Lessons In Superior Posting: Lesson #1 - The Basics
With Prof. Dr. Fritz von Stossenbaum Alkaseltzer

In here you will find the basic info you need to write a successful post on the USS Pegasus, this lesson contains all the markings and signs we use to make clear we're talking/thinking/ramming our heads on consoles. If you read through this lesson you will have a fairly good basis to start writing from, it's like Elementary really... only with a crazy teacher.

First the length of a post, while there is no Official minimum all the crewmembers have been given 1 A4 on 10pt Times New Roman as a guideline for the length. While this is not an official rule you can be sure that if you only make one paragraph of story every two weeks that you will be asked politely to exit Stage... left... (that's where the airlocks are)

Now that we have that done let's get to what we should actually put in that darn post...

First and foremost: The Subjectline of your email, every mission has a name (mission 0 = Mount Up, Mission 1 = Renegade Deception, etc) This name should go first into the subject line, followed by a number, this number is only for administrative concerns and to you it's only something you can screw up or forget. Every post counts as One (simple) so if we were to start Mission 999: "LISP" the first post would be: "LISP" #1, the next would be "LISP" #2, etc etc... There is one catch however, if you just did a Joint Post (this means making one post with two or more players/characters/writers) you should count every player for the number. If the CO and the XO would start the mission off, it would be named: "LISP" #1&2. Special Note: If one Player uses several Non-Playing Characters, it only counts as one in the subject line.

After the post number there is room for you creative minds out there to add a Title to your post, like so: "LISP" #1 - "Darn These Lessons are Hard!", it's good for teasers and what not.

Conclusively the Mailing list will add [USS_Pegasus] in front of the subject line which will leave us with: [USS_Pegasus] "LISP" #1 - "Darn These Lessons are Hard!"

Now let us start with the actual post:

(OOC1: ooc stands for Out Of Character, any information we need to know before we need the post you can put here, if you have multiple pieces of info please number them separately)
(OOC2: Any info given in the Bio’s are being handled as known and should not be posted in these parts.)
(OOC3: As you can see OOC texts will have to be in between parentheses)

Indicate that the post will Start, In Character with a simple: On, [On], -={On}=- or whatever nice brackets you might want to give it, just keep it clear that it’s the beginning of the post.

Next is the Setting for the post, The where and when, write it in between straight brackets, [Main Bridge, USS Pegasus, 1300 hours] (the times are used for interaction between characters, even in the game you can’t be in two places at the same time, although it's not obligatory on the Pegasus we are not stopping you.)

Body of the post: The actual post goes here, describing you actions, feeling, conversations with NPC’s (Non Player Characters) and PC’s (Player Characters) and thoughts (only the thoughts of your character are known and can be posted by you.)

- Style of Writing: We can Choose from either The novella form or the script form, while the latter is easier to write, the first one is much more interesting to read (and the standard onboard the USS Pegasus), I leave you free in this choice for now, experiment with the two.
- Thoughts: should be placed in between <...> (i.e. <ooohw... What Does this Button Do? >)
- Spoken words: Should be placed in between "..." (i.e. "Hello... anyone?")
- Communicators: Yay 23rd Century, we have combadges... after you have hit your combadge your phrase should be in between =/\=...=/\= until the link is closed again. (i.e. =/\= Commander LaBrie for Lieutenant Petrova, please report to my ready room...=/\=)
- Telepathy: Since we are in the Star Trek Universe there will be instances of Telepathy (since some races can do that...) This should be in between ~...~ (i.e. ~can you hear me mother?!~)
- Actions (only use when in script form): should be in between ::...::(i.e. ::picks up Phaser::
- Actions (when using Novella) can be posted after the speech is closed with ", just post what you’re doing, (i.e. "Today We Fight!" John said as he raised his Phaser in the air.)

When finished writing the body, you can leave Tags for people, just place <Tag *insert name here*> or <tag everybody> can be useful when you want a specific person to come out their hiding place or if you’ve just send a message his/her way.

End the post by placing the closing tag, Off, [Off], -={Off}=-, again you can use whatever you like as long it’s clear you ended the story (there have been instances of people using End... do not fear... we will track them down and push them out of the Airlock A.S.A.P.).

Additional OOC info can also be placed at the end of each post, if you want to ask somebody for a JP or something else. Also just do it in the form mentioned above, this will most likely be the place for "orders" from superior officers to junior officers.

Sign the post:
Rank - Name
Position
Vessel
If you want you can post a semi-intelligent quote here...

Example:

Lieutenant Commander Caelen LaBrie
Commanding Officer
USS Pegasus
"The Thing We Call 'Failure' Is Not The Falling Down... It's The Staying Down..."

If you want an example of how all this works in the Game itself feel free to read through Our Mission Logs or take a look at the Sample Post the CO has written for his own application.

I hope this helps you getting started on this fine... yet old and tiny... ship! if you have any more questions don't be afraid to Bug The CO about it, he likes mail.

until Next time!
Prof. Dr. Fritz von Stossenbaum Alkaseltzer
L.I.S.P. Professor
USS Pegasus
"Do or Do Not .. There is no Try .. If you Can Not .. Erase Evidence .. So that you Did Not."