-----Original Message-----
From: Presley H. Cannady <revprez@MIT.EDU>
To: ffml@fanfic.com <ffml@fanfic.com>
Date: Sunday, May 16, 1999 7:52 AM
Subject: Re: Canonically Correct Re: [FFML] [C&C] Review, May 14

At 06:02 PM 5/14/99 PDT, you wrote:

Then Star Trek DS9 has a problem, or David Weber or Elizabeth Moon.

 You only just realized that? :P

No, I still watch it, and apparantly the audience for it has declined
significantly.  I think you know as well as I that Paramount caters
to a general audience, not the specific fandom.

<snip marketing and ratings stuff>

But there are some differences between TV and fanfiction. First off, let's
say you were a Xena fan. Since you're a fan it follows that you watch the
show regularly and are thus more discerning than the casual viewer. Let's
say you watch an episode inconsistent with the rest of the series. You'd
probably get annoyed, as opposed to the casual viewer who'd just shrug and
say "I don't care." Yet, when next week comes along, you're still gonna be
on the couch watching Xena. Why? Because there is NO other Xena program
available. You may not like a specific episode or such, but you care enough
about the series to continue watching. There are no alternatives to watching
Xena other than watching Xena. All you can do is grit your teeth when an
annoyingly inconsistent episode pop up. Thus they maintain your ratings
data. It's usually only a few that become so annoyed with inconsistenciess
that they stop watching entirely.