From the official forums:

What is Tribble?
Tribble is the Star Trek Online Public Test Server. This is where we’ll be previewing and testing all of our latest content before making it available on Holodeck. Much of the content may be unpolished and potentially buggy—after all, that’s the point of putting it on the Test Server. We greatly appreciate bug reports and feedback on this content so that we can refine and perfect it before putting it live.

How do I access the Tribble Public Test Server?
• Log in to your account on http://startrekonline.com.
• Navigate to the following page, which can be found under the Game header : http://startrekonline.com/test-shard-signup
• Click the button on the bottom of this page to Sign up for Tribble!

Can I copy my character from Holodeck to Tribble, and if so, how?
• Log into your account on http://startrekonline.com
• Navigate to the following page, which can be found under the Game header : http://startrekonline.com/test-shard-signup
• Ensure you have signed up for Tribble.
• Navigate to the following page: http://startrekonline.com/test-shard/character-transfer
• Make sure both Holodeck and Tribble are up.
• Select a character to copy, making sure you are not logged in with that character.

Can I buy items from the C-store on Tribble?
No. If you attempt to do this and a bug occurs that allows your transaction to go through, you will lose both the item and your Cryptic Points on both Tribble and Holodeck.

When will downtime for Tribble be happening?
Downtime for Tribble will happen on-the-fly, unlike Holodeck. This means that if we have a new patch or maintenance that needs to happen, we won’t be waiting until 3am PST as usual. Instead, the maintenance will occur almost immediately, after a notification has been made to anyone playing.

Will there be posted updates for Tribble, and if so, where?
There will be Release Notes for Tribble, just like for Holodeck. These release notes will be posted in the Tribble Public Test forums.


Ah! The Tribble button doesn't work when I try to patch to it on the STO Launcher!! What should I do?
Don't worry - the odds are you signed up for Tribble without giving your launcher a chance to update. Simply restarting the launcher should resolve this issue.

The first time I patch up to Tribble, the launcher tells me I have to download another 10 gigabytes of data! What's going on here? Can't I just copy over my LIVE directory to the Tribble directory?
It's true that you will be adding 10 GBs to your hard-drive to test on the Tribble Test Server. Long story short: When you patch to Tribble, let the launcher do its thing - it's the fastest and least problematic approach.

What if I get stuck or something? Will there be any GM support if I require assistance?
There will not be any significant GM support for Tribble—this is the true new frontier of STO, and as such you will need to be a bit more independent. GMs will not generally be available to offer any assistance on Tribble so they can offer more dedicated assistance to players on Holodeck.

How should I report bugs I find on Tribble?
First, file a bug report in-game when you encounter the bug by typing /bug. This will give us all sorts of useful information as to what was occurring at the time of the bug that might help us track down the problem. Once you’ve submitted the bug report, please make a post regarding the bug here, in the Tribble Public Test Forums, and include the ticket number if you’ve got it. The QA team will be on these forums a lot, so doing this will allow you to bring bugs directly to their attention.

I made a bug report, and I made a new thread to discuss it on the forums – so why isn’t my bug fixed yet?
Our apologies. Some bugs take longer than others to fix, owing to severity and the development schedule. Just know that we are looking into it – we take all bug reports seriously.

If I want to test high-level content, how will I level and gear up for it?
Eventually, we plan to have both level-up contacts as well as gear contacts for this specific purpose. In the mean time, we have some more creative solutions to help gear you up for the first Special Task Force, which will be the first update to be put up on Tribble.

What kind of discussion is allowed on the Tribble Public Test Forums?
The Tribble Forums are meant for discussions of bugs found while playtesting, as well as feedback. As a result, we will be deleting or moving any off-topic posts we find here. We need to keep this area of the forums clean, to facilitate a fast-paced exchange of information.

Who moderates the Tribble forums?
The STO QA Team will be the main moderators on these forums. We are Stevler, ZeroniusRex, DScotty, and Jaguars.

The Live server of Star Trek Online supports English, French, and German - is this true for Tribble too?
Not at this time at least. Our QA team is made up of English-speakers, and as a result receiving live feedback in anything but English is a daunting task to say the least. We still highly encourage everyone, regardless of language, to submit bug reports however, as we do have a team of translators.