by Genesun Han, Ret. Captain Larimda ME

Author's note:
The story of STF is a unique one, because almost every event, every action, every construct was nothing more then a few simple words. Wars and empires were not physical creations, but were instead composed soley of posted notes. Alliances, betrayals, and government were all created by people who rarely if ever met face to face. In such an environment where words and thoughts were power, constructing an accurate history is next to impossible. Jim Midyette's No Regrets is probably the most difinitive history of STF. Works such as Michael Bourdaa's Bourdaa Papers, and this piece seek to correct and add different views of specific events. By sifting through these firsthand accounts, you will find the truth. But inbetween I'm sure you'll hear a lot of chest thumping. If you should happen to find me bragging, I ask your forgiveness. For, after all, I'm only human.

"Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing ..... Egoism is a sin the human being carries with him from birth; it is the most difficult to redeem"

- Akira Kurosawa

Prelude
The time was late 1991, and the idea of subject based clubs was still relatively new. Competion to prove that your club and your subject was the best was heated. The number of active memebers, the number of members, the number of subjects, the number of posts, and a variety of other standards all served as a measure of success, depending upon whom you consulted. The BBS was still a frontier, Prodigy itself had not yet gone national, and the hard lessons of experience were yet to be learned. The bulletin board, called The Club, TV Film & Video, was specifically for children, not often renowned for restraint. While the resulting politics are today considerred a common event, the story of STF in a way marks the beginning, the start of this form of modern communication.

Background
The Second ST/90210 War came to an end around November 1991. Starfleet had just been formalized. Started as a loose confederation of people, Captains of whatever ship name they made up, a structure had been established during the Second ST/90210 War. Flag Admiral Franco Torres was the leader of Starfleet, while others such as Mike Bourdaa, Kate McCarthy, Scott Mills, Jose Monroy, David Platt, and Adrian Kowelwski filled various ranks that compromised the chain of command: Fleet Admiral, Senior Admiral, Admiral, Commodore (rare), Fleet Captain, and Captain. The "civilian" side consisted of UFP, which was made up of primarily (and possibly only) Joe Bergstrom as UFP president and Jim Midyette as UFP Vice President. Most, if not all members were in Starfleet, which left Bergstrom and Midyette powerless technically, but they were highly influential voices. They had been the ones who had managed to negotiate the cease-fire between Starfleet and 90210, and were some of the very few calling for peace in general.

At the time, "wars" were conducted by having members of one club posting mean and disruptive notes in the opposing club's subject area. Some notes were meant to personally attack people, others were general critisisms about the subject itself. And since 90210 and Star Trek were the two largest subjects/clubs at the time, it was only natural that some boasting and comparisons between the two shows would occur. How such boasting lead to war, I don't know, but the ST/90210 Wars were infamous in ferocity. When peace was finally declared, everybody was quite happy that apparently the war had settled down. Ironically, the cease-fire only served to bring the entire board to new tensions, due to the ambitions and ill concieved plans of one Mike Platt.

Fleet Admiral Mike Platt was a remarkable fighter and a charismatic leader in the ST/90210 Wars, and was subsequently rewarded for his efforts. He was an ambitious man who used his many talents and apparently tireless energy to engineer a climb to power. He was a volumnous poster, consistantly ranking in the top 5 posters in STF when statistics were kept; he was a great speachmaker; he was a hard fighter, politically and militarily; and he had unprecidented access to Franco Torres. Also in his arsenal was his brother David Platt, just as compentant as Mike, but with a bit more self control, which made him even more powerful (or dangerous, depending on your view). Mike had helped to build the structure of Starfleet, and had managed to rise to Fleet Admiral, second in command, in a matter of three months. This was an amazing achievement, even then, when clubs were desperate for members and promotions were handed out on a weekly basis to retain people. Mike had planned the wartime strategy for Starfleet, and Mike would plan the peacetime strategy. In fact, more then anybody else, the fate of Starfleet was tied directly to the fate of Mike Platt.

Arrival

My first contact with Starfleet was when I was involved in the Tiny Toons Empire, a medium sized club I had co-founded, unaware of the events unfolding. However, my ignorance was broken when one day a Star Trek Captain wanderred into the TTE and demanded an allegiance to fight 90210. Myself and my co-founder Kimmerz immediately met with then Flag Admiral Mike Bertsch in order to avert this foreign threat to our club, and negotiated the Non-Treaty Treaty. Essentially the TTE and Star Trek (at this point Starfleet had not become the official name) promised not to enter an alliance, or to even contact each other, preventing hostilities by preventing contact. However, I decided to keep tabs on the Star Trek club to ensure that the TTE would not be threatenned again. The best method of keeping tabs on Star Trek was to join, and the fact that I was a Star Trek fan didn't hurt. I signed on as Ship's Clown, Larimda ME, an insignificant crew member aboard Admiral Christine Killian's USS Illusion, NCC 2112-D. At the time this was a rare action, Captain being the entry level position. However, the openning shots of what would become the Second 90210 War had been fired, and convinced that Starfleet would be too tied upto bother the TTE, I returned to a happier existence of discussing Tiny Toons, and raising the club to a solid #4 position (behind 90210, Star Trek, and Mickey Mouse Club).

This happy peace would only last until Janurary 1992, the day Fleet Admiral Mike Platt set up an outpost in our territory, an open violation of the Non-Treaty Treaty. Kimmerz and I once again ventured into Starfleet to complain, discoverring that Mike had set up outposts at several other "stragetic" clubs (T2, MST3000, MMC) who were also staging objections. Mike insisted that such outposts were needed to defend the entire board against further 90210 agression, and dismissed our objections as irrelevant. Mike was not going to budge, so I and others took our objections to Flag Admiral Franco Torres. At first, Franco had given Mike's plan strong support. However, it became apparent that TTE, MCC, MST3K, and T2 (a combined force nearly double the strength of 90210) were ready to wage open war on Starfleet, and other clubs (including 90210) were ready to join in. Franco then backed down, and the outposts were abandoned. We had won, but I was concerned that the objections came as a complete suprise to Mike. Franco's ambivalence in retaining his eager subordinate did not comfort me either. If I was to protect the TTE, I could no longer afford to ignore Starfleet, and Mike Platt in particular. As fate would have it, my first ally in counterring Mike was Admiral Killian, my commanding officer. She was also one of Mike's first victims.

The Platt Dynasty

Following the failure of the outposts, a new even more dramatic plan was devised, namely the expansion of Starfleet into the Arts Club, Science Fiction Topic BBS. The Arts Club was completely unorganized, and personal associations between people were very few; this was virgin country so to speak. Expansion made sense, and in time, Starfleet could be seen as the defining club of that board. The basic logic was brilliant, and this was typical of Mike Platt. Unfortunately, since the plan was devised by Mike, Mike was also going to carry it out in his own particular style. And sadly, this too was typical of Mike. In a move that stunned the entire Science Fiction Topic, Mike announced that Starfleet would annex the entire board. What followed was, thankfully, was not as violent as it could have been. Starfleet was not directly attacked and many memebers were unaware of the expansion attempt. Despite the extremely negative reaction in the Arts Club, Franco Torres remained silent. Admiral Killian and UFP VP Jim Midyette opposed expansion, and campaigned in the Arts Club against Mike. While I agreed with Mike that expansion made sense, the ends don't justify the means, and I said as much as I joined Midyette and Killian. A week of intense fighting passed before Franco finally spoke. However, Franco was in a delicate position. He had approved the expansion, and a great deal of his authority rested on Mike (and Dave) Platt's loyalty. Midyette had no power, Killian was a minor Admiral, and I was a nobody. After wavering, Franco endorsed the annexation. But by this point it was clear that Starfleet was hated by the entire board, and it's existence would not be tolerated. Starfleet was forced to withdrew under a whitherring hail of blasting critisism. It would be a full three years before Starfleet would be able to return, and then as a minor player among more established clubs.

Back home, with pride and political support hurting, Mike Platt sought a scapegoat for his massive failure, and found both Admiral Killian and VP Jim Midyette. In a series of secret trials, whose existence would only be found out weeks later, Mike prosecuted Killian for treason. By publicly attacking Mike and the expansion, Killian was convicted of treason. Franco Torres remained quiet, and Killian was forceably expelled from Starfleet. When news of her expulsion finally broke, objections were stifled due to an enviroment shift by Prodigy. Prodigy administrators at the time were engaged in one of their periodic campaigns against role-playing, clubs and "off-topic" notes. Notes not specifically confined to aspects of Star Trek shows or movies were not posted, and for a period of two weeks club business ground to a halt. By the time the purge had ended, the Killian expulsion had become a fact, and no amount of objections could change that fact.

Having defeated one enemy, Mike Platt turned his sights on his only other competition, UFP VP Jim Midyette. But unlike Killian, Jim was not proving to be an easy target. Jim's authority and influence lay in the fact that he was in UFP (actually, he was UFP), and thus was outside of Starfleet jurisdiction. No secret court martial would remove Jim, and no one, except Joe Bergstrom, could restrain Jim in his critisism of Starfleet affairs. He was untouchable, and that made him powerful, for he could speak and act with impunity. This was unacceptable to Mike, and in a series of public debates, Mike and Jim began attacking each other's judgement and standing. Mike, the clever politician, managed to maneuver Jim into a corner, questionning the validity of UFP as a branch of government. It apprearred he had the upper hand, since everyone agreed that UFP was already dead. However, Jim had strong support, and simply letting Jim go was not an option. The compromise that arose was a restructuring of Starfleet into Fleet Admiral and Senior Admiral councils. Jim had managed to secure enough support to claim a Fleet Admiral seat, and suddenly he had real power to back up his influential opinions. To be sure, he could no longer act with impunity, but Jim was cleary the winner, having gained real authority in exchange for a little caution; while Mike gained nothing and lost his near monopoly on power.

The First Golden Age

Jim Midyette's inclusion into Starfleet marked the beginning of the first Golden Age of Starfleet. Jim's new status gave him new power and authority, but it demanded subtlety lest he end up like Killian. Mike Platt had lost his monopoly on power, but he now had the opportunity to defeat Jim once and for all. In practical terms what this meant was that on both sides personal attacks and arguments decreased, and the infrastructure of STF was built. Departments were created, each department containing a fleet to carry out department matters; and for the first time, the rank Admiral carried responsibilties. To be sure, the departments/fleets were being used as political fiefdoms, but these fiefdoms were useful only if loyal members could be recruited. Thus, the major players: David and Mike Platt, Jim Midyette, Jose Monroy, Scott Mills, Jeremy Ormins, Mike Bourdaa, Tagia Takahashi, Kate McCarthy, and Adrian Kowalewski were locked in a constant struggle to gain power by attracting new and old members to their department. While this inevitably led to abuses, overall, Starfleet was gaining members in droves. Those who did not participate actively in the departments were still attracted to Starfleet because of its organization and community. Starfleet became completely synonymous with Star Trek, if you wanted to talk about an episode or discuss ship designs you joined Starfleet. And in fact, many people signed on for just that reason, shifting the core membership over from fighters to fans. For the majority of members, this was a time of peace; and for the club this was a time of unprecidented growth and vibrancy.

March began with a policy shift by Prodigy. Finally admitting defeat, they announced that the policy of rejecting notes not "on topic" would be disconintued. Role-playing, "club" notes, and social "chat" notes would be allowed on all boards. This produced an explosion in posted notes, especially recruitment notes for the various departments and the many ships of Starfleet. Political, personal, and "on topic" notes were posted in no particular order, and people expressed discontent that navigating the mess was too time consuming. It was becoming quickly apparent that this situation was becoming a major problem. The ingenious solution came as a suggestion by Adrian Kowelewski that all club related notes were to be posted with the prefix "STF". The "ST" or "Star Trek" prefixes would remain the designated prefixes for "on topic" Trek related discussions. This "suggestion" was immediately enforced, and wasn't officially announced as policy by High Command until two days later. One immediate effect of the STF policy was that the number of "on-topic" notes (those discussing Star Trek) immediately collapsed. At the same time, notes dedicated to club poltiics continued to increase, as many members started devoting themselves to the club's internal upheavals. I was alarmed and discouraged by this trend, since I had felt that on-topic discussions had been the glue that held Starfleet together, and that without this core Starfleet would eventually self-destruct. In order to prevent that, I began the "On-Topic Crusade", posting a large volume of on-topic notes in an attempt to stimulate discussions. Additionally, I began scolding several members about their lack of on-topic notes, most notably the Platt brothers who were volumnous posters. Conversely, I began praising members whose notes were consistantly in the on-topic area. The culmunation of this dual effort was the tracking and announcing of posting statistics, which have since become lost information. However, what became clear was that the Platt brothers were determined to retain their hold on power. When I brought to attention the fact that neither Platt had posted on-topic notes, they immediately responded by becoming the most prolific posters of on-topic notes, while at the same time maintaining their heavy output of club-related notes. Both Platt's remained the most prolific posters of anybody in Starfleet, and I was forced to stop keeping statistics when I could no longer spare the time to track their output. The net result however, was encouraging, as on-topic discussions once again flourished, and the bitter intraclub fighting seemed to tone down.

Calm Before the Storm

Departments/fleets were hotbeds of activity, instruments of political maneuvering. Mike Platt was given the Defense Department, and his fleet, the Great White Fleet, was by far the most populor. Closely following in popularity was David Platt's Internal Affairs Department. It should be noted that although these two departments were most populor, the majority of members in these fleets were the old 90210 fighters. These fleets were directed against the old enemies of Starfleet as well as certain non-Platt factions of Starfleet. On the other side, Jim and Adrian (or it could have been Tagia) were busy consolidating their individual political standing, and had begun discussions on how to topple the Platts. In a series of notes posted in a secret code, they discussed their mutual hatred of the Platt brothers, and a possible teaming up of their efforts. These secret discussions were the subject of a rather large campaign by Mike Platt, who had managed to break the code and distribute the key. However, although his charges of conspiracy at first seemed to be true, readings of the secret notes provided dissappointingly little proof of an actual conspiracy. And ironically, the conspiracy charges backfired on Mike, as the majority of members questioned his obsessiveness, as demonstrated by his cracking of the secret code and in stalking his political enemies. Further skirmishes between the Platts and Midyette continued, and it became increasingly clear that the departments were being abused. Personal investigations for possible treason and conspiracy were hinted, with the departments spending more and more time on internal matters.

Oddly enough, it was an outside threat that eventually lead to the disbanding of the Fleets. A rival club, called NUFP had started up, and besides being quite small and unorganized, was also insignificant. it had failed to gain many members, lacked "sex appeal" in the form of ships, attempted to usurp Starfleet's authority by resurrecting the long defunct UFP model, and was in great danger of being completely ignored. That is, until the Great White Fleet staged a massive attack. The GWF attacked in gusto not seen since the ST/90210 war, disobeying orders not to attack, and then futher disobeying orders to cease fire. By the time the dust had settled, NUFP was dead and there was a clear split in Starfleet between the few who wanted to fight and the many who were interested in building a more constructive club. Jeremy Ormins, a protege of Mike Platt, had lead the fighting, and saw destroying NUFP as a great accomplihment. However, he was in the clear minority, despite Mike Platt's attempts to use the incident as a display of Jim Midyette's treasonous ways.

While the Jim Midyette/Mike Platt rivalry was the most vicious and visible fight in Starfleet, it was not the only one. Many members were simply not satisfied with the lack of rank advancement. This was complicated by the fact that Captain was often an entry level position, leaving very few positions for members to advance. From the beginning, Admiral had not been enough; the ranks of Senior, Fleet, and Flag Admiral having been invented to satisfy ambitious egos. And many members felt that they deserved to join High Command, spurning the proposed advancements of Senior Captain, Fleet Captain, Commodore, and Rear Admiral. Nothing less then Admiral satisfied these people. Additionally, there were those who were upset that promotions were determined rather arbitrarily, depending on your personal alliance to the various members of High Command, itself appointed depending on the whims of Flag Admiral Torres. When Prodigy abandoned the on-topic restrictions, a flood of angry notes from many dissatisfied members arose. In order to meet these objections, Mike Platt proposed that Starfleet could do with a Constitution, as well as an adjustment in ranks and Command. Objections fell as members mulled over this development.

Black April

The chorus of discontent began when Mike Platt finally unveiled his proposed constitution. Objections to the consitution itself were plentiful, and the new command structure was as well as problem. but were lost in the sea of anger that swept Starfleet as the new Command structure was revealed by Torres. Most immediately noticeable was that Midyette had been demoted, while the Platt brothers firmly rose in position, second and third in command next to Torres. Midyette and his allies were displaced from their positions, effectively demoted, and many members who were expecting promotions simply did not recieve them, instead, lower Admiral positions were open to elections. Further fueling the ire of members was the lack of representation: Mike Platt had made these decisions and there was simply no recourse except open rebellion, which is what happenned. Keeping abrest of developments were hard, because they simply happenned so quickly, members yelling and screaming at Platt, fighting between the Platts and various factions of Starfleet, and members leaving, splitting off to form their own clubs. Jeremy Ormins, a fighter from the 90210 days, but otherwise a minor player, broke off to form IKE, the Imperial Klingon Empire. More significant was the very public leaving of Mike Bourdaa, eloquently resigning to form STC, the Star Trek Club. Unlike Ormins, Bourdaa was a very influential, having won the respect of many a member. His proclamation, that STF was dead, was regarded very seriously by members, as were his several recruitment postings, offerring STC as a haven from the chaos in STF. Those that didn't openly leave STF for greener pastures simply didn't post, dissappearing from the landscape in droves. In an attempt to stop the hemmoraging Mike PLatt offerred to withdraw the constitution
restart (my memory is old, and the events were confusing even then ... I'm making my second attempt having found my original manuscript I wrote about 6 years ago)
The chorus of discontent began to rise once again when the new command structure was revealed. While two admiral councils were established, the Fleet Admiral and Senior Admiral Councils, the number of upper level admirals had been decreased. And although all admiral positions (except for Flag Admiral) were now open to elections, only specific candidates were eligable. For instance, the candidates for Vice-Flag Admiral were Mike Platt and Jeremy Ormins. David Platt was a candidate for Fleet Admiral, while Jim Midyette was limited to running for Senior Admiral. The effect was that the Platt's, despite elections, had managed to consolidate their power, pushing aside their opponents into weaker positions. This fact did not go unnoticed, as members staged objections to the proposed candidates, and the election process itself. Hard campaigning by the candidates only stirred the flames of anger, each mounting personl attacks designed to discredit their opponent. proposed constitutions competed with each other, each new plan carving out a convenient power niche for it's author.