...and that's why we have a nifty little thing called the BF InfoBase for all your specifications needs. They have the official Bravo Fleet specs for this.

Main ships or stations will be not be available for players to simm on, such as the USS Enterprise, USS Defiant, USS Voyager or Deep Space 9. Other ships that are mentioned in the series, but not featured as the main focus vessel, are possible.

Please note that affiliates may not follow this rule exclusively. Check with each affiliate's staff to see if this is the case.

Just about any:

• Play by Bulletin Board (commonly referred to as "Play by forum" or "PBF") is one of the primary types of simming in Bravo Fleet.
• Play by e-mail (commonly referred to as "PBEM") is another type of simming in Bravo Fleet, and used to be the only approved method.
• Play by SMS relies on a role-playing management software package developed by Anodyne Productions called SMS. It shares a similarity with PBF simming, but is specifically built for simulation role-playing.
• Other methods, such as (but not limited to) Play by Chat, Play by Wiki, or Play by Blog, has to be run by a task force commanding officer.

And please, no one suggest a Play by Twitter simm. 140 characters isn't enough.

Yes. The general rule of thumb is that before a player takes on another command, their first command is operational. It is not a hard and fast rule, but it is a guideline that is meant to help you preserve your sanity.

The command limit is three simms BF-wide, with a maximum of two in the Bravo Fleet member task forces consisting of one Starfleet simm and one non-Starfleet simm - Federation civilian, non-Federation civilian, or alien empire - and a maximum of one command per Bravo Fleet affiliate.

In the first paragraph of the Bravo Fleet InfoBase main page, it lists the date clearly there.

Why are we listing it this way? Because as of January 1, 2010, there was a change made to slow down the IC time of Bravo Fleet, so that stories may be written out fully. For every two years that progresses in real time, only one year will progress in-character. So, to list this year progression is as follows:

• 2010 = January to June 2386
• 2011 = July to December 2386
• 2012 = January to June 2387
• 2013 = July to December 2387
• 2014 = January to June 2388
• 2015 = July to December 2388

And there you have it.

Short answer: Commanding officer's discretion.

Long answer: Here in Bravo Fleet, we do allow the usage of Marines on simms, as long as it's OK with the simm's CO. There are some people whom are perfectly OK with Starfleet Marines being on their simms, while others are not. This has been an ongoing debate for years on whether it would be in Star Trek to have Marines or not, and leaving it to a simm's commanding officer seems to be a fair compromise that has worked over the years.

Word of advice: don't try to bring this argument up. It treads the same ground over and over again, and each side is very set in their way.