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visual/ dob group interest?

richbyers

By richbyers
in The Astro Lounge

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ZOG

ZOG

Posted
Posted
and take over while the dob owners discuss teflon and nylon screw fixings

Nice try Mel but we would more likely be discussing digital setting circles and stellar kats.

And after all..........size really DOES matter :eek:

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kniclander

kniclander

Posted
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I hope you don't mind me saying, I still don't think this is a good idea. Given the number of people who own dobs (i would guess 50%+ on SGL ?) this is going to be a group of about half the forum, if all dob owners sign up. Dob owners who don't sign up will miss out and I would think quite a few will not sign up for just the reason Talitha gave - web time is limited and it's so much easier just to check new posts rather than check new posts and your group.

I can't really see it helping to search for things - as Ant says the search facility is pretty good and there is so much about dobs already in the main boards that if there is a separate group two searches will need to be done where one would have been enough before.

I think it will make SGL less appealing to new members who have or may be thinking of getting a dob but don't see anything about dobs on the main boards.

Generally, I'm not a fan of groups because I (and I guess there are others like me) like to browse all the posts - I'm not an imager but I like reading about the challenges imagers face; I don't have a shiny apo but I like reading about them etc etc etc. A proliferation of groups cuts down on the variety of what we see. I can see the appeal of a group for "minority interests" (like the Tal group - but even that is detracting from SGL for me because I, for one, liked reading about the Tal refractors and nearly went out and bought one....) but a "group" for the sort of scope that half of us have just doesn't make sense to me.

I hope that people with posts about dobs will continue to post them in the main sections so all can see them.

Sorry to drone on. I'll shut up now. :eek:

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

Posted
Posted

Actually I kind of agree with kniclander - the CN board is based along those sorts of lines with the result when I go to CN I ONLY ever look at the mounts pages these days and never bother with the rest. That means I might miss out on know how but also someone struggling with a problme on say a refelector misses out maybe getting an answer from me.

If you think back to Carols collimation issues if that had been posted under Dobs I'd never have seen it and that might have deprived Carol of assistance. Basically I am not going to look into a dob group when I dont own one.

The TAL group in some ways is slightly different - I still post TAL stuff on the main board when its more general in nature but the TAL group was more for people struggling with hardware fixes or issues specifically for TAL. A Dob group would be pretty wide ranging and as said a lot of the board.

If we all go off on just our own groups do we have an EQ only section, a refractor only section, a section for people with 4" refractors on EQ mounts that use Baader Hyperions and observe on a Thursday etc etc etc - If we all read only what is directly of interest to us and nothing else we fragments into individuals and lose the 'community' so I think long term we'll all be losers but at the end of the day its peoples choice in all these things.

And after all..........size really DOES matter ;)

I cant comment - it would sound sexist :eek:

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Capricorn

Capricorn

Posted
Posted

The title was Visual/Dob Group.

Can I take it that it is not visual but only those that have a Dob?

Visual observers with Mak's, SCT, Refractors are excluded?

Astro-Baby has a point CN has many sections and people only visit those that interest them. I read perhaps 3 out of the many.

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russ

russ

Posted
Posted

Okay this is my take:

I don't see how the dob group can be any different to the Tal, Skymax or Vintage scopes social groups. There won't be masses of posts and the questions will be very dob specific. Such as getting bits for mods, improving the way they work, making adjustments. Basically stuff that anyone without a dob won't give a darn about, won't even bother reading. My own posts on improving or modifying my dob have attracted at best 2 replies. So there will absolutely no loss to the main forum.

And then there are the stats:

The most successful current social group and the one most like the dob group, has a grand total of 741 posts, with 78 threads started since it's creation. Now I don't know when that group was started but it was some while ago. The main forum will achieve that many posts in a few hours, perhaps an hour. So the total number of posts missing from the main forum is puny. Yes there maybe more dob owners but it's not a case of they are never going to post on the main forum again, so that's half the membership gone. There will be a few threads about sourcing teflon, where to place the teflon, balance issues, movement issues. It won't be a whole new forum.

Which also means almost anyone that belongs to a social group still does 99% of all their posting in the main forum. And there's a good chance they will post any questions they have in the main equipment section as well to stand a better chance of getting it answered. And members of those social groups will still be all over a newbie or anyone posting for help in the main forum. I will still do almost all my posting in the main forum and still offer any advice or post questions if i have them. But i think i will have a better chance of getting my dob questions answered in the dob social group.

Yes the collimation is a general thread and that would have been a loss had it not made it too the general forum but on the whole the dob threads won't be missed anymore than threads on Tal problems or Skymax problems.

And i really can't be doing with searching. I read the 10 latest threads and then check page 1 of my fav sections. I don't dig deeper than that, can't be naffed. So it's easier to post in a dedicated place and not see my post disappear in a day without a single reply because no one else can be bothered to search either.

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Robert Watson

Robert Watson

Posted
Posted

Hi all. just been looking at S G L main page ,there are (10 forums on imaging,) i can't see the prob's with having one forum on Dob's or one forum on ep's on EXT's on whatever, once again im all for it. I would really like to see one on viewing ie what's the best ep to use to look at mar's through a 4" scope or saturn through a 6" dob ,It's really hard for first timer's to get the best out of whatever scope the have, a lot of starters in this hobby i think are a little shy to ask questions like that i know when i started on S G L i wasn't going to ask that type of question in case everyone thought i was thick as a plank. So come on all you learned member's think of the people just trying to get to grip's with this great hobby.

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russ

russ

Posted
Posted
why not just keep the dob group open so everyone can view the posts, but you need to be a member to post?

that's a good idea, not sure if its possible though. Plus the messages from the social groups don't appear in the most recent posts for the forum. I can see what Knic and Mel are getting at but i still think a dob group, where just dob related stuff is kept in one place, would still be useful. And it's not practical to have loads of different sections in the forum, it just becomes too much like CN.

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kniclander

kniclander

Posted
Posted

A dob group is different to a dob forum. a dob forum is an excellent idea IMHO as it works for people like me who just like to look at all new posts without going into a separate group and it works for people who want to look at all recent stuff about dobs without trawling through a million other posts.

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astro mick

astro mick

Posted
Posted

I cant really comment on a Dob because i dont have one,but the group is crying out for a visual section.I used to love hunting down double stars,and came across some real beauties,not just the Albeiro,s,and more often than not, i had no one to share them with.

We could identify the constellation,and give approx co-ordinates as i would suppose most on this group have a good star atlas,and group members could let each other know if they managed to track them down.Of course it does,nt have to stop at double stars.

Or do you think this would swamp the forum.

regards.

Mick.

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John

John

Posted
Posted

I'm dubious of the benefits of too many "special interest groups" on forums on the basis of what happened on the Astromart forums which ended up with brand-specific groups as well as design-specific ones - the vibrancy of the forums dissapeared when that happened with everbody sticking to their own little "burrows".

As far as I'm aware SGL does already have a really active visual section and one for double star observations as well although I wonder if the latter would benefit from a move from the "Science" to the "Observing" section:

Observing - Stargazers Lounge

Observing and Imaging Double and Variable Stars - Stargazers Lounge

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