The Babylon Squared

The show employed Internet marketing to create a buzz among online readers far in advance of the airing of the pilot episode,[109] with Straczynski participating in online communities on USENET (in the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated newsgroup), and the GEnie and CompuServe systems before the Web came together as it exists today. The station's location, in "grid epsilon" at coordinates of 470/18/22, was a reference to GEnie ("grid epsilon" = "GE")[110] and the original forum's address on the system's bulletin boards (page 470, category 18, topic 22).[111]

The Babylon Squared

From its inception, Babylon 5 fandom has had an accessible relationship with series creator, J. Michael Straczynski, as he was a regular contributor to the newsgroups alt.tv.babylon-5, rec.arts.tv.sf.babylon5 and Rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.[4] JMS (as he is commonly known) would frequently answer fan questions about the show, not only about production or technical issues but about the backgrounds of the characters and the worlds he created. His posts, which are archived at jmsnews.com, are an early example of internet creator/fan based interactions.[5]