UnmannedSpaceflight.com and The Planetary Society, "A match made in the heavens" Options

[elakdawalla]

I, along with the rest of the admin team here at UnmannedSpaceflight.com have a big announcment to make today: The Planetary Society and UnmannedSpaceflight.com are joining forces. Here's the Society's press release about it. I'm so excited! You guys with your fantastic work processing space images are exactly the kind of people we seek to connect with, inspire, educate, and in turn, see you educating everyone around you about what's going on in the exploration of our solar system.

Some of you may be a little concerned about this new partnership -- you may be thinking that the Planetary Society will try to change the way the forum is run. Let me assure you that that will not happen. My bosses at the Society recognize that the reason this place is so great is that it is a community that has grown around itself, developed its own rules, and is functioning very well on its own terms. The administrative policies will not change. All that is changing is that the Society is agreeing to be responsible for the financial maintenance of the website; and that when you make donations to support this site, your donations are tax-deductible (at least in the U.S).

If you have any questions or concerns about this new collaboration, please do not hesitate to ask me or any other member of the admin/mod team.

[centsworth_II]

A lot of concern has been expressed about how UMSF(.com) would be affected by its association with The Planetary Society. Let's turn that around. Emily L. has frequently sung the praises of UMSF in her Planetary Society Blog. Now she has specifically recommended UMSF as a site worthy of being part of the Planetary Society family. All the more reason for "keeping UMSF at an 'impressively high level" .

In Emily's blog post which I link above, she says, "...at UMSF, you have to stay to the rules of conduct, keeping to the subject of robotic missions, and the data they return, and not post about forbidden topics or engage in antisocial behavior like trolling or ranting." I would add to the list of unacceptable behaviors 'overly social behavior' such as the off topic banter that recently broke out in one of the Opportunity forums and has since been mercifully removed.

[djellison]

A lot of concern has been expressed about how UMSF(.com) would be affected by its association with The Planetary Society.

To be honest, I just don't think that's true. There is not just cause for such concern, and because of that we've made it abundantly clear that things will change very very little, and because of that, people have not expressed much concern at all. Infact most people have used very very positive words indeed.

[centsworth_II]

...people have not expressed much concern at all. In fact most people have used very very positive words indeed.

Right. I should have said that there has been a lot of emphasis put on how the UMSF/TPS association will not affect UMSF while little concern has been expressed for how the association will reflect on TPS.

UMSF should be affected in that there should be additional pressure to 'keep up the high standards'.