A few weeks ago, the Internet Department held a discussion regarding the proper way to "use" the "Location" field. Not too many people participated unfortunately, but for those who did, we've agreed on a few things.

1. The "Location" field gets abused. While this abuse doesn't break the software, it does make archiving notes difficult. The specifics of these abuses are disputed, but there are many on which we agree.

2. In order to fix this issue, a new feature will be implemented after D6, where we have a "Location" field and an "Activity" field.

a. The "Location" field is only to contain a physical location; e.g. "Bridge", "Captain's Ready Room", "Quarters: Joe Bloggs".

b. The "Activity" field is only to contain an In Character activity; e.g. "Joe Blogg's Physical", "Medical Emergency", "Graduation Ceremony".

This format was devised in order to eliminate the need for "tagging", which is one of the abuses that disrupts the system as mentioned in point #1.

3. In order for the "Location" and "Activity" field plan to work, we need to make sure that the "Activity" field does not simply become a "dumping ground" for all that stuff that is currently a problem in the "Location" field.

4. (Anyone still with me?) In order to start forming good habits and make an easier transition to this system, we will start treating the Location field in the following format: Location - Activity

Examples of the proper format:

Sickbay - Joe Blogg's Physical
Counselor's Office - Cadet Smith's Evaluation
CO's Ready Room - Disciplining Lt. Marius
Cargo Bay 1
Transporter Room 2
Planet's Surface - Cultural Research

I hope that gets the point across, and clears up the many rumors and misconceptions that have been floating around about this issue. Jack and I worked hard on a solution that allows the most flexibility for users while maintaining integrity of the system. Lets give this a try.

Jen