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Official statement from CBS on Star Trek.com |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Monday, 17 December 2007
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 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.
To the end, the Star Trek.com message boards have reopened to posting, and a number of new threads about the decision to lay off the Star Trek.com team have sprung up.
Now, what exactly does that statement from CBS mean? For one, it means that the dozens of people laid off as part of the CBS Interactive restructuring (including the Star Trek.com team) are still without a job.
[BEGIN EDITORIAL]
As to what is meant by 'building communities' is most puzzling to me, as the Star Trek.com forums have always been incredibly busy and vibrant.
When we read further, the phrase 'directly tapping into and utilizing the passionate fan base' comes out and the red flag goes up. If we look at the sites that CBS has built for its other shows (CSI, Jericho, and NCIS, for example), we will find that they all have fan-built Wikis (collaborative linked online resources, from the Hawaiian for 'rapidly') on the series. Could CBS Interactive be planning such a Wiki for the future Star Trek.com? Problem is, it's already been done, and quite well, by thousands of Trekkies working over at Memoy Alpha. While I have no doubt that an 'official' Wiki on Star Trek.com could garner a lot of input from the fans, why bother when you already have hundreds (if not thousands) of articles written by the staff over the years? Perhaps if they go the Wiki route the old articles will serve as the base to such a Wiki.
Either way, I'm not particularly fond of the idea. Don't get me wrong, I like Wikis - I use Memory Alpha and Wikipedia as resources all the time - but perhaps it would be in CBS's best interests to not further insult the fans and instead partner with the sites that are already out there. That would be utilizing the fan base!
View: CBS Interactive Statement on Star Trek.com
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
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"The Son'a, the Borg, the Romulans-- you seem to get all the easy assignments."
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