Friday was a very emotional day for Fringe fans, on many levels. Cast and crew had worked all through Thursday night and well into Friday morning in order to complete the show’s final scenes. Finally, that bittersweet moment arrived:

#Fringe the final slate. twitter.com/BrentCrowell/s…

— Brent Crowell (@BrentCrowell) December 14, 2012

 

After 4.5 seasons, Fringe reached a planned conclusion, and we–the fans–have precious few new episodes left.

Science fiction history will note many things about Fringe, and our fandom will have a small page in that history. On a larger scale, we were really pioneers. Today, Nielsen announced that it would start measuring Twitter activity for television shows. I’d like to think that this grand social media experiment has been in preparation for what savvy networks knew would be the future. While it is sad to think that it’s too little, too late for Fringe, we can all be proud and maybe–just maybe–audiences who invest in niche genre shows won’t have to fight just to see intelligent, creative and inventive entertainment.

Ambergrams also started to trickle out among the recipients. We’ll add more reactions to our Storify page as they come in. Hopefully after a well-deserved rest, our main cast will let fans know what they think.

While celebration was happening for our show’s achievement, news came later on Friday which would remind us that while the world has its moments of beauty, it can also be unspeakably cruel…

Concerned fans asked if we were still going to have our weekly Fringe Twitter event, due to this horrifying tragedy. To be honest, I was sick in the pit of my stomach most of that afternoon. How could I go about my life knowing that so many of my fellows were suffering the worst pain imaginable; that of losing a child? We decided to continue — Annie explained our decision in an emotionally powerful post. We would #FindTheCrack.

We live – hope – remember – try to change our world.

Even though we decided that the event wasn’t about trending, all of us fans pulled through for both hashtags. Sam Weiss–RIP–also made a surprise appearance in the trends.

So our wildly crazy trip with Walter also had its junctures with ghosts of days gone by. By the end of it all, Donald was still at large. The young Observer child–Michael– was given to the care of the Fringe team, and he revealed to Olivia that he remembered her from the overwritten timeline in which the events of Inner Child took place! This week, the plan proceeds and we just might find out some surprising things about this timeline and the boy. Why hasn’t he aged? He seems much different from the adult Observers. Is he…

#FarFromNormal

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TWITTER PROTOCOL

This is our 25th Fringe Twitter event! Thanks to everyone for this incredible ride. We’ll be celebrating the one-year-anniversary of our first event — #CrossTheLine, on January 13, 2013!

Be sure to make your first tweet of the night a thank you to @FoxTV and @WarnerBrosEnt for making season five possible.

You can grab a cool icon for the event. They are updated throughout the week.

Check out the FOX Now app for iPad, XBox 360, and Windows 8, in order to see special Fringe content as the show airs.

Check the special message at the end of this post.

1) Don’t use #FarFromNormal before the designated time: 1 HOUR before Fringe airs.

The event will take place 1 hour before Fringe airs – 8 pm EST — December 21. Gently remind others that use the tag before the event to wait until the right time, and tell them that using the tag too much beforehand will lessen trending impact. This happened when Fringe fans tried to trend #WhereIsPeterBishop for the season four premiere. The # had been used all summer long, was not anything new on the Twitter radar, so it did not trend. Trending happens with terms that are relatively new, and many people tweet about them at the same time. Terms break out onto the scene, but trending becomes more difficult the more they are used. Be nice! We want everyone to feel welcome.

2) One # term per Tweet. Use only #FarFromNormal  (What Are Hashtags?)

3) Lots of people tweeting matters more than the number of tweets.

Tell everyone Fringie about the event. There is strength in numbers – remember that the more unique tweeters we have, the more likely we are to trend, and for a longer duration of time. Send your tweets out steadily – remember to pace yourself. You want to avoid “Twitter Jail.” Sustained tweeting over time matters.

Trending can be a distraction, but we need you to keep those wonderful tweets coming. You may have also noticed that the # will drop off the charts after a while, only to trend again when Fringe airs. This is due to other viewers joining in by tweeting the hashtag on the bottom of the screen.

4) Those with lots of followers help out a lot!

Alternate accounts with few followers do not have as much “influence” towards trending. But tweets from accounts like @JWFringe, @FringeOnFox, @VancityJax and @johnnob58004412 make a big impact. Let’s try to build our Fringe fan follower networks. One easy way is to follow people on fan Twitter lists. Here is my Cortexifan list. Follow some Fringies! Another way is to follow some folks on Twitter “Follow Fridays.” You may have seen tweets that are tagged #FF – followed by a bunch of twitter names. This is because they are recommended people to follow.

5) We want to pique the interest of non-Fringe fans.

This is the key to our trending duration success. It gives a chance to get our message about Fringe out to another audience. Try to construct a list of thoughtful and informative tweets before the event. These can be copied and pasted for easy tweets. Use some witty Fringe sayings – link some of the official promo videos – speculate about what happened to September.

We all have our speculations about the show and where it is heading towards the ending. Let’s get some conversation out there.

6) We can discuss aspects of the show in our tweets.

TRY to include the word FRINGE (with no #) in your tweet if possible. Talk about the characters and the actors.

7) Private accounts must have their locked status removed, as the tweets from locked accounts do not count toward the trend tally.

8) Retweets are the easiest way to help out the trending effort.

Just search for the hashtag, and retweet the ones that are interesting to you. If you know how to use a Twitter application suite like TweetDeck or HootSuite, this is made even easier.

9) Remember to check in at GetGlue for cool stickers and so that Fringe will trend there as well.

If you are in the U.S. and have an iPhone or Android phone, give Viggle a try. Their check-ins are included in the data of several prominent social television analysis companies.

Some of you may like some Fringe-inspired art. Well, rejoice because it’s in the works! Visit the Fringe Benefits Project in support of The Mission Continues. Vote for your favorite Fringe events to be made into art, and support veterans and their communities. I want a scene similar to this for my wall. 😀