What went wrong? Ms. Morgan did admit to many of her errors, such as misinterpreting Spurlin's offer to retain the Genesis as an offer to retain Fleet Five and the Genesis. FAdm. Spurlin also admitted to some of his. But there is a distinct difference between them. Ms. Morgan openly apologized for misunderstanding some things said by FAdm. Spurlin. FAdm. Spurlin admitted to misunderstanding some things said by Ms. Morgan, but did not take any steps to change the actions he had made based upon those misconceptions. Chief among these actions was the immediate dismissal of then-FCpt. Morgan as GMDir, rather than waiting for the agreed-upon 1 April. He stated in the Edict that he felt it was more "prudent," yet he never said why, even after Ms. Morgan asked him directly. He said many times that he was wrong to combine the two resignations, but also stated that as President, it was his right to accept a resignation whenever he wanted and to dismiss anyone whenever he wanted. He even went as far as to try to quote the Articles of Organization (AO), which is still not a legally binding document in any way. If it were, many people have expressed the opinion that the Judicial Council created by the AO would have been called into action. Technically, yes, the President has the official power to reshuffle his Cabinet every week if so chooses. But he also has a responsibility to act appropriately and decently and politely, regardless of the situation. That is where President Spurlin failed in this instance; in the nebulous grey area known as "Proper Conduct."

What went wrong? Something serious, indeed, for we have lost one of the best RPers in the history of the WeBB. And this crisis has called into question yet again the nature of STF. Candidate Bob Spurlin ran on a platform of Fun. Yet less than a month into his term STF has been hit with yet another political backdoors-backstabbing personally offensive crisis. Is STF about RPing or politics? Different people have said different things. Historically, though, politics has had a hand in STF since it was created.

What went wrong? To decode this enigma, people have asked the question: Why do people join STF? Some say to have fun and Role Play. Others have said because they want to be Captains. Truly, there is truth in both statements. Some people join for fun and stay for fun, never bothering to leave their safe but exciting life as an Eng-1. Others join to lead, and fight their way up the ranks to XO or even Captain. Others join out of random interest and then find themselves in one category or the other. But unless you are content to stay safe in your science lab, you have to involve yourself in politics. Politics is what happens when you want one thing and someone else wants a different thing and you both need the other to get what you want. It doesn't have to be nasty or dirty or offensive, though. That is the main distinction. When politics gets personal, be it Presidential or Captaincy or COS, it becomes distructive.

There is, of course, another way to look at things. For most of its history politics was alive and well and running the show in STF. Political Machines have even formed at times. For some people, that is fun. Shouldn't a club which was spawned in politics and weened on politics allow for politics? Or should those that like politics be forced to acquiece to the RP-centric members of STF? But how can that be done without politics?

If we need politics, as we do, then perhaps we need rules. Or codes of conduct. Or understandings. Something. Something that can answer the question that plagues us in STF, the question to the answer that we'd all like to know -- what went wrong?

Tell us what you think, at snn@star-fleet.com

I missed out on all of that triumph, though. While Jim Midyette was slaying the two-headed Hydra, I was inventing ships for a tentative, little club called "STNG." It, too, shares much with STF, and though it closed its doors in 1997 (the same year someone relatively unimportant joined STF), it was also something to be remembered.

Begun in 1991 by a fellow named Chris, it started out with two ships: the USS Nucleus, and the USS Freedom. Kim McCready (now of AT) served on both ships, and later became an assistant to the President-for-Life of STNG, Admiral Emily A. Braunstein.

Trouble began when a n.d. SNN Executive Editor from STF joined the USS Nucleus. It was the first bridge between the two clubs, one of many in the future. While in STNG, he bodily stole the idea for an Engineering Department. At that time, STNG had a "Tech Department," where matters of ship specs were sorted out. Ball- . . . er, n.d. SNN Executive Editor, decided that that's what STF needed, as well [in my defense, there was a lot less dissention and argumentation in the STNG Tech Department, so don't blame this all on me! --Ed.].

Over time, the ranks of STNG swelled to a number comparable to one of our fleets. There were several ships then: the USS Andromeda, captained by Madame Braunstein, the Freedom, Nucleus, and Griffen. I rose through the ranks as CE of the Griffen to FO (first officer) of the Griffen to FO of the Andromeda. It was shortly thereafter that STNG took a nose-dive in the posting department, eventually going to cinders.

There were some greats in that club: the now-famous Adam Steiner, James Kozlowski (Tech Director to the stars), Jason Helms, Alan Courchene -- all excellent simmers, good people. No scandal. It was STF's sister club, and the two interpartied and intermarried, producing a man with forty wives, all of whom went to St. Ives. I'm big on STNG history, and with good reason -- it's worth remembering, along with STF, as that is how the two were in life, and how they should be in death.
 

Perhaps we can look at the WeBB as a new age of STF. There were two or three on Prodigy, each with a unique character. Now begins the age of the Internet. No more proprietary software, no more Amero-centrism, no more price hikes [hey, what's wrong with Amero-centrism? Don't all those foreigners know that the world revolves around the USA? --Ed.]. STF has grown out of its infancy. We are now a global, free club in every sense. How many non-North Americans were on STF*P? None. How many now? I've lost count. What was the biggest impetus to leave STF*P? Prodigy price hikes. STF has no entrance fee of any kind any more. We have arrived at our future.

But at the same time, we must never forget our roots. Prodigy is where STF was born, and it is there that our basic structure was formed. We may be able to take STF out of Prodigy, but we will never take the Prodigy out of STF.

And why would we want to?
 

There is a lot of history in Prodigy. It was on the legendary Off-Topic Area of STF*Prodigy -- a different sort of place than today's WeBB OOC Zone -- that Midyette's Place, the Antimatter Cafe, and (of course) McTrinitron's were founded. It was in the [STF - CNN OF STF] subject that Genesun Han, then Mike Cathcart, and finally myself wrote SNN periodicals that paved the way for WeBBsights and the other STF newsmedia.

STF*Prodigy's forte was never roleplaying -- well, not since 1995 at least. The O.T. was the heart of the club, infinitely more important to most people than the diverting yet snail-paced action on the Bridges of the Ark Angel, Victorious, or pre-WeBB Constellation. The infamous Trinitron-Constellation rivalry developed on Prodigy, as did the Ark Angel's miracle-working reputation and the very rules that hold together our club. STF*Prodigy was the club of Jim Midyette, Jerry Phelps, the Larsen "Sisters," Brian Misamore, the Early Barcbutt, Mike Cathcart, and Ken Marklan. It was the starting point for the majority of the people whose executive decisions have shaped the WeBB: Mike Bourdaa, Nick Oven, Randy McCullick, Colin Wyers, even Jeff Field. Our three highest-ranked non-elected officers owe their starts to STF*Prodigy.

Yet the time had come to move. Surely, all good things must come to an end, yet in truth, the phenomenally good STF*Prodigy had ceased to exist months prior to this move. More than a few STFers left Fleets One and Two in the Summer of 1998 (at which time Fleet Two itself moved to the WeBB), and STF1 never recovered from this blow. Most of us who remember STF*Prodigy will choose to remember it as the way it was in the months immediately preceeding and immediately following the debut of the WeBB: Small, personal, a gathering of twenty or thirty officers, some fifteen of whom knew each other from RPGs as well as O.T. and Command discussions. A place where the President's office was cluttered with exploded sheep and the omnipresent Phil Bishop vs. Nick Oven arguments. A place where everyone had something to do yet nobody seemed to be doing anything -- just talking.

The WeBB is indeed a very different place. The phenomenon of daily posting died out on Prodigy almost as soon as it was born, in 1994-95; here, it is standard for officers Commander and up. And the WeBB doesn't have a central focus point the way that Prodigy had the Prez's Office -- although we've tried to replicate the approachable Center Seat with the Command Ship and the meeting ground with the WeBB OOC.

Looking back at the old neighborhood, there was a lot to admire. A genuine sense of cameraderie, a laid-back atmosphere in which one could simply be oneself, and a tight-knit group of friends. Yet we all knew it was ending. Prodigy as an online service was losing ground to AOL and independent ISPs, while the WeBB was booming. And here on the WeBB, we have the wave of the future: People from around the world and posting from all ISPs and online services; a more efficient RPG; a future of expansion, not reduction. The time has come, STF, to finish passing the torch. We shall never forget STF*Prodigy -- but we shan't dwell on it, either.

• The Status column on the AutoRoster available to COs, XOs, and GMs now includes not only the last time a member logged in, but the last time they posted on that particular ship. That number is also included on the AutoRoster itself.
• Both Fleet and Ship MOTDs now let you jump directly to any Ship in the same fleet or to the MOTD of any other fleet.
• COs can now restrict Topic creation to just the CO, XO, and GM or allow it for anyone on the ship.
• Unclosed tags in MOTDs are now automatically closed by the WeBB. So don't expect to see any more centered or multi-colored Rosters. Captains are warned not to let this make them lazy, however, as not all formatting tags are caught. They should still try to keep their HTML code as clean as possible.
• COs and FComms editing the MOTDs can now use "vanilla" HTML. Traditionally, a carriage return in the Edit MOTD Form was turned into a line break in the final MOTD, which doesn't happen in normal HTML. MOTD writers can now turn on a special "Expert Mode" by inserting a line into the MOTD at any point that reads "[expert-on]" and any code on the following lines will be rendered in normal HTML, without the extra line breaks. To return to the traditional WeBB, complete with line break-adder, insert a line that reads "[expert-off]". Both new pseudo-tags are case insensitive.

Butch, 36, is very active in his church and community. Following a decade as a US Airforce Security Officer, Butch left the Airforce shortly after serving in Desert Storm. Presently, he is a Technical Support Representitive for NCS and also works various part time jobs on and off, including DJing and teaching country music and dance. He is the Assistant Chief of his area's Volunteer Fire Deparment and is also an Emergency Med Tech. On top of all that, Butch finds time to be an active member of his church. Butch has been happily married for 16 years and has three children. The oldest, Mandy, presently serves on board the USS Athena. Despite his years of military service, Butch hopes to soon raise enough money to buy a dairy farm and return to his farming roots.
 

The background to this story can be found in the backwards history of planet Earth, the lowly chunk of rock orbiting the equally lowly Sol that inhabits the downright lowly Sector 001. The year, by Earth's backwards calendar, was 1999, and the populace there had yet to deal with what yuppies had acronymed the "Y2K" glitch. The glitch, from what indecipherable histories tell us, was a forseeable and very preventable malfunction of Earth's underpowered, over-stylized computers (history also tells us that Earth was dominated by the iMac, a computer that could have saved the world, but lacked a "floppy drive"). The date would have been read by those anachronistic machines as 1900, a clear mistake on the part of the programmers.

Suffice to say, Earthlings shrugged off this problem and dealt with it at the last minute, and when stardate 0001.01 (00010.1) came along, chaos reigned. Aero-planes fell from the sky and crushed the sick and elderly, the capitalist economy was reduced to tatters, and not even the iMacs could stop the disaster, as they lacked the power of a "floppy drive."

It was 100 years before Earth was back to its previous state. By then, though, the Romulan War was upon them and all the Earthlings could think about was destroying the pointy-eared invaders with the shiny, silvery uniforms and Caesar haircuts. When all was over and Earth was triumphant over the Romulans, they seemed not to care about the situation 900 years in the future. History recorded Earth sovereign Boris Yeltsin as saying, "Are you crazy? We'll be dead ten times over by then! I think I'll have a drink."

Some would call it conservative to worry about the Y3K computer glitch 230 years before it happens, but that's not what I would call it. The stakes are higher now, and we certainly don't want entire starships falling out of the sky and landing on the sick and elderly. The time to replace the outdated LCARS '70 software is now; the Apple corporation of Signis Prime has learned its lesson since then. It should do the right thing and incorporate the heralded "floppy drives" into all of the new computer cores.

Before we know it, the future will be upon us, and we will have said, "Why didn't we listen to Lance Eddington? Why did we commit him to the Delta-V Asylum along with Adam Kent, Peter Peterson, and Larry Garfield?" I urge Federation President Boris Yeltsin VIII to put down his Harvey Wallbanger (no synthehol for him) and make Starfleet Y3K compatible before it's too late. The countdown has begun. Only 230 years left until total chaos reigns supreme.
 

There has also been talk of adding more Training Ships besides the Challenger. Why? Not to train more COs, but to train more new recruits. New members are now given the option of joining the Training Ship upon joining STF, and so many did that the ship was at one point staffed all the way to dash-8. In time, given the apparent opinion of the powers that be, more Training Ships will be comissioned to eventually form a complete Academy Fleet. That possibility is even built into the Edict which created the Training Ship in the first place.

But is that what we want? A fleet for newbies and a fleet for everyone else? One person in Starfleet Command even mentioned the possibility of making it a requirement for new members to serve on a Training Ship before joining the "full" STF. Since when is STF such an elitest club? Since when does the "full" membership refrain from personally helping new members to get their feet wet?

That personal touch is what makes STF what it is. Anyone who has been in STF for a while knows that COs and DHs get e-mails from new members asking "What do I do?" Some of the answers are a regurgitated how-to-click-a-button, and that's why I wrote the 12 Steps to the WeBB. But others require more time and thought, both on the WeBB and off it. Hopefully everyone remembers being a brash young ensign, new to STF. Was there someone who gave you personal time to answer a question or two, or to help you learn the ropes? Didn't it feel good to have someone give you that person attention and training? That's what DHs do.

Now compare that to coming in and being assigned to a ship full of people who are either just as inexperienced as you are or are there to advance their own careers. While you are sitting there on a ship not knowing what you are doing, surrounded by other people not knowing what they are doing, the experienced members are off on other ships and don't even know you exist. Of course, you have an XO and CNS whose job it is to deal with such matters. But two people for an entire ship? And if it's expected that you come out of the Training Ship knowing what you are doing, then DHs will no longer be expected to answer those sort of questions, so you can't foist that on DHs-in-training. The rest of the club, then, moves along without worrying about the newcommers.

Now that's not to say that the Training Ship is bad. On the contrary, it's a very good way to give COs and even DHs on-the-job training in those positions. But new members often need a more personal touch. There's only so much you can learn from reading online primers and serving alongside other recruits. Many people joined STF because it allowed them to jump right in and learn as they go. It's what's made STF as great as it is today. The Training Ship should most definately remain an option for new recruits and for people seeking advancement, but nothing can equal personal, one-on-one, "real world" training.
 

Indeed. In Pete's hand was a printout of a new newsletter that former President Mike Bourdaa had published. It looked professional, it sounded professional, it even smelled professional. Or maybe that was the cereal. In any event, as I read through the printout, my demeanor darkening by the second, my smile turning into a frown turning into a scowl, I couldn't help but think: Wait a minute here, I don't work in an office.

I woke up and assured myself that it had all been an unpleasant dream. I went to my Wednesday classes and busied myself with studying the fine art of killing time on the Internet. Then, the next day, tragedy struck: Admiral Bourdaa indeed carried out his threat to publish a newsletter. For real. And it was good.

The first issue of the The Observer, the new publication of Adm. Bourdaa's "Galactic Independent News" corporation, is surprisingly factual. Adm. Bourdaa is himself, of course, the nexus of many WeBB events and this gives him an intimate view of many newsworthy happenings (as opposed to the rest of us poor souls, who actually have to research!). Yet given the caliber of the recent entries into the STF press box -- IveSTFiya, TW3, and PUN -- it was a pleasant shock to find a well-researched chronicle.

The GIN Observer followed up its first-issue success with a second issue on 17 March, celebrating St. Patrick's Day replete with a green-themed color scheme, an interview with alleged Irishman-in-exile Stuart Coll and a song about self-proclaimed Son of Bourdaa Seamus Hughes. The news department showed no signs of hangover [sorry about that one --Ed.] in compiling a Top Story on the Morgan/Spurlin crisis and other stories on IRC, Fleet One, and the inescapable Dessert War '99.

One thing bothered me about this new competitor, though. Well, actually, two things: First, that they might actually challenge SNN in the "accurate news" category, but more importantly, that IDir Bourdaa may be using his position to further his newspaper [whereas we all know that FComm-4 Garfield and FComm-2 Ballway have never used their myriad Cabinet positions to give a boost to this fine newspaper! --Ed.]. The prosecution calls as its Exhibit A the fact that GIN, without having published a newsletter, was given a department-level directory on the star-fleet.com server -- sure, SNN has the same honor, but we'd been established for six years when we got it. These upstarts were around for six minutes, maybe. Besides which, the Internet Director who bestowed that favor upon SNN was Capt. Nick Oven -- with whom we were never excessively kind and who would have had no ulterior motive, no expected quid pro quo, in awarding us a department-level directory.

On the other side of the media gallery, we have this Galactic Independent News -- independent indeed! When the Internet Director starts giving his own network its own department-level directory, I say it's no more independent from his governmental position than Pravda was independent of the USSR Soviet Party! In the opinion of this journalist, this whole situation reeks of favoritism. Adm. Mike Bourdaa has abused his position as Internet Director, giving himself breaks that haven't been seen since SNN UPDATE started getting off easy due to its publisher's ties with-

Oh, dear. Well, erm, I suppose the offense isn't that bad. And I guess that Adm. Bourdaa does write well . . . and the whole situation is quite understandable . . . I think we'd all do the same thing . . . what do you say, we let him keep his job? Keep on writing? Sure, let's do that. . . .