05-18-2025, 08:50 PM
As we move into the second half of May, and look towards the second half of 2025, it's time for another Admin update on where we are as a site!
USS Titania/USS Zephyr
Some of you may have noticed that the USS Titania is no longer an active ship on Federation Space. To be transparent, the Titania had been struggling members-wise for over a year, and despite the efforts of Autumn and I, it wasn't improving. Closure and transferring the crew to vacancies elsewhere in the fleet seemed, at the time, the smart move. Given that neither of us want to close a ship and further shrink the site, we were overjoyed when the Titania crew as a whole presented a potential solution, and so the Zephyr was born.
The Zephyr will be commanded by Gabe aka Commander Morad Ameen, former First Officer of the Titania and (as Captain Gabriel Archer) historical Commanding Officer of Space Station Sierra-18, and of the USS Intrepid.
In the short weeks since the changeover, the Zephyr has already increased its membership and the crew are enthusiastically preparing for their new mission. I look forward to seeing what they can do!
Membership
Artemis: 11 Active, 1 ELOA (12 PRCs)
Aquila: 8 Active (7 PRCs, 1 SRC)
Yeager: 10 Active (8 PRCs, 2 SRCs)
Zephyr: 7 Active (5 PRCs, 2 SRCs)
Recruitment and Openings
As you can see above, we're still holding more-or-less stable membership-wise. We've lost four members to inactivity or real-life in the last two months, and while that is always unfortunate, those members will always have a place with us on Federation Space.
Given our numbers, I have been looking at new avenues of recruitment. With help from Nicole, aka Lt Ra'an of the Zephyr, a new ad has been generated to advertise the site across Star Trek fan groups and Discord servers. I have also once again opened the Discord server to non-members, who will be locked to a single thread until they graduate the Academy, but still otherwise able to interact with current and other prospective members.
Current Openings
DH Openings:
Aquila: Chief Tactical Officer, Chief Science Officer, Chief Medical Officer
Yeager: Chief Tactical Officer, Chief Medical Officer
Zephyr: Chief Engineer
Non-DH Openings:
Aquila: Engineer
Yeager: Engineer
Zephyr: Tactical Officer, Medical Officer, Engineer, Security Officer
Funding
Federation Space has never, and will never, be a site where members are expected to pay to participate. It will remain a free-to-play site. However, times are tough for just about everyone these days, and Autumn had been paying out-of-pocket for the server hosting for a few years now. We migrated to this forum and a new server host in 2023 because it was significantly cheaper, but costs still add up.
The breakdown I was provided by Autumn was around $20/month for hosting, and one-time payments of $25 each for server renewals for the forum and wiki. That's nearly $300/year, all told.
In an effort to avoid us having to resort to entirely-free software, which would have included migrating our wiki to a Fandom page (complete with ads and malware), I put out a call for donations on Discord. Those of you who know me know I loathe asking for help, but given the options were to swallow my pride or start moving us somewhere else, the answer was fairly self-evident.
I am glad to say that the membership responded, raising a total of $413.45 (thanks conversion fees!) for the continued hosting of the site. We're funded now until the middle of next year, when Autumn and I will discuss the situation once again.
Closing
We're a little down when it comes to numbers, but we have a solid core that we can build upon. If you know friends who want to write, former members who might miss the community, or even run an RPG of your own and want to consider a member swap, please invite them to take a look around!
USS Titania/USS Zephyr
Some of you may have noticed that the USS Titania is no longer an active ship on Federation Space. To be transparent, the Titania had been struggling members-wise for over a year, and despite the efforts of Autumn and I, it wasn't improving. Closure and transferring the crew to vacancies elsewhere in the fleet seemed, at the time, the smart move. Given that neither of us want to close a ship and further shrink the site, we were overjoyed when the Titania crew as a whole presented a potential solution, and so the Zephyr was born.
The Zephyr will be commanded by Gabe aka Commander Morad Ameen, former First Officer of the Titania and (as Captain Gabriel Archer) historical Commanding Officer of Space Station Sierra-18, and of the USS Intrepid.
In the short weeks since the changeover, the Zephyr has already increased its membership and the crew are enthusiastically preparing for their new mission. I look forward to seeing what they can do!
Membership
Artemis: 11 Active, 1 ELOA (12 PRCs)
Aquila: 8 Active (7 PRCs, 1 SRC)
Yeager: 10 Active (8 PRCs, 2 SRCs)
Zephyr: 7 Active (5 PRCs, 2 SRCs)
Recruitment and Openings
As you can see above, we're still holding more-or-less stable membership-wise. We've lost four members to inactivity or real-life in the last two months, and while that is always unfortunate, those members will always have a place with us on Federation Space.
Given our numbers, I have been looking at new avenues of recruitment. With help from Nicole, aka Lt Ra'an of the Zephyr, a new ad has been generated to advertise the site across Star Trek fan groups and Discord servers. I have also once again opened the Discord server to non-members, who will be locked to a single thread until they graduate the Academy, but still otherwise able to interact with current and other prospective members.
Current Openings
DH Openings:
Aquila: Chief Tactical Officer, Chief Science Officer, Chief Medical Officer
Yeager: Chief Tactical Officer, Chief Medical Officer
Zephyr: Chief Engineer
Non-DH Openings:
Aquila: Engineer
Yeager: Engineer
Zephyr: Tactical Officer, Medical Officer, Engineer, Security Officer
Funding
Federation Space has never, and will never, be a site where members are expected to pay to participate. It will remain a free-to-play site. However, times are tough for just about everyone these days, and Autumn had been paying out-of-pocket for the server hosting for a few years now. We migrated to this forum and a new server host in 2023 because it was significantly cheaper, but costs still add up.
The breakdown I was provided by Autumn was around $20/month for hosting, and one-time payments of $25 each for server renewals for the forum and wiki. That's nearly $300/year, all told.
In an effort to avoid us having to resort to entirely-free software, which would have included migrating our wiki to a Fandom page (complete with ads and malware), I put out a call for donations on Discord. Those of you who know me know I loathe asking for help, but given the options were to swallow my pride or start moving us somewhere else, the answer was fairly self-evident.
I am glad to say that the membership responded, raising a total of $413.45 (thanks conversion fees!) for the continued hosting of the site. We're funded now until the middle of next year, when Autumn and I will discuss the situation once again.
Closing
We're a little down when it comes to numbers, but we have a solid core that we can build upon. If you know friends who want to write, former members who might miss the community, or even run an RPG of your own and want to consider a member swap, please invite them to take a look around!