The difference between the tone and attitude of the two sites could not be more apparent. Where Hoagland’s site was obviously dedicated to espousing propaganda-like theories and solely interested in promoting his ancient-Martian theory, The Mars Society presented itself as a private Mars interest group, looking to stimulate and encourage any and all research about Mars. The home page of The Enterprise Mission’s site was enough for me to completely disregard anything else on the site, because as I scrolled down I was inundated with cynical advertisements for lectures on the latest cover-up and conspiracy theory. The skeptic in me had warning bells and red lights flashing within the first 10 seconds I read the page. The website is full of remarkable claims defended by questionable and sometimes non-existent evidence. The grandiose claims and the sparse evidence results in feeling like the whole website is more conspiracy-theory than science.
In comparison, the Mars Society presents a much less biased attitude towards Mars research. Their only true bias seems to be that Mars research should be more important and receive greater attention. Just replace the hokey Star Trek references and conspiracy theories with bulletins about political awareness and accolades about research, and they’re pretty much the same website.
In both cases, the websites aren’t libraries filled with a wealth of actual Mar’s information. They act more as a hub and start point, with myriads of links to other sites, promising more information. While they do provide limited (really basic) information, they act more as jump points for people to further pursue their interests, but don’t expect a lot of organization from either site.
Oh, and don’t forget your PayPal account, to continue funding for these not-for-profit organizations.
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