This Forum Has Been Suspended.

DeVore

Due to a complaint from the moderator (as I understand it, coming from a Mr David Moore), we have suspended this forum as per his request.

This is perfectly within the rights of the cordial agreement between us and AI... they asked for this forum, we delivered it. They asked for it to be removed, we have removed it.
We are not particularly interested in the inner working of AI, though we understand that *you* may well be!

All of that said, we are proponents of freedom of speech and the right of people to speak their minds and be responsible for their own words.

Unfortunately the legal situation in Ireland holds the publishers (US) as culpable as the authors and until that changes we will pick our fights carefully.

Agar... I have no quarrel with you nor with AI. This matter is between you and the AI people.

I have complied immediately with their request in full. However I am not in the business of silencing people either so I have created a new forum (this one) which will allow you to post under my supervision (premoderatorship).

This is intended for one use only. To organise whatever (or any!) other means of communication you wish to set up in order to continue communication from member to member.

There are a number of public ways to do that including Yahoo Groups.


Be clear, I am not suggesting you do this, nor am I encouraging you to. I am merely allowing a continuation of communication between people of similar interests.

In short: While I dont want this fight on my doorstep, I'm not pulling the plug entirely, I'm leaving an opportunity for you to organise other methods of communication.

If you post, I will review the post and if it is "OK" I will allow it go through. If you want to be sure to be allowed publish, then I suggest simple, short, fact based posts such as "WE'll be over here: <Link>"

Hopefully this is a blip as I enjoyed having the community here and I'm sorry to see it go. I'd like to see it back but I'm not prepared to be dragged into a slagging match either.

DeVore.

Agar

Mr Devore,
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this announcement. It is sad that things have come to this. That certainly was not my intent. If any user of this bulletin board wishes to communicate with me on this matter, or on the possible alternatives available to us, I can be reached at stargazer5ie@yahoo.ie
I hope to hear from you soon.

Raptor666

I agree.

All I wanted to do was voice I opinions and feelings on a subject that I have grown to feel very strongly about

Sadly that opportunity was taken away in mid discussion.:rolleyes:

DeVore

Ì'll leave this forum here for a period of time (probably measured in days if not weeks) and then remove it unless the situation changes.

DeV.

Agar

I have learned of an Irish astronomy mailing list. It's independent of any organisation, and was not set up by me or at my request. To subscribe send a blank e-mail to
realta-subscribe@topica.com

sirpsycho

How about setting up a board at www.proboards.com ?

halenger

I'm sorry that it came to this too guys. I liked having this forum here but I have to answer to someone too and his orders are, in the end of the day, final.

Hopefully something can be done about this and the forum will be back up sometime soon. We can only but hope.

Agar

I notice that the name of this forum has been shortened to just Astronomy. I propose that we re-open this forum, but under strict guidelines. This forum, or any that replaces it, should not be used
a) for commercial purposes. No organisation should profit or seek to profit from posts to this list.
b) no discussion of the merits or demerits of organisations or persons who are involved in the amateur astronomy hobby in Ireland or abroad.
This forum should be used for people to share advice, to make contact with observers in their local area, to challenge each other, but ultimately, to help all of us enjoy our hobby to its fullest extent.
Let us now move on from the petty bickering (some may feel that that's a bit rich coming from me!) and instead share our hobby. Show your support for this proposal by making your voice heard. Do you want to see a forum for astronomy IN ireland on boards.ie?
I would really like to share thoughts with people following the loss of the Columbia, but I can't, we have no forum. Let's change that.

DeVore

I've been asked to post this by a user (AL) who is having technical difficulties.

--
Hi, Just thought you may like to add the following links to the Astronomy Fourm for any users who may wish to join other Irish astronomy lists. I cant manage to post at all, so apologies for mailing you directly.
Irish Astronomical Society Web: http://www.esatclear.ie/~ias/
List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irish_astronomical_society/
Irish Federation of Astonomical Societies Web:
http://www.astro2.iwarp.com/IFAS/
List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/irishfas/

Hope this is of help, Cheers, ~Al albert.white@sun.com
---

DeV.

Keith Geary

Ok Folks, over 200 people have now read this message, and could i call upon you all to voice your opinion on this matter, it has come to a stage where many voices MUST be heard, please reply with your comments, the buck stops here - the forum should be brought out of suspension, may i say - unlike certain political suspensions on our island at the moment, astronomy unites us all, it's the one thing we've all got in common, lets share this board to it's fullest extent, something that we can all benefit from!

It's now or never.

P.S. Could we revert back to the name Astronomy Ireland??

halenger

Since's the IFAS and IAS are getting their mailing lists posted here it's only right that the same be done for Astronomy Ireland.

Website: http://www.astronomy.ie as you probably know.

There is a mailing list you can join on that page. See the link near the bottom or click here:

http://lists.redbrick.dcu.ie/mailman/listinfo/astronomy

Padraic, Webmaster Astronomy Ireland.
webmaster@astronomy.ie

Raptor666

Are there any possibilities of this thread being reopened??

Sad to say but the fans and followers should be given a chance to talk again.

I for one would like to hear from and talk to other budding astronomers in ireland leaving the other unpleasent business aside.

I know i was one of the reasons for it being pulled in the first place that does not mean that others have to suffer. I think moderation of contreversal postings i the early stages would be a good start.

Hope this message is taken in the friendly spirit it's ment.

albertw

Afternoon,

Just to let you know that the IFAS webaddress has changed. Its new URL is http://www.irishastronomy.org

Also, COSMOS 2003 is coming up soon (last weekend in March), details on that are on the Tullamore Astronomical Society website http://www.iol.ie/~seanmck/astro.htm

Hope to see some of you down there!

Cheers,
~Al

halenger

I would like to see this place back and up and running too.

Perhaps under the guise of Astronomy and no politics. All societies can be advertised freely with no commentary on if one is better than the other etc.

candowilldo

Hi All,
I don't get whats going on here.
I saw a link to an astronomy forum and here i am.
Why are there no other threads.
The jist i get is that Astronomy Ireland put a stop to it.
Surely people should be allowed to share astronomy on a forum like this.
Can it be set up again?

halenger

Brief run down:

There was more politics on here than there was Astronomy talk. It was originally an Astronomy Ireland forum but some people used to to voice their dislike of people in the organisation and so forth.

As I said far too much politics.