[Coral-List] a new home for Coral-List

[William Precht]

Mike, you have done a yo men's job at keeping this ship moving forward.
Thank you!

At this time we should also thank Jim Hendee (NOAA retired) for his years
of dedicated service running the CoralList.

We should all be looking forward to the next chapter in the communication
between coral lovers, scientists, managers, and policy makers - hopefully,
we can make gains where we have seen such tragic losses.

The CoralList is a place where we can share ideas, news stories, and new
publications in real time with thousands of people with similar goals from
around the world.

As you may remember, a few years back many of us in the coral reef
community were screaming as loud as we could about keeping atmospheric CO2
levels below 350 ppm.

Veron, J.E., Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Lenton, T.M., Lough, J.M., Obura, D.O.,
Pearce-Kelly, P.A.U.L., Sheppard, C.R., Spalding, M., Stafford-Smith, M.G.
and Rogers, A.D., 2009. The coral reef crisis: The critical importance of<
350 ppm CO2. *Marine pollution bulletin*, *58*(10), pp.1428-1436.

We blew by that target - I’m now hoping for 450 ppm.  Unfortunately, today
we are already at 425 ppm.

Using the CoralList we can get together as a global reef community, use our
collective voices, and convince our leaders of why keeping this critical
number in check is so important.

Remember-

Repair the world - save coral reefs!

Repair coral reefs - save the world!

Let’s work together at changing the future. The CoralList can help.

Thank you ICRS for keeping the CoralList alive.

Cheers,

Bill

On Tue, Feb 13, 2024 at 11:43 AM Mike Jankulak - NOAA Affiliate via
Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Greetings Coral-Listers!
>
> On behalf of AOML's Coral Program, and in coordination with the
> International Coral Reef Society, I'd like to announce a big change for our
> much-beloved mailing list. ICRS has agreed to take over management of
> Coral-List!
>
> You have questions, I know. Here's a quick FAQ:
>
> Q: Why is the list leaving NOAA?
>
> We've worried for a while that the future of Coral-List at NOAA was deeply
> uncertain. Part of the problem is that we're not funded to keep the list
> running – for the last 6 years we've basically been volunteering our
> sysadmin and moderation efforts in our spare time, which is rewarding but
> increasingly unsustainable. Part of the problem is technical, since the
> list dates back to 1995 and has needed to undergo several significant
> reinventions as NOAA IT developed newer and better security practices for
> email servers. Really we've reached the point where we can't keep holding
> this thing together with paperclips and chewing gum and we need to take
> decisive action to ensure Coral-List will have a long and happy future.
>
> Q: Why ICRS?
>
> ICRS is the ideal partner, and we're so grateful to them for finding a way
> to make this happen. They have been part of the Coral-List community for
> decades and they really understand what makes us tick, the subjects we're
> most passionate about, the reasons people turn to the list for information
> about science, jobs, conferences, and everything else that's so important
> to us.
>
> Q: What effect will this have on the list?
>
> The main thing is that the mailing address and website url will change.
> Details to follow, but we expect to use an ICRS domain, probably something
> like lists.coralreefs.org. Apart from that, we think the change will be
> largely transparent to our subscribers, and it will open the door to
> technical improvements that we think are long-overdue.
>
> Q: Technical improvements? What?
>
> I'm glad you asked! One important factor is that the list will run on
> professionally-maintained servers with actual teams of IT support personnel
> worldwide rather than one random guy tinkering with his linux server in
> Miami. This will improve list robustness and security. ICRS will be the
> face of the list, and they will moderate and answer your questions, but
> they will be backed up by paid professionals. This means things that have
> long been out of the question for Coral-List (upgrade to the much nicer v3
> release of the Mailman software, ability to send and receive formatted
> emails, maybe even attaching photos and documents to your messages) will
> receive fresh consideration.
>
> Q: When is this expected to happen?
>
> Watch! this! space! for more announcements but right now we are targeting
> the end of February for completing this transition. Technically speaking,
> it's really not all that complicated a task. The tricky thing will be
> timing everything right.
>
> Q: I have feelings! What if I don't like this?
>
> The first thing I'll say, which I think is important, is that anyone can
> opt out of the whole situation at any time simply by unsubscribing from the
> list. If you want help with that, send email directly to me or to
> coral-list-owner at coral.aoml.noaa.gov before the end of February. If you
> have questions not covered here I'll do my best to answer them. If you want
> to have a metadiscussion about Coral-List by posting to Coral-List then I
> for one think that is completely on-topic.
>
> Q: Do you have any words of wisdom to share?
>
> It's been quite the journey so far. Coral-List started in 1995, the vision
> of Jim Hendee, NOAA research oceanographer and, at the time of his
> retirement in 2020, Director of AOML's Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems
> Division. With help throughout the years from a motley crew of workerbees,
> most notably Clarke Jeffris, Louis Florit, Lew Gramer and Ruben van
> Hooidonk, Coral-List developed into today's community of ten thousand
> members. Three decades is a lot of history but really, I'm more excited to
> see what its next three decades will look like!
>
> Mike J+
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