State of BL

[Richard N]

Hi everyone:

Council has been very quiet. I've been out of the loop, seeing some OOC posts now and then, and occasional updates to our archive. I don't think I've seen a new application in some time.

Perhaps it's a good time to have a bit of a round table to share how things are going.

-Richard

[Taeron tr'Ishal]

I agree, Richard.

-- Drika

[Rich]

Hello all.   As one of those people who is on his way out, I don't know what I have to add of value, but I'm down for the conversation.   BL means a lot to me.

On Sat, May 3, 2025, 10:10 PM Taeron tr'Ishal <taeron...@gmail.com> wrote:

I agree, Richard.

-- Drika

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[Six Of Twelve]

The reason we haven’t had any applications is because the website is down. Drika and I sent a few emails informing the council, but no one replied and I don’t know how to fix it. 

Other update I can provide is that Rich is looking for a new leader for Axel. I don’t know if there’s been any progress on that or not. 

Updates I can provide for Prodigy; my life has been a mess and I’ve been LOA for the past month, so I haven’t posted any logs for a while, but Prodigy is doing well. Piper is awesome and has kept things running smoothly. We had a vacation on Earth with Stask and Cromwell, (plus the expected political disasters lol). Devon has a post somewhere that explains the ramifications of that plot really nicely. Might be worth forwarding that to the council in place of a log? 

Hope this helps. I’m certainly down for a conversation if it can help BL. 

Thanks, 

Tabitha 

On 4 May 2025, at 4:29 am, Rich <tel...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Richard N]

I want to give everyone a chance to respond before we discuss in detail so I'll only address the one point in Tabitha's email.

It looks like our domain is fine but the site is down. And I presume the Starfleet UK people have been unresponsive. We can re-point the domain. We can recreate the site with Google Sites (are they still free?), we have the option to use a wiki through https://startrekborderlands.groups.io (right now it's a generic landing page). Dedicated hosting had been graciously paid for for many years but, understandably and with full respect, Jake has declined to continue to cover the cost.

-Richard

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[Anna-Maria Mazy]

I want to apologize for being quiet and not helping with website as I said I would. Other than work taking time and attention I lost most of last year, I'm currently digging out of that. For anyone who doesn't know dad passed away on Valentine's Day last year and I wasn't medically fit to travel back then, made it back in late May. Between coordinating with friends who could handle things there and dealing with his lawyer's multiple questions it was a year that was rough. I still am working with his lawyer to resolve one thing but things are finally settling down. Thats a long way of saying sorry for not helping and I'm now in a place where I could step in and actually help with the site to take some pressure off. 

AM

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From: startrekborde...@googlegroups.com <startrekborde...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Richard N <richardmi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 4, 2025 9:19 AM
To: startrekborde...@googlegroups.com <startrekborde...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [ST:B Council] State of BL

 

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[Taeron tr'Ishal]

Tabita defined the issue of the group's website very well, almost surgically. We have to bring this website back online as quickly as possible. One of the biggest problems we have is the domain cost and the maintenance costs for the Borderlands website.

 

 There are two ways to work with this. One is to use a hosting service for the website that doesn't charge to link the website to the domain that we have (or if we need to buy one This already reduces a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of the website's maintenance costs. 

I was using Wordpress and the annual cost for me was almost ten times the amount I paid for the domain. It's very abusive for me, so much so that I'm migrating my writer website from Wordpress to Google Sites because they don't charge me anything. I just pay for the domain, then I link the domain to the Google sites for free.  This is an option. 

In order to do that we need to.move the Borderlands website to the Google Sites environment. We can use a free Google Sites  while we check the possibility of paying for the STB Domain.

I can help with the moving of the website... Anyone willing to help?

--
Drika

[Taeron tr'Ishal]

S'Task and Cromwell are finishing their cross adventure and soon will follow different paths. Dev and I are working on both DS as CO and XO. I am CO of S'Task and XO for.Cromwel, Dev is CO of Cromwell and XO of stask.

STask is about to start a large rebellion inside the core of the RSE. Stay tuned. 

Drika 

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[Six Of Twelve]

If you can set it up Drika, or if someone can, and someone can link our domain, I’d probably be able to help with moving content if needed. I doubt I’ll be as efficient as usual, but the BL website didn’t have that much content and what it did have is all backed up (there’s a file with it all in that Richard set up a few years ago). 

I’m using my mam’s laptop atm which is slow and a nightmare to edit my Wix sites on (I love Wix but it has so much stuff that it needs a decent laptop to edit) but GoogleSites tends to be stable and the BL site isn’t huge, so it should be fine. 

The main thing we need from the BL main site is for people to be able to find us, find the application and apply. If it does those things, anything else people want can always be added later. 

I’ll be honest in saying that my mental health isn’t in a place where I can take charge of this, I’m only just slowly getting back to writing and my concentration isn’t great, but if someone else gets it set up, I don’t mind moving stuff. 

Tabitha 

On 5 May 2025, at 1:28 am, Taeron tr'Ishal <taeron...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Taeron tr'Ishal]

I can move the site but it may take a few weeks due to RL constraints.

Drika

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[Jake Truemper]

I can't recall if I already did this, but if I didn't, I can still hand off domain access to whoever needs it. It looks like the domain is good until October 13, 2026. It was originally registered with Google Domains, but they sold that off to Squarespace. I don't know if Squarespace has a free option, I've never used it, but it might make things easier if they do, to link accounts. Let me know what you need from me.

-Jake

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[Taeron tr'Ishal]

I don't think Squarespace have a free plan but we can keep the website at Google for free. So, if we can't use the our domain for lack of cash to renew it, we can keep it running there. This is why I wanted to transfer it to GoogleSites. 

-- Drika

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[Richard N]

There isn't a free option with SquareSpace. Google Sites does. Groups.io has a free wiki.

I know we're all very limited for time. The site really just needs a short description of who we are (it can be cut and pasted from our handbook); links to the groups so applicants can see how we do things, show we're active and the caliber of our writing and story-tellng; and, the application form. Anything more than that is a nice-to-have.

-Richard.

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[Taeron tr'Ishal]

I can do a short version of the site but I need the logos and banners.

Drika

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[Six Of Twelve]

I’ll send the file over to you Dri. I meant to do it weeks ago but keep forgetting. 

On 26 May 2025, at 10:59 am, Taeron tr'Ishal <taeron...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Taeron tr'Ishal]

Thanks, Tabitha. :)

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[Richard N]

Thank you Tabitha. There are additional images in the BL archive. I think you host a mirror on your Google Drive.

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