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Startrek.com Shutting Down

Posted by kdawson on Mon Dec 17, 2007 04:36 AM
from the could-have-offered-it-to-fandom dept.
Sci-Fi
Curlsman writes to let us know that the fan site startrek.com, operated for 13 years by CBS, is being shut down and its staff laid off. Is this site worth a write-in campaign? From the (perhaps final) post: "Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team. Sadly, we must report that CBS Interactive organization is being restructured, and the production team that brings you the STARTREK.COM site has been eliminated. Effective immediately. We don't know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years. If you have comments, please send them to editor @ startrek.com — we hope someone at CBS will read them."
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Submission: Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team by Curlsman (1041022)
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  • great news? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by apodyopsis (1048476) on Monday December 17 2007, @04:41AM (#21723528)
    It would be great news if they then donated the domain to a fan based organization who could then preserve, maintain and preferably enhance the whole website and continue to move it forwards.

    But I suspect it will be sold to the highest bidder, no doubt something to do with the new upcoming prequels.

    • Re:great news? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Hurricane Floyd (891704) on Monday December 17 2007, @04:47AM (#21723556)
      Probably end up with a cybersquatting fake search page on it like all the other premium domains that are abandoned. Or autoforward to the main CBS site.

    • Re:great news? (Score:5, Funny)

      by bm_luethke (253362) <.luethkeb. .at. .comcast.net.> on Monday December 17 2007, @05:54AM (#21723770)
      "But I suspect it will be sat on, no doubt something to do with afraid something not under their control may be done with it."

      There, I fixed the line for you. That is normally the way these types of things work, I can;t see them giving this site up for any reason whatsoever.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Why close the site?
      They do not need to frak around with the content any more. It's all there. Let it be like a "book".

       

    • Re:great news? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Professor_UNIX (867045) on Monday December 17 2007, @06:41AM (#21723898)
      Hopefully they will let the domain expire so it can be snatched up by one of the various high-quality search engine providers like www.starttrek.com, www.jamestkirk.com, www.ussenterprise.com, klingon.com, romulans.com, etc. These sites show their dedication to Star Trek by providing search engines targeted towards their primary audience... namely Star Trek fanatics.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Octorian (14086)
      Actually, I think I remember when this site was first promoted. If I remember correctly, they used it as an excuse to forcibly shut down just about every fan site they could find on the Internet! (Memory Alpha probably came much later)

      Anyone else remember this period?
    • Kill it off now! Make it disappear for 5-10 years. THEN bring it back. The problem with the entire ST franchise is that it has been run into the ground. Kill it, let people forget about it for a few years, THEN bring it back. Hopefully by that time, Rick Berman (however you spell it) will have died off and some other writer can bring back this franchise.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by RobertM1968 (951074)

      Well, that would be a relevant possibility if the article title on /. weren't so erroneous.

      Curlsman writes to let us know that the fan site startrek.com, operated for 13 years by CBS, is being shut down and its staff laid off. Is this site worth a write-in campaign?

      Above is inaccurate...

      The current web team has been laid off... no indication has been given that the site is being shut down - and actually, no other announcement as to what happens with the site has been made either.

      A more logical scenario is that the team at CBS Interactive, currently responsible for their other online web ventures, will be assuming control of the startrek.com domain. Whether that means it w

  • Not Quite (Score:5, Informative)

    by datan (659165) on Monday December 17 2007, @04:41AM (#21723530) Homepage
    Actually it says that the production team has been eliminated (which kinda sucks just during this holiday seasons), and the ultimate fate of the site is still unresolved.

    • Re:Not Quite (Score:5, Funny)

      by Martian_Kyo (1161137) on Monday December 17 2007, @04:46AM (#21723552)
      I find their use of the word 'eliminated' a bit overly dramatic. Dissolved maybe, but eliminated? It's not like they've all been taken to the alley behind the studio, shot in the head and then dumped in the river.

      • Re:Not Quite (Score:5, Insightful)

        by DeeQ (1194763) on Monday December 17 2007, @04:53AM (#21723574)
        you work somewhere for 13 years and get laid off, I would use eliminated too.
        • Did I miss the bit where it said they were laid off?
          • *looks at picture on link* Looks like most of them are in their 40's and 50's. So yeah Im going to say a lot of them were there from the beginning. It wasn't like a job to them most likely. In order to maintain a site like that you would have to be a fan your self. Also I don't know of many people that maintain websites that don't maintain more than one at a time. Most likely they are involved in other projects.

          • Re:Not Quite (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17 2007, @06:47AM (#21723920)

            , if you're 33 (that means, you've been involved in that since you were 20) and your main occupation has been 'maintaining startrek.com' (or any one website), maybe it's time to move on, and fatten up that CV.
            Ah, the modern world of work. No such thing as enjoying your craft, no such thing as loyalty to or from your company. All about "climbing the ladder" and "fattening up your CV". What a waste, 8+ hours a day spent on a rat race instead of practicing what you love.

            You can earn all the money in the world with your sort of attitude, but you'll still have approximately the same number of days on this earth as I do. The "pursuit of happiness" is an on-going experience, not a goal. If someone wants to spend a third of his working life maintaining an excellent web site (+other resources) on Star Trek, good for him. He's happy, he's harmless, he's giving other people joy.

            If you haven't found what makes you happy yet, heed the example of this sort of person - don't put him down.

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by goraknotsteve (648117) *
              Why the AC? I would be happy to post a heartfelt comment like that.

            • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

              by Martian_Kyo (1161137)
              Ok i'd like to state a few things other already have.
              • In the announcement/article it hasn't been said that site is being shut down
              • In the announcement/article it hasn't been said that these people are fired, only team has been 'eliminated' they might have been moved to different projects.

              so my biggest (and really the only) grudge here, is that this is not really not newsworthy, the title should have been 'startrek.com team dissolved, future of website in question'

              Onto my next observation you said

              The "pursuit of happiness" is an on-going experience, not a goal.

              and i

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by Lord Ender (156273)

              You can earn all the money in the world with your sort of attitude, but you'll still have approximately the same number of days on this earth as I do.

              Actually, if you earn "all the money in the world" and you live modestly and invest big, then you only have to work 15 years or so before you can live ENTIRELY off of your investments.

              Once you reach that point, your days on this earth really are your own, and they count for a lot more than the days of a cube-dweller trying to convincing himself that he has a g

              • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

                by feepness (543479)

                My advice: Chase the high paying job, stuff as much as you can into the stock market (use leveraged funds like those from ProShares if you're brave), and start picking out "retirement" destinations in your mid thirties.
                And don't have kids.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by tambo (310170)
      Actually it says that the production team has been eliminated (which kinda sucks just during this holiday seasons), and the ultimate fate of the site is still unresolved.

      So, essentially, it's already dead and writing will do no good.

      Wow. This just about says it all - CBS has so completely wrecked the franchise that it doesn't even want to maintain its own franchise group. It's difficult to imagine a more complete case of mismanagement. I mean, the show has had one of the strongest, most resilient, self

    • Gotta love the euphemisms employers come up with. Just say laid off.

      Just my observation - In an industry where turnover is expected, anyone connected with any form of mass media that stays in one job for more than five years must be something of an anomaly.

  • Outcry (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17 2007, @04:46AM (#21723548)
    Kaaaaaaahn!!
    • ohnoz!

      Where will I find information about a tv show that's been on six times a day, every day for years!

      Seriously, how necessary is an official site for star trek these days? It's not as if the fan base isn't large enough to do this sort of thing by itself.

      Googling for the exact phrase "star trek fan site" brings back 8,040 entries. Sounds like more than enough to me.

  • its so obvious.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by RuBLed (995686) on Monday December 17 2007, @04:46AM (#21723550)
    damn you temporal agents...

  • Bad move... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hanners1979 (959741) on Monday December 17 2007, @04:47AM (#21723558) Homepage
    They should have thought twice about having a 'Red Shirt Friday' in the office I guess...
  • Maybe they could give it to the poor actor who played Wesley, and he could write himself some dialogue that doesn't make him like a Slashdot poster child?

  • MA? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by GreyWolf3000 (468618) on Monday December 17 2007, @04:51AM (#21723570) Journal
    Could memory-alpha.org be part of the reason? I know I go there for all things Trek (huge nerd here...get over it). I can't remember ever going to ST.com for anything.

    • I was thinking that... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Cyno01 (573917) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Monday December 17 2007, @05:38AM (#21723714) Homepage
      While reading the summay. Last fall/winter/ this spring i watched all 6 star trek series and 10 movies in chronological order by episode. Memory alpha was an indispensible resource for getting the order right, as well as reading background info and things on just about evey episode while i was watching, i cant remember ever going to the official site...

      • Mod Parent -1, Sad (Score:5, Funny)

        by Kawahee (901497) on Monday December 17 2007, @07:41AM (#21724134) Homepage Journal
        Mod Parent -1, Sad please:

        Last fall/winter/ this spring i watched all 6 star trek series and 10 movies in chronological order by episode
        Your mother called, get out of her basement.

        • Your math was a little off. (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Cyno01 (573917) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Monday December 17 2007, @09:07PM (#21733870) Homepage
          714 regular episodes * 45min
          22 animated episodes * 25min
          10 movies * ~120min

          565 hours / 9 months (sept to may i believe) is roughly 2 hours a day, so i averaged about 3 episodes a day, not as bad as it sounds.

          And for the record, i have a job and live with my fiancee.

          As for my overall opinions of the franchise...

          Enterprise, definitely watchable and definitely underrated. Never watched it when it aired, but the 3rd and 4th seasons were better than a lot of Voyager.

          TOS, good, has stood the test of time pretty well, but not fantastic.

          TNG, also good, but soooo overrated. I was a little young when it was on (1yo and 8yo), so i hadnt seen much of it, its all pretty good and there are some classic episodes, but its definitely overrated IMO.

          DS9 was a rewatch for me, but it was as good as i remember it and is still my favorite series.

          VOY, another rewatch, worse than i remember since i was still only in middle school when it was on. It got off to less of a rocky start than TNG or DS9, whos first 2 seasons were pretty bad, but voyager got worse as it went along. Overall i think i liked enterprise better than voyager.

          And the movies dont require much comment, i think the accepted order of best to worst is 4, 2, 8, 6, 3, 10, 1, 9, 7, 5.

          It was a fun experience, and i recommend it, its not as daunting as it seems, 2 eps a day and you can do it in a year. Part of the fun for me was watching them in chronological order, which helped break up TNG, DS9 and VOY, although i still had to watch 2 seasons of voyager straight through. Interesting to note, the finale of TNG and the premier of VOY are only separated chronologically by the first 7 episodes of the third season of DS9.

  • Last editorial... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17 2007, @04:58AM (#21723598)
    The last editorial on the site is about the writer's strike. It would be logical to draw your own conclusions.

  • Subject (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Legion303 (97901) on Monday December 17 2007, @05:08AM (#21723626) Homepage
    "Is this site worth a write-in campaign?"

    Nope.

    (Count the mods who break their legs in a rush to mod this as "flamebait" even though I'm answering the question asked.)

  • Don't Paramount have a movie coming out [imdb.com], by the very name "Star Trek", for Xmas next year? Seems like a dumb time to drop the site.

    • Re:Say Wha!? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rucs_hack (784150) on Monday December 17 2007, @05:40AM (#21723722)
      Don't Paramount have a movie coming out, by the very name "Star Trek", for Xmas next year? Seems like a dumb time to drop the site.

      Not if they plan to re-use the domain to promote that film.
  • I visited the link and there is no mention of the site shutting down! (is kdawson again posting misleading headlines?)

    O.k., the production team have been pulled of the site - not a good sign!

    There seems to be alot of advertising on the site - *if* the site is shut down - that would be nuts (assuming it is generating a profit)! There is also a new Star Trek film in the pipeline why would they shut the site down.

    Unless they will use the domain to promote the new film - hopefully the content will still be ava
  • It's dead, Jim.
  • I predict Paramount will re-use the domain for the upcoming prequel movie.
  • Whops, a hot chick [startrek.com] associated with Startrek fanbase. Who would have thunk it.

    .haeger

  • good riddance (Score:4, Informative)

    by sankekur (998708) on Monday December 17 2007, @05:47AM (#21723742) Homepage
    The website is a mess anyways, Memory Alpha is much better, its the star trek wiki, http://memory-alpha.org/ [memory-alpha.org]

  • My e-mail (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chi_thirdrail (1204288) on Monday December 17 2007, @06:04AM (#21723810)
    It's unfortunate that the Star Trek site is being discontinued. Even if the site cannot be maintained any longer (despite a movie apparently being in production), the resources accumulated on the site are important, at least from a historic perspective. For a television and movie franchise to last around 40 years, and have the influence it has had on pop culture and scientific development (the standard "flip phone," for example, was created by a Motorola engineer who readily admits it was inspired by the "communicator" from the original Star Trek series), it deserves at least a Web site that archives important information about the show. I used to work for MSN (at Microsoft's Redmond-West campus, where MSN was operated out of) in the late 90s, when the site still existed in its early state startrek.msn.com. Even after moving beyond the days of "MSN Shows" this very site lived on and evolved to keep up with the series and discuss the latest episodes of DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise, as well as maintain a comprehensive history of the various series and movies. It never outlived a purpose as a site. I, personally, maintain several Web sites, including one that has sent over 240,000 letters to legislators in Illinois to encourage proper investment in public transportation infrastructure in the Chicago area. Considering that I personally spend about $200/year on the sites I am in charge of, it's shocking to me that StarTrek.com can't even be maintained as an informational resource by such a massive media conglomerate. Even if a salary needs to be paid to a developer to maintain the site, it's still peanuts. Even if there can't be the kind of investment to keep the content fresh, what exists now deserves to remain available to the public with whatever little maintenance it requires. Please, at the very least, maintain the Web site as it has existed as a resource to the fans, to the occasional watcher, and to the curious about the details of literally hundreds of installments of high-quality and socially important science fiction television and movies that have influenced generations of people to set higher standards for advancement, understanding, and peace. Star Trek, a fan of the show or not, must be acknowledged as having had a huge impact on pop culture and our technological and scientific direction. The least one can do is keep a Web site running on a server for what amounts to peanuts.

  • And takes out 5000 blogs... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tekrat (242117) on Monday December 17 2007, @06:07AM (#21723818) Homepage Journal
    Seriously... This is something I always wondered about with blogs -- what happens when a major site like this (that I'm sure has been linked to by blogs and used as fodder for blog posts) shuts down? Can you imagine how many blogs will be inconvenienced when Youtube goes the way of the dinosaur as well? All it takes is some bean counter to kill half the internet.

    Live Long and Prosper, "startrek.com" .... or perhaps not.

  • Trekkies, DON'T DISPAIR! There is another source . (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Jerry (6400) on Monday December 17 2007, @08:38AM (#21724454) Homepage
    http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/ [startreknewvoyages.com]

    and it includes D.C. Fontana and many of the original Startrek series crew.

    The episodes are free, and some extend old story lines.

    Over all, very enjoyable!

  • I know what I blame. (Score:4, Funny)

    by dreemernj (859414) on Monday December 17 2007, @09:19AM (#21724750) Homepage Journal
    Voyager. I'm not sure how but I'm sure it's Voyager's fault the site is closing down.

    Some CBS exec happened to catch a re-run of the Voyager episode with Tuvix [wikipedia.org] and said "That's it. Kill the site."

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