Although "The Science Guy" still has the rest of the week to work on his rating, I was wondering how others rated the "gloggers."

Without giving specific ratings, I'd just say it got off to a weak start, but improved dramatically.

Phil

My sentiments exactly. But hey, let's give ratings. Who cares if most of the gloggers read (or in one case, owns) this forum?

First of all, congratulations are due, I think, to everyone for stepping up and writing their pieces; a very, very hard job, not just filling Emily's shoes but writing anything for such a vast, knowledgeable audience!

Having said that, to be perfectly honest, only a few "gloggers" left much of an impression on me and made me actually want to go back the next day and read what they'd written. Apart from confessing to my great disappointment with Neal deGrasse Tyson's entries - I was expecting so much from a guy who is never less than hilarious, witty, punchy and dynamic when speaking... yet IMHO his posts just came across as a bit self-indulgent and off topic (I mean, how many times can you make the point that 'normal people' are interested in the universe too? A lost opportunity, I thought... ) - I won't comment on those that didn't, it's not really fair, and again congratulations and thanks to them for taking the time to contribute. But those that impressed me...

* Jim Bell - ah, Jim, always insightful and always ready with the handing out of the nuggets of Mars info. 8/10

* Rosaly Lopes - some very interesting posts, with some good insights into the Cassini mission. Very easy-to-read writing style too, I thought, nice and informal. 7/10

* Mark Adler - what a star! Excellent writing style, like a conversation with his readers; really made me wish he had a regular blog of his own (this is where some smarta** tells me he has, I know... ) Some fascinating MER stories, and a "must read" for the time he was on. 8/10

* Doug Ellison - never heard of him, but clearly he knows nothing about space exploration, or whales. No idea why he was there...!

No, seriously, at the risk of coming across all brown nosey (wonder if our US friends will get that reference?!?!) I thought Our Doug did an outstanding job. Of all the posters I genuinely think he put the most effort into the job, and made the best use of his time. Now before anyone says it, yes, I know his circumstances were rather different - the others are, largely, pro scientists with high pressure missions to work on, etc - but in the few days he was in Valencia Doug wrote his heart out for us and for PS readers, cramming his posts with information and accounts - and some quirky humour too, to stop it being dry and stuffy. Like "Whaley", that was inspired, but also very clever writing, combining the SETI theme with a more familiar reference everyone could identify with.

Not everyone "gets" Doug, or his style. Some take him the wrong way... and we all know who I'm talking about here... but stuff them, because as an ambassador both for UMSF and the space enthusiast community in general, I thought Doug did a superb job glogging, one definitely deserving a 9/10.

Can't pick a number one, but If I had to single out four of them, I'd pick these guys (in no particular order) as being the most enjoyable as well as informative read:
Jim Bell, David Seal, Mark Adler & Doug. No particular comments about any of them, I just get the feeling blogging came as a natural thing to them. Perhaps they should start their own blogs (I see that was already suggested to Dave)!

I also found John Spencer's entries great (wish he wrote more than 3!), Rosaly Lopes' Io and Titan entries were nice and Andrew Westphal's more generic overview of being in the science business, as well as his trials an tribulations on Stardust.

FWIW, below is my ranking, in terms of both quality and quantity of entries:

1. Jim Bell
2. Brad Thomson
3. Doug Ellison
4. Mark Adler
5. Rosaly Lopes
6. John Spencer
7. David Seal
8. Andrew Westphal
9. Louis Friedman
10. Neil DeGrasse Tyson
11. Andre Bormanis
12. Bill Nye (pending, though I don't anticipate him moving any higher than 9 or 8)

EDIT: Although it wasn't hard, Nye just moved up to 10 by changing out of the bow tie and in to a flight suit

My wishlist:
Glogging a permanent fixture of the website, maybe monthly instead of weekly?
Email notification of updates.
Also, a nice to have would be an aggregator of space blogs, ie blogs.planetary.org would be a "repeater" of other blogs, such as MRO, Phoenix, etc. and invite other scientists to create blogs.

I could probably manage the second two with some kind of RSS/Atom/XML software, but I don't want to have to deal with it. Also, I don't know of all the available blogs, and it would be nice to have a single site with all of them.

Others at the Society agree that the 'gloggers' were a success, and we definitely want to do more of it. I'm not sure how regular it will be, but we'll try to continue featuring guests. There's several people in the business who have an open invitation to send me their musings any time they feel like sharing.


There's an RSS feed -- that's the easiest way to find out about updates.

Hmm. I'm not sure about aggregating all space blogs, but I am putting together a page for the weblog with links to the sites I find most useful...anyone can email me at blog@planetary.org with your favorites and I'll include them on my list!

--Emily

I don't envy you in the selection process. I'm sure there are nutcases out there with "space-related" websites, which is a very loose description, who'll say, "Hey, I'm a TPS member. Why don't you link to my site?"

It could be done simply, limit it to official blogs and/or blogs of scientists on a mission team. That's unbiased and fair. Of course, I guess there is a whole section like space.com's blog, but, well, it's a start at least...

Sure, if one is affiliated with, for example, HiBlog. I suspect, though, that there are many TPS members who have non-official blogs or websites who might feel differently.

EDIT: In fact, under the ciriterion of "official blogs and/or blogs of scientists on a mission team," even UMSF wouldn't be linked.

Simple, UMSF isn't a blog. Thus, it wouldn't deserve mention as one;-) Maybe an exception could be added for professional news organizations, people with news media access, or something like that... TPS would qualify, space.com's blog, and maybe another one or two...

Seriously, I wouldn't expect anyone to link to my blog, my personal one, mind you. Of couse, I don't update it often enough, but, well... It does have a few points about MRO and HiRISE... The point is, if there is some well-defined criteria, then the debate is over, and one can only petition a change in the rules. I think a compact list of space science blogs is of alot more use than a large list of loosly space-related blogs, but...

I don't disagree with you, tuvas. In fact, I would probably be even tougher with my criteria and even ignore some "official" sites.

In any event, I was just putting myself in Emily's shoes by imagining an influx of complaints from disgruntled bloggers who happen to be dues-paying TPS members and felt they were being ignored.

Quite. And I still don't quite understand the genesis of this internet wide confusion that has taken over every FORUM and renamed them as Blogs.

BLOG - One person writes and the rest sometimes comment
FORUM - Lots of people write and comment.

Consider a loud 'tut' expressed

Doug

I would actually say that blogs have one thread, that very few people can write in, and forums have many, that a large group of people or anyone can write in, but that's my definition.