Volume 4, Issue 1

Stardate 53619.5

Hello [rank] [fname] [name],

"The SubspaceLink? What's a SubspaceLink? The name sounds vaguely familiar, oh yeah, that's that site that used to send us a newsletter regularly with evaluations of new episodes of Voyager, etc. That was such a long time ago!"

Yes it was, but the report of the SubspaceLink's demise is greatly exaggerated. I've been working recently on a complete redesign of the SubspaceLink from the ground up, and it is now ready! If you haven't already done so this week, I encourage you to visit http://www.SubspaceLink.com and check out its new content-driven interface.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

The New layout of the SubspaceLink and new features
The Registration System
Promotions
The SubspaceLink Newsletter ***VERY IMPORTANT***
New SubspaceLink Merchandise.
Upcoming Episode tonight: Q2

The New layout of the SubspaceLink and new features

As mentioned in the introduction, the SubspaceLink has been COMPLETELY redesigned with new features and a new content-driven Database oriented layout. The changes to the link are so vast that I could not possibly point them out here, but let's point out a few of the features.

Modular Format. Each section of the site, rather than be considered a "page" is considered a Category, the main category being the equivalent of the Home page (and this category is named Home). Every Category can have sub categories and an array of items, including what are referred to as "Items" which are basically main points that appear in the center of the page; "Polls" which allow you to vote on a topic pertaining to the current category; "News Items" which can be subscribed to as e-mail on a Daily, Weekly or ASAP and pertain to the current category, the main news area will be what will replace the SubspaceLink newsletter, see article below; "Discussions" which are your basic forums, members can post messages and messages can be replied to; and more. There are now currently 6 main subcategories of the main site, which are as follows:

About - Replacement for /about.html, basic information about the SubspaceLink.
Free E-mail - Replacement for the SubspaceRelay.com main page, instructions and ability to sign up for and login to your free @subspacerelay.com e-mail account.
Treklog - Everything pertaining to the Treklog family of programs (**NEW** The Treklog mIRC Script version 1.4 has been released to the public, go to this area to download it now!)
Chat - Replacement for /chat.html, contains the Java applet used to get to the official SubspaceLink chat room, subcategories of this category will include transcripts of SubspaceLink chats and information on our official RPG, Star Trek: Final Frontiers.
Subspace Shop - This returning feature to the SubspaceLink will include the ability to buy Star Trek Memorabilia, and NEW, the ability to buy special SubspaceLink branded T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Mugs, and Mouse pads (see article below)
LCARS Database - This one will be a "mother category", the Holonovels have moved to a subcategory of this category and an Episodes subcategory has been added where I will add all future episode evaluations, and will systematically begin reevaluating previous episodes and eventually filling out the area with evaluations of ALL of Star Trek, past, present, and future.

Each member will have his own personal page that he can easily customize with news, items, categories, polls, discussions, basically your own mini version of the SubspaceLink. This is got through an id system, every category and item on the SubspaceLink has a unique id number, after you register and sign in if you click the My Projects link, you will be taken to your personal page where you will be able to see your id number. I have moved the Live CapCam to my personal page which can be found at http://www.subspacelink.com/metadot/index.pl?iid=1378 (notice the id# in my case is 1378). Admiral Veldman will be posting regular updates to our Sister Site: Starbase49 at his personal portal which can be found at http://www.subspacelink.com/metadot/index.pl?iid=1913 (note his id# of 1913). I encourage each of you to customize your personal page with information about yourself and what you are up to, this will be a great way to promote intercommunication between our members, To customize your page, sign in, go to your page by clicking the "My Projects" link on the top of the page, click the Edit On link below, from there you can remove current items, and add new ones easily if you need help, don't hesitate to e-mail me at [email protected], visit the SubspaceLink chat room, or drop by a message in the special help discussion group found at http://www.subspacelink.com/metadot/index.pl?iid=1936 (note again that even this discussion group has it's own id#)

And now for one of the coolest features, the My Page feature. Each subspacelink member will be given his/her own customizable Home Page that only he/she can get to. From here you can add news items from around the globe, search boxes, subspacelink news from ANY subspacelink member, a calculator, live weather updates from your area, stock updates, and much more. This feature is similar to what you get when you set up Excite or Yahoo as your homepage and customize it with news, information, and tools. You can get here by signing in and then going to http://www.subspacelink.com/metadot/userchannel.pl

The Registration System

Now that I've talked your ears off about the new features available to SubspaceLink members.... Let's talk a little about the new Registration System. Because the new SubspaceLink is database driven it allows for some nifty member only features, for example, only registered members can vote in polls, non-registered members can see the polls etc, but only members can vote, this allows for some ability to cancel out cheating, etc... The software I'm using to generate this site (Metadot) has a registration system built in and therefore the other nice thing is, I no longer have to keep a visible record of passwords, which is far more secure. If you have not already, please register for the New SubspaceLink by filling out the form at http://www.subspacelink.com/metadot/index.pl?isa=User&op;=register_form

I am giving you this chance now so that you have the opportunity to change your options from what they currently are, This coming weekend I will manually add in the rest of the SubspaceLink members who have not already registered with the information I currently have on you. Please be sure to either use the same e-mail address you use now ([email]) or e-mail me pointing out the old e-mail address and the new one so that I don't end up adding you in when you are already there and end up with 2 of you.

If you do not register by this coming Sunday, and I have your information on file, I will manually add you in with the following information for your login:

If that information is incorrect, or you would like to change any of it, please register manually through the link mentioned above.

Promotions

I have 2 new promotions to report.

First of all, Lieutenant Commander MacDonald has been promoted to the Rank of Captain for his excellent service in helping me get this new version of the site up, I could not have done it without his help, thank you very much Captain, and Congratulations!

Second of all, Cadet Collins has been promoted to the rank of Full Ensign for being the first SubspaceLink member to register. I salute you.

I would like to point out that All Cadets who register themselves instead of waiting for me to manually register you next Monday will also receive a promotion to the rank of Ensign.

The SubspaceLink Newsletter VERY IMPORTANT

This one is very important because it marks a very significant change to the way SubspaceLink news will be dispatched. From this point onward there will NO LONGER be a SubspaceLink newsletter, however you can still receive the SubspaceLink news in your e-mail. As part of this new content driven site, I am moving from the newsletter sent out by me on my computer to a more automated system generated by the Metadot software. The news items that show up on the Main page will replace the SubspaceLink newsletter, whenever I have a news item pertaining globally to the SubspaceLink or to Star Trek, I will post it here, and registered members can set themselves up to receive this news in one of the following formats:

ASAP - Every time I post a news item, it is immediately sent to all members who have ASAP selected.
Daily - All members who have this selected will get the previous days news (if any) lumped together in a daily digest e-mailed to you at 6 a.m. U.S.A. Central Time the next morning.
Weekly - This digest is sent out on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. (1700 hours) U.S.A. Central Time and contains all news items that arrived since Wednesday 1700 hours the previous week.
None - No e-mail, the SubspaceLink news will not be e-mailed to you at all, you will have to see it on the site (NOTE, this IS the default, I repeat, this IS THE DEFAULT)

Also, there are 2 new ways you can get your subspacelink news headlines, on your Pager if your pager can receive short text messages through a special pager e-mail address, and sent ASAP to your ICQ.

All of these settings (note you can select to get both e-mail and ICQ if you want) are available by signing in and then going to the following URL:
http://www.subspacelink.com/metadot/userchannel.pl?id=289&isa=NewsChannel&op=preview

This is also where you can select if you want the SubspaceLink news headlines to appear in your My Page or not.

If you want a more behind-the-scenes look at the reworking of the SubspaceLink, you can subscribe to the Admiral's Log in the same way you subscribed to the SubspaceLink main news at the following URL:
http://www.subspacelink.com/metadot/userchannel.pl?id=134&isa=NewsChannel&op=preview

In that news area, I will post my duty log of changes I make to the site in a more detailed format as well as some events in my life. This is the news area that appears in my public portal that I mentioned earlier at http://www.subspacelink.com/metadot/index.pl?iid=1378

New SubspaceLink Merchandise

The SubspaceLink Merchandise I mentioned earlier will be coming soon as a subcategory of the Subspace Shop (http://www.subspacelink.com/metadot/index.pl?iid=1898) Be sure to check it out, and I will post a news item in the main SubspaceLink news when they are ready.

Upcoming Episode tonight: Q2

And now for what you've been waiting for, my synopsis of tonight's new episode of Star Trek: Voyager featuring everyone's favorite immortal prankster, Q, and his son, played by John de Lancie's real life son, Keegan de Lancie.

In this episode, Q2 (Q's son) is apparently a bit irresponsible and Q can't figure out how to teach him, so he decides to dump his son, now taking on the appearance of a 16-year-old, in the lap of "Aunt Kathy" for some lessons. I look forward to watching this episode because it is an episode I've been wanting to see made for a long time, ever since Q's kid was born back in the Q and the Grey. Of course, it is slightly different than my idea which would have been Q's kid not being able to control his powers and having Q accidents a lot, I think that would be flocked with humor, but an adolescent Q with no sense of responsibility will be quite interesting as well.

Startrek.com has put up the episode preview in Quicktime format at http://www.startrek.com/library/media_voy.asp?id=111563

And you can view the official site's synopsis of it at http://www.startrek.com/news/nextonvoy.asp

Expect a full evaluation after the episode to be posted on the SubspaceLink

Well that is all for this final issue of the SubspaceLink Newsletter, please note that if above where you saw what information I would add by default if you see [undefined] for password I will NOT be able to add you into the subspacelink manually, this is very important because since I will not be posting this newsletter any more it means you will no longer be members of the SubspaceLink, so please, if you did see [undefined] in that password field, go to the SubspaceLink and register your user today, your password will be 100% confidential, in fact, I will not even see it from this point on.

I look forward to what the future of the SubspaceLink will hold.

Admiral Victor Scott Regnum
Chief of Starfleet Communications
[email protected]
http://www.SubspaceLink.com/