A 'Star Trek' Writers resource

I hope I'm not out of place starting this thread here.

Though I have some knowledge of the vast universe that is Star Trek, mostly from watching episodes of Next Gen when I was a kid with my Grandpa (he had the hots for Troy) and from diligently watching Voyager (the 'hip' series) when I was in high school.
I know so little about spiefics: Star Fleet history, aliean classes and history, fleet information, Planets, Federation protocol. So on and so forth. This is an issue for me because I love writing fanfic. I've done so in much easier fandoms, but if Im going to write any Star Trek stories... I want to do it right.

I was hoping this thread could be used as a resource... quick questions asked and answered. Links to great Star Trek information outlets shared (responsibly), and maybe a few opinions asked for and offered. I know I'm going to need all the help I can, but who knows maybe others might find need for it to.

Probably the best resource for canon information is the Memory Alpha wiki. If you're interested in the "expanded universe" via the various novels or other officially licensed works, there's also a Memory Beta wiki with loads of info. There's also the Daystrom Institute Technical Library which has tons of info on ships and tech, as well as species and personnel, with loads of pictures.

I'm not much of a fan-fic writer, but I still find these sites to be really useful in my general nerdery, and for pen-and-paper RPGs.

Oh, great stuff.

Memory Alpha is indispensable for Star Trek fan fiction. Not only have I used it to check facts about the universe's history, but it's been a great source for when I want to make up names for an alien race (they have name lists for most major races, so you can just derive one from those) or pull out some technobabble that you're not sure about. I've actually checked their drug list a couple of times for when I needed a doctor to pull out some compound or toxin in a story.

There are also a number of technical manuals and histories out there that should be available through your library. I have one that goes through Season 5 of TNG, but of course a lot of the information in there now is obsolete because of additions/revisions made via the subsequent three series, as well as the movies.