I began searching a few weeks ago, wondering why we only seem to attract new listeners in small clumps here and there, and why they rarely visit the website even when they are powering through 200 shows to catch up.
Along my search, I’d find an interesting article here and there. In addition to the recent SF Signal podcast featuring Tobias Buckell and Patrick Hester chatting about Babylon 5, I found a Babylon 5 Retrospective (not a podcast post, just editorial commentary)
Also, I had previously been wondering about the lack of Babylon 5 chatter on Twitter, until around the same time, when I changed my search filter to use “Babylon 5” instead of “B5” — wow, talk about a major difference! Some days there were as many as 100 mentions!
So why don’t these B5 fans know this podcast is here? Could potential listeners be missing us solely because just “Babylon” is in the name of the site, and not “Babylon 5”?
All this soul-searching began about a month ago, when I observed a Twitter conversation that Tony Mast of “Back Seat Producers” had commented on, between 3-4 guys who were planning to start a dedicated Babylon 5 podcast — simply because they thought there hadn’t ever been one.
Tony, bless his heart, set them straight and pointed them here, and while I encouraged them to go ahead with their own show (since we’ll easily be done by the end of 2011 and you guys will need a new B5 fix!), but it underscored a big question for me… how come after 6 years no one knows about us?
Even with a candid JMS interview that lasted 2 HOURS, some awesome interviews with Bruce Boxleitner, Jason Carter, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle, Walter Koenig and numerous others, people are still surprised to find out we exist.
Is having a big promotional push now, near the end of all things, too little too late, or would it still be worth it?
I’m still mulling options over, but let me know what you think.
update: I’ve added some different sized logos and banners to our Podcast Promos page, so now in addition to audio promos for the show you can use in your own podcasts, you can now grab different images to show your love!
It’s never too late. No telling how many of them will be converted to other Farpoint podcasts.
I still encounter quite a few people who have no idea what podcasting is. Even more who have never thought to look for a Babylon 5 podcast.
Maybe, we need a BabCast button or something. Something listeners can throw in their sigs or whatever on other sites. Should be simple enough and get some traffic.
If folks want/need a smaller version of the album art to use, I can do that. I can create a page of banners and artwork that folks can grab images from.
Hell, there’s a Flash animation for the show that used to be on DeepGeeking.com… maybe I should ask Tim to make that an animated GIF, since folks seem to be blocking Flash more and more on general principle these days.
Okay, I’ve added some logos and banners to our podcast promos page, just underneath the audio promos.
https://www.babylonpodcast.com/podcast-promos/
I wonder how many people aren’t finding things because of search terms. Would you consider changing the name to The Babylon 5 Podcast, to make it as simple as possible for new people to find it?
If you type in “Babylon 5 podcast” in Google, we come up with the first 3-5 results, including the top result, so that’s not the problem. An iTunes search of “Babylon 5” brings up the show, but it’s not the only one, nor the first one (at least not when I search).
And reading on Twitter how many people are doing their own B5 rewatches, and arguing amongst themselves about B5, ST and Farscape, it boggles me that those folks weren’t coming here to make some of those arguments over the past 5 years 🙂
And yes, we’re going to try to push the envelope in what we’ll talk about beyond the novels and comic books, and we *might* even be able to touch on some of the projects JMS worked on after B5 (Jeremiah), but there will come a point when the show becomes too meta, and we’ll have to move on… Tim to a Doctor Who podcast, Bret back to beer-tasting, and me, onto who knows what.
I’ve already done a Charlie Jade podcast (still mulling over the book idea), but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Miami Vice podcast out there, nor one for The Pretender or Highlander, or much from the pre-WWW fan days. Wonder if a podcast on westerns would appeal… I’ve seen some lecture series on westerns in the iTunes U section…
Then again, maybe I’ll finally make that more time to write 🙂
It is weird searching with B5 and Babylon 5. If you go on ebay with B5, you get a few things if you type Babylon 5 you get a ton of stuff. I say your show can go on as long as you want it to. You still have the books plus you can also do fan shows where you can have the fans come on and talk about their fandom for the show or you can get some of the Crusade guests. As well as doing shows about certain themes or characters. I say do the promotional push considering we have no idea what this announcement from JMS is going to be about and that may get new fans. I just found you this year, so you are getting new fans.
Sweet. Will throw up a few of those banners tonight.
A Pretender podcast might be fun.
It’s never to late to bring the word, or rather audio, to those who need it.
And even if you have passed the actual B5 show there is a lot of contents left, right. And not to forget, there is an impressive archive with hilarious and insightful interviews on the site. But it is sad that this podcast, which by now is a part of the B5 universe, is not know to more fans.
Don’t forget about the games out there. The Babylon Project using the Freespace 2 engine. Then there’s I’ve Found Her. Both are for Windows and Mac if I recall correctly.
I’ve actually never played any of the Babylon 5 games — no board games, card games, or video games. Simply not as much of a gamer as I used to be. I’d dabbled with consoles (actually spent a lot of time playing Soul Calibur and Armored Core Arena on PS1, and way too much Quake Arena with co-workers), but I ran out of people to game with, so I quit altogether.
I do miss my full size arcade games, though. Being able to walk into my garage and play an original Star Wars or Zaxxon or Phoenix… that was fun.
I did try that I’ve Found Her game. It just reinforced that I’m horrible at flight games. I do think that a Babylon 5 game would sell reasonably well. I wouldn’t want to see it as an MMORPG since I’m not a fan of that style, and a Babylon 5 FPS wouldn’t be in the spirit of the show. However, a Babylon 5 console RPG in the style done in Fallout or Mass Effect I think would sell fairly well. There is plenty of crossover between science fiction fandom and gamers, and I know many gamers that love it when their games has a story with meat. In my view, it would be a perfect fit.
And while I don’t know how many times it’s been downloaded, I know the series is on Xbox Live and I think on the Playstation Network
The B5 CCG was one of the best if not the best multiplayer card game ever. They really out did themselves with that game. I think a small DLC game on Xbox Live or the Playstation Network would be a good way to test the waters. Bioware would be a good company to do a B5 RPG, but after Dragon Age II, I don’t know.
Yes, the B5 CCG was a great game. There is a lot of information about it at Vorlon Space:
http://b5ccg.mahasamatman.com/
There was a listserv that still has some traffic. There was a group of people in the DC area that regularly played it way back when.
I have the 2259 edition of the B5 board game; got it for $30 on eBay. I’ve often considered trying it out, but haven’t found the time and I gather that I also need supplementary material.
Its definitely never too late to promote this wonderful pod casts. Even though retrospectively people can’t get in contact and share their thoughts with you for future pod casts, it’s still fun to listen to.
Over the years I have posted links pointing people in this direction but to be fair I’ve never kept up-to-date. As I said it’s a superb listen and its great to hear from other fans perspectives. I especially loved the interviews with the cast and I am sure there are many I haven’t heard including the JMS one. Having said that even without the great guests all of you have done a wonderful job keeping us informed, entertained and most importantly the flag flying high even if most people are unaware.