What can we do for you?

[cosmoquest]

We've only been live for about 5 days in a scientifically productive way. In that brief period, you've marked over 20,000 craters! For this beta period, you've made all our wishes come true.

Before we come out of beta, we'd love to know what we can do to make this place more your home, and help make it a home for others. What features should we add? What content do you want? This forum is your place to help guide CosmoQuest's development.

What would you like to see tomorrow?

[John Reed]

I just got here, and haven't moon mapped yet. But off the top of my head:

- Is there a hashtag defined for the community? Something ala #spacetweeps

- The G+ hangouts are neat, but I don't always have the time to sit in front of a computer. Would it be worth the effort to export just the audio to podcast format?

- There's a software engineering forum(PerlMonks) where I'm fond of the community system. It's based on points earned from others in the community. Points give you a level or status(ie, Novice, Cadet, etc). But it's not based on sheer number of posts, rather how many votes you get by the reading community for the quality of your post. People get a certain number of votes per day to spend(which increases as your status increases), you are encouraged to vote on posts that are thoughtful, inspirational, helpful, interesting. Voting itself gives you a % chance to earn additional points as a feedback loop. And, consequently, your posts can be voted down, decreasing your points and thus discouraging flames and trolling.

- Live audio chat might be cool. Folks could talk to each other while mapping, help each other or just small talk. (Truth be told, I'm not actually interested in this, but others might

My two photons.

John

[kmasterdo]

Could we perhaps have discussions on images and the possibility to mark favourite images? And (more) personal statistics?

[StarStryder]

Could we perhaps have discussions on images and the possibility to mark favourite images? And (more) personal statistics?

I have a programmer already working on both of these. We won't come out of beta until we have these features

I just got here, and haven't moon mapped yet. But off the top of my head:

- Is there a hashtag defined for the community? Something ala #spacetweeps

I now feel totally dumb for not thinking of that. When I think of something, I'll add it to the header (Please suggest! is #CosmoQ ? #cosmotweeps? hrm...

- The G+ hangouts are neat, but I don't always have the time to sit in front of a computer. Would it be worth the effort to export just the audio to podcast format?

Fraser Cain is trying to solve this. The audio on the videos is really low quality at the moment. We're going to do an experiment on Monday when we record Astronomy Cast. We're really hoping there is a good solution. For now... video archives. When we solve the audio problem, they will go in the Astronomy Cast feed, and also on the CQ blog.

- There's a software engineering forum(PerlMonks) where I'm fond of the community system. It's based on points earned from others in the community. Points give you a level or status(ie, Novice, Cadet, etc). But it's not based on sheer number of posts, rather how many votes you get by the reading community for the quality of your post. People get a certain number of votes per day to spend(which increases as your status increases), you are encouraged to vote on posts that are thoughtful, inspirational, helpful, interesting. Voting itself gives you a % chance to earn additional points as a feedback loop. And, consequently, your posts can be voted down, decreasing your points and thus discouraging flames and trolling.

Will look for and install - good idea!

- Live audio chat might be cool. Folks could talk to each other while mapping, help each other or just small talk. (Truth be told, I'm not actually interested in this, but others might

Text or voice? I think if it was voice it would destroy our bandwidth. I'm not sure how to rationally implement text, but I'll but this down as something to think on long term.

Thanks so much for your feedback!

Cheers,
Pamela

[StarStryder]

After doing some twitter searching, I came up with the hashtag #CQX (X for X marks the science). For different project, we can just add the a second tag, so Moon Mappers would be #CQX #moon, and the Weekly Space Hangout might become (here I need to think a bit more) #CQX #Hangout

[John Reed]

Love the hashtag, short, cryptic, not common and easy to remember. Nice work.

Quick suggestion for the Moon Mappers application. On the Mark Feature page, make the "See our help page" link open as a popup or new window. Whenever I open it I lose my current image(clicking back does not work). And when you do mark a feature, as they show up in the Marker list, you could make them hyperlinks to something useful like an example or description of the feature, stats or images of that feature, etc.

[Catalyst23]

Hi!

I was thinking about this forum and the people who seem likely to enjoy it, and I think I may have an idea for a new section. I've always liked the idea of doing science for fun - Setting up silly experiments or demonstrations just to do them. Not because they were actually useful (like moon mappers or other citizen science) but just because it would be fun to go through the process of designing and executing an experiment/demonstration. For example, I would love to replicate Eratosthenes measurement experiment. But that requires a place for people to connect and coordinate over large distances. My idea is a 'Projects, Demonstrations, & Experiments' section that allows individuals to come together to create fun, social science projects between themselves.

I think what you're doing here and elsewhere is just awesome. I love the citizen science and the hangouts and all of it. Ya'll rock!

[hammo1953]

hi, i have just joined cosmoquest and have not looked thru the site very much yet. the moon mapper project sounds like a really neat idea and i am going to check it out soon. i am not very computer savvy but i think that setting up this site for people who enjoy and like talking about the cosmos is a great idea. i hope there will not be many people who will make fun of or ridicule others who may not be astronomy educated. i myself, know some astronomy and am always fascinated by it, but i dont know a lot by along shot. i have seen other sites, where some people, were made fun of, for not knowing certain things about the topic being discussed in the forums. well, thanks again for the site and i look forward to coming here often. take care

[kmasterdo]

My idea is a 'Projects, Demonstrations, & Experiments' section that allows individuals to come together to create fun, social science projects between themselves.

Having just read this, I wonder if you could post something like that in the Astronomy Education or Public Outreach Forums...

[Catalyst23]

Having just read this, I wonder if you could post something like that in the Astronomy Education or Public Outreach Forums...

I suppose I could. But I got the feeling that Astro. Ed. was aimed at teachers, summer camps, or astronomy club leaders, while Public Outreach seems geared towards how to get people interested in astronomy. I was thinking of a place for people to gather once they've joined up and are interested in astronomy and space exploration. A place to create awesome social projects or build neat things.* Ultimately you're right. Ideas like I've mentioned could be posted in either of those two places, but I think having a place specifically for such community projects would have a much better result.

*Like have a bunch of people from around the world take a picture of the sky, all at the same time, for use as a mosaic or collage.

[StarStryder]

I was thinking of a place for people to gather once they've joined up and are interested in astronomy and space exploration. A place to create awesome social projects or build neat things. [snip] Like have a bunch of people from around the world take a picture of the sky, all at the same time, for use as a mosaic or collage.

I really really like this idea. This would be a place to plan community events that go beyond just classrooms, but get people engaged in things like the Eros observing I blogged about today, but instead of it being ideas people outside CosmoQuest bring to us, it would be a place that people in CosmoQuest share their own ideas, and together we can try and make them real.

I can add an area like this to the forums. I have to ask though, what do we call it? "Community Projects"? or??

Thanks for sharing this suggestion!

Cheers,
Pamela

[kmasterdo]

I can add an area like this to the forums. I have to ask though, what do we call it? "Community Projects"?

May I just come in again? I like the idea, too. And the name you suggested would be fine for me.

[Catalyst23]

[snip]it would be a place that people in CosmoQuest share their own ideas, and together we can try and make them real.

Exactly that yes!

As for the name, I'm terribly bad at those. If I invented the wheel I'd'a called it 'circular device of many uses' or something, so I think 'Projects & Demonstrations' is a good title. But that's me :)

Cheers!
Daniel

[ProfMOZ]

when applying for membership at CosmoQuest I was asked for a referrer... and to my surprise UT or Fraser Cain is not a recognized referrer. Change that, please. Best, Michael

[Jean Tate]

First post, after discovering this site only an hour or so ago ...

In other Citizen Science fora I've seen a few examples of someone keen to do some work/research that goes beyond the sorts of projects we all know and love, and which is also not necessarily a Community Project of the kind mentioned earlier in this thread. These people are - if memory serves - not professional scientists, though they may have a job, or have training, or simply a passion, which may be directly pertinent; they may be a dab hand at Java perhaps, or can make Photoshop sit up and beg, or know everything there is to know about Messier objects. Would this kind of thing lead to anything publishable? I don't know. Would it enriching for this community? Definitely!

As far as I know, there is no venue for such folk; they stumble on with their pet project, and often produce something quite interesting, but it's almost always a lonely path they tread.

What do you think?

[Catalyst23]

First post, after discovering this site only an hour or so ago ...

In other Citizen Science fora I've seen a few examples of someone keen to do some work/research that goes beyond the sorts of projects we all know and love, and which is also not necessarily a Community Project of the kind mentioned earlier in this thread. These people are - if memory serves - not professional scientists, though they may have a job, or have training, or simply a passion, which may be directly pertinent; they may be a dab hand at Java perhaps, or can make Photoshop sit up and beg, or know everything there is to know about Messier objects. Would this kind of thing lead to anything publishable? I don't know. Would it enriching for this community? Definitely!

As far as I know, there is no venue for such folk; they stumble on with their pet project, and often produce something quite interesting, but it's almost always a lonely path they tread.

What do you think?

Hi Jean!

Do you have any examples of those sorts of projects, or how to make the path they tread less lonely? I myself like to work with my hands, so your post is intriguing to me.

Cheers!

[Jean Tate]

Hi Jean!

Do you have any examples of those sorts of projects, or how to make the path they tread less lonely? I myself like to work with my hands, so your post is intriguing to me.

Cheers!

Hi Catalyst23,

Sure thing; here are three (they are all taken from the Galaxy Zoo forum):

Zooite laihro did some research on SDSS objects with anomalous H-beta emission, and wrote it up here: Friday 9 December 2011: The H-beta aberration

Zooite gumbosea developed some code which he used to identify possible strongly lensed SDSS galaxies, and posted them into the Possible strong gravitational lenses thread (here is one of his posts, outlining the challenge (etc), and here is one of his candidates, found using his code). I wrote about this in this thread: Wednesday, 20th October, 2010: Three cheers for the zooite strong lens finders!

And, tooting my own horn, Wednesday, 13th July, 2011: What do you think of this? is a thread in which I examine the findings of Michael Longo, per his paper "Detection of a Dipole in the Handedness of Spiral Galaxies with Redshifts z ~ 0.04".

These are just three examples; I know both laihro and gumbosea have worked on other, quite separate, projects (though only laihro has posted his on the forum, to date), and at least one other zooite has done something (vaguely) similar ...

[Catalyst23]

Wow! Well, I certainly couldn't contribute much to a conversation at that level, as most of the stuff I think about leans more towards the silly end of the spectrum. But I would certainly be a happy observer to such a discussion happening here!

[Jean Tate]

I just posted another OOTD (Object of the Day), in the Galaxy Zoo forum: Wednesday, 29th February, 2012: SDSS comets (and a bit of a mystery)

Towards the bottom is this:

Early in the paper is this gem: "Although mainly designed for observations of extragalactic sources, the SDSS is significantly contributing to studies of the solar system, notably in the success it has had with asteroid detections, cataloged in the SDSS Moving Object Catalog (hereafter SDSS MOC, Ivezi´c et al., 2001). This public, value-added, catalog of SDSS asteroid observations contains, as of its fourth release, 471,000 measurements of moving objects, 220,000 of which have been matched to 104,000 known asteroids from the ASTORB file" Wow!!! Some 251,000 measurements of moving objects not yet matched to known solar system objects!!!! There's an citizen science project in there, for sure.

That's not a citizen science project I, myself, would particularly like to run (or even be heavily involved with); however, it is - I feel - one that may well be within the reach of a team of keen citizen scientists. Further, it may be possible to do such a project (perhaps with limited scope) without too much input or direction from a professional.

What do you, dear readers, think?

[dearastronomer]

Also a nod to HAM radio and "Contact". Intentional? ;-)

After doing some twitter searching, I came up with the hashtag #CQX (X for X marks the science). For different project, we can just add the a second tag, so Moon Mappers would be #CQX #moon, and the Weekly Space Hangout might become (here I need to think a bit more) #CQX #Hangout

[GeorgiaB]

Also a nod to HAM radio and "Contact". Intentional? ;-)

Nice! Well, we DO want to talk to anyone who's listening...

[Astroswanny]

Hi, I guess this is more of a support question.

I have some ideas in a slide pack I have been working on about creating education pathways and wanted to share for anyone else interested and get some feedback on the approach.
CQX would not let me upload the PPT as it was above the file size limit (if you have ever seen my slides you would know why).

So just a question......the file size limit for this community, after a few goes at it, seems to be less than 4M - is there a reason for that? I can publish it elsewhere and provide a link...but I would like to put it into the community as my first contribution.

[kmasterdo]

With Ice Investigators, the second project is now in beta. So we'd love to hear (more) feedback - on Ice Investigators and in general on Moon Mappers and CosmoQuest. Do you have suggestions for improvements, new features, etc.?

[imported_Solfe]

I am not sure if this the appropriate place to ask, but I like to blog about cool things I find on the web. Is there an "official logo" for Cosmoquest that can be used by bloggers for posts?

Thank you in advance,

Solfe.

[gonano]

Other ideas:it is possible to speak about astronautics : How is it possible to watch the ISS or iridium flares for example.
There's a delicious site : www.heavens-above.com
Or how works the sky: Finding the polar star and watching it how make simply latitude experiment ( see catalyst23 similar suggests) and where is west south east without GPS. Learnig to watch the sky with simply istruments as naked eye.
I wonder how many people has watched with naked eye Venus or Mercury? Or use the meaning of ephemerides for amateur simply purpose.
what is a meridian clock? Why is made in that mood and so on.
I don't Know how many people has watched the milky way or magellan clouds or Orion nebula or Omega centaury with naked eye or green flash when the sun is going down or the zodiacal lights or the Gegenschein fenomenon.
In simply way with simply istruments, thinking about these things, wondering why why why like a baby.....
Cheers Gonano.

[IreneAnt]

I am not sure if this the appropriate place to ask, but I like to blog about cool things I find on the web. Is there an "official logo" for Cosmoquest that can be used by bloggers for posts?

Thank you in advance,

Solfe.

Hi Solfe,

If no-one else has responded to you off-line yet, the official CosmoQuest logo is the one at the top left corner of this page (the one that says CosmoQuest with dots leading to an X).

[kmasterdo]

I am not sure if this the appropriate place to ask, but I like to blog about cool things I find on the web. Is there an "official logo" for Cosmoquest that can be used by bloggers for posts?

Hi Solfe,

there is now this page with all the logos you can use for your blog posts!

[imported_Solfe]

You guys are awesome! Thank you.

(I must have messed up my "thread subscription" since I didn't see this reply.)

[John Mendenhall]

Ah, could we have the 'Recent Posts' button back? The 'activity' button is just too much info, and is slow to read through.

Thanks, John M.

Also, this thread will not go to page 2, which is listed as existing.

[Parallel Universes]

Since this is only one of perhaps infinite universes out there could we have a section on the multiverse.