New Mars Forums

No, I'm not talking about work this time (although it would be equally true) - I'm talking about the New Mars database. What with all the recent activity I decided that it would be totally disastrous if the database were to be lost, so I made a completely backup a few minutes ago.

Granted, it's not likely that the database would become irretrivable but stranger things have happened. In an interesting coincidence, the last time I backed the database up was exactly one year ago, to the day. Worrying, I know, but also interesting

I think I'm going to make a habit of backing everything up every month now...

Sigh. When you are getting depressed by things like this, it is worth reading this article from Prospect which says that things aren't as bad as they seem.

It's still depressing though  ???

This thread has been closed due to it reaching 300 posts. Please continue discussion in the 'Spirit & Opportunity 2' thread.

It is not bad at all. I wouldn't be surprised if we were the foremost Mars-only forum on the Internet - and why not? Makes me guilty about neglecting the main website... bleh.

Well, for the moment I'm glad that these forums are getting busy. I should imagine that at least for as long as the NASA rovers are alive, we'll be seeing a lot of new faces around here.

Hi all,

With the increased traffic that this year has brought, these forums are in need of more attention to keep things tidy - topics in the right place, and spam summarily deleted. Regulars here will know that I have not been visiting as much as before, which is mainly due to my dwindling free time caused by the PhD I'm pursuing. As a result of all of these things, I have decided to appoint Josh Cryer as a moderator for the New Mars forums.

Josh has been a member of New Mars since it began, and is one of the most prolific and enthusiastic posters here. I'm happy that he has accepted the role of moderator and I'm sure that he'll be able to make even more of a contribution to these forums now.

As a moderator, Josh will have the ability to move and delete any post or thread, in addition to other administrative functions. If you have any problems or questions regards these forums, please just post them to the Meta New Mars forum as usual.

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone! 

Moved from Meta New Mars to Human Missions.

I don't find a troll cage desirable nor necessary. I don't want to see flames or personal attacks *anywhere* on this site, and if people cannot manage such a simple thing or at least take it off-site, then I will have absolutely no problem in banning them. Is it so much to ask people to simply drop an argument when it becomes clear there is no chance of bringing the other person around to your view?

A troll cage would only legitimise trolls and flames, and if people want to argue in that kind of way, they can do so outside of New Mars. I have seen many highly popular forums on the Internet, and they do not use a 'troll cage'. Instead, they use a much more strict policy of warning and banning. I would rather not do this, but if things continue to get difficult, then I will consider making partial bans more frequent. I am also planning to appoint at least two forum moderators who will be able to independently warn members and close threads.

This thread is locked. This might be the 'Free Chat' forum, but New Mars is no place for trolling. Flashgordon, consider yourself officially warned. People on these forums know that I have no hesitation in permanently banning users, so don't try posting anything like this again.

And before you ask, this has nothing to do with religious stances. Regardless of my or anyone else's religion on these forums, attacks on religions are not allowed here, nor are threads that have no productive purpose.

Edited By Adrian on 1071913864

Incidentally, I would never, ever get away with putting a link to 'Zubrin's Vile Ideology' on the front page of NM. I do think that things like this should be discussed, but it is the Mars Society that pays for this site's webhosting, and they ultimately call the shots. So any threads that are directly opposed to Mars Society people shouldn't be in a 'Best Of'. But there wouldn't be any problem with threads that say that the Mars Society should be doing things differently, as long as they are, of course, constructive.

Okay, Clark has informed me that he has promised not to post any more inflammatory remarks about Cindy, so as far as I'm concerned, that's the end of the matter. I don't want to see anything more about this on these forums.

Clark, it is not the 'transgression' that I am bothered about here, because I have absolutely no way of finding out whether it's your doing or not. But,

Her accusations, in private, have led you to post comments throughout this forum that attack Cindy and have absolutely nothing to do with the threads concerned? I don't see how this follows, unless you are incredibly immature.

I don't know whether you really are harassing Cindy, and even if you were, I wouldn't be able to stop you. But I can ask you, once again, to stop posting comments about it. You don't seem to realise that no-one actually cares about this apart from you, and in fact I would make the same threat of banning to anyone who consistently posts off-topic trolls in these forums.

I don't want another post from you questioning this, I want you to say that you will stop bugging Cindy, and act on that.

Glad to see everything sorted itself out in my absence