[Follow-up to UseSat-L only please, see below for details!]
Hi all,
There has recently been frequent discussion about the charter of SeeSat-L,
more specifically which type of messages should be allowed. Currently (and
since its beginning in November 1994) the charter suggests (amongst many
other things):
> SeeSat-L is intended to be a low-to-moderate volume list with high
> information content about visual satellite observations.
>
> Please AVOID: - reporting too many 'I saw this satellite' messages
> without any 'added value' to it. Yes, Iridiums do flare up, and yes MIR
> *is* bright. But that's no longer news. Exceptional MIR and Iridium
> observations are welcome though. What is added value? (Flash) Timings,
> positions of satellites in the night-sky, seeing satellites under
> difficult/exceptional circumstances (e.g. first sightings, in the
> vicinity of other satellites), and so on.
> - replying to long messages with wise-cracks or one-liners such as 'I
> agree', 'You are wrong', and so on. Remember this list is
> read by over 600 people!
Several subscribers have commented they feel that [quoting from a
recent message to me by Igor Lissov]:
> But I believe that, in its current form, SeeSat-L doesn't inspire new
> observers to join our society. For many weeks, posted messages has been
> mainly of two types: positional measurements and newly calculated
> elements (both highly helpful for professionals but not too inspiring
> for newbies).
> Moreover, list policies do not recommend, essentially, to share
> observations of the easiest objects ('I saw Mir') that in fact may be
> start for more serious interest in the field.
Other subscribers have been supportive of the current posting guidelines,
suggesting that the Usenet newsgroup sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe
can fulfill the role of 'chat' group about satellite observing.
Personally I feel that SeeSat-L has been succesful in the past few years
exactly because it has avoided being like chat-groups, and because it has
been highly focused on data. Perhaps a solution would be to have two
mailing lists: SeeSat-L (like the current one?) and SeeChat-L (inviting
any type of message as long it is on-topic and related to visual
satellite observing) ?
Anyway, I would like to invite everyone to discuss this topic so that some
kind of compromise can be found. However, please keep this discussion off
SeeSat-L. We have a related list called 'UseSat-L' which was created for
meta-discussions such as this. You can join UseSat-L by sending a message
to UseSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org with the word "subscribe" in
the SUBJECT. About 20% of current SeeSat-L subscribers are also subbed to
UseSat-L.
Cheers,
Bart, SeeSat-L administrator, bart@satellite.eu.org
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Sep 06 2000 - 14:44:54 PDT