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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 624092" data-attributes="member: 177">Nope.  I admit to the rather speculative nature of my position.  I'm simply trying to point out that you cannot beat speculation with more speculation.  If you actually want us to shut up about Neilsen ratings, you'll need to give us something more solid than what we already have.Actually, I have, though I didn't point it out as such.  Sci-fi fans have repeatedly felt the need to make a big stink about cancellations.  Assuming some basics about mass psychology (that sci-fi fans really aren't that much more rabid than any other viewer, on the whole), we get the implication that if there's so many who are making a stink, then there's lots more who aren't.  Here I'll be picky, rather than obteuse - our "chance of guessing correctly" would only be 50-50 if there were only two possibilities, and we were guessing in complete ignorance, at random.  That's not the case here.For one thing, there's more than two possibilities - You may be right, I may be right, and many, many shades of neither or both of us are correct in some sense.  For another, we are not guessing at random.  We are basing our positions off of some observed evidence followed by some reasoning.  Our "chance" is then based upon how valid our observations are, and how closely our reasoning follows reality.In the end, though, this doesn't matter.  Since when is being less than 100% sure ever been a barrier to making a suggestion or attempting something new?  Bigger things than TV shows have been built on lesser odds.</blockquote>

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