From The SNN Historical Archives
The STF WeBB History
by GREG HERTZSCH
[Introduction]------[Notes on This Edition]------[The WeBB History]------[Related Pages]
Introduction
by STF President Greg Hertzsch
Greetings, STFers.
The original note and first reply here are the history of STF's expansion from Prodigy to the Internet. It is incomplete. I need for those of you who can contribute to this history to do so. I will explain how I obtained the information I used in the note. I have been using the Email Connection software for my Prodigy email almost since I first joined Prodigy on July 3, 1994. I have all my email organized into folders, and I still have copies of almost all email I have sent and received since obtaining EMC. In January a few of us wanted to attempt to contact Randy McCullick. So I browsed through his email messages in my EMC folder for him to see if any contained his address or phone number. No messages contained either, but I came across an email I sent to him telling him about Alan's suggestion as noted in the history. I must confess that I didn't remember Alan making his suggestion since it had been made almost two years ago, but I then went through Alan's folder in my EMC and found that particular email. I also didn't have any recollection of chatting with Randy that same evening about it, but obviously I did because I talked about it in a reply I sent to Alan the next day. If I hadn't have still had all my old email, I never would have remembered any of this. It makes me glad that I never have gotten around to going through my entire EMC database and deleting old email. So this is how I knew how the initial idea for an STF outpost on the Internet got started. Most of the other information I put in the WeBB History note I obtained the same way, by reading through old email to and from other STF members. I have been using BBNM since I first joined STF, but my BBNM database has been corrupted and lost a few times since then, so I don't have the luxury of being able to read through old STF notes from back then. So it was mainly through the use of old email that I was able to gather up the information I used in the article. I want to add more detail to this history. I know some of you can help. For example, [Commodore] Aaron [Holland] can fill us in on the history of his FrameWeb site which promotes STF. What I have written is a good start, but we need more. Thank you in advance to any and all who can help.
--Fleet Admiral Greg Hertzsch, 1 March 1998

Notes on This Edition
by SNN Executive Editor Mike Ballway
In editing and formatting Greg's history for publication on the Internet, I have done my best to keep Greg's original text as unchanged as possible. In places where Greg's meaning is obvious I have made minor corrections to grammar and punctuation, and throughout I have corrected what few spelling mistakes there were. This document was originally posted on an bulletin board on the Prodigy online service, and I have added a few words for clarification. Anything I have added is set off by brackets. The chapter-breaks all fall, in this document, in the exact place where they fell in the original one. I hope you, the education-seeking STFer, enjoy reading this history as much as I have.
--Commodore Mike Ballway, 12 March 1998
The STF WeBB History
by STF President Greg Hertzsch
STF began on Prodigy in 1991. It existed solely on Prodigy for the next five years. This is the story of the STF's expansion to the Internet.

8 MAY 1996
And So It Begins
Alan Felts, at the time a new STF recruit, sent an email to then Assistant Personnel Director Greg Hertzsch. The email said in part "I was browsing the Video Games BB when I had a great idea on how to get more recruits. Since STF is on Prodigy, only Prodigy members can get on, right? Well, what if we put STF on the Internet?" Alan's idea was simple enough, yet complicated. There was no place anywhere on the Internet which had message boards similar in style to Prodigy's bulletin boards.

8 MAY 1996
A Seed Is Planted
That same evening Greg Hertzsch chatted with STF then-President Randy McCullick. Randy and Greg discussed the then-current state of STF and about how to get more recruits. They noted that Prodigy's enrollment was declining and that several long-time STF members had recently resigned. These included Ken Marklan, Dave Citro, Christine Wilson, Sarah Wilcox, Jim Midyette, Mike Cathcart, Jared Nichols, and Justin Winslett. Soon afterwards some more members resigned, including Sue Isik (who is back now), Lisa Anthony, Paula Lorenzo, and Dana Campbell. Greg mentioned Alan's idea to Randy. Randy said it wouldn't work. But then he said that we could create a web colony outpost for STF although STF would remain Prodigy-based.

SUMMER 1996
Behind The Scenes
Unbeknown to most of STF, President Randy McCullick obtained some web hosting space from his Internet service provider ExecPC. He obtained some free scripts from the Matt's Script Archives web site. He worked on programming a web-based CGI message board during the summer of 1996.

30 OCTOBER 1996
STF Web Colony
President McCullick proudly unveiled the new STF Web Colony message board located on his web site on ExecPC. It was a simple, standard CGI WWW BB. Several regular STF members posted notes to this new board soon after it opened. It looked promising. It marked the beginning of STF's expansion from Prodigy to the World-Wide Web. Unfortunately, Randy ran into some difficulties and went offline in December 1996. The STF Web Colony went offline soon after.

SUMMER 1997
A New Beginning
Greg Hertzsch, who had been elected STF President on 2 February 1997 and who had appointed Nick Oven to the new Cabinet position of STF Internet Director, purchased some web-hosting space from Pair Networks after some prior research was done on various web hosting services, mainly by Nick Oven. Nick created the main STF website there. Mike Bourdaa, who was in STF in 1992 and returned in March 1997, offered to program a new web CGI message board for the site. He went to work behind the scenes.

1 AUGUST 1997
The STF WeBB Is Born
The STF WeBB (Web Bulletin Board [-- an acronym coined by Commodore Mike Ballway]) went online. Very soon after, we were deluged with a flood of new recruits wanting to join STF on the WeBB. We were overwhelmed. We were getting around ten new recruits per day for the first month. We had to have several of our experienced members from Prodigy take leadership positions on the WeBB. This resulted in the one disadvantage of the WeBB: It hurt STF on Prodigy. This was unanticipated. Still, the WeBB was an overwhelming success. Several former STF members returned to STF on the WeBB. These included Jim Midyette and Dave Citro, who each obtained WeBB login IDs but didn't take a position on a ship. Others who rejoined were Jeff Field, Franco Torres, Emmie Hunt, Sue Isik, Adam Sabado, Admiral ~Z~ (Jerry Phelps), and, most recently, Randy McCullick.

1 MARCH 1998
Nothing Is The Same Anymore
STF on the web site at http://www.star-fleet.com/noframes.html and on the WeBB at http://www.star-fleet.com/WeBB is now a permanent fixture. It has ensured that STF will thrive on and on even if Prodigy Classic fades away into the Twilight Zone. Who could have predicted that the initial suggestion made in 1996 by Alan Felts would start a long chain of events leading up to the current WeBB? At that time it was considered an impossibility due to insufficient web CGI scripts which didn't come close to matching the format of Prodigy's bulletin boards. Currently we are still receiving a few new recruits each day, and we do very little promoting of our web site. This is to avoid being overwhelmed like we were in August 1997. The continuing growth of STF on the WeBB will ensure that STF as a club will always live long and prosper.

--Fleet Admiral Greg Hertzsch
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Page Created on 12 March 1998 -- Last Updated on 21 June 1998
Text © 1998 Greg Hertzsch
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