No one can be told what Big Brother is....but that's not going to stop me from trying.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What's this site all about?

I started the mystic-gemini site several years ago as a place to vent my commentary on whatever I was watching on TV.  It was not originally a Big Brother site, but after a while BB became a dominant theme.  In 2008 the name of the site was changed, and it became all about Big Brother.

When a Big Brother season is in progress I watch the live Internet feeds as much as possible and take tons of screen captures from them.  I also do watch the show, but this site is primarily about the live feeds.

2. What are all these acronyms and abbreviations ?

I try to post at least one entry a day during BB season, and that's a lot of typing.  Most of the acronyms, etc. are "standard," but there are a few I just made up (at least I think I did).

• BB-Big Brother; usually meaning the show, but sometimes meaning the "voice" that speaks to the houseguests.
• DR-Diary Room, meaning both the "confessional" and also a reference to the producers (as in "the DR told them to do X."
• DOR-Departure On Request/Drop Out Request; when a HG requests to leave the game, forfeiting any benefits
• FOTH-Front Of The House/Fish Of The House; generic term for any feed blocker screen.  Season 1 used the actual front of the BB house.
• HG-Houseguest, a participant/competitor on BB
• HOH-Head of Household
• POV-Power of Veto, or Point of View (thus the pun in the name of the site)
• TVOVs-TV Only Viewers, people who watch the television show but not the livefeeds (I'm pretty sure I coined this one).
• noms-nominees for eviction, or the nomination ceremony
• repl-nom-replacement nominee

3. I don't watch the livefeeds.  Will I be able to follow the site?

Probably.  This site isn't intended to be a replacement for the livefeeds, but I do try to sum up enough of what's going on that anyone can follow even if they aren't watching the feeds.  No one can watch constantly, so even if you are watching you're bound to miss some significant event.  And if you start out with only a passing interest/familiarity with BB, I'd like to think that this site could help increase your interest.  But, I do have to insert a warning label....BB can be highly addictive.

4. What's your spoiler policy?

If I know something, I feel free to mention it. So, if I heard a spoiler/rumour, it might come up. And once I've seen a show (I'm in the US/Eastern timezone) I may post about it; I'm not going to wait until all timezones have seen it. It's not as if I have some kind of inside connection to the TV industry, though. So if I know something, it's probably pretty widely known. And as far as BB, I'll talk about the live feeds, so I'll be way ahead of what's current on broadcast shows.

6. Aren't the screencaps copyrighted?

Maybe. Here's my take on it: The images and broadcasts are © CBS/Real Networks/etc. But there's some amount of art/creativity to screen capping, so my caps are © me. And in any case I'm certainly not making any money here, or depriving CBS/Real/whomever of any benefit of their material.  In recent seasons Real has been cracking down on people posting videos, but I haven't heard anything about screencaps.  Video is a bit more of a problem since there are people who would not pay for the feeds and just watch youtubes.  The previous big argument for videos was that no one can possibly watch all the time, so it's good to catch things you missed.  But with the "flashback" feature this year, that argument is a bit harder to hold up.  (Though I still miss the videos...it's a pain to try to get to the right time within the hour each flashback segment covers.)  Okay, jumping off my soapbox now.  And back to screencaps, I did read somewhere that stills are officially okay (not that it's legally binding, just 'cause you read it on the Internet....)

7. So, can I copy your screen caps?

Sure, go for it. If you re-post the older ones (without my watermark) I wouldn't mind an acknowledgment. And if you copy a lot of pics, or just enjoy the site, I'd love to hear from you. Just don't steal my text/commentary.

8. Did you know your site sometimes appears as a blank page, or says it's down/Did you know your twitter widget is just a black box?

Yeah.  >sigh< I don't really know what the deal is with the blank page, but it seems like it's a blog-city issue.  It has gotten better recently and usually reloads after a few seconds or a couple minutes at most.  And the twitter widget is just Flash being temperamental, I think.