In July 2000 a friend posted about it on the now gone Omega Forums, (Star Trek Based) and I followed the link. I downloaded the demo and fell in love. I then joined the old SEIV Forums, and from there to here in November 2000. The rest is history basically.
A web buddy, Flipper, tuned me into making ship sets, and additionally inspired by the work of Warp_9.
Ship set developing is a lot of fun no matter how you do it. I highly recommend it to any one, and Aaron should have included it as a perk to the game.
I hope SE V is as enjoyable as SEIV has been.