Startrek.com Shutting Down

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."

Not Quite

[datan]

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:great news?

[Hurricane Floyd]

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.

good riddance

[sankekur]

The website is a mess anyways, Memory Alpha is much better, its the star trek wiki, http://memory-alpha.org/ [memory-alpha.org]

Re:Not Quite

[Martian_Kyo]

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 agree wholeheartedly, one could use the modified zen statement 'Meditation is enlightenment', and say that 'pursuit of happiness' is futile, because 'the pursuit is happiness'. but then you say

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

which kind of makes it sound like it is a goal. Working for 13 years on one website, is hardly a pursuit. It seems to me that if anyone (there is high possibility no one is really wrong here) mistook happiness for 'goal' instead of 'on-going experience', it's the startrek.com team.

Re:great news?

[etherlad]

CBS/Paramount were merged, but then split up.

CBS got all rights to Star Trek on TV, while Paramount got rights to Star Trek in the theatres.

StarTrek.com was going to be run by CBS Interactive, but it's a shared ownership. But you're right; with no new Trek on TV, they may be passing it along the chain to Paramount. No clue what they'll do with it.

Re:great news?

[RobertM1968]

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 will stay the same, be refocused to reflect it's relationship to the upcoming movie of the same name, or have various changes implemented has yet to be announced.

Robert

In the meantime, feel free to watch the rest of Kirk's 5 year mission (Seasons 4-5) at:
http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/ [startreknewvoyages.com]

Re:great news?

[hound3000]

I do remember that period. Dug up a link out of my 10 year old personal webpage I had at the time, and found out where the article lives now: Paramount Locks Phasers on Trek Fan Sites [wired.com] from 1996-12-18. Wow, that has been awhile.

Announcement has been edited to say

[Anonymous Coward]

12.17.2007
Keep the conversation going on StarTrek.com boards

CBS Interactive, which oversees StarTrek.com, is reorganizing the way it does business to align the division's workforce with its new vision that focuses on building communities online.

CBS Interactive remains absolutely committed to StarTrek.com and to growing the site along with its users by directly tapping into and utilizing the passionate fan base that has supported the site.

It has been your support and contributions to the lore of Star Trek that are what make StarTrek.com a vibrant place to be. To that end, we encourage you to keep the conversation alive and flowing using our message boards.

Jump into the conversation here!