Rangers

Rangers was a Babylon 5 fan group.
The moderators were Ron Jarrell, Joe Cochran, Dave Sission, and Todd Perry. Jarrell was the fan who set up the mailing list that initially allowed JMS to get rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5. Rangers Unite! (was Re: Clearing the air.), July 25, 1995 
The group was created to filter messages/"administer the feed" from rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 (commonly called "rastb5") and pass them along to J. Michael Straczynski, auteur, series creator and executive producer of Babylon 5. 
The messages that were filtered were ones that discussed fanworks, story ideas and anything else that the Rangers may have thought would be dangerous or problematic for J. Michael Straczynski to read. 
The name of the group comes from Babylon 5 itself: "The code of the of Babylon 5's Rangers "We walk in the dark places that no one else will enter. We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass."
"The Rangers [in] Babylon 5 bear more than a passing resemblance the Rangers of the North in LotR. The code of the of Babylon 5's Rangers "We walk in the dark places that no one else will enter. We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass," directly calls upon the scene of Gandalf's second confrontation with the Balrog when he shouts, "You cannot pass!" and perhaps more indirectly to Aragorn's description of the Rangers in The Fellowship of the Ring: "Lonely men are we, Rangers of the North, hunters — but hunters ever of the servants of the Enemy." by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders (12/07/12) 
==Why Were the Rangers Created?==
An explanation from the Ranger's creator, Ron Jarrell in a 1998 post:
==Some Drift of the Title, and Confusion Regarding the Function==
"Ranger" and "moderator" were two terms that some fans struggled with. 
From Rangers Unite! (was Re: Clearing the air.), late July 1995:
When a John T. Carr III, not a Ranger (someone who filtered posts on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 to JMS) but a moderator on the list itself, wrote: 
Another fan replied: 
One of the "official" members, Joseph Cochran, of the Rangers weighed in: 
Dave Sisson, another member of the official rangers, wrote: 
A fan named Todd Perry: 
Daniel Pawtowski: 
A fan named Cheryl L. Martin wrote: 
==Some Consequences of the Rangers==
A chilling effect, elitism, and fan politics were some of the consequences of Rangers.
In early July 1995 at cause of death by spacing = ? fans discussed vacuums, decompression, and space in a very technical, detailed way. 
Some comments by several fans in this post:
: "That's a story idea." 
: "So? He's on a moderated feed..."
: "Story ideas are still against the charter of the group. This means that they are still Bad Things (tm), regardless of the status of the feed to jms. From this point on, there's no need to point at people and say "this is a story idea," as the Rangers will be interacting with jms to make sure that we know exactly what he does and does not want to see. Let's just get back to discussing what this group was designed to discuss -- Babylon 5." 
: "Look, for JMS I'm willing to make an effort. For you? Puh-leeze. If I posted messages only after considering the possible consequences for every single possible reader, I'd never post anything at all! [loud shouts of "GOOD" momentarily drown out all other sounds]" 
: "Mr. Alberti's reply: "Look, for JMS I'm willing to make an effort. For you? Puh-leeze." Thank you, Mr. Alberti. You're *such* a comfort. You might ask Ron Jarrell and the Rangers who will have to work so hard to pull the story ideas out of Joe's feed to add a note to the greeter post: "Writer's aren't welcome on this group. Participate at your own risk."" 
==Other "Moderation" Pitfalls==
In July 1995, JMS wrote about how one of his own posts at rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 that was edited by a moderator (not a Ranger) before it was posted to Usenet: 
==Meta/Further Reading==
 
* Ok, a status report on what's going on, original post by Ron Jarrell (699 posts by 104 authors), posts begin December 5, 1995 and go to at least early January 1996
==References==
Category:1990s
Category:Babylon 5