1) Don't be a dick.
2) Don't be an idiot.

How about

1) Don't be an honorless p'tagh
2) Don't clean your ears out with a disruptor pistol

If you're doing something within the game world that could potentially paint Jupiter Force in a negative light, you will be forcefully ejected. There's no "3 strikes you're out" or "talk it over with an officer" -- if you violate one of those simple rules, you're out. Boom.

Chris and I are going to attempt to activate the forum software tomorrow, Monday Jan 11th.

For a little while, might be a couple days or a week, it will only be accessible to officers (most of which have already been selected) so that we can start organizing things a bit before allowing in the masses.

Then we'll open up the Public area. Since the OFFICIAL fleet membership won't be finalized until around Release, please be patient if you don't receive access. Either you're not a high priority member, or were late to the party. Sorry! For more info on membership priority, please find the FAQ the Pluck has been keeping updated.

To clarify: If you receive a fleet invite during Open Beta, it does NOT guarantee you a spot in the fleet at Release.

Once the site is up, I will publicly announce your list of officers. Once the list is up, please feel free to harass them instead of me. PLEASE.

Dear Force-ians,

I've just been informed that we passed the 250 Fleet Members mark today, as far as just taking down names from the Fleet thread on this forum, and the one on the STO forums @ Cryptic's site.

And we're still almost two weeks away from Open Beta. Wooooah, momma.

As a result, some things are gonna have to change, and while I was prepared for this possibility, I didn't wanna have to play favorites or potentially irk anyone by denying their applications. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, though. The simple truth is that at this point, not everyone is going to be invited to be in the Force. So here's how it's gonna shake out:

#1 -- People that have become regularly contributing members on the JupiterColony forums, will be getting absolute highest preferential treatment in regards to Fleet Invites. While the easiest gauge for this is post count, rest assured that it's not the ONLY thing I'm looking at here. I'm also looking at post quality, tone, helpfulness, etc etc. As of writing this, I'm counting just under 50 people that this includes.

That, on its own, is a substantial Fleet. And a lot of excellent people. Ya'll are rockin' this community, and I really appreciate your enthusiasm and involvement.

#2 -- After those invites go out, I will be going thru the existing rosters and checking out folks' initial few posts that fall into the "somewhat active" range. Stand-out members will be next to receive their invitations at this point. I would estimate that this will include another 50-70 people, but it could be more. This part of the process is going to take a VERY long time, and might not be completed until Release. If you do not receive an invitation to the Fleet during Open Beta, please don't be upset. And PLEASE don't ask me about it... I'm gonna be tear-my-eyes-out busy with this as-is.

#3 -- The next (and last) wave of invitees, will be brought in by both myself, and any officers that I've appointed, on the basis of brief interviews. The appointed officers will have 100% authority on who will be invited. They haven't been selected yet, so don't start bribing anyone yet. These interviews won't have a set of questions or anything like that - they will basically be conversations to judge that you've got a brain that contains reasonable chemistry similar to most functioning members of society. These interviews will be conducted in a roughly chronological order (based on 'post of interest' date), and will continue until the Fleet is full.

Now.... I want to talk to you all about a few important topics regarding this Fleet.

*This Fleet is still an extension of the show we produce, and the needs of the show will always be our TOP priority.*

This means a number of things that I want to reiterate:
1) Occasionally people will be removed from the Fleet because they just don't fit the image we're trying to portray, even if we actually enjoy their company in-game. Don't take it personally, and don't think it means you're going to be ousted from our Forums (these, or the upcoming Fleet forums). Community administration is separate from Fleet administration.
2) You may be asked to do things in a certain way that is not the "right" way, in order to make for good footage for the show. You may also be asked to attend events which will benefit you in no way, but are for the show.
3) Scheduling will be made in a way that will favor allowing content recording & editing for the show, and not for the benefit of our members. This might mean that you rarely get to participate in events/footage that end up in the show, unless you happen to reside in the correct time zones (schedule is not yet determined, so don't ask).
4) And importantly... even though Chris, Bryan and I will be playing this game alongside you, we're going to be spending a lot of time making a show. As such, we won't always have time to hang out or converse with you, and may at times end up completely ignoring you. It's important that everyone in the Fleet understand and respect this.

What I'm getting at here: This Fleet isn't for everyone. If you need to re-examine how our goals and yours coincide, and decide to fly an alternative tag, nobody will think less of you in any way, shape or form. If this is your decision, simply let myself or an officer know, when you're contacted with a Fleet invitation. No harm no foul, and we wish you Live Long and Prosper.

And finally, I want to thank everyone for helping to make this Fleet, and this community, a really impressive place to be able to share our excitement and enthusiasm for this game. We've been mentioning it more and more on our shows, but I want to make sure that you truly understand how grateful we are for the atmosphere that's being cultivated here.

Oh oh! One more "final-final": I'm now accepting OFFICIAL applications for officer/leadership positions within the Fleet. I already have my eyes on a few of you, but I won't hoist the responsibility on anyone that isn't willing. In order to express your interest, simply send me a PM with whatever you consider your list of qualifications to be. I probably won't respond for awhile, as I will have to look them over, but everyone with an interest will seriously be considered.

*takes a deep breath* .... here we go!

(PS - Because I'm throwing myself into hardcore Fleet Management mode, I may not have as much freedom to respond to as many threads. I apologize in advance if I miss anything.)

Yeah, I sorta neglected the Jupiter Invasion Force in this message.

But that's cuz I just don't really know how that's gonna shake out. I think that I'd like to give "primary" Klingons some preference in membership, but I'm not really sure how to do so. That side of things is probably going to have to take shape very organically over time.

That's why I included the note about content being important.

Remember, I'm mostly unemployed. I have a LOT of time to look through your posts and judge you!

Update on the Officer Applications

I'm pleased with the turnout I've gotten so far. Thanks for being willing to throw your hats in the ring! Due to the size of the Fleet as a whole, another handful of applicants would be nice to have.

I probably won't make a final call on all of these until Open beta actually gets underway (middle- or late-next-week), so there's still a few more days to apply for a leadership role, if that's your interest.

Now that we've hit the cap, nobody is "officially accepted as a member" until we send out invites during Preview/Release. Even open beta is only a 'testing ground' for fleet stuffs.

So, apply away!

No, sorry. We can't really track that sort of thing.

On the flip side of that, though (and maybe this should go in the FAQ?), there are <250 active users on this forum on a daily basis. So chances are that if you're seeing and reading this post, you're going to end up with an invite anyway. The folks that'll be left out in the cold, are the types that've stopped by and made a single post, and never returned. There's more than a handful of them.

Put this in your FAQ and smoke it:

If we outgrow a single fleet, we'll just have to get more selective about membership. Multiple fleets would become an even more monstrous task than arranging a single huge one, and a task I have no interest in.

It was already quoted earlier, but I have no interest in having a second tag floating around that's associated with us. For a couple reasons:

* Whether organized by JF leadership or not, it would still be expected of us to make an attempt at reaching out. Our main fleet is going to take all of our energy already - a second one will just be a headache.
* Members of the secondary fleet could potentially be people we do not want associated with Jupiter Broadcasting. There's a reason they are not in JF.

That said, if folks from JF feel like they need to make their own fleet for any reason, they're welcome to. We just won't be able to give them fleet resources (forum space, vent hosting, etc).

To start with, it'll be myself, Chris & Bryan making the majority of the Fleet decisions. There will be a few officers put in place right off the bat (folks we've played with in other games) just to help us weed out the undesirables. As we continue on, we'll be appointing folks that are real "leader types" to take over specific responsibilities.

We're not aiming for a big complicated rank structure. It'll likely just be Leaders, Officers, Members, Initiates (Trial Period).

Somewhere in the middle. I don't intend to put ANY "you have to" rules into place (other than the previously stated "don't be a" rules) so we won't ever be as hardcore as some become. At the same time, I think there will always be plenty of action going on to fulfill the interests of each person in the fleet.

Yes.

It is comprised of the entire fleet.

Except you.

I'm thinking that we'll designate a particular night as Wargame Night, within the Fleet.

Obviously games outside the window would totally be allowed, but it'd help folks know when there's gonna be action.

It's really, really easy. If anyone becomes unmanageable, they become no longer a part of the Fleet.

Let me put this succinctly: The needs of the fleet will dictate the procedures of the fleet.

We'll be encouraging folks to run their own 'raids' at times that fit their schedule. Based on Jupiter Broadcasting's overall international demographics, the majority of our listeners (outside the US and Canada) are in UK and Scandinavia. There's a fair representation elsewhere, but I'd assume that the majority of our get-togethers will be scheduled at times that coincide with one of those two primary geographic regions.

In other words, Aussies are screwed!

I've already considered the idea of multiple fleet channels. And multiple ventrilo rooms is an absolute must. Maybe a lobby (for normal conversation), several specific group channels, and a LFG room... something like that... if necessary.

OK I've got a Ventrillo set up that we are planning on using at least until Beta is over. Yu can find the server at IP 208.100.9.200 and port 9297. No password.

24.102.54.7
Port: 9987 (Default)

I ain't skippin' Klingons. I intend to get my pwn on with a righteous honor-driven vengeance.

Right now the Invasion Force is sort of a sub-fleet. We're focusing on organizing the Fed fleet first for a couple reason:

1) The Invasion Force looks to be smaller, and will more easily come together.
2) Nobody will be a Klingon for at least 5-6 hours after rolling up their first character (they have to unlock them). So EVERYBODY will have a Fed toon.
3) Our fleet's structure doesn't require a separate set of rules for the Invasion Force. Anything we do on one side can be assumed to apply to the other.

The JIF organization will have a very similar structure to JForce. Different primarily only in WHO participates and WHO the leaders are, but the missions and goals of this House will be identical in spirit to JF's guiding principles.

Your MOM makes juvenile jokes.

Huh. I've never had a stalker before. This should be neat.

And I quote:

"I hate ferraris! I'm allergic to ponies!"

AND INSTEAD OF SPACESHIPS YOU CAN FLY RAINBOW COLORED UNICORNS AROUND THE UNIVERSE THAT SHOOT PINK PHASERS FROM THEIR HORN AND FIRE PHOTON DUNG FROM THEIR ANUS AND ALL KLINGONS START AT LEVEL 9000 AND CAN SWALLOW YOU WHOLE BY OPENING THEIR HEAD RIDGES AND ELVIS LIVES ON BETA CETI IV WHERE HE BREEDS A GROUND MOUNT THAT IS A CROSS BETWEEN A GOLD CHOCOBO AND BATTLE-CAT.

This is quite helpful for those of us who are new. It was next to impossible to dig out specific information buried among these forums.

Fix it or die.