Forums vs. email is mechanics. The fundamental problem is whether AMSAT is a club or a space program. Obviously, we're a volunteer effort, and people participate for their personal fulfillment. So, it has that element of a club. But it also needs to have relationships with deep-pockets donors, aerospace contractors, and governments. And in that regard it needs to appear to be well-run, reliable, and desirable to partner with. And unfortunately the informal, no rules, free-for-all aspect of a club isn't entirely compatible with that. ARISS clearly took that to heart. AMSAT has yet to do so.

The problem with "educate not legislate" is two-fold. First, if there aren't rules, just _what_ do you educate about? Your personal preference, which others can take or leave as they desire. The second problem is that educating takes dedicated people to expend a lot of time, without thanks, to ride herd on all of those cats. And it's a never-ending process.

I understand that a lot of folks are on this list just to operate. Which is part of the mission. But the other part is to get birds in the air, which has obviously gotten more difficult and we find ourselves using the world's oldest operating satellite, and one launched in 2017. 

On Wed, Jan 29, 2025 at 9:57 AM Jeff Moore via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
This is a perennial argument that has been coming up almost since the inception of the Internet.  Forums are OK UNLESS you want timely distribution of important information.  If you want that, you DON'T want a forum.  Only an email list can do that because ONLY an email list will push the messages to the end-user.

If I may make a suggestion - move the AMSAT BB to Groups.io.  That way you get the convenience of a forum with the immediacy of an email list as well as a bunch of other features like polls, file storage, sub-groups, etc.  Last time I checked, it was $220/yr for all of the features just mentioned (plus more).  If my ham club can afford it, then AMSAT certainly can - then everybody will be happy (at least as happy as they are ever going to get).

7     3
Jeff Moore  --  KE7ACY
CN94

On Tue, Jan 28, 2025 at 6:19 AM Sean Kutzko via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
Enough of this BS. I’m out. 73.

Sent from the iPhone of Sean, KX9X

> On Jan 28, 2025, at 8:07 AM, Zach Metzinger via AMSAT-BB <amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
>
> On 1/28/25 04:22, Matthew Alberti via AMSAT-BB wrote:
>> Another idea for discussion is to migrate to a forum site and sunset the e-mail distributions altogether.
>
> Hello Matthew,
>
> I am completely opposed to migrating amsat-bb to a "forum".
>
> I have a multitude of reasons behind this reaction:
>
> 1) Content/data should be accessible via many paths, not just a website front-end or an "app". I have yet to see forum software which provides either an IMAP or NNTP protocol interface so that I can use my preferred email client to interact with it. No, I don't want to load yet another gee-whiz app on my phone when my email client works great right now.
>
> 2) A forum-style system (let's call it a BBS, shall we?) requires far more infrastructure than a simple mailing list. Likewise, the required administrative load goes up with a forum versus an email list.
>
> 3) We begin to introduce more radio-unfriendly content/features and increase dependence on the commercial Internet. It is my position that we should be _reducing_ our dependence on the Internet (and the associated commercial carriers) for all amateur radio/satellite traffic. This mailing list, along with other AMSAT-related information, should be disseminated using Amateur Radio resources such as our upcoming Pacsat platform.
>
> 73,
>
> --- Zach
> N0ZGO
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
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>
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-----------------------------------------------------------

Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed
are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.
Acceptable Use and Privacy Policies available at https://www.amsat.org/about-amsat/

View archives of this mailing list at
https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/list/amsat-bb@amsat.org
To unsubscribe send an email to amsat-bb-leave(a)amsat.org
Manage all of your AMSAT-NA mailing list preferences at https://mailman.amsat.org

-----------------------------------------------------------

Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available
to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed
are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA.
Acceptable Use and Privacy Policies available at https://www.amsat.org/about-amsat/

View archives of this mailing list at
https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/list/amsat-bb@amsat.org
To unsubscribe send an email to amsat-bb-leave(a)amsat.org
Manage all of your AMSAT-NA mailing list preferences at https://mailman.amsat.org


--
Bruce Perens K6BP