Hey guys,
After speaking with Nick, I wanted to take this opportunity to get reacquainted with the Stonewall Fleet community and answer any questions you guys may have so that we don't have to play a game of telephone :-)
A little backstory - for almost ten years now, I have been an active member of the Star Trek RPG (simming) community. I ran an Intrepid-class simulation called the USS Frontier, and my main character was a stubborn old El-Aurian Ambassador named Mordred Ocal (pronounced "oh-CALL").
A few years after I started simming, Star Trek Online was slated to come out, and I was beside myself with excitement. I joined during the earliest Beta I could get into and have pretty much been throwing my money at them ever since. I've really enjoyed the game, but I was always a bit disappointed that it wasn't the opportunity I had always hoped for - the chance to actually develop and directly impact the evolution of the game.
I knew, starting out, that what I was attempting was going to either be insanely difficult or impossible, but I was a hobby web designer at the time, and used it as an excuse to train myself in the art of development. I learned so much, I was even able to get a job working on websites full-time! This, in turn, gave me even more experience as I redoubled my efforts on the Future Fleets project.
So here we are now. One portion of the site is released and ready for active use - the Simm Database. This feature will mostly benefit the RPG community, but I am really proud to have Stonewall Fleet registered as our first STO-based fleet since it never really hurts to tell more people about this organization (especially given the number of LGBTQA people I've simmed with over the years).
The other main portion of the site is more catered toward my ultimate goal - a self-sustaining, community-managed version of the Star Trek Universe. Nearly all of the ground work is complete, I just have a few more systems to add over the next month before all of the "core" features I want to have in place are finished.
I freely admit that, starting out, the site may not "wow" your average web visitor. It's not flashy and overly interactive, but I hope that it is a start.
With respect to concerns that we will eventually monetize the game somehow, I want to emphasize that this is the last thing we want to do. I am personally against it, and to be honest, I'm not sure we can even legally appear to profit without risking action from CBS. At most, I would ask for donations if the costs of hosting became burdensome and beyond my budgeted annual allocation.
I hope this helps to set the record straight, and I thank you all for taking a look. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions or concerns, and I look forward to working with as many of you as I can both in STO and on the Future Fleets site.
