The Arctic Sea Ice Blog is close to reaching the 25,000 comments-mark. Thanks to disappearing sea ice and great interest therein the blog was off to a flying start right from the very beginning, with traffic peaking last record melting season (especially when the cyclone hit).
There is a clear correlation between blog traffic and what happens in the Arctic. I guess when we hit 1 million pageviews a day, sea ice area/extent will have gone below 1 million km2. ;-)
This, of course, is great, as one of the reasons I started the blog - aside from personal interest and getting a knowledgeable community together - has to do with the philosophy of limits to growth. If AGW is a serious event (I think it is), it will constitute a very hard limit that just cannot be denied, except by the you-know-who. The Arctic is at the forefront of AGW, so this is where it all starts. And the more people are aware of it, the better, if not merrier.
But there's a downside to every upside, as Johan Cruijff is wont to say (in the picture on the right).
As more eyes start to see, more mouths start to talk. However, Arctic sea ice decline and its consequences make it difficult to stay on-topic.
Together we jump from the subject at hand to AGW in general, to solar power, to CT global SIA numbers, to methane burps, to booms with or without the sonic, etc. All of this is only logical, but the noise can become too much, especially during the melting season.
It makes it more burdensome for me to keep track of everything, and it also makes it more difficult to find those interesting and inspiring tidbits observed by one commenter or other. I've already spent many hours looking for something someone had said perhaps only weeks earlier, but not knowing which thread as it was off-topic. That can become really annoying.
I figured things would run much more smoothly if there was a separate forum where people can open topics themselves. And so with the help of an early commenter and the feedback of several others I've set up the Arctic Sea Ice Forum, that together with blog and daily graphs forms the holy Arctic Trinity.
Mind you, on advice of security manager Lodger I'm linking to the forum that has https in front of its address as this makes the forum much safer to use (as explained here). Your browser will come with a warning about security certificates, so make an exemption for the forum as the https actually makes it more secure, or if you're not comfortable with that, just remove the 's' from https or go here.
In this Arctic Sea Ice Forum it's possible to discuss everything you like, from Cryosphere (Arctic, Antarctic, GIS, glaciers) to AGW in general and climate policy. It also makes it possible to start your own polls. At the bottom of the page you can choose to be notified of new threads and comments. You can post images that will be re-sized to 660px when bigger. There are probably many more functions I don't know about yet, which is why there's a section where you can comment on the forum itself.
This doesn't mean that you can't comment on blog posts on the Arctic Sea Ice Blog, feel free to keep doing that. You can even go a bit off-topic every now and again. But if you want your thoughts to be more on target and easier to track, make use of the forum.
With a bit of luck I think the Arctic Sea Ice Forum can become an even better resource than the blog already is. I will update the Arctic Sea Ice Graphs page in the month to come, which will essentially make us ready for the 2013 melting season.
In name of the blog, the forum and the daily graphs, amen.
Forgot to say that commenting on forums works slightly different, in that you don't use HTML but BBcode, which essentially boils down to different tags: [ and ] instead of the HTML tags.
And I've opened a poll: Cryosphere Today 2013 Arctic SIA maximum.
Posted by: Neven | February 20, 2013 at 18:25
Nice ! It's going to be interesting...
Posted by: fredt34 | February 20, 2013 at 18:30
Chrome is giving me this message --
This is probably not the site you are looking for!
You attempted to reach forum.arctic-sea-ice.net, but instead you actually reached a server identifying itself as ssl15.ovh.net. This may be caused by a misconfiguration on the server or by something more serious. An attacker on your network could be trying to get you to visit a fake (and potentially harmful) version of forum.arctic-sea-ice.net.
You should not proceed, especially if you have never seen this warning before for this site.
Firefox says:
This Connection is Untrusted
You have asked Firefox to connect
securely to forum.arctic-sea-ice.net, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure.
Normally, when you try to connect securely,
sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified.
What Should I Do?
If you usually connect to
this site without problems, this error could mean that someone is trying to impersonate the site, and you shouldn't continue.
Posted by: Donald | February 20, 2013 at 19:31
When you fix the connection to the forum, please delete my comments so that they do not put people off.
Thanks!
Posted by: Donald | February 20, 2013 at 19:33
Donald, please read Neven's post above. This is expected, because the security certificate used by the forum's Host is in the Host's name, not the Forum's.
Posted by: Artful Dodger | February 20, 2013 at 19:40
Donald, presumably Nevin doesn't want to pay for a real security certificate (which is only really needed if you're doing commerce of some sort). As said (but perhaps not well explained) in the post above, you can either create an exception in your browser to accept this, or use http instead of https.
Think of it like this: there are really three levels of security:
http - no security, your packets can be read anywhere along the path they take.
https without certificate - you get encryption.
https with certificate - encryption plus you're guaranteed the website hasn't been spoofed (which matters if it's a bank, but who is going to spoof Nevin's forum?)
Posted by: Greg Wellman | February 20, 2013 at 19:43
Thanks, Greg. I was in too big a hurry to see the forum!
Posted by: Donald | February 20, 2013 at 20:01
Hi Folks,
Neven is being VERY generous in allowing unencrypted access to the Forum via HTTP. IMO, instead you should always use HTTPS to login.
However the security RISK is not his, it is YOURS. If you login via an unencrypted connection, your username and password WILL be stolen, instantly, as the message is transported in PLAIN TEXT across the internet from you to the Forum host.
This is no joke. These messages go through dozens of Routers between yourself and the Forum, ALL OF WHICH constantly log any unencrypted Username and Password which pass through them (ironically, the Forum itself does not store your password, it keeps a HASH of your password that it compares to the one you submit when you login).
Personally, I would NEVER allow access to the Forum by unencrypted HTTP. It is a disaster waiting to happen, just as surely as the loss of Arctic sea ice, and a million times faster to occur. However it is not my choice. I can only warn you of the real dangers.
Really, if somebody does not understand the risks, and follow simple instructions to avoid them, they do not belong on the Forum. In that way, forum security is a microcosm of the climate risk we all face. Blindly ignoring risk, staggering forward toward sure disaster.
Kindly accept this as advice to all, not directed at any person or individual. It is not a personal attack, until your email address and password are stolen.
Then, you could expect rough treatment by internet hackers and even foreign governments and corporations. Got anything confidential in your email? Here's how to protect it.
In summary:
1. always use HTTPS to login, and
2. use a DIFFERENT PASSWORD than the one you use for your email account.
Best regards,
Lodger
Posted by: Artful Dodger | February 20, 2013 at 20:24
Thanks for explaining the HTTPS some more, folks.
Posted by: Neven | February 20, 2013 at 20:28
In case you missed the link in my Summary above, here is the relevant Wikipedia article:
If you don't already understand HTTPS, do yourself a favour by learning about this topic.
Your loved ones will thank you for it!
Cheers,
Lodger
Posted by: Artful Dodger | February 20, 2013 at 20:36
Thanks for setting up the new forum Neven. I've moved some of my musings about renewable energy over there, which I feel sure will please you!
However my first attempt at starting a new thread failed with an error message to the effect that "attachment directory is not writeable". I solved the problem another way, but you may wish to look into this?
Posted by: Jim Hunt | February 20, 2013 at 20:42
Thanks, Jim. The forum is a bit slow too (for me, at least). I'll have a look and see if something needs to be changed.
30 new members and counting... :-)
Posted by: Neven | February 20, 2013 at 20:49
So, just to be clear.
If we click on the link in this sentence from the above article -
"I've set up the Arctic Sea Ice Forum, that together with blog and daily graphs forms the holy Arctic Trinity."
- our stuff is encrypted?
Posted by: Bob Wallace | February 20, 2013 at 21:07
I believe so, Bob. And the first time your browser will whine about security certificates. Tell it not to.
Posted by: Neven | February 20, 2013 at 21:10
Just registered!
Posted by: Espen Olsen | February 20, 2013 at 22:25
Neven two things, you can easily copy and paste any articles from anyone by simple E-mail request.
And I like the comments to be posted on top instead of bottom, so we can easily read the article debated while writing about it.
Posted by: wayne | February 21, 2013 at 04:21
Neven, your mentioning of Johan Cruijff brought back so many memories of watching Ruud Gullit and him play in Holland, which reminded me of the great time I had watching Hilbert van der Duim speed skate and the unforgettable vogelpoep incident (I got his autography at the Rij), among others. Watching him skate was akin to watching the Cardiac Cardinals play when Jim Hart was the quarterback and the receiver was Terry Metcalf who used to juggle the ball on his fingertips and you never knew if he was finally going to latch onto it. People were known to smash their televisions to pieces after watching those games. Jim Hart's alma mater was SIU (mine too), and he came back to coach.
OK, that is my OT for the day! Great memories!
Posted by: TenneyNaumer | February 21, 2013 at 05:08
"Tell it not to."
Thanks. I whipped it into shape.
Posted by: Bob Wallace | February 21, 2013 at 05:51
Neven wrote:
What did the dyslexic blogger post?
"Nothing. There is no golb."
See you awl on the other side! ;^)
Cheers!
Lodger
Posted by: Artful Dodger | February 21, 2013 at 07:13
I don't how they do it, but a spambot managed to open a topic to promote shoes this morning. As the shoes were very ugly, I cannot tolerate this. I have changed the forum's settings so that you have to go through the verification process (medium-difficult garbled text and one easy question) when you register and for your first three posts. After that you're home free.
Sorry for the inconvenience, but we can't have ugly shoes on this forum.
Posted by: Neven | February 21, 2013 at 10:49
This forum sounds good, thanks Neven!
Posted by: Fairfax Climate Watch | February 22, 2013 at 08:22
For regulars information - I'm signed in under Treform on the Forum - not my real name as here - though I will probably sign off as Russell - I'm looking forward to the new opportunity of this forum and the simplificationof the Blog which has such immense value.
Posted by: Russell McKane | February 22, 2013 at 11:30
Slow doesn't really fuuly describe the 'forum experience'. Can't get to the page half the time - and when you do - 'slow' is more appropriate.
Whatever happened to "if it ain't broke..."
Steve
Posted by: Sgregory88 | February 23, 2013 at 18:01
I've had no problem with the forum. Regrets to heae you have, Steve.
Posted by: Apocalypse4Real | February 24, 2013 at 05:24
I've had no speed or access problems on the new forum either Steve. I don't know where the new server is, but I use Chrome and I'm from Europe, which may or may not be relevant!
And from my perspective Typepad does appear to be somewhat "broke". If I had ten bob for every minute I'd wasted struggling with their "spam" filter I'd be a rich man!
Posted by: Jim Hunt | February 24, 2013 at 11:58
Just published an index of the posts I have done on Greenland Glaciers , this is something I will look to update, any feedback is welcome
Posted by: Glacierchange.wordpress.com | February 26, 2013 at 15:19
I think everybody here has already seen press release of a study to be published in PNAS:
Petoukhov, V., Rahmstorf, S., Petri, S., Schellnhuber, H. J. (2013): Quasi-resonant amplification of planetary waves and recent Northern Hemisphere weather extremes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition)
Michael Tobis has some details: http://planet3.org/2013/02/26/science-climate-change-linked-to-large-scale-severe-events/
Alex
Posted by: Ac A | February 27, 2013 at 10:46
Hi, Neven.
I didn’t thank you for setting up the Forum (that I should…), but I want to be the first one to congratulate you for reaching the 100,000 views in only 16 days.
Great success!
Posted by: Protege Cuajimalpa | March 08, 2013 at 03:05
100,000 views? Wow. Thanks, PC. :-)
Posted by: Neven | March 08, 2013 at 03:08
Incredible! It took over three years for my catalog of online articles to hit the 100,000 views milestone. But the site definitely merits it.
Posted by: Kevin McKinney | March 08, 2013 at 06:34