Trekker vs. Trekkie

Someone told me that real Star Trek fans like to be called Trekkers. To which I said, "Hey! I come from a long line of Trekkies, and I have never heard of that before." Trekkers??!  Is this a new thing? Am I out of the loop? Or was this someone just mocking me, cause Trekkers sounds like someone going on a long journey, not someone who can speak Klingon.

I asked the internets for images of trekkers and all it gave me was a bunch of pictures of scooters and SUVs, and this:

Which I tried for a while to understand, but gave up. I mean, what is going on with his ears? Why would you want your ears coming out of some sort of handle thingy on your hat? Maybe if I was a real trekker......

Maybe we should ask this guy------>

















Or we can go to the other source of all knowledge, wikipedia:

"Some Star Trek enthusiasts prefer the term "Trekkie", while some others self-identify as "Trekker". Self-identification as a "Trekkie" became even less popular after a famous national television parody in 1986 (see In Popular Culture below); several self-described "Trekkers" were quoted as saying they "had a life" (contrasting themselves from "Trekkies").
In the 1991 TV show Star Trek: 25th Anniversary Special, Leonard Nimoy attempted to settle the issue by stating that the term 'Trekker' is the correct one.
In the documentary Trekkies, Kate Mulgrew stated that Trekkers are the ones "walking with us" while the Trekkies are the ones content to simply sit and watch Star Trek.
The issue is also shown in the film Trekkies 2, in which a Star Trek fan recounts a supposed incident during a Star Trek convention where Gene Roddenberry used the term "trekkies" to describe fans of the show, only to be corrected by a fan that stood up and yelled "Trekkers!" Gene Roddenberry allegedly responded with "No, it's 'Trekkies.' I should know — I invented the thing." Generally, fans of film and television franchises make up their own nicknames, as with the "Browncoats" who are fans of the Firefly television series."


So I guess they cleared that right up.