In article , dated Wed, 1 Mar
2006, Philip Eden wrote
Not quite a birthday,

well I've only been here for a year, and have learnt more about the
weather than I thought possible, including how to photograph it. The
rare trolls are far less frequent than in other newsgroups and seem to
be treated here in a thoroughly grown-up way. Thank you and roll on the
next ten years!

--
Kate B

PS 'elvira' is spamtrapped - please reply to 'elviraspam' at cockaigne if you want
to reply personally

"Philip Eden" philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote in message
...
Not quite a birthday, but today marks the 10th anniversary of
this newsgroup's conception when I submitted a "request for
discussion" and the proposed newsgroup charter to usenet
uk-hierarchy admin. This was the culmination of several weeks
of toying with the idea, discovering how it was done, talking
to the people who had set up other newsgroups, and so on.
Had I known how much aggro that creation process would
bring, I would never have started!

I hope that you will excuse me if I become ever-so-slightly
proprietorial ... it is, after all, the first time in ten years.

Firstly I need to acknowledge the half-dozen or so who
readily and enthusiastically lobbied for the fast-track
(oxymoron, that ... it took six weeks!) creation of the newsgroup.
And the biggest bouquets go, of course, to Martin for creating
and maintaining the FAQ pages so effectively.

It's funny to recall that, way back in 1996, I feared that the group
might be a damp squib. There were days in the first few months
when no-one posted at all, and six posts in 24 hours was
regarded as busy.

The Met Office quickly discouraged its employees from
contributing, although I was never quite sure whether that was
because the newsgroup was created by that evil Philip Eden
and therefore must be inherently evil itself, or just because
they simply feared the freedom it provided. Whichever, they
still actively discourage involvement, which I think says more
about them than it does about us. And more power to the
dozens of MO folk who do post here but still feel the need
to do so anonymously. Exeter, evidently, is still a Warsaw Pact
country.

But I wonder if I am alone in thinking that uk.sci.weather's
best days are behind us. People come and people go, but we
have lost many regulars in the last 2 or 3 years, and several of
them have let me know the reason for their departure. I almost
followed the same route last year for the same reason. Others
prefer to use their kill-files.

It is not the village idiots who irritate, it is the pub bores.
Just one or two ... ego-trippers, grandstanders, self-obsessed,
self-justifying, verbally incontinent, and like most pub bores
they probably won't even recognise themselves from this
description. That they might be widely kill-filed would
astonish them.

This might, therefore, be a good opportunity for everyone to
re-read the newsgroup's charter. It is absolutely not a list of rules
which must be obeyed; rather, it is a set of guidelines whose
objective is the happy continuance of this newsgroup:

quote
This group is essentially for the discussion of daily weather
events, chiefly affecting the UK and adjacent parts of Europe,
both past and predicted. The discussion is open to all, but
contributions on a practical scientific level are encouraged.
It may also contain postings of observations during
interesting weather episodes. The group is expected to be
patronised by both amateurs and professionals (including
academics), but it is primarily for weather enthusiasts rather
than research scientists. Any discussion of climate issues
should be from a scientific standpoint and not a political
(environmental-activist) one.
unquote

By all means criticise me or my words, but please be
constructive in your criticism. And if the end result is that
uk.sci.weather returns to its best, and old friends turn up
again, I shall be happy. And I promise no more proprietorial
throwing my weight around for another ten years.

Philip




:-) Very nicely said and well put. Well done for setting up this ng. It
provides a great service to all those with an interest in the weather and
its related issues.

Here's to another 10 years.

Regards, Gavin.

Well done to Philip for his hard work in getting this group "up and
running": Philip, you can be justly proud of the results despite your
reservations.

You are quite right that in the early years, the MO senior management
were very 'anti' any of us contributing to the newsgroup - I was twice
'unofficially' officially approached by such gentlemen who made it clear
that my name turning up on the group was not welcome - and I only
touched on non-controversial aspects of the work. In fact, rather than
any conspiracy to gag us, I got the distinct impression that they simply
didn't understand what Usenet & the Internet was all about; we got a
taste of this a few years later when an edict went out that Met Office
web pages should not be linked directly, but hot-links should only drag
you to the home page. This didn't last long as we pointed out that this
went against the spirit of the Internet. In later years, as Will has
written, wiser counsel prevailed. In a small way, we have been
influential though I doubt you would get anyone in Exeter to admit it
;-)

We've come a long way in the past 10 years, both within this newsgroup
and more generally with respect to the IT & the meteorological 'world'.
The group has grown, and from it has risen a whole spectrum of resources
that anyone with any interest in meteorology can use.

Most obviously, Philip's own summaries, both posted on the newsgroup &
in much more detail, on his website. These are truly superb and anyone
who used to subscribe to the old DWR/MWR series from the Meteorological
Office will recognise just what an achievement they are.

Then there are the many personal web sites that have sprung up over the
years, some by members of the group, which are a credit to all of us &
of world-wide use: the FAQ pages alone generate a huge number of
listings in many search engines, and if you type the phrase "weather
FAQ" in Google, it comes on page 1 (of many), & thus draws users around
the world not only to that source, but to members' sites linked from the
FAQ - this isn't just my doing, this is a tribute to all here!

Within the group, Colin's daily summaries, (& occasional help with
language translation), Darren's daily model assessment (wolves
permitting!), Ian's superb photographs & advice, Keith's daily SYNOP
summaries (on the web site), which I know have given him much heartache
in the decoding & many others too numerous to mention. These alone would
justify the existence of our little community - which is pleasing to see
spreads outwards from the UK to other areas in Europe and beyond.

I think we can be *all* proud of the last 10 years, and look forward to
many more - ups and downs no doubt - but always with a core of common
sense and wonderment regarding our natural environment.

Martin.

--
FAQ & Glossary for uk.sci.weather at:-
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/booty.weather/uswfaqfr.htm
and
http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/metindex.htm