hope in the darkness

[varek]

I was just listening to Loreena McKennitt's 2006 album Nights From The Alhambra, and the closing lines in her beautiful song "Dante's Prayer" seemed so appropriate to the closing of the Star Trek Homepage website:

"When the dark night seems endless,
Please remember me."

I hope that all of us here can take inspiration from all of our likeminded friends at this website, knowing that they love, respect and perhaps even admire us. That way, none of us should feel alone in the dark.

 

[2takesfrakes]

startrek.com has been an interesting mix. On one hand, being "official," one would've expected it to be the template for Fan Sites to follow. This has never been the case.

As the network did with The Original Series, the powers that be over at that site kept doing everything it could to sabatage its own success. For example, the persistant "bugs," "gremlins" and so forth. For another, it routinely "banned," or denied access to fans whom others got along with, either out of "mistaken identity" or some other subjective reason. And finally, the introduction of CAPTCHA, to curb trolls, whilst not actively having to police their own site.

Also, the look of startrek.com was really cheap and lame. Perhaps STAR TREK's Official FaceBook site was more important to them, I really can't answer that. But the site's closing was always rumoured, for these and many other reasons. There were some fun posters on the site and I was fortunate to "know" many of them. None of what made the site unwelcoming ever had to be. That's the real "tragedy" of it. Those running startrek.com always had the power to change things, to improve the site in a meaningful way and ... they didn't. They just didn't. That's the way it goes ...

 

[Vandervecken]

startrek.com has been an interesting mix. On one hand, being "official," one would've expected it to be the template for Fan Sites to follow. This has never been the case.

As the network did with The Original Series, the powers that be over at that site kept doing everything it could to sabatage its own success. For example, the persistant "bugs," "gremlins" and so forth. For another, it routinely "banned," or denied access to fans whom others got along with, either out of "mistaken identity" or some other subjective reason. And finally, the introduction of CAPTCHA, to curb trolls, whilst not actively having to police their own site.

Also, the look of startrek.com was really cheap and lame. Perhaps STAR TREK's Official FaceBook site was more important to them, I really can't answer that. But the site's closing was always rumoured, for these and many other reasons. There were some fun posters on the site and I was fortunate to "know" many of them. None of what made the site unwelcoming ever had to be. That's the real "tragedy" of it. Those running startrek.com always had the power to change things, to improve the site in a meaningful way and ... they didn't. They just didn't. That's the way it goes ...

Mainly, for me, who the hell wants to watch Trek episodes with all those commercials (same at CBS.com)? No way.

 

[Melakon]

Yeah, I watched VOY: Relativity over there last week, and the ads reminded me why I started building a home video library in the 80s.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

What the whole thing is closing?? I thought it was only the forums that were closing!

 

[Finn]

^i thought it closed about 6 years ago

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

startrek.com has been an interesting mix. On one hand, being "official," one would've expected it to be the template for Fan Sites to follow. This has never been the case.

In my experience "official" forums are usually plagued by problems. They are not a labor of love and the overseeing is driven by the need for the brand to look good, so the censorship is random and overkill.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I don't think I ever went on the official Trek forums. My only memory relating to them is this guy, who is probably devastated.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Reach out in the darkness, people

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqLRd4neGGE[/yt]

 

[2takesfrakes]

In my experience "official" forums are usually plagued by problems. They are not a labor of love and the overseeing is driven by the need for the brand to look good, so the censorship is random and overkill.

The one thing I've noticed too, is that Official Sites have media that is very tame and rarely as interesting as what Fan Sites put up. Why that is, I never uderstood, because you'd think they'd be very concerned about looking cool. It probably has to do with just not wanting to pay royalties - and that's crazy. In any event, who the hell else is buying from startrek.com's "store" if not people who are visiting regularly to post on it. Everything in their kiosk is absurdly overpriced, compared even to amazon.com, or some shit. Ah, if only they'd moved over and let 2takesfrakes take over ... it would've been glorious!