Must one be a member of the staff to write a staff report? If a random doper said “whatcha got in the mailbag?” would he be allowed to look?
If a doper had particular knowledge in a certain area could he or she ask to be notified if a type of question came up?
Basically, what’s the rule on these non Cecil columns that show up on the front page?
Per definition, yes. However, someone can be on the SD Staff as a writer/researcher, but not be involved with running the message board. Take Colibri for example. Conversely, not all moderators and admins write a lot of staff reports - although we all can.
No. To be invited onto the Staff (so not as a moderator), you have to show some more credentials than that.
Yes, in the way that he or she might apply to be a staff member, which would then be evaluated among the current staff.
Thanks Coldfire.
Let me amend Coldfire’s comments just a little bit.
There are two different groups that are loosely called “staff.” The Staff (capital S) consists of Moderators and Administrators plus a few others, connected with the day-to-day running of the boards, sorting through the mail, etc. One gets onto Staff by application, and TUBADIVA is coordinator of such process.
However, there is also the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, somewhat loosely called “staff” (lower case s). The SDSAB is really the group responsible for writing the “Staff Reports” (hence the confusion about terminology. Someday we should probably straighten that out, but for now, a little obfuscation helps maintain a sense of proportion.) There is some overlap between Staff and SDSAB, but we have Staff members (Moderators, say) who do not contribute “staff reports” and we have SDSAB members who are not Moderators.
In the past, we have accepted staff reports from “guests” from time to time. In fact, we have a “guest report” in the hopper now, that should be posted in a few weeks. We are certainly open to requests from folks who want to write staff reports.
I am the main Administrator for Staff Reports, so if you are interested, Ender, please send me an email, including a description of your areas of interest, specialties, etc. I would then send you a list of questions from which to pick.
Thank you C K Dexter Haven.
My asking this question was merely for curiousity’s sake. Certainly I’d be interested in writing a staff report. The problem is in writing down ALL my interests and then trying to match those up with questions being asked. Even if there was a match, I certainly don’t think I’m necessarily a qualified expert in any particular subject. Oh sure, I can research whatever I don’t know…but so can anyone else, right?
So I’ll give it some consideration, certainly. Right now, though, it’s just idle speculation.