwinter.com">Katrina Glerum</a> - background
  155. summaries
  156. <li> <a href="mailto:davidh@psiphi.org">David Henderson</a>
  157. - onscreen-credits transcriptions
  158. <li> <a href="http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/genoa/home.html">Jack Holt</a>
  159. - onscreen-credits transcriptions, seasons 1 and 2
  160. <li> <a href="mailto:magidin@math.berkeley.edu">Arturo Magidin</a>
  161. - onscreen-credits transcriptions, seasons 4 and 5
  162. <li> <a href="http://diglib.stanford.edu/~mogens/">Christian Mogensen</a>
  163. - the Find function
  164. <li> <a href="mailto:mmurray@cc.wwu.edu">Matthew Murray</a>
  165. - second- and third-season synopses
  166. <li> <a href="http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~oliver/">E. L. Oliver</a>
  167. - novel synopses and guide pages
  168. <li> Steven Orso - JMS Speaks entries
  169. <li> <a href="mailto:mattryan@pobox.com">Matt Ryan</a>
  170. - first-season guide pages
  171. <li> Jason Snell - late second-season guide pages
  172. <li> Dirk Steines - onscreen-credits transcriptions
  173. <li> <a href="http://www.karelia.com/">Dan Wood</a> - Graphic design and layout; illustrations; the FAQ List,
  174. from which information is regularly culled; and general helpfulness
  175. and assistance.
  176. <li> Dave Zimmerman - second-season guide pages
  177. </ul>
  178. <p>
  179. On the episode guide pages, the guest stars' names are generally linked
  180. to their entries in the
  181. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/">Internet Movie Database</a>.
  182. Thanks to the IMDb for providing such a useful service.
  183. <p>
  184. Of course, the biggest credit of all goes to J. Michael Straczynski,
  185. without whom we'd all have a <strong>lot</strong> more free time! :)
  186. <p>
  187. <hr>
  188. <h3><a name="about-jms">Who's JMS talking to?</a></h3>
  189. The "JMS Speaks" sections of the episode guide pages are culled from
  190. executive producer J. Michael Straczynski's messages on various online
  191. services and the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 newsgroup. When he writes
  192. about an episode, he's often replying to a question from another user.
  193. This is frequently reflected in the wording of his replies, which can
  194. be a little disconcerting if you're not expecting it.
  195. <p>
  196. Where required, I've tried to include some context to clarify what JMS
  197. is talking about. I don't, and don't plan to, include the original
  198. messages verbatim, both for space reasons (questions are frequently
  199. longer than JMS' responses) and because while JMS has given permission
  200. for his messages to be archived, not everyone else has.
  201. <p>
  202. When I judge that one of JMS' remarks can stand on its own, I generally
  203. include it in its entirety, even if it begins with text like, "You're
  204. right, Mary." If you feel one of his comments is incomprehensible
  205. because of lack of context, feel free to point it out to me.
  206. <p>
  207. <hr>
  208. <h3><a name="notyet">Why isn't the guide page/synopsis/credits page filled
  209. in yet?</a></h3>
  210. <p>
  211. First see the answer to the previous question.
  212. <p>
  213. All the information in the Guide, aside from the JMS quotes, is written or
  214. assembled by fans on a volunteer basis. Warner Bros. doesn't run this site,
  215. and we don't get official episode descriptions or press releases except
  216. indirectly via the net. So the simple answer is, if the episode hasn't aired
  217. yet, the page isn't filled in because we haven't seen the show.
  218. <p>
  219. Some of the volunteers see the episodes from the satellite uplink.
  220. Some see them the following weekend and don't have time to write their pages
  221. until the subsequent week. In general, all the pages tend to be filled in
  222. by two weeks after the initial satellite uplink to the US market.
  223. <p>
  224. <hr>
  225. <h3><a name="awards">Awards and accolades</a></h3>
  226. (This section is mostly to satisfy my voracious ego. You should probably
  227. skip it.)
  228. <p>
  229. The Lurker's Guide, like the show, has attracted some positive attention from
  230. the world at large.
  231. <p>
  232. <ul>
  233. <li> July 1998:
  234. <a href="http://www.eyeontheweb.com/">Eye On the Web</a>
  235. selected site.
  236. <li> June 1998:
  237. <a href="http://www.gnuhoo.com/">GnuHoo</a>
  238. cool site.
  239. <li> October 1997:
  240. <a href="http://members.tripod.com/~dymphna/">Best of Babylonia</a>
  241. selected site.
  242. <li> August 1997:
  243. <a href="http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/2220/tvsotw.html">TV
  244. Site of the Week</a>
  245. <li> July 1997:
  246. <a href="http://www.surffamily.com/institute/">Pacific Paratemporal
  247. Institute</a>
  248. cool site.
  249. <li> April 1997:
  250. <a href="http://www.omnimag.com/cool_science/">OMNI Cool Science</a>
  251. winner.
  252. <li> January 1997: One of
  253. <a href="http://www.lycos.com/">Lycos</a>'
  254. top 10 science-fiction sites.
  255. <li> January 1997:
  256. <a href="http://www.looksmart.com/">LookSmart's</a>
  257. Editor's Choice Award.
  258. <li> January 1997:
  259. <a href="http://www.netguide.com/">NetGuide</a>
  260. Gold Award.
  261. <li> November 1996: SFX magazine (UK) site of the month.
  262. <li> August 1996:
  263. <a href="http://netmar.com/~alba/tva-e.html">Top Rock</a>
  264. award.
  265. <li> July 1996:
  266. <a href="http://www.fh-furtwangen.de/~schoenfe/2-2.html">Athena Site
  267. of the Month.</a>
  268. <li> June 1996:
  269. <a href="http://twig.hypercon.com/">The Weekly Internet Guide</a>
  270. five-star site.
  271. <li> June 1996:
  272. <a href="http://www.tasmall.com.au/offsite.html">Tasmall</a>
  273. cool site of the week.
  274. <li> June 1996:
  275. <a href="http://www.lm.com/~onestar/">The Journal of Onestar</a>
  276. Site of the Week.
  277. <li> May 1996:
  278. <a href="http://www.csv.warwick.ac.uk/~suaap/">Shakaar Society</a>
  279. Top 5 Site for the month of May.
  280. <li> April 1996:
  281. <a href="http://www.scifi.com/sfw/">Science Fiction Weekly's</a>
  282. Site of the Week for April 8.
  283. <li> March 1996: Rated #10 out of the top 101 sites on the Web by
  284. MacUser magazine.
  285. <li> January 1996: 3-star rating in the
  286. <a href="http://www.mckinley.com/">Magellan Internet Directory.</a>
  287. <li> December 1995: 5-star rating in the
  288. <a href="http://www.underground-online.com/">Internet Underground</a>
  289. Web Guide.
  290. <li> October 1995: Rated among the Top 5% of the Web in the
  291. <a href="http://www.pointcom.com/">Point Survey.</a>
  292. <li> August 1995: Most-nominated site in the
  293. <a href="http://www.flavour.co.uk/flavour/dreamwatch/">DreamWatch</a>
  294. sci-fi resources database.
  295. <li> August 1995: Graded "A" by
  296. <a href="http://www.thenet-usa.com/">the net</a>
  297. magazine.
  298. <li> June 1995:
  299. <a href="http://www.nuke.com/">Nuke</a>'s
  300. Hot Site (TV section.)
  301. <li> November 13, 1994:
  302. <a href="http://www.infi.net/cool.html">Cool Site of the Day.</a>
  303. </ul>
  304. <p>
  305. <hr>
  306. <h3><a name="link">Linking to the Guide</a></h3>
  307. <p>
  308. You're welcome to put links to the Guide in your Web pages if you like; no
  309. need to ask permission. In fact, you can even use the
  310. <a href="/lurk/nav/title/icon.gif">Lurker's Guide icon</a>
  311. from the
  312. <a href="/">Midwinter home page</a>
  313. as your hotlink (remember the ALT text!)
  314. <p>
  315. <hr>
  316. <h3><a name="forward">Why aren't there links to the episodes that
  317. answer the unanswered questions on the guide pages?</a></h3>
  318. <p>
  319. That's a task I've set aside for myself for after the series is over. Until
  320. then it's simply too much work to have to go through all the old pages when
  321. a new episode shows up -- and I can never be entirely sure that the question
  322. has actually been answered as fully as it will be, since there are often
  323. nuances that don't emerge until further down the line.
  324. <p>
  325. Please don't take that to mean that I want people to tell me where to put the
  326. forward references -- this is really something I'd rather not undertake at all
  327. until the show is finished, at which point it'll be possible to do a much nicer
  328. job of it.
  329. <p>
  330. <hr>
  331. <h3><a name="dates">Why are there dates next to some of the
  332. entries on the guide pages?</a></h3>
  333. <p>
  334. The dates appear next to entries that have been added in the last two weeks.
  335. They disappear automatically when an entry gets more than two weeks old. You
  336. can use the dates, in conjunction with the
  337. <a href="lastmod.html">Modification Times page,</a>
  338. to quickly see what's changed on a particular guide page. The dates are
  339. emphasized and enclosed in double brackets, so should stand out on any kind
  340. of browser.
  341. <p>
  342. I only mark an item as changed if there's been some change to the substance
  343. of the comment; spelling corrections and the like don't get datestamped.
  344. (But they'll still cause the page's modification time to be updated.)
  345. <p>
  346. <hr>
  347. <h3><a name="nodates">Why aren't there recent dates next to entries on a guide
  348. page that changed recently?</a></h3>
  349. <p>
  350. See the previous question.
  351. <p>
  352. <hr>
  353. <h3><a name="mirror">I want to mirror the Guide. How do I do it?</a></h3>
  354. <p>
  355. I appreciate your interest. At this point I have all the mirrors I want.
  356. Each additional mirror is a little extra work for me, and I'd rather spend my
  357. Guide time on the Guide itself.
  358. <p>
  359. If you want to make a local copy for your personal use, I don't have a problem
  360. with that -- and in fact, it effectively happens all the time, since you're
  361. making a local copy when you use a caching proxy HTTP server. That's probably
  362. the easiest way to go about it. (No, I can't help you set one up; ask your
  363. local webmaster or get one of the many books on Web site administration.)
  364. <p>
  365. <hr>
  366. <h3><a name="crusade">Will the Lurker's Guide cover "Crusade?"</a></h3>
  367. <p>
  368. <a href="misc/whatnext.html">Read all about it.</a>
  369. <p>
  370. <hr>
  371. <h3><a name="amazon">Why are there links to Amazon.com all over?</a></h3>
  372. <p>
  373. Linking to Amazon.com from the novel pages and elsewhere in the Guide
  374. serves a few purposes. First, it provides people with an easy way to
  375. get the books. Not everyone is in an area with bookstores that carry
  376. Babylon 5 novels and behind-the-scenes books. I've been ordering books
  377. from Amazon.com for some time now and have found them to be responsible
  378. and prompt.
  379. <p>
  380. Second, it gives readers a place to post comments about the books, and to
  381. read others' comments. Maintaining that sort of forum isn't something I
  382. have time to do within the Guide itself.
  383. <p>
  384. And third, yes, it puts a little money in my pocket. Once I decided it'd
  385. serve the Guide's readers to link to Amazon.com (and that consideration did
  386. come first) it seemed reasonable to join their associates program and link
  387. to them that way; it doesn't hurt the user experience at all, the writers
  388. and Warner Bros. are paid the same amount in royalties -- everyone wins.
  389. <p>
  390. I'm not in this for the money: I've turned down more offers from
  391. Web ad sales people than I can count, mostly because I think ad banners
  392. splattered all over the place would worsen the Guide (and, to a lesser
  393. extent, because it would present copyright and licensing issues I'm not
  394. interested in dealing with.) The links to Amazon.com,
  395. on the other hand, add something of value that wasn't here before, and can
  396. be justified purely as a benefit to the readers.
  397. <p>
  398. <hr size=4>
  399. <h2>Can you tell me...</h2>
  400. <h3><a name="video">Where to find episodes on video</a></h3>
  401. Babylon 5 is available on videotape in Europe and the US. See the Guide's
  402. <a href="resources/products.html#video">Products</a>
  403. page for a complete rundown.
  404. <p>
  405. I can't direct you to someone who'll copy the episodes for you.
  406. For one thing, it's illegal, and for another, I simply don't have lists of
  407. people who want to copy videotapes. If you must, ask for help in this
  408. regard on the alt.tv.babylon5 newsgroup. Requests of this nature will be
  409. silently deleted if you mail them to me.
  410. <p>
  411. <hr>
  412. <h3><a name="rerun">When old episodes will be rerun</a></h3>
  413. Naturally, this varies by country. In the US, rerun rights to Babylon 5
  414. have been bought by the
  415. <a href="http://tnt.turner.com/">TNT</a>
  416. cable network. They'll begin airing season 1 reruns in January 1998,
  417. concurrent with season 5. See the
  418. <a href="/lurk/countries/us/episodes.php">US/Canada episode list</a>
  419. page for the latest information.
  420. <p>
  421. For information about other countries, check the schedule page for the
  422. country in question. All the information I have about reruns is on the
  423. schedule pages; if you don't see it there, I don't know about it.
  424. <p>
  425. <hr>
  426. <h3><a name="restart">When new episodes will be shown in my country</a></h3>
  427. All the information I have about upcoming schedules appears on the various
  428. <a href="/lurk/countries/">country-specific schedule pages.</a>
  429. As soon as I have additional information about broadcasts in a particular
  430. country, I update the page in question. If you don't see anything about new
  431. episodes on your country's page, it means I haven't been told about future
  432. broadcast plans.
  433. <p>
  434. If you're desperate for information, call the TV station
  435. or network that was showing the most recent batch of episodes and ask them
  436. if there's any news. (If there is, tell me so I can update the Guide!)
  437. <p>
  438. <hr>
  439. <h3><a name="items">When the next episode / novel / comic / toy / etc. will be
  440. out</a></h3>
  441. All the information I have about release dates is in the appropriate
  442. places in the Guide; I don't know anything about release dates that's not
  443. listed here. Check the
  444. <a href="episodes.php">episode list</a>
  445. (or, if you're outside the US and Canada, the list for your
  446. <a href="countries/">country</a>)
  447. for episode schedules, the
  448. <a href="novels/index.html">novel index</a>
  449. for information about the novels, the
  450. <a href="comic/index.html">comic index</a>
  451. for information about the comics... you get the idea. The
  452. <a href="toc.html">table of contents</a>
  453. is a useful page to know about.
  454. <p>
  455. <hr>
  456. <h3><a name="future">What will happen to B5 after the story is done</a></h3>
  457. <p>
  458. There is a followup series,
  459. <a href="/lurk/guide/113.html">"Crusade."</a>
  460. It takes place after the events of the original series (not counting
  461. <a href="/lurk/guide/088.html">"The Deconstruction of Falling Stars"</a>
  462. and
  463. <a href="/lurk/guide/110.html">"Sleeping in Light,"</a>
  464. which are both set long after the rest of the story).
  465. <p>
  466. <hr>
  467. <h3><a name="font">Where to get the font B5 uses</a></h3>
  468. <p>
  469. Babylon 5 uses the "Serpentine Medium" font for its onscreen credits and
  470. titles. The Lurker's Guide uses this font for many of its labels as well.
  471. Serpentine Medium is available from
  472. <a href="http://www.adobe.com/">Adobe Systems.</a>
  473. It is on their Type On Call CD-ROM and their Font Folio CD set, possibly
  474. others.
  475. <p>
  476. I cannot give you a copy of the font -- you have to buy it from Adobe if
  477. you want it.
  478. <p>
  479. <hr>
  480. <h3><a name="stations">Where and when B5 is on in my area</a></h3>
  481. The most current information I have is on your country's
  482. <a href="countries/">schedule page.</a>
  483. Check there first. If the information there is wrong for your area, your best
  484. bet is to check your local TV listings or, if B5 was previously on a particular
  485. station, to call that station and ask where it was moved. Then let me know
  486. what you find out so I can update the list.
  487. <p>
  488. TV stations don't
  489. notify me when they make schedule changes, so it'll do you no good to ask me
  490. about your local station's air time. As soon as I'm told about a schedule
  491. change, I change the station list to reflect it.
  492. <p>
  493. <hr size=4>
  494. <h2>Why don't you have...</h2>
  495. <h3><a name="pics">More Pictures</a></h3>
  496. Understand that
  497. I'm in no way associated with the B5 production team. I don't have any
  498. access to production materials that the general public doesn't. In other
  499. words, you can get new high-quality pictures as easily as I can. If you
  500. do manage to scare up some official ones ("official" means anything released
  501. by Warner Bros.' publicity department, which generally includes anything
  502. in magazines) I'll happily accept them.
  503. <p>
  504. I do occasionally digitize some small stills from episodes to put in the
  505. guide pages and synopses. My rule of thumb there is that those pictures
  506. should be small enough that someone who wanted to get an official license
  507. to make a CD-ROM full of B5 images wouldn't lose business due to what
  508. I've done. I do <em>not</em> take requests -- getting set up to do the
  509. digitizing is something of a hassle, I only do it once every couple
  510. months, and I'd spend a solid week on my pause button if I grabbed all
  511. the frames people have requested.
  512. <p>
  513. Note that the people who write the synopses for the episodes are <em>not</em>
  514. the ones who grab the pictures -- the pictures are added after the fact as
  515. I find time to do it.
  516. <p>
  517. <hr>
  518. <h3><a name="sounds">More Sounds</a></h3>
  519. Early on, when
  520. I decided to keep my synopsis and guide page images small, I also decided
  521. I wasn't going to have any sounds here. The primary concern is the same
  522. as the pictures: I don't want to reduce anyone's ability to sell a disk
  523. of licensed B5 sound clips, either before or after the fact. Unfortunately,
  524. there's not really an equivalent middle ground along the lines of keeping
  525. pictures small; you can't have a clip of just half a funny line, for
  526. instance, without it being useless.
  527. <p>
  528. However, I have no qualms about listing other people's B5 pages in the
  529. guide, and if they happen to contain sounds, there's nothing I can (or
  530. should) do about it. You'll therefore find links to a couple sites with
  531. B5 sounds in the
  532. <a href="/lurk/resources/online.html">Other Resources</a>
  533. section.
  534. <p>
  535. There are some audio and video clips in the
  536. <a href="/lurk/ftp/Clips/index.html">/pub/Babylon-5/Clips</a>
  537. directory
  538. on the FTP server; these were provided as promotional items by Warner Bros.,
  539. and thus the above doesn't apply to them.
  540. <p>
  541. <hr>
  542. <h3><a name="videoclips">Video clips</a></h3>
  543. See the "sounds" explanation.
  544. <p>
  545. <hr>
  546. <h3><a name="bios">Bios on the characters, more background info, etc.</a></h3>
  547. These are a matter of time. It takes time and effort to write them up,
  548. and when I do have time to work on things for the guide, I generally have
  549. other items higher on my list. I'll happily accept donations, of course,
  550. if you have free time and can write well.
  551. <p>
  552. <hr>
  553. <h3><a name="old">Complete guide pages for some older episodes</a></h3>
  554. Some first-season episodes have pretty skimpy guide pages. Another matter
  555. of time. If you'd like to offer some contents for the pages, please do;
  556. otherwise they'll get filled in eventually.
  557. <p>
  558. <hr>
  559. <h3><a name="modified">A page that lists the modification times of all the
  560. guide pages</a></h3>
  561. Actually, I do. Follow the "Modification Times" link at the top of the
  562. What's New page or the US episode list page and you'll see it.
  563. <p>
  564. <hr size=4>
  565. <h2>How do I...</h2>
  566. <h3><a name="HT-current">Add "This Week's Episode" to my hotlist?</a></h3>
  567. When you select the "This Week's Episode" link from the home page, you're
  568. automatically sent to the guide page for the episode currently airing in
  569. the US and Canada. (For other countries, see the
  570. <a href="countries/">country list.</a>)
  571. Unfortunately, if you select your browser's "Add to Hotlist" function, you'll
  572. add that particular episode's page.
  573. <p>
  574. If your browser allows you to edit your hotlist (most do), you can fix that
  575. very easily. Add any episode's guide page to your hotlist, then edit the
  576. page's URL. Replace everything after the last slash (a number followed by
  577. ".html", e.g. "<code>038.html</code>") with "current.html" (no quotes.)
  578. Then save your changes if your browser requires it.
  579. <p>
  580. <hr>
  581. <h3><a name="HT-jms">Send mail to JMS?</a></h3>
  582. Before you send him mail, make sure you check the archives of his messages
  583. (you can search them using the Lurker's Guide's
  584. <a href="/lurk/search.html">Find</a>
  585. page.) Your question may have already been answered.
  586. <p>
  587. JMS can be reached at <tt>jmsatb5@aol.com</tt>. Note that he
  588. gets a <em>lot</em> of mail, so don't take it personally if you don't get
  589. a reply -- there simply aren't enough hours in the day to answer all the
  590. questions people ask. Here's his request regarding private E-mail:
  591. <blockquote>
  592. Every so often I have to go out with a policy note, so this is it. If you've
  593. seen this before, ignore it. If not....
  594. <p>
  595. Understand that my private email is reserved for matters that cannot be
  596. discussed pubicly, and extremely personal matters. It is not to be used for
  597. questions about plot, or character, or theme. Otherwise I end up answering the
  598. same question individually 50 times instead of answering it once publicly so 50
  599. people can get the same information.
  600. <p>
  601. Do NOT send me jokes, humorous forwarded notes, chain letters, spam or other
  602. stuff. You may think, "Well, it's just me sending along one little joke," but
  603. bear in mind there are roughly 10.5 million "just me's" out there. My email is
  604. getting to be impossible to deal with. Unless there is an overwhelmingly good
  605. reason why a note should be sent via email instead of in a public forum...keep
  606. it public.
  607. <p>
  608. Particularly difficult is if someone sends me multiple notes after I reply once
  609. or twice, and if I don't respond to subsequent notes, gets annoyed at me. I
  610. reply if there is a reason to reply; if not, not.
  611. <p>
  612. Please understand that my private email is a privilege, and not to be flooded
  613. with casual story requests or jokes.
  614. </blockquote>
  615. <p>
  616. JMS reads the
  617. <a href="news:rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated">rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated</a>
  618. newsgroup (try
  619. <a href="http://www.dejanews.com/dnquery.xp?query=~g+(rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated">DejaNews</a>
  620. if that link doesn't work.) Your questions are more likely to be answered
  621. if you ask there than if you try sending him mail directly; he prefers to answer
  622. questions in public so everyone can benefit, and so he doesn't get the same
  623. question over and over again.
  624. <p>
  625. He also frequents the B5 discussion areas on GEnie, CompuServe, and America
  626. Online; if you don't have Usenet access, you can try one of those places.
  627. <p>
  628. <hr size=4>
  629. <h3><a name="fanclubsite">I can't get to the fan club site. Help!</a></h3>
  630. <p>
  631. I don't run the fan club or its Web site; I just link to them as a service
  632. to the fans. If you're having trouble with the fan club site, send mail to
  633. <a href="mailto:webmaster@thestation.com">webmaster@thestation.com</a>
  634. for assistance.
  635. <pre>
  636. </pre>
  637. <p nowrap>
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  649. alt="[Comments] "></a><img
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  653. </nobr>
  654. <h5>
  655. Last update:
  656. August 9, 1998
  657. </h5>
  658. </body>
  659. </html>