Browsing around I was wondering whether there was somewhere to submit requests – last week JPL did a webcast of their Von Karman lecture on Searching for Exoplanets and I really wanted to see it. Unfortunately it started at 4am local time and I missed my alarm. If anyone knows where I might find a copy that would be excellent.

I think that in general making requests would be a good way to build up these communities bringing viewers and contributors closer together.

Nick

is this what a spank ray looks like? ;)

Best wishes,
Steve

Of all the sciences, astronomy is uniquely capable of getting under everyone’s skin, to inspire ALL of us. The potential audience for this content is, well, humanity.

How much more of a market do you need?

So long as the people creating the content – no matter how small a group they are – are doing for the love of it and not trying to make a buck, then it’s already a success.

Traffic, page views, amount of original content etc, only really matter when you’re trying to turn a profit.

AstronomyBuzz doesn’t look like it’s trying to make any money, I don’t see ads anywhere. And AstroShorts just has a donate button, probably to try and recoup expenses.

Perhaps my premise was a false one. These sites are just doing what they love.

That makes them successful just by itself…

@Phil: It’s certainly true that the best don’t always end up on top. YT is a prime example, they have the clunkiest comment interface I’ve ever seen. It’s so bad I stopped using it entirely.

I wish you nothing but success with your experiment. I have plans to be a contributor to astronomybuzz, I really believe in what you guys are doing.

@Matt & Reddwarfgazer: Cooperation is always a good idea and I can’t imagine any real cutthroat competition going on here.

The hardcore online astronomy community is only so big though, I think to have a real impact, an appeal will have to be made to a much wider, more general audience. I just worry that there’s just not that much stuff out there.

Perhaps these sites will appeal to content creators in other genres and inspire them to make more astronomy-related content.

That would be so cool…

@Julie: Don’t make me use the spank ray ;-)

@Frederica: I think they’ll be around for a long time, as Phil said, it’s an experiment, but one I think will ultimately be successful