Rob Thomas, creator of UPN’s "Veronica Mars," gives a lot of credit for the show’s second-season renewal, which was announced Monday, to a vocal and vociferous fan campaign, much of which was centered around several fan-run Web sites, especially SaveVeronicaMars.com, MarsInvestigations.net and TelevisionWithoutPity.com.

In fact, the first person — outside of the show’s cast and crew — that Thomas called with the news of the show’s renewal was the "Couch Baron," a.k.a. John Ramos, the moderator of the "Veronica Mars" message boards on TelevisionWithoutPity.com.

"The people at Television Without Pity have been such huge supporters of the show — mailing letters, sending faxes, putting ads in the trade papers — I thought I owed them an early heads-up," says Thomas, who also credits the efforts of the other fan sites as well.

"I think that sort of rabid cult following has an impact [on network executives], as did the critical response," Thomas said by phone on Tuesday. "I think our renewal is due equally to the fan base and the critical response, and to the fact that UPN wants to get younger and more female [viewers], and we are that show."

And though there’s some criticism on the fan message boards (one writer on "Veronica Mars," Thomas says, describes reading Television Without Pity feedback as "a tidal wave of love interspersed with a million paper cuts"), Thomas enjoys the close contact with fans.

"To me it’s like the coolest focus group you can have," he says. "You have to balance it all out — they clearly don’t all agree, they argue amongst themselves about what character works and what doesn’t. But if you read enough of it, you get a sense of what the general audience response is. And they really keep you on your toes with the details. You can’t just randomly say, ’We went to the store two weeks ago,’ because they have it all charted out."

Still, he sounds a little sheepish about how much he enjoys reading the fan feedback. "There’s this scene in that Sally Field movie `Soapdish’ where Whoopi Goldberg’s character takes [Field’s character] to the mall so she can be adored and get a sense of purpose. When I’m clicking around online, there’s a little bit of that going on with me," Thomas says with a chuckle.

"Like tonight, the episode will [air] on the East Coast at 5 p.m. West Coast time, and I’ll go on at 6 p.m. and see what people are saying about it, because I’m curious," Thomas adds. "There are always episodes you think are great or average or above average, and I can see what other people’s response was."

As for next season on "Veronica Mars," Thomas says he’d been kicking around another season-long story arc for the last couple of months, but in recent days he ditched that concept in favor of something "much cooler" that he and his writing staff came up with.

And though he won’t divulge details, he will say that if guest star Alyson Hannigan’s new TV pilot doesn’t get picked up for the fall season, he’d love to have her back as a recurring character in Season 2. But don’t expect the show to dwell much on the murder of Lilly Kane next year: "She won’t be back for a very special episode," Thomas said.