Politics

With regard to this Keith, maybe Bart can do the type of access which was only available to us building the Observing Certs section. BUT, at the moment, even if a new post was out in there, it doesn't come up on the front page.

Seanie.

Making the board separate is not practicle at all and a really bad idea IMO. There is no where else on the web for people to openly discuss Astronomy related politics in Ireland, we provide this service and I think that restrictiing it to a separate login and other such mad ideas is a really bad thing. It is a massive over reaction to the incident of last week.

I have to agree with Bart, making it seperate with logins and such will just make it more like a secret society of back-room bitchers. This is an open forum where all can read, write and reply to what's being said. Even DM has the right to respond here! I for one, would would be interested to hear/read them.

Over the past couple of years I've been on other (non-astronomy) boards which decided to create off-topic forums. It never worked out. The flaming just got out of hand, and caused more trouble in the long run.

Everyone agreed, in hindsight, they should have kept things on the main board. a) when a private/password forum was created, people without access got very paranoid. b) at least in the main forum there is some degree of restraint, plus the moderators keep an eye on things.

John.

How about we keep all the political arguing on irishastronomy.com?

Personally, I think all discussions should remain on the main board. What really bemuses me at the moment is all the talk about moderation. I've seen very little moderation on this IFAS board; despite some incredibly nasty and ill-informed posts, what moderation there is only seems to occur under threat of legal action. Most of the moderators do not appear to have the remotest idea of what the duties of a moderator are actually meant to be. And yes, I do know what I'm talking about. I'm a co-moderator of one of the largest astronomy forums on the web with over 1,800 members. My three colleagues in North America and I rarely have to intervene but if warranted, we do warn members, place members on moderated status or ban in the very worst cases. That way, the group is widely recognised as a friendly helpful place to be and is continuing to grow. I'm a member of numerous other internet groups, most well moderated, some only barely, but not one of them even remotely comes close to the bickering and bitchiness on IFAS. In some instances, moderators here are actually initiating and contributing to the rants!

Some great things have come out of this site, e.g. good discussions on a wide variety of astronomical topics, information on forthcoming events, and especially the observer guides. Encourage discussion by all means but moderate to ensure members posts stay within the bounds of decency and good taste. IFAS is a wonderful resource. Don't spoil it.

I would also like to see rule passed to ensure members sign their name if not already clear from their user names. I'm rather disturbed by some people posting nasty comments while hiding behind pseudonyms.

Gordon