UMSF@5, The Forum's 5th Anniversary Options

[Astro0]

This anniversary almost passed us by...
February 8th 2004 was the date that saw the introduction of the forum that we all enjoy so much.
I just wanted to pass on my thanks to Doug Ellison for taking the brave (although he may sometimes think 'foolish') step of setting up the Unmanned Spaceflight forum.

For me, it has opened up - literally - an entire world of interaction with like-minded people.
The thoughts, knowledge and talents of the people on this forum continues to astound and delight me.
UMSF has become a daily habit (many times daily!) and I am proud to be both an enthusiastic contributor and an administrator in Doug's team.

Here's to last 5 years and many, many more Sols to come

Astro0

[RoverDriver]

This anniversary almost passed us by...
February 8th 2004 was the date that saw the introduction of the forum that we all enjoy so much.
...
Astro0

I second Astro0 wish for 5 more years. I appreciate daily all the comments, products, suggestions and discussions. I whish I could be more part of it that I am allowed to. Thank you Doug and all the rest of you for such an amazing experience.

Paolo

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

I'm only a relative newbie on this site, but from the few months I've been a member, it's apparent that the level of discussion on UMSF is very, very impressive.

It's a real forum of experts and those genuinely interested in unmanned spaceflight. Trolls, ranters, politicos, conspiracy theorists and pseudoscience heads can go elsewhere. Ergo the high signal to noise ratio here. Well done Doug and here's to the next 5 years!


enceladus75

[Tesheiner]

I second all comments above and only regret not finding UMSF before I actually did.

[djellison]

I second all comments above and only regret not finding UMSF before I actually did.

I second THAT comment.

And add that I'm sorry that I couldn't get the beautiful birthday-banner uploaded in time that Astro0 made for me - I'm travelling today - hopefully airport-waiting time and WiFi will sort that out
(edit - or over breakfast )

Doug

[ustrax]

Parabéns!
Man...five years? Incredibly it seems like so little time, I feel like UMSF has been a part of my life for much more than that...
Doug, thank you, THANK YOU for making all this possible, allowing us to be part of the crew of UMSF.
Here's to the 5 years ahead.
The best is yet to come!
Ride boldly ride!

[nprev]

Thanks to Doug & the admin team for making this place what it is, and keeping it that way! It definitely is my favorite place to be on the Net and has been since I first stumbled upon it back in 2005 (!) Keep on keepin' on, people.

The anniversary banner is a beauty indeed. I'm looking forward to the 10, 15, and 20-year banners!

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

That's great!

Happy anniversary!

[hmaffin]

for taking the brave (although he may sometimes think 'foolish') step of setting up the Unmanned Spaceflight forum.

Astro0

I couldn't agree more. I'm gut-bustingly proud of my supremely talented, dedicated and intelligent other half - and I can see the results of his hard work - having met some of the forum members and read articles etc etc.

I may have felt somewhat second place at times to his work in this field, but I wouldn't have it any other way as he deserves all the success and kudos.

Astro0 - I love the new banner - very modern and shiny. *applause*

Happy Birthday UMSF!

[djellison]

Being slightly serious for 5 seconds - Helen has been a part of the UMSF story as well. Lesser women would have not put up with the time it takes for me to look after UMSF, go and do talks and so on. I'm very lucky that she not only tolerates it, but comes with me to many of the talks and things that I do and supports me doing it all.

[nprev]

That's more than slightly serious, Doug. It's overwhelmingly important to have someone supportive who is also quite close to you for an enterprise such as this, and Helen has certainly been all that and more; it was obvious from your birthday cake and in a million other quiet yet vital ways, of course.

Thanks to you both.

[Astro0]

Doug's Better Half - "I may have felt somewhat second place at times to his work in this field..."

Behind everyone there's always a better half!
There's no way that Doug could have done any of this without your support and love. <3
I'm sure that you have all our thanks for keeping our UMSF overlord and dictator sane during those tough days of forum 'noise'.

It's worth reposting an image from way back at the summit of Husband Hill. Ah, you were both so young



Astro0

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Happy 5th anniversary UMSF.com & thank You Helen & Doug !

[Geert]

Happy 5th anniversary UMSF and special thanks to the whole admin team for all the work you put into it!

Regards,

Geert.

[Stu]

Many congratulations - and thanks - to Doug, for building this Babylon 5-like sanctuary of respect and civilised behaviour in the insane depths of cyberspace. I don't think any of us have even a hint of a clue about just how hard Doug works on this and how much of a pain in the **** it can be at times. I hope he thinks it's worth it, 'cos there's simply nowhere else like it on t'internet, and we'd all be absolutely lost without it now, wouldn't we?

And I agree, thanks to Helen, too; having a supportive partner makes a world of difference - I know 'cos I do, too.

[mhoward]

The new banner looks great! Here's to another five.

[tedstryk]

Wow, five years! We have enjoyed the Mars Exploration Rovers, but so much else has happened!

Over this time, the following missions have launched:

Rosetta
Messenger
Deep Impact
Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter
Venus Express
New Horizons
Hinode
Stereo
Phoenix
Kayuga
Chang'e 1
Dawn
Chandrayaan 1
Koronas-Foton

Also active during this time:

The Voyagers
Cassini
Mars Express
Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Odyssey Orbiter
ACE
Hayabusa
Stardust
Ulysses
ICE
Genesis
SMART-1
SOHO
WIND
TRACE
RHESSI

What an amazing five years! Oh, and I wonder what obvious mission I left off...

[climber]

I segond all these comments!
Life changed 5 years ago and what a nice banner... even the date has been perfect
I wonder if you can do what you used to do times to times, Doug: inform us of the number of hits, the most visited topic (I bet it's "Eduardo's" Oppy's route map), etc, etc...
Thanks so much
--climber

[ustrax]

I segond all these comments!
Life changed 5 years ago and what a nice banner... even the date has been perfect

Hum...isn't this your birthday also climber?...
You've been quite subtle...

Joyeux Anniversaire!!!

[hmaffin]

It's worth reposting an image from way back at the summit of Husband Hill. Ah, you were both so young



Astro0

Wow that pic makes me look like I have G cups If only!

Thanks for all your kind words guys (and gals?) I wouldn't swap him for the world (or Mars for that matter).

[djellison]

1,821 Members
5,481 topics
127,906 posts.
21,251,220 thread views (Opportunity 3443149, Spirit 2,285,191 )
14,732 attachments consuming 3.843 Gb
31,000 and 24,000 views respectively for Eric's 'Monkey and other features' debunking images
And of course, the Opportunity route map thread with 426,453 views - is the most viewed thread.

[ElkGroveDan]

I think secretly Helen counts herself lucky that Doug's circle of friends are all over the globe and not from the pub down the street because they are less likely to drop by at inopportune times unannounced

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

That's great!

In contrast, my girl always complains about my lack of time. She even thinks that I love Mars more than her, which is ridiculous

[Harder]

Is Hayabusa not the record holder for number of views? It shows 869913.
In any case: my congratulations with the 5 yrs anniversary and I'm looking forward to what is yet to come.
But should we measure our best wishes to Doug and the UMSF community in terms of years or in terms of missions? For example, with the ongoing discussions on the mission to Pluto I feel comfortable that "we" are on this mission and will see it through one way or the other till arrival in 2015. Right, Doug??

But I am equally interested in the OPAG reports and its ongoing discussions in UMSF.
If TSSM goes ahead - which I sincerely hope - we are talking about 2030...

[remcook]

Happy 'Birth'day UMSF and many more years! This place is great!

[jamescanvin]

It took a couple of weeks for the Internet Archive to index the site - the earliest record is from the 20th Feb 2004:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040220210240/....rlproject.com/

Our members have made a total of 159 posts
We have 38 registered members
The newest member is Bjorn Jonsson

[charborob]

When I found UMSF, I found myself immediately "at home". The amount of collective space knowledge on this forum is staggering. I can hardly keep up with everything and I can't contribute much, but knowing there's a whole bunch of space enthousiasts (or should I say "fanatics") out there makes me feel less lonely.
This is the place to be. Let's keep it up!

[climber]

Hum...isn't this your birthday also climber?...
You've been quite subtle...
Joyeux Anniversaire!!!

Thank you Rui!.. and yes, I'm twice @5 now... which means 55

[dvandorn]

All I can say is that while a baker's dozen of people (or so, not counting members who have left in the meantime) joined the then mer.rlproject forum on its first day of 2/8/04, I can proudly say that I was the first person to join on the following day, 2/9/04. So today is actually my own five-year anniversary here.

I know it can be a huge pain to be in charge of such a big thing, Doug, and I know it can get stressful at times. But I'm impressed that the young, wide-eyed and joyful British hotshot who thought up this site is still wide-eyed and joyful as much as you are. Me, I'd probably be growling at the cats by now...

If we don't express our appreciation often enough, I apologize. You provide a unique and valuable portion of my intellectual life, and I dunno what I'd do without this place. Thanks for doing it for us... for the field... and mostly, for yourself!

Enjoy.

-the other Doug

[RoverDriver]

I second THAT comment.

And add that I'm sorry that I couldn't get the beautiful birthday-banner uploaded in time that Astro0 made for me - I'm travelling today - hopefully airport-waiting time and WiFi will sort that out
(edit - or over breakfast )

Doug

The only thing I would have done differently on the banner would have been to have three moons, one bright, one dark, one bright. But that would have been too geeky.

Paolo

[CosmicRocker]

I'm not certain what I want to say. The new banner is outstanding. This forum has been one of my favorite places in cyberspace for leaning back and unwinding with like-minded friends and acquaintances each evening for nearly five years. I could say so many things that might be relevant to one person or another, but suffice it to say that unmannedspaceflight.com should continue to be the absolutely best forum for space exploration enthusiasts from this solar system for many more years to come.

[ElkGroveDan]

Everyone else has said everything I could say. And yes, Astro0 the banner looks great, even though I was expecting something completely different.

[Astro0]

Paolo: "The only thing I would have done differently on the banner would have been to have three moons, one bright, one dark, one bright."
Hey, who said that there's only two moons in the banner!
The planet may be elsewhere in this shot.

Dan: "...the banner looks great, even though I was expecting something completely different."
Nudge nudge, wink wink. Say no more!


I'm hoping that the new banner will get to be around for a while.
In the past we've added special logos to the standard banner and this version will allow UMSF the flexibility to still do that.
Next anniversary/event??

Astro0

[ngunn]

An oddity: I log in at work and I see the new banner. I log in at home and I still get the old one.

[jamescanvin]

That is because the old one is still in your cache. Hold the shift key while clicking reload.

[djellison]

And make sure the skin, bottom left of the forum, says IP.Board Pro

[tdemko]

I know I'm not one of the high-volume posters (quality not quantity, hopefully), but I am proudly Member No. 9 (a First Day'er?). I came here from an IRC channel (remember those, kiddies?) that had live chats during the early the MER press conferences. I "met" some of y'all there, including Doug. UMSF has become a daily ritual for me, and one that I would dearly miss. Thank you Doug, Helen, and all the other Admins. A great first 5 years certainly, and I'm sure the community that has developed here will continue on for many more, maybe even in different forms as the media evolves.

[MahFL]

No.11 waves to no.9 lol.

[hendric]

5 years old eh? I guess it's time we sent UMSF off to kindergarten!

[cbcnasa]

Five years and as a new member I have a lot of posts to enjoy and learn from

[Astro0]

Welcome to the show

[Guest_Oersted_*]

Congrats from another very appreciative member! I am proud that I *just* managed to squeeze in to be part of generation -05!