Quote:
Originally Posted by Fazor
Well, I think we discussed the idea of an astronomy or science wiki a while back in the "Astronomy class on BAUT?" thread (OTB).
I know a lot of this information is out there on various sites, including the infamous wikipedia. But is there some kind of free private wiki site we could use? That way topics that intertwine can be documented in reference format. That way when a thread brings in parts of things already discussed, a simple "see x reference" link could suffice; allowing those (like myself) who need caught up to check out the reference, and those who do not can continue the discussion with less derailment/interuptions.
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There are some good ideas here, and I'd encourage you to explore them further.
I'm not sure how well this would work to address the two kinds of concern I outlined in the OP ... maybe a Q&A thread devoted to the MacMillan 'quasar apparent proper motions' paper (and all those which have subsequently cited it), for example*? This may serve to reduce the repetitious use of this one paper, and also put it into context. It would also likely go a long way to addressing my second concern, as I think there are actually only a small number of such 'recycled papers'.
More generally, perhaps a request that more use be made of BAUT's Q&A section? Or one to start an ATM thread and stop "
the spamming approach to scientific inference" (as one BAUT member
recently put it, in question form)?
*
This is how one of the main sections of cosmocoffee works, for those familiar with it.