[fitsbits] End of the fitsbits <-> sci.astro.fits gateway

[William Pence]

Starting in the early 1990s, a "gateway" has been operating between the 
sci.astro.fits newsgroup and the fitsbits email exploder so that 
messages originating on either the newsgroup or the exploder will be 
automatically transmitted to the other.  Many long time readers here 
will recall that Don Wells was very instrumental in creating the 
sci.astro.fits news group and the gateway to fitsbits as a way of 
promoting the awareness of FITS to a larger community.  However, in 
December 2010 this gateway ceased to operate.  The exact cause of this 
breakdown is not known, but it appears that the transmission of news to 
the NOAO netnews system has failed at one of its upstream providers.

Considering that the functionality of the netnews service in general is 
being superseded by the rise of blogs and related services and that the 
sci.astro.fits newsgroup in particular is dominated by off-topic 
postings, the NOAO computer support staff have decided to not expend any 
effort to fix the gateway.  Both the fitsbits email exploder and the 
sci.astro.fits newsgroup will continue to
function, but they will do so independently; no effort will be made to 
transmit
messages from one to the other.

In the future, I recommend that the fitsbits newsgroup (not 
sci.astro.fits) be
considered the preferred medium for posting and discussing issued 
related to FITS, especially for any issues of interest to the IAU FITS 
Working Group.  Any readers who routinely rely on sci.astro.fits as a 
source of information about FITS are encourage to subscribe to the 
fitsbits email list at 
http://listmgr.cv.nrao.edu/mailman/listinfo/fitsbits. In order to reach 
the widest possible audience, however, individuals should consider cross 
posting any announcements about FITS activities to both fitsbits and the 
newsgroup (as is this message).

-Bill Pence
-- 
____________________________________________________________________
Dr. William Pence                       William.Pence at nasa.gov
NASA/GSFC Code 662       HEASARC        +1-301-286-4599 (voice)
Greenbelt MD 20771                      +1-301-286-1684 (fax)