The point of the Ambassador program is as follows....

1. Let ADB know where people are talking about us.

2. Communique news and information to those groups of people and let us know what you did.

3. Be polite and respectful doing it.

We have been doing this informally for years. Darren Kehrer thought that a more organized approach might be more effective, and that the BBS was a good way to let people know where such discussions are taking place and encourage them to present our information and let us know what's going on out there.

This is a new thing for us, and it's a good bet that SVC (and others around here) don't know everything they ought to know about internet procols and web sites and systems. Please help us fine tune this program to make it more effective and avoid upsetting anyone.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - 03:55 pm: Edit

The organizational theory is that...

Ambassador Guidelines is stuff we post to guide you guys and help you.

Ambassador Roundtable is where you and we discuss how the program operations, nominate new sites for their own topics, and so forth.

Each "foreign venue" will have a topic where Ambassadors can report what they saw and what they said. Each "foreign venue" will include (once people tell me where they are) the URLs as well as any specific instructions or guidelines.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 07:41 am: Edit

One question... some websites, (e.g. milsims.com.au, one of my FLGSs) allow users to post reviews of products but have no discussion boards. Should these sites be included as part of the Ambassador program? It may be useful to keep track of which sites have reviews and which need to have reviews posted.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - 10:43 am: Edit

Terry: Excellent idea. We'll add a slot for "review sites".

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 08:10 pm: Edit

The idea actually came to me while I was watching an episode of Babylon 5 and it was an episode about what the rangers do..

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 03:08 pm: Edit

Vanessa sent me a bunch of links to a bunch of sites and I am slowly inputting them.

If you know of another site, or better info about a listed site, let us know.

We plan to have an Ambassador Page in Captain's Log to recognize those Ambassadors who spread the good word.

This is your chance to give us some help, guys!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 03:22 pm: Edit

Vanessa says to tell you:

The biggest point to get across to our guys when going to these places is how to do it. They shouldn't be pushing sales or even our online store. They should simply be talking about our games, our forum, our sites.

For example, and do not quote this verbatim, something like:

I picked up a new game called Federation Commander. It's pretty cool, it has the Klingons and Federation and Romulans and Gorns and Tholians and Orion pirates. Is fun and fast to play. If you ever played Star Fleet Battles, this is much faster and it's in color. The ship cards are laminated for wipe-off markers. The original versions were $60 but they are releasing a $25 version, and you can always get the free download at www.FederationCommander.com if you want to see how the game works. They have a matching line of miniatures.

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - 11:56 pm: Edit

added topic for game preserve

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 12:04 am: Edit

A couple of other sites:
http://decipher.fanhq.com/
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/index.html
http://www.simonsays.com/content/index.cfm?sid=44
http://www.westendgames.com/
http://www.scifi.com/

By Vanessa Clark (Vanessa) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 03:38 pm: Edit

OK boys, it's time to get busy. I'm asking for "official ambassadors." Don't make me start asking you...(me tapping my foot and looking for the whip). Step up...I need you guys (considedr it a desperate plea from me)...this a great way to help...and I'd like to have specific people at specific sites. I need you to also be posting on the FC forum in the appropriate thread.

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 03:45 pm: Edit

Thanks for adding the Game Preserve.

I am in for Ambassador.
I can obviously take the GP forum, and will get back and sign up for others.

By Vanessa Clark (Vanessa) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 05:26 pm: Edit

Thanks Darren...I've got you listed as the official Ambassador for GP...let me know on some of the other sites. =)

By Jeff Laikind (J_Laikind) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 05:54 pm: Edit

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Fleet_Universe

This is a Star Trek only site, with a number of articles.

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 06:52 pm: Edit

Since PD could be coming out in Hero and d6, I think we should have a forum for both??

http://www.herogames.com/forums/

http://www.westendgames.com/forum/upload/

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 06:56 pm: Edit

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/community/message.html

Star Trek dot com forums, which does have a rpg section

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 07:03 pm: Edit

If SVC creates folders for the below, I can take those in addition to the Game Preserve:

West End Games
Decipher
Hero

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 07:30 pm: Edit

I wouldn't worry about West End until we have a firm release schedule for D6, nor would I worry about hero until we have a firm release schedule for hero. Decipher is on the "treat lightly" list.

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 07:53 pm: Edit

My thought process as to why I listed these "future-possible PD" company websites would be that the ambassador could "stoke the fire" of conversations and getting a buzz going about the future releases of those products. Nothing generates anticipation (and sales) of a yet to be released product than people talking about it.

Also, one could report what's been going on regarding anything resembling "Star Trek" type games on those forums to help define and generate ideas for what ADB could produce for each line.
I just thought I would list my thoughts, but I understand your reasoning also (and you are the boss).

However, if and when (like you say) we get closer to such a release, that would be fine too.

What about Star Trek dot com, Simon Says (Pocket Books), or Sci Fi dot com? Are those good or bad suggestions?

Vanessa: I can take Decipher.

By Russell J. Manning (Rjmanning) on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 08:42 pm: Edit

Another possible website to check out is www.redscape.com.

It is a website dedicated to playing Diplomacy, Advanced Civilization and Republic of Rome PBEM but also has a general forum area that discusses other games.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 10:36 am: Edit

It's a waste of time to start buzz that could never amount to anything. We spent a thousand bucks advertising GPD and when it was a year late it was all wasted money.

Startrek.com is already listed in tread lightly.

Pocket books should also be treat lightly.

Scifi.com is one I'm not familiar with. Details?

Redscape.com I can set up a folder for.

By Patrick H. Dillman (Patrick) on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 02:04 pm: Edit

Scifi.com is the web presence for the scifi channel. There is a forum that has a board for general discussions and a board for the original Star Trek. Sometimes SFB gets mentioned on there.

http://forums.scifi.com/

PHD

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, March 23, 2007 - 03:02 pm: Edit

Good, use it!

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 04:12 pm: Edit

Steve,
you listed Scifi.com and West end games in the treat lightly section. Since you were not going to create one for either Hero or WEG (from your post above), I thought you might want to know so you could remove it, or add the hero there in case you changed your mind.

By Darren Kehrer (Kehrer1701) on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 04:18 pm: Edit

Do we have a folder under the ambassadors that is simply for people to post there as to what sites they are ambassading?? This would just give everyone a quick reference to who is where??

Maybe "Ambassador Assignments" or something.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 04:48 pm: Edit

Better for us to compile that and put it in a locked topic, Darren. Otherwise, it would just be another roundtable with a duplicate conversation thread.

Scifi.com now has its own topic. I still don't plan to add topics for Hero or D6 until I have drafts and contracts in hand. The fact that I created a topic for SciFi.com (once I knew what it was) has no bearing on the decision not to create one (yet) for hero.