=^= T E N F O R W A R D N E W S L E T T E R =^= ISSUE 1 JUNE 1998 Included in this issue: Departmental Reports/Summaries Officers promoted as of the end of June Listing of Site additions Copyright issues and information Greetings and welcome to the first Ten Forward Newsletter. The purpose of this publication is simply to provide a concise summary of the happenings in Ten Forward over the previous month. Frequently, there are a vast number of activities which occur during the month that are not visible to the general visitor to Ten Forward. This communication attempts to outline the major events and items of interest for our registered members. There may be some of you who registered with us some time ago and have forgotten what Ten Forward is and what takes place there. Visit us at the following URL to refresh your memory: http://www.intergate.bc.ca/personal/danneff/tenforward/ This issue has deliberately been kept as simple as possible. We wish this communication to be readily available to the maximum number number of members and are aware of the different capabilities of many of our members email programs. As such, we have excluded all graphics for this month's newsletter. Future newsletters may contain graphics and stationary - if your email program is capable of handling html you can be added to a separate html mailing list if you wish. Inform us at tfnewsletter@hotmail.com if you'd like to change lists. Should you have any comments, problems or ideas regarding formatting, content or any other attribute, or any ideas for inclusions in next month's issue, please forward mail to : tfnewsletter@hotmail.com. If wish to be removed from our mailing list you can inform us via the above email address. @*********DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS*********@ The following reports are extracted from official reports filed with Administration. This month all departments are included for sake of completeness. However, in future only departments where activities can readily be reported to the wider public will be incorporated. For example, occurrences in Counselling cannot be reported due to the confidentiality implicit in the nature of the activities of this Department. -> COUNSELLING The purpose of counselling, to afford newcomers with an easier adjustment to TF and provide support to members, has been well taken advantage of in the recent month. Head of Department Kassandra reports morale is relatively high, aside from a few minor difficulties -> COMMUNICATIONS Communications has been extremely busy under the command of Ivonna D. Thoni. The past, current and future projects of the Communications Department are as follows: -Getting the Department organized- This is a task that finally has been completed. Once the department heads were selected, they were assigned to lead half of the department members each in the future projects where the whole department is not needed. This was done so it would be easier to keep track of who performs their duties satisfactory and who doesn't. We've come to realize that many of those who are signed up for this department are either not regulars, which will make it a lot harder on those who are to fulfill tasks. -Conducting the Ten Forward Survey- This project has been up and running for a few weeks now. Despite the fact that the members of the Communications Department have been told to advertise this survey and it has been posted on the message board, only a small number of members have taken the time to fill it out. However, the end of the survey and final report will occur in the near future. [The importance of the survey and further information is discussed below under General Issues. Please take the time to read this, it is important for every member of TF to have a say in the activities and future of the site]. -The Ten Forward Star Trek Trivia Quiz- This is a competition for the Ten Forward regulars. It was started in the very first days of June. As yet, there is no final date when it will be finished, since it depends on when we will have a winner. It is likely it will go on for at least fifteen weeks, probably twenty. The department members are to find trivia questions and hand them in to Yala J. Brooks. They will then forward the suitable questions to Department Head, who has been updating the Communications Department Home Page with questions each week. -Advertising Ten Forward- The Communication members have been told to constantly advertise Ten Forward in other chat rooms. Also, once again, the major search engines have been looked into and where Ten Forward is not easily found, it will be added in the near future. -> DEVELOPMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES No information has been provided for this Department. Please visit the homepage or contact the Head of Department Robby for any information. -> ENGINEERING Staff restructures have occurred in Engineering over the last few weeks. Deputy Head HVG has moved on, HAL being promoted to Deputy Head and Justin Black to Vice-Deputy Head. Three central programs have been conducted in Engineering. Most importantly, a new and improved Engineering page has been created at : http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dungeon/9438/index.html Progress on other important projects such as new Crew Quarters, and the Race Project have continued over the June period. -> INTELLIGENCE -Duties- The Intelligence Department was created to gather information that is helpful and useful for Ten Forward members while on the internet. Contrary to popular belief, the Intelligence Department is not all cloak and dagger. The duties of the Intelligence Department for the last month have mainly revolved around getting the new Intelligence Web-Site in a reasonable state of use for the TF Crewmembers. The Department is concerned primarily with the content of the page at this point. Once the content has been better filled, cosmetic changes will be the secondary priority on the site. It is intended to include new LCARs. -Text Library and Software Links Page- In an effort to make the Intelligence Department more user friendly for our TF members, the department has taken the initiative to expand it's role. Intelligence is taking a proactive role by attempting to create useful documents and links. This is incorporated in a text library and a software links page. -Text Library- Our primary role is to find useful information for all Ten Forward members. The Department may post a useful document about adjusting a computers settings for better performance, link a program that helps you while browsing and/or working on the internet, or even to hunt down a person who has been causing trouble in Ten Forward. Basically, the Department may post a document on anything deemed important or useful. -Software Page - Most of the items on the new software page will not be direct downloads from the Intell Department, but linked from other download sites like ZD-Net. The Department is attempting to list only programs that are free on this page, however, are willing to accept shareware that is reasonable in value. The amount of software available on the internet is vast. The concept of the software page is to provide free and/or cheap software links for our members of useful software. The Department is aiming at saving all TF members time with this page. It would be greatly appreciated if members of TF would visit the Intell Department Site, so that they may give feedback or request/submit information. However, please note that the site is under heavy construction at this point. Please feel free to visit us at: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Nebula/4581/ or mail us on : tf_intell@geocities.com -> RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT During the last month, the department of Research and Development has finally, after solving some initial problems, been able to begin its work. Departmental duties have been divided up among the command staff, and a mailing list for discussion among department members has been in use. The departmentīs homepage is currently being re-worked according to TF standards. In addition, there will be a sub-site to this, detailing the different projects R&D is working on. Due to the efficient structure of the Department, the following projects, long on the drawing board, have been realized. These projects include: -The Ten Forward Archive- The Archive page is currently residing at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/3723/tfarch.html Please note that this is an online testing site so far, and some of the downloads are not yet available. However, it should give a first impression of what the Department is towards. Among future additions to the Archives are a History of TF, and links to crew member art pages. Work on the Archives is being coordinated by Deputy Sonata Form, Any comments or suggestions should be made to Sonata Form, who co-ordinates the work on the Archives. -The Vox Box- This long-time pet project will give all TF crew members the opportunity to download sound files of their online friendīs voices or sending short messages. The "look" will be somewhere between the Email Centre and the Dossier files. The project is at the bug-fixing stage and will hopefully be able tobe presented as a working beta-version of the page at the end of July. Work on the Vox Box is being coordinated by Vice Deputy RQ. -Shuttle Bay / Shuttle Bay 2- The shuttle bay will be known to visitors to TF, being the TF link page. Shuttle Bay 2 will be an additional page with Star Trek-links that are not directly relevant to TF, but nevertheless interesting for itīs crew. Crewmember Harry is currently searching the Net for useful sites. -Awards Page- This is another sub-site to the Shuttle Bay, where the awards given in TF and their winners will be presented. -Future Projects- There are several other programs under discussion which will be reported in due course. On a final note, please be aware that the Department of Research and Development is always open for suggestions from other departments and crewpeople. Please feel free to put forward any ideas you might have at any time. Remember the departmental motto: Research and Development - if it doesnīt exist, weīll invent it! Please take the time to visit our homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/3723 We would appreciate any comments you may have, so please mail us at TF_RandD@geocities.com -> SECURITY The Head of Security reports that very few disturbances have occurred in TF over the last month. After previous months problems with hackers and other malcontents, the quiet has afforded the security team some peace. @************* PROMOTIONS ***************@ The following personnale have been promoted as of the month ended 30th June 1998 : Lieutenant Commander Joshua Hal Lieutenant Justin Black Lieutenant JKAD Lieutenant Kasumi Hai Lieutenant JG Arwen Lieutenant JG T'Farik Lieutenant JG Lorina Lieutenant JG Jade Dagger Lieutenant JG Sonata Form Lieutenant JG Floyd Ensign Kyle Bunch Ensign Froto Ensign Thunder Ensign Apollo Ensign Alex Telstar Ensign Dreco Hun Ensign Nynaeve AlMeara Ensign PdeLange Ensign Cyanide Ensign Lore Ensign Aliens Ensign Geek Girl Ensign Bug Ensign Drizzt Do'urrodan Ensign LoQtus Ensign F5 Ensign Robison @************* OFFICER OF THE MONTH *************@ The Admiralty wisely awarded the Officer of the Month award to Micha Bravo, Head of Intelligence, due to Micha's brilliant contribution over the June period. Those interested should witness evidence of Micha's hard work at the Intelligence home page. Micha is also a fine officer and good friend to many in TF, having been a frequent visitor for many months. Keep up the good work Micha! @************* STAFF MOVEMENTS *************@ Buck Murray has taken some time off for leave. Buck may return sometime in the future. Best wishes Buck ! HVG has moved on from his Engineering post and is providing a valuable contribution with his assistance to other departments. Keep up the good work HVG. @************* MESSAGES FROM ADMINISTRATION **********@ -Site Additions- Over the month of June we made some significant changes to the structure of Ten Forward. This includes the addition of the settings option on the login page, the makeover of Starfleet Command Headquarters, the addition of pop up windows to provide easier access to TF functions, and the addition of a general information box on the entry page. The methods we used to implement these additions make use of relatively new technology - You will need at least Netscape 3.0 or IE 3.0 to view them properly. If you should experience any problems due to these altercations please report them to Admiral Rascal at moritzly@geocities.com so he can look into them. -Department Personnel- If you would like to become involved in Ten Forward, feel free to apply for one of our departments. We encourage participation and allocate awards (ie promotions) to those who exhibit dedication and enthusiasm towards improving the site and corresponding networks. The application forms are located on each respective department's hompeage. You may visit departmental homepages and projects via the shuttlebay. For your convenience the URL is listed below: http://lorgar.ish.com/tf/link/link.html -Ten Forward Survey- Over the last few months members of Ten Forward ('TF') have been asked to complete a survey as to attributes they would wish to see in certain circumstances. Response to the survey was, at first, extremely discouraging, but in the past few weeks improved quite substantially. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those members who have thoughtfully taken the time to complete the survey for their valuable input. We encourage all members who have not yet done to so take advantage of a chance to input their ideas into the creation of a better Ten Forward for all to enjoy. The survey can be found at http://members.tripod.com/~starlabs/ . Should you have any questions in relation to the survey, please do not hesitate to contact Sonata at schooff@axionet.com at your earliest convenience. -Future Projects- Discussions, design and testing are continuing on the possibility of extending Ten Forward into one or more additional rooms. Further information will be posted as it comes to be released. -Legal Issues- As many you are no doubt aware the log-in page of Ten Forward carries a legal disclaimer in relation to use of trademark or copyright material. Such a disclaimer is necessary as Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager are all registered trademarks of Paramount Pictures Incorporated. Possible legal liability will arise should any characters, images, and related marks be misused in any way. Misuse of material protected by trademark results from utilization in a manner designed to provide some sort of benefit or gain to the user or an associated entity. For this reason, emphasis has been placed on the non-commercial purpose of the site. No benefit accrues to any associated party to Ten Forward, aside from that of the enjoyment of chatting and socializing with others. Any misuse of trademark materials is purely accidental. You will note that all trademark materials on all TF linked pages are stated to be the property of Paramount Pictures Inc. Furthermore, TF sites and affiliated materials are emphasized to have no association with Paramount Pictures Inc. Paramount Pictures has no interest nor sanction on the sites. The effect of this is that any issues arising are precluded from being the responsibility of Paramount Pictures or associated entities and are solely attributable to the makers of TF. An open letter has been posted by Viacom/Paramount on this issue. The page is at http://www.paramount.com/openletter/ for those of you who wish to be aware of the current situation. Again we emphasise there is not threat to TF as long as no misuse takes place. @************* CREDITS *************@ Profuse thanks go to RQ for his help in creating the new TF stationary and aid on graphics creations, which, despite all the hard work, have been excluded for ease of member access. Furthermore, thanks goes to those Department Heads who submitted detailed reports on time. Thanks people, it makes the job so much easier ! Commander Tigris Administrations Department Executive Editor, Ten Forward tfnewsletter@hotmail.com