Author Topic: Starting new threads in the Advanced Topics Section of NSF's Forum  (Read 25961 times)

Offline Chris Bergin

So rather than some hard nosed "Only start threads that are related to this site's coverage", I'm going to ramble on about what this site is about, as guidance.

Back in the 2005, a Shuttle hugger who knew a few NASA and Shuttle people decided to start this site to cover the build up to Return To Flight, from a more technical and vehicle orientated angle: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=37064.0

With a news site completely dedicated to STS-114 and a forum that consisted of a welcome thread and a STS-114 section, the site was envisioned to be a hardcore, useful, but not exactly over run with visitors site. A very specific site from the start.

With a few good exclusives and ton of good fortune we grew really fast (too fast in fact) and we expanded from being a Shuttle specific site into covering other vehicles (such as the Russians, ESA and so on) and then into commercial (such as Sea Launch and I believe we were one of the first to cover SpaceX "before they were famous" - I still have the "Do you want to interview me?" e-mail from Elon! No Joke!)

By now you're wondering "that's cool Chris, but when do you get to the bit about anti-gravity devices?" - well that's the point. You may be new to this site and seeing only the EM Drive threads and advanced section via external links - and may think that's what we're all about here. That's not actually what we're about. This advanced section is a relief valve to allow the more "exotic" subjects to steer clear of the infringing on the main forum sections.

However, given we're not really one of "those sites", our advanced topics tend to be only up to cool - but realistic items - such as Reaction Engines, advanced propulsion and future space telescopes. EM Drive is a rare one (and was even aborted the first time around), but is great because it became an interesting thread and can be applied to what we cover.

Sure, to me - a "chemical propulsion hugger" as I was once described (and I like that) - this all seems like someone put a copper jug on a test stand and said "Ta dah!" - and I've cringed when I've seen the site liked with mass media shouting "WARP DRIVE!!!", but it's hard to argue with a thread that's going north of a million views - and so many very clever people seem excited, I'm hardly qualified to stick my nose up at it - which is why we catered to the community and published an article. We are a site that serves the community, but I just don't want it to turn into a section where I even can start a thread called "Yorkshire Drive! A light speed engine fuelled by Tetley Tea and mild insults!" (I wish ;D )

So EM Drive is the *top end* of what we can really have here. If you're a guy from Ghana who's looking for funding for your invisibility cloak, you're probably on the wrong site.

A rambling post, but better than new members turning up and seeing me - the bloke who runs the site - saying "Oi, you! No crazy threads!" - Hardly welcoming. ;)

Carry on....
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