Hi all.

Today a certain Irish-based astronomy club signed everyone up at Dunsink without our consent to their email mailing list. When I complained, the proprietor 'apologised' in a rather arrogant, dismissive way. Given the strong links between the amateur and professional community (and I like to thing I've a foot in both camps), the attitude and actions of this club have saddened me greatly - flooding us with spam is a wondeful way of driving a wedge between both groups. Comments are welcome .....

Clear skies.

Brian

brian,
if we are thinking of the same group it would not be the first time that he has done this, i think there was a post about this somewhere else on the site. what his goal was we can only speculate, maybe he is getting desperate and trying to pretend that he has some connection with professional astronomy in ireland.
stephen.

Hi Stephen,
we are indeed thinking of the same group! I wasn't particularly impressed with them before, after today, well I somehow suspect I won't be invited to give a talk to them anytime soon As for his motives, well, we can only guess....

Clear skies.

Brian

They may not be doing as well as before alright, only boasting 200 at their most recent star-b-q compared to the 500 last time.

Though they will continue to be successful as for example they are the only group organising nationwide venus transit watches. I've send mails and posts trying to get accurate contact details for clubs, and details of any transit watches so IFAS clubs can be promoted and sent a couple of posters etc. from the ESO and to date less than half of the clubs have returned my emails.

No idea what they hoped to achieve by spamming Dunsink though, seems like shooting themselves in the foot. Ironic that they dont return my emails mind you!

Cheers,
~Al

They often boasted about having 200+ at the star-b-qs in Djouce, and the Roundwood star-b-q, which I attended last august (hangs head in shame) didn't, by any stretch, have 500 at it. The prices have steadily climbed too. I think the recent event was Euro 30. That's Euro 6,000, minus negligible expenses, minus insurance, and minus whatever else costs they had. It still leads to a nice little earner for the largest astronomy club, or is it society, or is it limited company, or is it dissolved limited company in Ireland.

With all these earnings, why do they need donations? What kind of overheads must they have if they are constantly calling for donations? 200 attendees out of a claimed 8,000 members means that only 2.5% of A I members attended. This whole "by head of population" thing can bite one in the ass, can it not!

The spamming is just an indication of their poor tactics regarding publicity. If I was working in Dunsink I'd complain to the list manager at DCU.

They often boasted about having 200+ at the star-b-qs in Djouce, and the Roundwood star-b-q, which I attended last august (hangs head in shame) didn't, by any stretch, have 500 at it. The prices have steadily climbed too. I think the recent event was Euro 30. That's Euro 6,000, minus negligible expenses, minus insurance, and minus whatever else costs they had. It still leads to a nice little earner for the largest astronomy club, or is it society, or is it limited company, or is it dissolved limited company in Ireland.

With all these earnings, why do they need donations? What kind of overheads must they have if they are constantly calling for donations? 200 attendees out of a claimed 8,000 members means that only 2.5% of A I members attended. This whole "by head of population" thing can bite one in the ass, can it not!

The spamming is just an indication of their poor tactics regarding publicity. If I was working in Dunsink I'd complain to the list manager at DCU.

maybe people are finally catching on to him at last. you can't go on forever overcharging people and them not finally catch onto you. if he is hitting the rocks then it is good for us as the number of alternatives seem to be increasing steadily. as shane said i would find out in dcu who is incharge of the lists as opposed to those running it for him and make an offical complaint. if he is allowed to get away with it he will try again. if enough people register a complaint against him when they are spammed the people in charge might change their mind about him using public resources to run a mailing list for a shop/magazine/club ?. it is not as if he cannot afford it .
stephen.

200 attendees out of a claimed 8,000 members means that only 2.5% of A I members attended. This whole "by head of population" thing can bite one in the ass, can it not!

200 attendees out of a claimed 8,000 members means that only 2.5% of A I members attended. This whole "by head of population" thing can bite one in the ass, can it not!

Hi all,

I hope this doesn't upset the applecart too much on the various topics surrounding AI, and please do not ask me to back up the paragraph below because I have quite forgotten where I got my information from...

AI actually has less than 400 paid members this year. The c.7000 members Mr. Moore advises Joe Public how AI is the largest per head society/club/company/organisation/profit-mongering-on-hobbies-and-hobbiests consortium is an inclusive number of EVERY subscrition since AI's inception in 1992. TAS could boast almost 1,400 members if we included the same kind of figures (since 1986), when in actual fact we have about 60 paid members, and many more novices this season.

I myself have NEVER believed the AI figure of 4, 5, 6, 7,000 members over the years, because, quite simply, It doesn't fit in Ireland.

In my opinion, who is going to pay the kind of prices AI charges just to crank the head skywards, when a pair of binoculars and a few books and magazine issues can do this for years, and still be enjoyable, cheap, and sometimes challenging... Thats how I remember starting out, and it worked for me. :wink:

Can everyone, including those who (respectfully) dislike what I have typed here, please bear in mind one thing? If we all (or most) agree on how AI has ruined some peoples' view on astronomy, use your own powers to help out your own locale. There is an extraordinary event in less than 4 weeks, and Albert White has been trying to get clubs on board to help themselves and each other, so perhaps the little amount of hypocrisy that reigns, in the sense of those who talk loudest but do nothing to calm their AI anger, can have their say, do their thing, and promote the recognition that REAL clubs and societies deserve.

I don't mind any rebukes some of you may have, this is freedom of opinion! 8)

Regards,

Seanie.

Hi Brian,
you sound like you work in Dunsink (by your first post).
What do the rest of your workmates think of it ???
How did you find out about it ??

Hi Brian,
you sound like you work in Dunsink (by your first post).
What do the rest of your workmates think of it ???
How did you find out about it ??

Hi Dave.

Yeah, I do work at Dunsink - I'm a postdoc there. I double up as the sysadmin there at the moment, so I got a few complaints from those who were there on Friday. I did also complain to the person running the mailing list, but as yet have had no reply.....

Clear skies.

Brian