[Kareeser]

Hey everyone,

My name's --redacted--, and I was contacted (quite recently, actually, something along the lines of half an hour ago) via my website to visit this place and see what it's about.

Why, exactly? Because I co-founded this damn thing you guys call home.

So for a bit of not-so-interesting history, here goes:
Back in about 2002 or 2003, when ST:BC first came out, there was this one player (whose name now slips my mind) who had the nasty habit of kicking my butt every time we met. Let's call him Charlie. Charlie also had the annoying feature of being somewhere along the lines of 10 or 12 years old, which made these humiliating defeats all the worse.

In any case - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. He was part of this rag-tag group of players who had named themselves "FlyByNight", or FBN.

I think it was around this time that your intrepid leader, Hathaway, joined up.

Also around this time was another rag-tag group of players who called themselves "UFP". We tended to smack 'em about quite a bit, and after some mismanagement (on their part, honest), they broke up and the UFP name was back on the market.

To which "Charlie" jumped on. I remember personally preferring we rename ourselves the Delta Quadrant Force (DQF), but hey, if that were the case, I doubt you guys would be as big as you are now. Now you know - no treaty was signed between Humans/Vulcans/Andorians/etc in creating UFP

ST:BC pretty much became forgotten after that, and I went on to bigger and better... (ahem, not so much)... other... things, although I am glad the name lived on. I don't know what happened to Charlie, though I suspect it went along the same lines as myself.

... and boy, how that name's lived on. Last time I checked (because Hathaway's a bit of a doof and doesn't remember contacting me in the past ), UFP just got a teamspeak3 server. They still used Gamespy to play. It was a surprise to see that Hathaway was now the leader of this not-so-ragtag group.

I went the literal route and joined up with the Antares Project, a Play-by-email group that... funny enough, Hathaway was a part of, and ranked below me. (For your info - it's now called Ascension: The Phoenix Project, and does seem to be on its way out - not many people like writing volumes about their Star Trek personalities any more, I guess. Myself included. All the same, shameless plug.)

... and through that website, to mine, is how Hathaway found me. It's still a surprise to see Hathaway as the leader of this group. What a stint!

===

Sheesh - what a treatise. I'm too old for this.... "game" thing you youngsters play. Back to my backgammon.

Edit: I just checked Hathaway's email again - apparently, Charlie was "Derek Bellamy". Doesn't ring any bells, although I suppose that's him.

===
Edit: Redacted my name, mostly since if you google this username, I'd rather it not lead to my real-life identity.

[John Hathaway]

Hello Kareeser, good of you to stop by
I can imagine Charlie is that guy. Unfortunately Bellamy's attacks on you (remember the "charges" he filed against you) were not the end of the ridiculous attitude we had to put up with and eventually he was forced to leave. He did rejoin some time ago, but unfortunately showed that things hadn't changed all that much.

Anyway I doubt things are all that familiar since your time, a lot of things have changed since then, but we're still a pure Star Trek fleet, and I'm happy to report going very strong.

You should blow the dust off some of those old Trek games and join us down memory lane some time... we even play Elite Force again on a regular basis. I'm sure it would come back to you, like it did a lot of us.

[Kareeser]

In fact, I don't remember these "charges" against me.

Hey, I was young - not everything I did back then (including online), I remember. Care to refresh my memory?

[John Hathaway]

I don't recall the specifics, but it was the start of his downfall, by inventing stories in order to oust you. You didn't do anything wrong, and when it became clear what had happened, and subequent things that were to follow, people wanted a change in leadership, and eventually it came. Then again from the moment I came into the clan, no one spoke highly of him. Didn't even see him for the first two weeks.

[Sharpkiller]

Nice to see you here, Kareeser.

[Kareeser]

Nice to see another Canadian in UFP. I used to be the only one...

[Sharpkiller]

Hehe, there are many Canadians in the fleet now.

[Josh Broughm]

Present!!! lol

[Reggie]

eh? Its aboot time!

[U.S.S. Hyperion]

Hello

[Cat]

Welcome back, even if it is only for a fly-by visit.

And there's no such thing as being too old to play games. I'm likely one of the oldest in the fleet, and I'm hobbling along just fine, thank you!