[vsnet-chat 7200] Re: [cvnet-discussion] CVnet Circular

[Aaron Price]

> The quick look data at AAVSO, which the circular is based upon, is full of
> inconsistencies, problems and technical issues which Chris has to deal with
> each time the Circular is edited and released. 

   The Quick Look file is the Charlie Brown of data files. It is
tquite popular but never respected.
 Let me clarify some things. The Quick Look file was never meant to be
a file of record or to be used for this purpose (hence the name "Quick
Look"). We actually went out of our way to make it available to CVNet
because we recognize the value such a Circular has to the community.
Many of the core issues Chris has to deal with are the same issues
that staff deal with on a daily basis as we process over 600,000
observations per year (a rate that is rapidly growing). They are
mainly misidentified stars and formatting errors in submitted reports.
 The AAVSO works hard to make this available to the world in near real
time as the file is updated every 10 minutes.  Improvements in
technology are in progress that should help but nothing will make the
file perfect other than having a human being process incoming
observations 24/7 and I think we all can imagine how expensive that
would be. But just to give you an idea take 8,760 hours in a year and
multiply it by the Massachusetts minimum wage and you get $59,130.
Divide that by approximately 1,300 paying members and you'd need a
raise of $46 in our annual dues to pay for that. And that doesn't take
into consideration overhead and the simple fact that you can't get
someone at minimum wage for such a job. So how about some appreciation
for the Quick Look, "the little data file that can do"?

Aaron