Solok

The only force for good in this universe greater than logic is, perhaps, coffee.

Very happy to be back! Thanks!

Solok has a profoundly spiritual side, but his Vulcan beliefs and practices are not something he thinks of in specifically religious terms. He'd be interested in the opportunities Christmas affords for quiet reflection and meditative reconciliation with the passage of time. The more festive elements aren't really his style, though.

Thanks, everyone. It's nice to be back!

I'm not bothered -- I'm not sure it matters much, one way or the other, to me. I was just (a) curious what about the contest was perceived to be unfair (and that curiosity seems to have been resolved, since it seems the perceived unfairness stems from the unequal participation of individuals in the forums and the uneven representation of ships in the contest), and then ( intrigued by the quest to make the contest fairer in the hope of getting more participation. I'm all for fairness, but at the same time, I'm not sure a fairer contest is one in which more people participate -- which I would think is the primary element involved in the "death" of the contest. And I think Kyros' suggestion is probably correct, that an unfair contest in which people participate is better than no contest at all.Does anyone know why the people who don't participate don't participate? Or do we just have competing hypotheses at this point? But trust me -- I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here, least of all people who are deeply committed to the Top Sims Contest and its revivification. I'm not looking to participate in the contest's organization -- again, my posts were prompted entirely out of curiosity. My participation here is purely theoretical.

Is anybody else concerned that making the process more complex and adding more restrictions/rules will decrease participation even more? Certainly, some people choose not to participate because it's just not their thing. Do we have any numbers on how many non-participants fail to participate for reasons of fairness, how many for reasons of time (i.e., they're too busy), and how many for other reasons or no reason (they just don't want to participate)?

Forgive my ignorance, but what is it that people find unfair about the contest? It isn't just the "no missing tags" rule, is it?

Thanks, everyone!

Thanks much! And congrats to you, Whale!

I just find it difficult to keep the movies straight in my own mind. Probably the result of a lack of interest, more than anything else. I saw Nemesis recently, so I've got that one. And Generations, of course, given the wild premise (although the purely TNG parts of Nemesis are hard for me to remember). But Insurrection and First Contact seem to lack the strong points of plot demarcation common to the earlier films. But, again, I'm sure that they are very different, and I just lost interest after Generations (perhaps, because of Generations).

Sorry. My bad. I should have checked "Generations," not "First Contact." But am I the only one for whom all those TNG movies blend together?

I voted First Contact, because there really has been no worse moment in the history of Star Trek, I think, than giving Data emotions. Maybe we can debate that sometime. As for the God thing in Star Trek V, strangely enough, I didn't think it was so bad. Sure, it lacks what almost all of the Star Trek movies lack, but we don't really watch them for what they are, do we, just what they promise. That the drive to "find God" was strong enough to lead a Vulcan (a crazy Vulcan, admittedly) to steal a ship and journey to the center of the galaxy is interesting, even if it wasn't played well by Sybok. And that you can't get to God by way of the USS Enterprise, but must seek whatever divinity there is in other, non-physical, non-rational, ways says something very interesting about God and religion, regardless of your beliefs on the subject. ST5 gets a lot of flak for the whole "flying to find God" premise, but I don't know if it's as bad as we often say it is. And turning Data into comic relief seems, to me, a graver sin against Star Trek, in any event.