Yes, it's an in-joke. I started it way back when. Several key factors:

1. Shatner is Canadian. So am I.
2. Shatner had a rather oddly different acting style which became famous (or infamous) in the original Star Trek series. This makes him good for a running gag.
3. Shatner became a huge icon to legions of nerdy Star Trek fans. Excellent. More good joke possibilities.
4. He can't sing. Not at all. But...he has recorded a number of unbelievably terrible renditions of songs over the years. Terrific!
5. Some thought Captain Kirk was really sexy. Some didn't. More comic possibilities.

Anyway, I decided, on a whim, to pretend to madly worship everything about the man. I raved about him at every opportunity on this forum. I acclaimed his acting, his singing, his sexiness, his awesomely incredible Shatnerrific omnipotence at every juncture.

Some people were amused. Some were bored. Some were disgusted. Some liked the joke and jumped on the bandwagon and also pretended to worship Big Bill.

Now, here's the really cool part. I gradually developed a real respect for Mr Shatner, because I was finding out more about him, and reading some stuff he wrote. He is not the least bit afraid to make fun of himself. I like that. Bill is pretty cool in his own weird way. I have come to genuinely like William Shatner, and I started out just making fun of him.

That is the basic story.

Now there is some disgruntled person out there who hates either me or my Shatner joke...and they periodically refresh all the old threads about Shatner in order to attack me...or the joke itself...

They have just had their game stopped, because those threads are now closed, and cannot be posted to again.

But...you can still read them.

For the whole glorious saga, put "shatner" in the little filter box at the top of the main page, indicate "3 years", and look them up.