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Keeping UMSF at an 'impressively high level', Please take a moment to read
djellison
post Apr 5 2006, 05:36 PM
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I was hoping you would mention that Emily - I didn't want to pimp it (not my forum) but currently it's a quiet, but well maintained place and I'm sure some great discussion could kick off over there!

And frankly, if you're not a TPS member - then you should be ashamed smile.gif

Doug
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elakdawalla
post Apr 5 2006, 05:37 PM
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QUOTE (helvick @ Apr 5 2006, 10:30 AM) *
My position on all this is that Doug's very single minded vision and dedication have made this place what it is more than anything else. He hasn't been wrong in the past and I'm glad to see that he still has a clear vision of where he wants this to go. This demonstration of strong and decisive management is very welcome, great things rarely happen without it.

Hear, hear. What makes this forum unique -- apart from its much vaunted signal-to-noise ratio -- is the depth of discussions on image processing and the quality of work that the forum participants are doing on that. There is no other place like it on the Web, and I think that the niche is worth defending. Ever since I discovered as a grad student that this data was out there I was wishing that there was a place for people to meet and exchange ideas about what they could do with the data, tips on how to do it, and share the results; this is that place, and I am delighted that it's here.

--Emily


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helvick
post Apr 5 2006, 06:02 PM
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QUOTE (djellison @ Apr 5 2006, 05:36 PM) *
And frankly, if you're not a TPS member - then you should be ashamed smile.gif

Err. Duly ashamed but that lapse has now been rectified. smile.gif
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chris
post Apr 5 2006, 06:08 PM
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QUOTE (helvick @ Apr 5 2006, 07:02 PM) *
Err. Duly ashamed but that lapse has now been rectified. smile.gif


Ditto smile.gif
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Guest_Richard Trigaux_*
post Apr 5 2006, 06:10 PM
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Doug,

I don't agree with your implicit statement as what subjects like SETI or astrobiology would necessarily attract kooks, and subjects like MERs would not. If you remember some experience on "another forum" there was a full team of kooks commenting the MER images. From my own experience in other forums, any subject will atract kooks, stalkers, spammers, etc. I remember a painful experience with a forum on 3D modeling (the kind of place where I could meet you) where I was insulted and attacked in a very deloyal way for not being some sort of punk, and also on another forum of a non-violent organization!

Basically what makes the quality of a forum is a proper management, including a discrete but firm hand to expell the kooks, stalkers, spammers, etc as soon as they appear. Usually people with unpleasant behaviour start in a friendly way, and only little by little they become unpleasant, up to open conflict when other posters try to defend of them. But there is no way to really defend correct posters if the forum manager don't remove the unpleasant/useless messages. And this can happen on any forum, provided that the moderator lets do, either he is weak, stupid or accomplice. (In a legal case, he will be considered accomplice).

So, you want to restrict your scope, that is your right, you have good reasons, you don't need to justify with such motives as above. I think it is possible to lead a forum on any subject, including fringe ones, provided that bad posters are rebuffed at once.

So I shall look at elakdawalla's planetary society forum. The idea to make another forum is interesting too, but unfortunately I am not in a situation to do so. And, what makes the interest of UMSF is not only the absence of kooks, but also the presence of several competent scientists working directly in the field, witth the best data at hand. I am afraid they will not follow if someones opens another forum or more general or more fringe topics, so that it may be better to go on other existing forums.

I remind interested people that I have several embryonic forums on my own site http://www. shedrupling.org on topics like epistemology, relations between science and spirituality, 3D virtual worlds, and in a general way on how to make our world and lifes better. But I am worse than Doug: moderation a priori (I publish a message only if it fits my limits).
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Shaka
post Apr 5 2006, 09:02 PM
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As one who has made several requests for clear posting guidelines, I am pleased to see them available now, though it would have been to my advantage if they had been available a few months earlier. I am in agreement with those rules currently available and will try to post in accordance with them. So long as they are applied uniformly, I see no serious difficulties in all members accepting them.
I have had some difficulty using the new "Insert Image" button in the format tool bar ( as opposed to the older system which seemed to automatically convert images to thumbnails for the post.) A brief summary of techniques for using this button properly with images not on the web would help me to avoid infringements of the image rules. If such guidance is already in the Help section, I have been unable to locate it.

Since I do not have the time to work through the entire forum, but enter on the MER page, a brief notice and/or link here to any new additions to the rules would also be helpful.

I might just note that a couple of minor issues not yet addressed in the rules are humor and 'coarse' or 'vulgar' language. They are difficult and subjective issues to precisely define, but they are a potential source of disagreement about "Acceptable Behaviour" and what is "Off Topic". It would be helpful if at least broad guidelines were available.


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dvandorn
post Apr 6 2006, 02:04 AM
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Well, I'm sure that Doug will observe a certain moderation in his application of these rules, since there are certainly many, many posts here (even in the past day or two) which have absolutely nothing to do with unmanned spaceflight, even by the most liberal reading of Doug's definition. Including one or two by Doug himself -- though, to be fair, while a picture of a drone rover in the Antarctic has nothing to do with UMSF, Doug *did* sort of tie it in by noting a resemblance (that I couldn't see) of the scene to Meridiani's plains. And he posted it in the "this has nothing to do with UMSF" forum, which, if you're going to ignore the rules about posting about things other than UMSF, is I guess the right place to put it...

In other words, I don't think Doug is planning to be generally unpleasant about all of this -- eh, Doug? I think we all trust you to be rational about it. smile.gif And a good, general codification of the rules *has* been well received, I think.

We know you make sacrifices to keep this place as good as it is, Doug. Please don't ever think we don't appreciate it.

-the other Doug


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djellison
post Apr 6 2006, 05:48 AM
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QUOTE (Shaka @ Apr 5 2006, 09:02 PM) *
I might just note that a couple of minor issues not yet addressed in the rules are humor and 'coarse' or 'vulgar' language. They are difficult and subjective issues to precisely define


No they're not. You use basic common sense. If I have to hold peoples hands over what words are and are not acceptable in day to day public useage, they're not welcome here. I have intentionally left out such a rule for that very reason.

Doug
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Guest_Richard Trigaux_*
post Apr 6 2006, 06:08 AM
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With my opinion, humour can be accepted, and limited only if a joke completely hijacks a thread. But coarse language or vulgarity are not necessary for making jokes.
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CosmicRocker
post Apr 7 2006, 06:46 AM
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QUOTE (dvandorn @ Apr 5 2006, 08:04 PM) *
Well, I'm sure that Doug will observe a certain moderation in his application of these rules...
Ditto to that, dvandorn. I think you hit it on the head.

I, too noticed a certain drop in the S/N ratio recently, but it would appear that current management practices have got that under control without a lot of complaints.

Our host's posting of what have always been the generally accepted rules for most forum communications, along with some basic netiquette seems appropriate to me. I thought Doug did a nice job of laying out some general guidelines for the forum. Reading through this thread has shown me how difficult managing a large forum can be.

It's still the best forum on the web. cool.gif


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paxdan
post Apr 7 2006, 09:37 AM
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Thanks for the guidelines Doug.

There are some other forum management techniques you may already know about:

Another option is to hide parts of UMSF from search engines using the robots.txt protocol. The Robots Exclusion Protocol prevents spiders from indexing designated pages, and certain words and phrases, and would enable you to control what the searchable footprint of UMSF is, e.g., no search for 'seti' would lead here.

For the damage already done you can also ask google to remove parts of a site from their cache using this remove your URL utility. By applying it to certain parts of the board it would effectively erase them from the web for people searching for them. This could be used to undo damage caused by off-topic threads providing search fodder for undesirables.

These are pretty standard techniques for hiding stuff on the web.

This post has been edited by paxdan: Apr 7 2006, 10:57 AM
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gpurcell
post Apr 7 2006, 04:44 PM
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I'd like to suggest that non-cosmology oriented space observatories, like Kepler and TPF, be included in scope of UMSF, as they are specifically designed to provide data on planetary bodies. Similarly, I think technology demonstration missions like the ST flights of the New Millenium Program also fit in the scope of UMSF.

My 0.02.
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climber
post Apr 20 2006, 11:58 AM
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Doug,

What about setting up a place dedicated to personal (or not?) stories we could share about Unmaned probes ? For exemple, I went twice in Pasadena, for Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune and then for Spirit landing. I personaly can share what I've seen, felt, etc... OK, I can put this under Planetary Society topic since the event I went to was organized by the PS, but, I feel that more people can (want ?) share their experience too, like Astro0 coming back for JPL-KSC recently. What I do like in Planetary exploration is all the humans stories that make it happen.
Thanks
Climber


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Bob Shaw
post Apr 20 2006, 12:01 PM
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QUOTE (climber @ Apr 20 2006, 12:58 PM) *
What about setting up a place dedicated to personal (or not?) stories we could share about Unmaned probes ?


Yes. I agree!

I nominate 'Being There', 'Touching the Stars' or 'I was that soldier' as the thread title!

Bob Shaw


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djellison
post Apr 20 2006, 12:02 PM
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I think that would sit quite nicely in the Communtiy Chit Chat sub forum - by all means get lyrical therein smile.gif

Doug
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