I have this huge database from the era prior to login (before DamnTikiWiki), and for years the obstacle to restoring it online is that everybody was free to identify themselves any old way they wanted. I can’t reliably match half a million posts to several hundred people.

My poster child in tests was Ed Grondine. I discovered at least a dozen ways he’d signed his name, with a first name or with initials, with and without punctuation, different capitalizations, and even a misspelling or two. You’ve spelled your handle with and without a space in the middle, if I recall…see what I mean?

Don’t get me started on name changes.

The login system isn’t so much about security as it is about identity. Giving up assurances of identity would, I fear, undermine the integrity of the message database.

I agree with your comments about curiosity and the SPace board. No more needs saying there.

Does the Zone have a Facebook page? Not yet. But it could, and probably should. Long time ago I tested out a WordPress plugin that will automatically crosspost from here to a Facebook wall. We could get an active (looking) Facebook page with little actual work.

Did you catch the suggestion on Geek recently to connect us to Twitter? Same principle, a third-party plugin would send post notices that’d show up as short tweets.

So many great ideas. So little time.

Remove the login procedure entirely. It works for a lot of sites but not here. Putting that in place several iterations of the zone ago contributed greatly to the membership decline. Also the new look and software at the time too of course. Bottom line, make it one click access for anyone to be a member, at least until reaches a much higher critical mass.

Great idea on curiosity. Space related discussions are what this place is supposed to be about. This is where the zone needs to find a niche if it is to get back some of the old greats and attract new ones.

Does the zone have a facebook page?

I’d say that our little primate brains are quite adept at politics, and now that I think about it, there’s an element of the Prisoner’s Dilemma to it: Somebody is going to commit politics, instinctively, to jockey for advantage. We really can’t help it. Nor escape our inner scorpion nature.

Fundamentally it’s impossible to ban politics in any group of people. Civility’s nice when you can get it, but don’t worry that passion will be fatal.

I’m glad you’re going to continue to participate in the Zone.

And I wonder if the use of “in” instead of “at” doesn’t suggest a cult? That’s something to ponder.

The issue, is of course, politics. Let me tell you a bit about politics. I still occasionally contribute to a sailing website, where most of the dialog dwells on such arcane subjects as the relative pros and cons between a cutter and yawl rig. But occasionally political topics come up, and they are appropriate in that context. Should recreational boaters be licensed, particularly sailors, who are clearly superior to lubberly stinkpot operators in skill and sense? How can the government insist on promoting gasohol blends when many older engines simply are mechanically incompatible with these fuels? And why does the Coast Guard insist we carry outdated and awkward “approved” safety gear (such as Titanic-Era life vests) of a type which have long since been replaced by more effective and efficient modern designs.

Such discussions are relevant, and proper, of course, but soon deteriorated into ideological rants of the type we see here. Eventually, the board was not about sailing anymore, but about “who’s the real patriot” or “what the founding fathers really said”, as if they ever had any opinions on recreational boating. Eventually, to everyone’s relief, the administrator pulled the plug on all political posts, even on the most benign topics, such as Congressional funding for harbor improvements.

There is a proper place and reason for political discussion, and as you all know, I enjoy it and I am as unreasonably partisan as anyone else here. I would be the last to want to be remembered as the guy who forced a ban on politics in the Zone. But there is also a question of good manners, and of courtesy to others. No one objects if you talk about the book you’re writing, or about your favorite sports team, or about your business or your hobby or your pet or your kid or your latest home improvement project–hell, that’s why we come here, isn’t it? We like to talk about what is important to us. But when that’s all you talk about, when that’s all you care about about, and when you are determined to convince everyone else of your point of view, it gets old really quick. Especially if we are morally or intellectually flawed because we are not obsessed with those same issues, or because we have somehow stubbornly refused to perceive the obviously glaring flaws in our own opinions. If you have religious convictions, no one here will denounce them, but don’t come preaching to us every day about how evil and misguided we are because we haven’t accepted Jesus, either. Because deep down inside, we’re all Unitarians here. Or worse.

I will continue to participate in the Zone. I will, for my part, in the interest of keeping the peace, refrain from commenting on political issues with those who I disagree with, although I reserve the right to respond to comments directed at me, IF I choose to do so. But I don’t feel any obligation to respond to challenges, either. And if you can’t get me into an argument, don’t delude yourself its because I’m afraid to talk to you, or because I’m intimidated by your wit or your knowledge. I can tell you right now, if you haven’t already figured it out on your own, I’m not.