S-y-F-y? W-T-F?!

I am a geek. I make no bones about. I love all things geek. Star Trek, Star Wars, comic book movies, Sword and Sorcery fantasy novels, World of Warcraft, anime . . . I could go on.

This love of all thing dorky, of course extends to SciFi movies and t.v. shows. One of my staple channels for this genre of geekery is the Sci Fi Channel. . . or it used to be, anyway. That changed right around the time the network changed to the spelling of it's name to SyFy. That's right. S-y-F-y. They are basically spelling it phonetically now. And to that I say "wtf?!"

Perhaps I 'm making a stereotypical generalization here, but most geeks tend to be intelligent people. Hell, some of them are highly intelligent. Think Bill Gates or Stephen Hawking. These are two of the most famous nerds in the world and they're filthy ass rich from being ridiculously smart.

That being said, I do think that either one of them, or any other geek, would know the correct spelling of the abbreviation for science fiction. So why the hell would the good people over at the SciFi channel purposely seek to spell it incorrectly? My only guess as to the reasoning behind this is in order to attract a more mainstream audience; to make the name cool and hip so that the ratings "in" crowd watches the channel.

I have just one question: since when is it cool and hip to be illiterate? Is the network gearing up to become the BET of science fiction? Seriously, their original movies were always godawful. But I for one was willing to let such classics as Mansquito slide because there were good reruns and original series. Hell, they were even occasionally able to get a hold of a good movie or two. But this ridiculous name change is enough to drive me away from the channel completely. I cringe every time I see it. Who's dumb ass idea was it to attract one audience by completely alienating another?

Forget for a second that spelling SciFi phonetically is an insult to my and many other peoples' intelligence, but what the hell does that say about what the network thinks of the mainstream viewership? Do we have a nation of George W. Bushs out there trying to figure out what the want to watch on Friday night? Newflash: they probably don't want to watch Battlestar Galactica.

The channel was designed to attract a niche audience, that niche being. . . wait for it. . . geeks! That was the whole point. Everything isn't for everyone. Take the show Frasier. It was a spin-off of Cheers featuring the Frasier Crane character and his family. I'll admit, it had its high-toned moments and not everyone liked it. That was partially because it was intelligent humor and sometimes you would miss the jokes if you weren't familiar with a particular reference. But that was alright. Because the show had a target audience that loved it just the way it was.

If the SciFi is having a problem with attracting core geek audiences maybe they need to pick up some more viable geek fare instead of taking the low road of just trying to pull in any and everyone.

There used to be great reruns on the SciFi Channel. Dark Shadows, Quantum Leap, the original Star Trek, Forever Knight. Now, for some reason, ECW is on there. What the HELL does ECW have to do with science fiction?! What's next? NASCAR? Don't get me wrong. NASCAR is fine for whoever enjoys it. But it doesn't belong anywhere in the vicinity of Eureka and Ghost Hunters.

The SciFi channel has been going downhill for a while. This name change might just be the last straw for me. I don't want to abandon it, but. . . damn. If Chiller ever gets its shit together I'm out. As much as I want my geek fix, I'm not willing to lower my IQ to get it.