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Drafted by: On Stardate 2.40726.2206, Res0424 passed, which meant that a Canon FRPG Timeline would be created and displayed on the main website of the Federation Role-Playing Game. This makes the currently uninhabited post of Chief of Information more necessary than ever before: to create and maintain the canon timeline, as well as simply making sure that the Fleet is aware of what is going on around them. The website itself has seen better days, and has looked almost exactly the same since the first time Daniel visited the site two years ago. With such rapid changes in website design technology as we see, we should keep more up-to-date than this: other Star Trek-based play-by-e-mail roleplaying games keep much more aesthetic websites, and their appearance helps draw new players. As such, this proposal comes in two parts: the re-inclusion of a Chief of Information into the fleet (with minor changes and specifications to duties involved therein), and a re-design of the main Federation Role-Playing Game website. =/\= PART ONE: REINSTATEMENT OF THE CHIEF OF INFORMATION What is Involved: As there is currently no-one taking the spot on the website, this would be a Council vote, as is involved with any other administrative position. Candidates will be chosen as in any other position. We believe that it is appropriate for the Chief of Information to have two assistants or deputies in order to ease workload, which will be sizeable (as outlined below). Candidates for these positions will be chosen as any other. Our suggestion is also that we change the title to Chief of Communications, as Chief of Information sounds much more Intelligence-oriented. Duties of the Chief of Communications: * Reports: writing and of FedCom and FNN (Federation News Network) reports, in styles pertaining to that network (FNN being a reliable news network, ie. CNN; FedCom being a more tabloid- or entertainment-based network); making sure that each ship is kept up-to-date as to the position and relevant situation in which other ships find themselves. Only major events will be reported on, as well as general announcements such as graduation of ACT classes, departure of longtime players, etc. General announcements will appear in the "Open Broadcast" column. * Upkeep of Timeline: as previously mentioned, in Resolution 0424 a proposal was passed unanimously to create a canon timeline. It would be the duty of the Chief of Communications and their deputies to create (with help of volunteers fleet-wide) and upkeep the timeline, as the Council sees fit. * Publicity: while it seems some attempts at this have been made in the past (credit for those go to Peter Aspinall and Joy Phillips), the Chief of Communications would further the attempts of the FRPG to make its way into deeper burrows of the internet using search engines, web rings, and a variety of other methods. Pros: Cons: =/\= PART TWO: REDESIGN OF MAIN WEBSITE Note: An incomplete website is being included as part of this proposal. This website - the proposed redesign for the FRPG web space - can be found at http://www.freewebs.com/frpg-prophecy/index.htm ... only certain sections of this website are currently in operation, however. These areas include: all department indexes, all sublinks in each department (yellow buttons), Ship roster pages (OPS), Copyright info page (bottom left corner of main page), bio of Fleet Admiral Anne Shelegey (command), and a sample news item ("USS Discovery Returns Home"). What is Involved: This will be a major overhaul, orchestrated completely by Justin Chow. He intends to include a new splash introduction screen, a completely new web layout, new page graphics, new button and header graphics, new logos, a new text colour scheme, and some minor reorganization/changes as listed below, for the sole purpose of streamlining and making the website more intuitive: * A new welcome page, with a new introductory statement. This page will include direct links to the 'Subspace Relay' section and 'Join the Fleet.' The introductory statement will be concise but informative, and would include the main ideas behind both 'What's the FRPG' and 'Our Mission.' This would eliminate the need for those respective sublinks. * SUBSPACE RELAY>> This section will be completely changed (see PART ONE of this proposal). * STARFLEET ACADEMY>> A 'Join' link will be added to this section. All resources will be compiled into a single page, and Instructor bios will be upgraded to its own sublink. * COUNCIL>> Remains unchanged. * COMMAND>> Only department chiefs will be listed, with the exception of 'Chief of Starfleet Medical.' This position would be a rename of the current "Assistant Chief of Starfleet Sciences." * OPERATIONS>> Remains unchanged. * ENGINEERING>> The dead link 'Utopia Planitia' will be removed (until such time as the department chief decides to recreate it). * SCIENCES>> No subsection for chief's biography. The sublink 'Civilizations of the Galaxy' will be renamed 'Xenobiology,' per the title on the page and moved into the 'Starfleet Medical' subsection on the page. A new subsection called 'Science Database' will be created, counterpart to the 'Medical Database' which will be under 'Starfleet Medical.' Exact content will be up to the Chief of the department. * INTELLIGENCE>> New section will be added called 'The UFP,' dedicated to the most important power to the FRPG, currently missing from the website - the United Federation of Planets. * JAG>> The sublinks 'JAG Mission' and 'JAG Duties' will be combined
in a sublink called 'Mission and Duties,' similar to that found in the
Sciences subsection of the current website. The sublink 'JAG Biographies'
will be removed. * In ALL applicable sections, names of departments/assistant chiefs will link to his/her biography. All mailtos on the index pages of each section will be removed, to prevent 'spamming' of those addresses. Mailtos will be added to biography pages instead. *FRPG Copyright Information will be easily accessable through a link on the main access page. * A new management scheme: as of right now, the management of the website is sketchy at best; in our research, we've found it difficult to determine just who updates what overall. As such, we've decided to implement an actual website management guideline as part of the website overhaul: the Chief of Communications, as manager of the website, will be the only person with the passwords to access the website (the Chief may choose to allow their deputies to have access as well, to ease workload). Aside from the Archivist (who will operate independently), the department heads will be in constant communication with the Communications department, and both the approval of the department head and the Chief of Communications (or one of their deputies) will be necessary before anything on the website is altered. Any layout or graphics changes must pass through the Chief for approval. Pros: Cons: =/\= IN CONCLUSION We believe that all of the above is necessary not only to draw in more members (as ACT classes have been smaller and smaller of late, with more and more return players rather than new), but to provide unity to the Federation Role-Playing Game as a whole. In order to best facilitate discussion within the Councils, the two drafters
of this resolution (Justin Chow of the PROPHECY and Daniel King of the
DISCOVERY) would both like to be a part of the debate (as per Res0055
B3a). We have created a feedback form, which will be available to all
members of the council ( http://paladyn.lemdal.com/Feedback/feedbacksubmit.php
). We ask that the members fill out this form and send it to us individually,
so that we may compile the results and lessen the (undoubtedly) large
amounts of traffic that would be concerns over the large proposal.
By unanimous vote, this resolution passes. SD 2.40928.1802 |