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

[bill]

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being superseded by the rise of blogs and related services and that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, Willia...@nasa.gov, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt MD