NASASpaceflight.com L2 Overview and Q&A (2010 to 2015)

[Chris Bergin]

Ah, I see what Carl meant now, when he sent me what you were asking for (per the ISS L2 Shopping List, where requests should be posted, not here) and you'll be happy to know those Russian EVA presentations for tomorrow acquired and published here:

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33605.0 - with more resources.

and

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33606.0

[Michael Z Freeman]

Thanks ! I'll repost in the appropriate forum.

[R.Simko]

I don't see any choice for a LIFETIME membership in the L2 sign up.  Can anyone direct me?  Thanks.

[Chris Bergin]

I don't see any choice for a LIFETIME membership in the L2 sign up.  Can anyone direct me?  Thanks.

It's not available at sign up. It's an option for renewers, as we had several one yearers who kept renewing and the questions about a lifetime level membership was mentioned, so we created that facility in the resub option.

I'll PM you! (And any current L2 members who want to know that option, PM me).

[MarineJJD]

I've come to the end of my service with the Marines and I want to now pay for the L2 Chris gave me for free. How do I subscribe as a paying member?

I want to thank Chris and NSF for getting me through some tough times on tour. Nothing like gathering the guys around for a crazy shuttle re-entry video after a day in the hole.

[Chris Bergin]

I've come to the end of my service with the Marines and I want to now pay for the L2 Chris gave me for free. How do I subscribe as a paying member?

I want to thank Chris and NSF for getting me through some tough times on tour. Nothing like gathering the guys around for a crazy shuttle re-entry video after a day in the hole.

You won't ever have to put your hand in your pocket on here. You're on a lifetime membership.

Thanks for your service and welcome home, sir.

[MarineJJD]

I've come to the end of my service with the Marines and I want to now pay for the L2 Chris gave me for free. How do I subscribe as a paying member?

I want to thank Chris and NSF for getting me through some tough times on tour. Nothing like gathering the guys around for a crazy shuttle re-entry video after a day in the hole.

You won't ever have to put your hand in your pocket on here. You're on a lifetime membership.

Thanks for your service and welcome home, sir.

That's amazing. Thank you so much!

[German Space Fan]

Hello,
I'm thinking about joining L2. Why? I'm member in the German space forum Raumcon. And I just couldn't stand conversations with L2-members like this: "Are there already results of SpaceX's hotfire test?- Yes, but I'm not allowed to tell you which." This and so much positive feedback in this thread made me think of subscribing. But I have two questions:
1. Someone told me that the content is mainly about SpaceX. Of course I'm interested in what they're doing, but I'm not a fan. Is it L2 only worth for SpaceX-amazing peoples or will a SLS/Boeing-fan like me be happy too?
2. Sometimes I write online articles about space themes in German. I'm not a real journalist and of course I will be very careful about not using L2-content for my articles, but does the fact that I'm in theory a "competing" journalist exclude me automatically from joining L2?

Please excuse my bad english.

[Avron]

Hello,
I'm thinking about joining L2. Why? I'm member in the German space forum Raumcon. And I just couldn't stand conversations with L2-members like this: "Are there already results of SpaceX's hotfire test?- Yes, but I'm not allowed to tell you which." This and so much positive feedback in this thread made me think of subscribing. But I have two questions:
1. Someone told me that the content is mainly about SpaceX. Of course I'm interested in what they're doing, but I'm not a fan. Is it L2 only worth for SpaceX-amazing peoples or will a SLS/Boeing-fan like me be happy too?
2. Sometimes I write online articles about space themes in German. I'm not a real journalist and of course I will be very careful about not using L2-content for my articles, but does the fact that I'm in theory a "competing" journalist exclude me automatically from joining L2?

Please excuse my bad english.

tonnes of LMT NASA stuff..

[Chris Bergin]

Hello,
I'm thinking about joining L2. Why? I'm member in the German space forum Raumcon. And I just couldn't stand conversations with L2-members like this: "Are there already results of SpaceX's hotfire test?- Yes, but I'm not allowed to tell you which." This and so much positive feedback in this thread made me think of subscribing. But I have two questions:
1. Someone told me that the content is mainly about SpaceX. Of course I'm interested in what they're doing, but I'm not a fan. Is it L2 only worth for SpaceX-amazing peoples or will a SLS/Boeing-fan like me be happy too?
2. Sometimes I write online articles about space themes in German. I'm not a real journalist and of course I will be very careful about not using L2-content for my articles, but does the fact that I'm in theory a "competing" journalist exclude me automatically from joining L2?

Please excuse my bad english.

Hey there. Your English is better than my German!

1) As you can see from the 11 L2 sections, the L2 SpaceX section is just a part of L2. It's a lot for a SpaceX fan, but we've got far more on SLS, Shuttle, ISS.

2) That does not exclude you. We already have journalists in L2 and they respect L2's rules.

[German Space Fan]

Hey there. Your English is better than my German!

Yes, at least one positive effect of having taken English lessons for 7 schoolyears!

OK, if there are no problems, I'm gonna join L2 as soon as possible.

[Ford Mustang]

I think you'll be rather pleased with L2, even if you aren't a SpaceX fan.  There's a heap of other information on L2 from things ranging from the 1950's to future projects.  It's a great resource all around, and there's lots to learn.  Welcome aboard!

[MP99]

1. Someone told me that the content is mainly about SpaceX. Of course I'm interested in what they're doing, but I'm not a fan. Is it L2 only worth for SpaceX-amazing peoples or will a SLS/Boeing-fan like me be happy too?

You've probably stopped seeing it, since we learn to block these things out, but if you're using a desktop browser there is a banner in the page header which lists a series of L2 highlights.

Just watch it for a couple of minutes until it's cycled all the way through, to get a flavour.

Edit: there is content, and then there is discussion. The open forum will give you a good idea of the relative weights of discussion of various topics in L2. But mods make a lot of effort to ensure that L2 discussions are focused on L2 content, and not allowed to descend into some form of cliquey / insider thing - which is as it should be.

cheers, Martin

[Mark McCombs]

After sitting on the fence for a couple months, I am very glad that I started supporting the site and receiving the L2 content.         Worth the price to be sure.

Now - I just realized there was no mention of a 12 step program.  I am doomed.  Space-anon?  HELP!!

[MarshallB]

I use this site just to hear more about launches because I live less than two hours from the cape.  I really don't have time (who needs yet another hobby!) to go through the wealth of information available on L2, but I would like to support the site.  I'm actually afraid I'd spend too much time reading the site and going outside to play if I had L2 access.

Is there an intermediate option available that helps pay for the servers?

[Chris Bergin]

I use this site just to hear more about launches because I live less than two hours from the cape.  I really don't have time (who needs yet another hobby!) to go through the wealth of information available on L2, but I would like to support the site.  I'm actually afraid I'd spend too much time reading the site and going outside to play if I had L2 access.

Is there an intermediate option available that helps pay for the servers?

Heh! I just pictured your friends outside you door with a ball and sad faces because you were too busy with the site

Well here's the thing....L2 started - and continues to be - a support mechanism to pay for the servers (it's into a paypal account and that account is used to pay the host in Dallas - it's that tied into it all). We structured L2 to repay those supporting the site, but if someone wanted to support the site, they can, even if they don't use the L2 access (which is a bit of a shame as L2 is cool).

Bottom line is the L2 payment page is a blank box (where you enter a set amount based on how much of a L2 term you want), but anyone can put in any figure and say "donation" and it'll work just fine that way.

A bit blown away by those who look to L2 to support, as opposed to "I want something in L2".

[gonucelar]

Question - if I subscribe to L2 and then get banned e.g. for disrespectful posts in the forum, will I still be able to access the L2 content after that?

Also, it appears that there are some "rules" in effect that prohibit L2 members even from retelling what they learned in the L2 section. Is this true? Where can I see the fine print?

Thanks

[Chris Bergin]

Question - if I subscribe to L2 and then get banned e.g. for disrespectful posts in the forum, will I still be able to access the L2 content after that?

Also, it appears that there are some "rules" in effect that prohibit L2 members even from retelling what they learned in the L2 section. Is this true? Where can I see the fine print?

Thanks

Heh! Not sure why you'd say that other than you plan to be disrespectful? I hope not!

Point is not to be disrespectful, but it's not like we throw bans around. A ban is very, very rare here - and a last resort. Heck, there's disagreements on here every hour of the day. It's a very large forum with lots of different "personalities". It's not like we'd ban someone for this:



But if you turned into some troll monster and was posting horrendous comments everywhere - and couldn't be turned around via warnings - then yes a ban would mean you'd lose access to the entire site. A lot of things would have to go wrong with your time here to end up being actually banned though, but you'd only have yourself to blame if it came to that.

The rules of L2 is not to republish L2 content on other sites. There's an obvious reason for that.

We turn as much L2 content around into news content - for our site - but it would defeat the whole purpose if someone started downloading or passing on L2 stuff and uploading it on youtube or social media.

Also, some items are provided to us under the understanding they are acceptable for the much smaller - and space industry heavy - audience of L2, compared to the much larger audience of the open site and all those people peeking in. That latter part means that if I won the lottery and could self fund this site, I still wouldn't be able to open up L2 as another open part of the forum. So it's not about hoarding or anything like that. We make the regular forum as strong as it is (forget about L2, this is a very strong forum) and have L2 really as another level.

So it's not fine print, it's just an obvious rule.

Providing you're not planning to tell everyone they all sink and then leak everything - the two intimations in your post - you'll be fine!

[alang]

Have you considered offering a read only L2 service at a small discount?

[Chris Bergin]

Have you considered offering a read only L2 service at a small discount?

Nope Read Only would be exactly the same as simply not posting. The only way to enforce read only would be to ban you from posting, which seems incredibly silly.

So no, we won't be doing that.