I'd like to apologies

[Shane]

Nice to hear from the chief again.Yeah, there was a period when Star Fleet just wasn't fun for me anymore either. It's amazing how running a site becomes a full time job and eventually takes over your life without you even realising it.It was good to leave it for a few years and see a bit of the world.Now that I have a bit of downtime, it's actually quite nice going back to TROM and spending a few hours a week playing around in the rich Star Fleet universe, again.

[Crash]

Yes, I would like to apologise for the clunkiness of our current arrangements.If it were up to me, everyone would have their own FTP account and but when we got hacked, we got massively hacked and repeatedly as well. It had nothing to do with the fact that I shared out the FTP account details amongst other fleeters (and I simply couldn't believe at the time that anyone that had been given that logon was responsible, so I was very, very puzzled myself).They found a script on the site that I was using but hadn't written (which is fair enough) and exploited it to seriously abuse the server. My generous host was, I think it's fair to say, not-happy-in-the-slightest because everyone under our account might have been made internet-homeless by the hosting company.If I hadn't been keeping such close tabs on it, they would have done some serious damage to the server because they'd already managed to inject all the software they needed into the machine.So I wouldn't feel right about asking for any more than I'm currently taking in way of databases and FTP accounts. If I had some disposable funds I would order an account myself but to get that kind of package is a substantial amount up-front.Anyway, I can't make the move right now because A) I'm in a free place and B) it's all managed and looked-after for me so there's no admin for me to do at all, which is brilliant.But aside from that, I will install any software you want to help you do what you want.

[Shane]

There really isn't anything to apologise for. I'm really grateful that Big Dai X has a home, especially as looking at the SFXB links page these days is very depressing indeed, what with most of the other SF sites seeming to have gone under.I think being able to post things on X-Archive has been fantastic. One of the best SF resources there has ever been, in fact!If web space ever becomes a problem I'm sure we will find a way, personally my needs are small when it comes to TROM.

[Crash]

I wish mine were.You should see the amount of hardware it takes for me to get things done.Most of it's ancient though, so that doesn't help.I was thinking that what we should probably move towards is something like this:http://www.planetdescent.net/Now, I know some bits are a bit clunky but it is very nicely self-contained for user input and if you find someone called Crash on there - it might be me.

[Vanessa]

You are right, it is a shame that so many of the SFXB links have gone.Even some of the Japanese ones.I remember last year checking out a Japanese site through those links. I ran the text through Google Translator and then Babelfish (or something similar), and got two completely different english text translations!Actually that's where I got Makara's name from, as (using babelfish IIRC) her name came out as "Mary Brady", so I used that in my story.I wish I'd taken a screengrab of that Jap site though, as it's now gone I totally LOVE the X-Archive, it's a fab resource, and I'm even allowed to post things on it too   You are brave, people!I'm wondering if my Laptop has a problem though, as when I clicked on Crash's link below, I got a page telling me that: "Warning, Your computer is engaged in malicious online behaviour".OOps!?I have a paid-up and active antivirus (McAfee) and firewalls and stuff, so I'm a bit puzzled by the warning.My laptop is working just fine.Computers eh? Can't live with'em, can't live without 'em.If I could shovel coal into 'em I'd understand them a lot more