5MV Update History

maintained by Zeke

SEPTEMBER 2005

September 4

I'm back, and settled in Waterloo. The plan has changed a bit. My fifth-anniversary article was mostly going to be about the history of the site, and that I can just add to the About section, so I'm not going to bother at this point. What's really important is the announcement I've been talking about, and it's now up. When you read it, you'll see why I had so much trouble with this particular update.

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September 5

September 5 is an important date at 5M.net: the birthday of our first subsite, Five-Minute Next Generation. This year it turns four, and we're --

Wait a minute. Four? FOUR?

Dude. Anyway, as usual, we're having a celebratory event. This year's event is two days long, to represent... um... the Enterprise-D's ability to split into two sections. Here's the first day's content:

• The master himself, Marc Richard, opens the festivities with "Tin Man."
• Next up is "Suspicions" by DS9 section head and frequent NG contributor Derek Dean.
• From me, here's a Top 10 list I found unfinished in some old fiver notes (same page as Five-Minute "Fusion," for what it's worth), and have now finally completed over three years later: The Top 10 Things Not to Say on the Enterprise-D.
• Finally, as one last contribution to 5M.net, Kira made two comic fivers for this event, the first of which is for Marc's "The Host."

Be here tomorrow for the... uh... saucer section of this event. Yes.

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September 6

(To get the updates back in sync with what actual day it is, the conclusion of the NG event will be the September 7 update.)

September 8

To allow a bit more content, we're extending the 5MNG anniversary event to three days -- so this is now only the midpoint of the event. Today's material:

• Marc's back with a Top 10 list: The Top 10 Autobiographical Books by Next Generation Characters.
• Next, here's the first half of my annual NG two-parter: "Time's Arrow I."
• Finally, here's Kira's other comic, for one of Marc's best fivers: "Yesterday's Enterprise."

Be here tomorrow for the Captain's Yacht of the event! (Hey, it detaches....)

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September 9

The 5MNG anniversary event ends today as the last not-yet-heard-from staff member chimes in. Here's IJD GAF with "Unification I."

Unfortunately, neither IJD nor I got our respective second parts done under the wire. I'm not going to extend the event even further to give us time; it was a mistake to extend it at all. And this leads me to my closing statement. Normally I end an anniversary event with a thank you to the section head; this time I need to include an apology too.

My recent effort to stop promising too much and then apologizing to you readers is one thing. I like making updates, but I don't owe them to you. I do, however, owe Marc. He's been helping me with this site longer than anyone else, and the whole time he's had to put up with my procrastination and intermittent responsiveness. The very least he deserves from me is that I not screw up his subsite's anniversary. I should have taken into account what a mess I'm in right now and not overcommitted to the event; instead, I aimed for more than I could deliver, and then held back the update days rather than just accept that I'd failed.

So I'm sorry, Marc. And I thank you for all you've done and continue to do.

(Don't think IJD and I are leaving you readers hanging, by the way -- the conclusions will be published as soon as we finish. They just won't be part of this event. That ship has sailed away.)

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September 11

(No update.)

September 12

Marc Richard has quit 5M.net. He's explained his reasons here.

I'm going to address this more fully, but right now I just want to emphasize that this site is not shutting down. IJD and Derek assure me they have no intention of leaving, and I'm not going anywhere. My plans for the site have not changed. The events of the last couple of weeks have been a heavy blow, but not a fatal one.

September 19

I've taken some time to think things over after that last update. A lot has changed here in a very short time; I didn't want to risk making it worse by acting on impulse. I'm ready now to get things moving again, but first I want to give Marc a proper sendoff.

I've formatted Marc's farewell post as an article, and added some comments of my own. In that post, Marc mentioned some material he'd written that hadn't yet been published; I think the least I can do as a parting gift is to publish it. There are three items....

• ....the first and oldest of which is ENT's "First Flight." Back in 2003, Kira suggested that I let the staff do some Season 2 ENT fivers to help me catch up; we worked out a plan for a 5ME "guest event," for which each staffer picked an episode. This was a back-burner sort of event with no deadline, just something we were going to get around to when we all had time... so naturally, Marc had his done almost immediately. It's a great fiver, making use of 5ME conventions while still being clearly Marc's. We were saving it for the event, but since that event is pretty much shot now, here it is. Enjoy.
• The second fiver is much more recent: Five-Minute The Day the Earth Stood Still. This is a classic 1951 sci-fi movie, one that every fan of the genre should see; I was delighted to find that Marc was as fond of it as I am. It was directed by the great Robert Wise of ST:TMP fame, who recently passed away; I'm sure the fiver won't mind doing double duty as 5M.net's tribute to him.
• Finally, here's a Top 10 list from Marc that was lost in the shuffle of a past event: The Top 10 Things Picard Would Dislike About Commanding Archer's Enterprise.

A long chapter of this site's life -- the chapter called Five-Minute Voyager -- is over. We've entered a new chapter called FiveMinute.net. Maybe it was naive of me to think we would enter it unchanged. Maybe the things that have just happened were inevitable. I don't know. What I do know is that I'm not giving up. This is something I want to do, and I would do it alone if I had to.

But I'm not alone. IJD and Derek, two very talented people who've earned their positions many times over, are still on staff. I have two eager new section heads, Scooter and Sa'ar Chasm, along with a new one to be announced at the end of the month, and others waiting in the wings. I have Nan, my friend since before there was a Five-Minute anything, who's always there to lend a hand. I have Xeroc, tireless organizer of the 5M.net community weekend chats and developer of a project called 5MX that you'll soon be hearing more about. I have too many guest writers and forum regulars to list; their contribution is enormous. These people are my support, and with that support, I'm not even tempted to give up.

This site is bloody but unbowed. It will be here tomorrow -- and I hope you will be too.

(Note: My fiveminute.net email hasn't been available to me for the last three days or so. AntonyF at Trek Nation is working on the problem; in the meantime, you can reach me at my old address, [email protected].)

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September 20

As promised, here we are. We'll be here for the next bunch of tomorrows as well -- I'm officially resuming daily updates. I'm not going to promise anything, but I am going to take it more seriously than I have in recent months. At first I cared too much about not missing any days, then I let myself relax and ended up caring too little; I'm hoping now to find a happy medium.

I've decided the best place to start this week is the About section, which needed to be brought up to date even before all this, and severely needs it now. To begin with, here's the Sa'ar Chasm FAQ.

(Note: My usual email address is working again.)

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September 22

(sigh) I hate timing like that. The last couple of days have been too school-heavy for updates. My "don't apologize for stuff like this" policy is still in effect, but I can share annoyance, at any rate. Stay tuned -- this was just a minor delay, and there's good stuff coming.

September 23

As IJD just reminded me, we're way overdue for a 5MST update -- and it just so happens we have one handy. Here's "The Apple" (my all-time favourite Trek title) by Kristina Runyeon-Odeberg.

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September 25

As it happens, we're also way overdue for a 5MVG update -- and this time IJD himself delivers the goods. Here's the classic Game Boy game Kirby's Dream Land.

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September 26

Back when Cliffhanger Week was going on, I was in Ottawa with restricted Net access; it was all I could do to upload the actual material, so I had to forget about the other details that go into a proper update, such as forward/back links and subsite index pages. Today the cleanup begins. Cliffhanger Week now has its own summary page like the ones TTW and AUW have, and I've archived the last three months' news entries, which were making the main News page huge. I'll be continuing this cleanup process over the next little while (not at the expense of actual content, but along with it).

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September 29

Where have I been, you ask? Wouldn't you like to know. And tomorrow, you will.

I don't want to give it away, but let's just say 5M.net may experience some slight turbulence... and then explode.

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