Over the last few months, I feel that the ability to follow daily observations and measurements has been made much more cumbersome by a flood of commentary. Commentary is of course interesting and keeps the forums active, but it gets in the way of the presentation of observations, which is the main reason I come here. I think what has happened to the IJIS thread that Espen has dutifully updated since 2013 is especially discouraging. I suspect many other lurkers may feel the same.
I'm sorry about that, sedziobs. The Forum has grown quite a bit (almost 1300 members now) and so it gets more difficult to keep everything in check. Thankfully Jim Pettit now helps out as a moderator. Maybe we could use one more moderator.
It was never my intention to take away my focus and energy from the ASIB and direct it towards the job of policeman on the ASIF. I wanted to be lenient to überalarmists because it's always good to have people present alternate viewpoints and go out on a limb. Unfortunately, this exploratory mindset is often accompanied by a big ego and a Galileo-complex, and going out on a limb on a forum that is already quite alarmist by nature (ie what binds people here, is their worry over Arctic sea ice loss) is flirting with überalarmism at best.
I've decided to be less lenient in the future. Not when it comes to alternate viewpoints and 'going out on a limb', but towards the inability to deal with pushback and resorting to verbal conflict, flinging generalisations and strawmen and whining about being persecuted.
I've banned two persons today (accompanied by apologies and the suggestion to go to Guy McPherson's forum), and more may follow.
My suggestion is to have separate sticky threads for different kinds of observations, which ideally would be moderated to limit posts to the topic. These could potentially include:
2017 Arctic satellite imagery
2017 Arctic buoy/ship observations
2017 NSIDC data
2017 JAXA data
2017 UBremen data
2017 PIOMAS/volume data
2017 short range (0-6 day) weather forecasts
It's a good suggestion, but I'm afraid the same problem of people posting long off-topic rants would occur eventually. It also means someone has to open all these threads, and when someone opens them, he is more or less responsible for them. I don't have time for that kind of responsibility. The unnecessary bickering of the past few weeks has cost me many precious hours already (and I'm still working like crazy and doing all kinds of physical work in and around the house, just happy I'm not sawing my fingers off or dropping a big stone on my toes
).
No, all that info/observation/analysis has to stay in the melting season threads, and off-topic rants are off-limits there. That's easiest for me to moderate.
I think the monthly polls and image of the day threads can be made unsticky, in order to reduce clutter.
That's a good idea. I'll unsticky the polls as soon as the voting period has ended. I kind of like the Image of the day thread because of its creative and esthetic appeal, and it would be a shame if it would slowly disappear.
These are just my humble thoughts. In any case, I appreciate Neven's efforts in maintaining this wonderful little corner of the internet.
Thanks, I'll try to keep this place as pleasant and informative as possible.