The questions that I asked in that earlier note regarding how to store addresses in posted notes had to do with the possibility of establishing an informal earthquake forecasting research library which would exist within this bulletin board. This is something which I have not yet decided if I will attempt to get running. I believe that Canie’s opinion regarding it is that if it will help advance the science of earthquake forecasting and it does not require that she begin another major effort then why not give it a try. And, in theory anyway it should not require that she do anything other than maintain this bulletin board just as she is already doing.

Before people post too many comments regarding whether they believe this proposed research library is or is not a good idea they should probably wait until I make a final decision on whether I will even attempt to organize it. And if that decision is to proceed with it then they should wait until I have had a chance to post a demonstration version of the library system here so that people can see how it would work.

The idea is to have not only conversational type notes posted here but also some reference material. And there would be a library directory which would contain links to those reference posts. In effect this would be a “Super Web Site” which would exist within an Internet Bulletin Board. People posting notes to the board would maintain it to the extent that they wished. People who do not post notes here could contact ones who do and request that they post some report for them.

For example,

Dr. Whiteside recently posted several reports here which discussed earthquake lights and related topics. I thought that all of them were quite helpful. I felt that one in particular which represented the text of a paper he has not formally published was outstanding. And I have told other researchers whom I am talking with how to find it.

Unfortunately, as soon as this present group of postings is archived that report will in effect disappear from sight. And the day following that, if some researcher decides to go looking for that type of information then he or she will not be able to easily locate it. A search of this site could be done. But in most cases people would probably not do that unless they were already aware that that type of information might be stored here.

Here is an example of how this proposed library might work. And I will state that there would not be any formal rules. With time people posting notes here would create their own rules.

Private parties, groups, and government agencies which are attempting to forecast earthquakes would be contacted and asked if they would like to submit notes summarizing the forecasting procedures which they are using, their strong points, weak points, research goals etc. Their notes would then be stored here as individual posts. And a "Library Directory" note would be posted once every few weeks which would contain a list of links to each of those notes as well as links to other Web sites where earthquake forecasts were being discussed. People could update their forecasting procedure notes by posting new ones now and then. And links to the new notes would replace the old ones in the next library directory note.

In order to get the cooperation of some earthquake forecasters with this it would probably be important that people not attach response posts directly to the original forecasting notes. If a person stated in his or her note that he or she forecasts earthquakes in this or that manner then he or she would probably not like to see negative comments attached directly to that note. Instead a separate note with a similar heading could be posted along with the original one. And people could post their comments to that one or even to the main library directory note. If someone responded to the original note by accident then that would not be a problem. A fresh copy of it could be posted and a link made to that newer copy in the library directory.

I would not expect this proposed forecasting library to add any significant volume of notes to this board as past experiences suggest to me that relatively few people would probably contribute to it. And if and when interest in the library waned then the entire operation would basically disappear from sight when the latest group of posts were archived.

Government officials, researchers, and many others in different countries are constantly looking for important earthquake forecasting information. And at the moment there are no central locations that I know about which people can visit in order to locate those types of information. This proposed library system could result in the creation of a very easily maintained centralized facility like that. And I believe that our board monitor would probably be happy to see that her efforts were making such an important earthquake forecasting resource available to people around the world.

Finally, news reports are presently stating that a recent powerful earthquake in Afghanistan probably claimed at least 100 lives. And I myself would expect that number to get larger considering that it was something like a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. In early February of this year we saw reports about an earthquake in Turkey which reportedly claimed some 45 lives. As I have stated before, I personally feel that efforts to keep those types of numbers as low as possible are most effective when they are well organized. And this proposed library would represent an informal attempt to get certain types of earthquake forecasting efforts better organized.