[TrekRPGNet] Your input requested

[Cpt. Lundgren]

Don, I hope your emergency is under controll and if not that everything will get well soon.

Regarding this thread, and my thought on paying a fee to support it. My first spontanious though was "Defenitely, where do I sign up." I seldom even lurk the boards these days (working full time, taking college/university classes halftime, having 3 SWG chars and having a girlfriend somehow eats up my time. Can't understand why ) but I still felt that I would support the site financially, because I like it a lot.

But then I started to read through some threads. A lot of them was just as fun as I remember, and I felt like I had returned home. But then I stumbled over one thread... It was just one thread, but it went into politics/religion/racism and overshadowed the possitive feeling I had. Yes, the thread was not approved of, and it got locked down after a while. But how it had progressed up to then gave me a really bad taste. It is somewhat a part of human kind to overlook wrongdoings from them you share views with. But I was as revolted by the people I aggred with as the other "side."

I remember several old threads that went deep into inflamatory real life subjects that never went out of hand. The maturity level felt higher, and the cool headed seemed to outnumbered the hot headed. But somehow that has changed.

For two days I have been battling with my feelings and thoughts if my views for this forums is just nostalgica, or if it still is something I do like. Well, my conclusion is that it is a good part nostalgy. But I also realise that I still do like this site (otherwise I wouldn't went back far enough to find the thread in question )

So what would it take to make me get back to the "sure, where do I sign up" mentality?

When it comes to perks... a small note hidden deep down in the profile stating that I am a paying/donating member is enough for me. Everything else is a bonus.

Getting access to be able to download content earlier looks like a good way to make more people interrested in paying.

When it comes to political discussions. I have a feeling that a lot of people is still is a little to jumpy. I would love to be able to have the type of discussions that where going on before. But right now do I don't think it is a good idea. However, making a special forum (maybe called "The lava pit" ?) where all political discussion and producer bashing is welcomed. And have access to that part of the forum been based on members who asks for it. Then at least it won't scare of newcommers before they even registered... Then the level of moderation on that forum could be in the old ways. It could get into a flamewar, and the thread could be locked down. But people are at least prepared for it, and have themselves asked for the access.

Somehow I guess there are more than me who almost never even go here to read anymore, less post anything. But who probably be sucked back in if the warm fuzzy feeling got back It is all about the community after all.

Actually, just writing about it made me descide if I would contribute with somewhere between $12-24 or not. The heck if I even get a small note in the profile. I hope you descide to keep the site running. Where do I sign up?

[Don Mappin]

Originally posted by Cpt. Lundgren
But then I started to read through some threads. A lot of them was just as fun as I remember, and I felt like I had returned home. But then I stumbled over one thread... It was just one thread, but it went into politics/religion/racism and overshadowed the possitive feeling I had.

What thread, where? I'll look into it and, if necessary, start some action.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

The thread in question was almost a month and a half ago, so I had been reading a lot before I got there. The thread did get closed down, some people tried to calm things down and the moderators did a good job. The thread in question did was only open for about 24 hours.

Just an idea. But maybe all moderators could be able to temp-lock a thread, until a moderator for the current forum have time to descide if the lock should be permanent or lifted?

I'll PM the link in question to you, and only post it here if you wish. It has probably already been taken care of.

[Liz Not Beth]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[D.S.McBride]

Major Rakal's question about LUG downloads in the General RP forum brought this subject to mind, Don. An idle question, perhaps, but one that's occasionally occured to me over the course of the last several months: If you do choose to go ahead with the Trek-RPG.net relaunch, would the on-line store (which I recall fondly from those days between LUG's fadeaway and Decipher's hiring of the production team) have any part in the plans?

As I remember, you had a pretty brisk business going for a while there; and although I'm unaware as to the state of any of the stock - still in storage, completely sold out, disbursed, put on e-Bay, what have you - I'm wondering if something like that might be a possible contributor to the financial well-being of the refurbished site. If, as you previously stated, Decipher is looking for more of an exit strategy than a long-term commitment to Trek RPing, would a similar possibility open up for Coda as well? Or did the situation with LUG work only because the company itself had liquidated?

Also, as I last recall, you'd been musing about the introduction of Trek-RPG.net mugs. We need them. I need them. Hoardes of trembling, rag-clad caffeine addicts beseech the heavens for them as I write this. Let's end the suffering in our lifetime and introduce countless teenagers to the Arabian and Columbian pleasures of black, regular and double-double!

[Ineti]

Not just mugs. I'd love to see a new Trek-rpg logo on a t-shirt or a hat or something. I love this site; I'd like to continue to support it and show it off. Get hooked up with Cafe Press.

[Moriarti]

Ok, I've been away for a while. I read through the 11 pages of this thread, and it's been a week since anyone else has posted. but it's stickied. Since I'm not going to be bumping it, I'll post my thoughts.

It's important to point out I have no skills, education, or brains. these are just random thoughts that make enough noise in my head to warrant me writing them down.

Don. If you wanna charge an annual fee for "Membership" I'd pay it. How much doesn't really matter that much, be it 12$, 25$, or even 50$. I'd pay it once, at least. Not for avatars, search abilities, PMs, or being on the cutting edge of being able to d/l home-made adventures in PDF.
But just because what I've already gained from this site, would make it worth it.

That being said, I wouldn't pay for this site if I'd just found it. I'm a cheap bastard, and I'm ok with waiting a month to read anything. and I can ignore pop-up ads with the best of them. I don't think I'm alone on that.

Which leads me to thinking, after an initial subscription-flurry, You may be OK for a year, but, the funds would likely drop off significantly after a year, (It's important to note that this may be for the best, as then we can see what kind Hell StarTrek RPGs have sunken to in that time.)

So... I prolly had a point when I started, but the 4 year old trying to remove my dogs' spleen has pretty much shattered my train of thought, which really wasn't that impressive to begin with.

[Lancer]

I know I am awfully late to the party, but better late than never I guess.
While I haven't even done much lurking the last few months, as my Trek game died down a while ago and I somewhat lost my interest in RPGs in general, here are my 0.02$ on the topic:

(1) I'd be willing to pay anywhere from 10-25$ a year to keep this site up an running, despite my current lack of interest in Trek RPGing, just for old times sake.

(2) If anyone thinks that's too much money, so be it, but in the end - at least for me - it means that smoking one cigaret a day less will be more than enough to pay for it.

(3) As for additional content that would be available to paying members of this group, I'd say a special forum would be a must-have, for one simple reason: If someone pays money to the site and receives adventures/downloads/pdfs/whatever weeks in advance of the non-paying members, he/she will most likely want to discuss this material with others.
Having those discussions hosted on the General Chat forum might be nice as an advertising idea, it would be unfair teasing to the non-paying people. Having a hadful of people talk about how great this or that new product is in front of others - who will have to wait a month or two before they can read - it strikes me as just a little bit cruel.

[Capt. K. Vaughn]

I have not been around much of late, only recently returning once more so I do come to this thread quite late.

I may not play CODA and I am still somewhat on a break from Trek Gaming in general but I can say personally from my own experiences that two of the things that led to my slowing dropping away from here was the loss of the license by LUG and a lack of updates which I used to log on for daily.

That said, if the site returned to the days long past with regular updates with new material, I'd be willing to pay and not for any real perks beyond supporting the site.

I can reverse engineer anything I need to LUG if I want to use it. Mostly I came here for inspiration and I would love for it to return to a similar level. It would be worth paying for that alone.

Don, I hope all things are now well on a personal level.

[Scott M. Macek]

Hmm... Where to begin? Well, first and foremost I want to extend to you, Don, my utmost appreciation and thanks for the work you have done over the past half-decade. Every time I log onto the internet I stop by to see if this site has something new and while I agree that it has been far too long since any thing new has appeared, I think that is for the most part our fault.

Ah, I hear the ugly head of the "what do you mean by THAT?!?!" beast rising so I will spell it out: Don is an awesome creator of Star Trek RPG material, but Don is not THE creator of Star Trek material. WE the FANS are. If Star Trek dies as a franchise (Role-Playing game or otherwise) it is because those of us who have created for or participated in the Star Trek universe have not contributed. I, too am guilty of this, which is something I would like to correct if Don decides to reopen the site for OUR benefit.

Part of the reason I feel that Voyager missed its potential and Enterprise started so very poorly was the elimination by the producers of the freelance script submissions that started with The Next Generation. Enterprise is finally coming around because new writing blood was brought in to save it (whether this is too little too late is yet to be seen, however).

Don, you have asked for input on how to make the site feasible. and my suggestions are twofold:

1. Charge a membership fee for new material to be immediately available while those using the site for free wait thirty days to see that same material.

2. Provide a bonus to those that submit material. One of the reasons I still have hope that Decipher is not abandoning their RPG lines is directly related to their free adventure submission requests and the fact that some of these are already available on Decipher's site. On the Decipher site, standard freelance pay is offered (if I remember correctly), but on this site, the reward could be a free one-year membership! This could be done based on the number/size/value of the submissions or, could be turned into a contest where the site users vote on who submitted the best and/or most useful stuff with free membership going to the winner.

Anyway, I for one am not going to blame you for putting the site on hiatus or even dropping it entirely. Real-life gets in the way of a lot of things and since some of the criticism I've seen posted on this thread is NOT of the constructive variety, your reasons for washing your hands of the whole affair would be well understood, even if it would break my heart to see the Trek-rpg.net fade away forever.

[Ineti]

So...it's been almost four months since Don posted this message. Any resolution?

Since the site is still around, is it safe to say we'll be here a while? Is there a wait on something?

With Decipher getting their new message boards up and running, is that a factor whether trek-rpg.net stays or goes?

Inquiring minds wanna know. Don?