Alan, A timely and intelligent mail - nice! one.
I played at super dooper pooper scooper - (log cop) - for a couple of years but it was as you correctly percieved taking up too much of my time.
I wused to be Emily's page administrator but since she disappeared into the burrow of 2nd Life and despite "millions" of 'carrots' - (read: e-mails) - I've lost contact with her.
I do wish she'd pop her head out with a quick - "What's up Doc?".
I'm now involved in other aspects of the Grand Old Lady ... AO-7, not N1DID.
73 John. la2qaa@amsat.org .............................................................................................
From: ve4yz@mts.net To: la2qaa@amsat.org; sv1bsx@yahoo.gr CC: amsat-bb@amsat.org; eu-amsat@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [amsat-bb] More AO-7 log. Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:01:17 -0600
Regrettably, there seems to be only a few ways of "Ham - Proofing " the logging system.
One would be to add some logic to the code for the form entry to prevent submitting unless at least one of the QSO entries are completed. This may require diving into the rabbit hole to rescue Emily from her Second Life and nicely asking her to tweak the code. However, it would not prevent entrants from adding dummy info just to get a count.
Another would be having a super user act as "log-cop" and zap bad entries. That may be perceived as badly as a "grammar cop" or "spelling cop" on this BB, and, who would want to waste that amount of time each day cleaning up other's messes. But it could be mitigated if a warning line was added to the top of the table. "Invalid entries and empty QSOs will be deleted"
Another that comes to mind would probably involve Emily and may actually be the easiest. The entire database could be conditioned occasionally. Again a super user could execute a single line SQL statement that purges all entries where the QSO is blank or includes text such as "CQ". DELETE FROM table_name WHERE column_name = some_value. I'm ignorant of the db used here but hesitantly *assume* in might me MySQL or something similar.
The SQL statement could even be automated in a chron process and executed automatically each day.
Or, folks could just use common sense and read the second sentence at the top of the log - "IF YOU HAVE A CONTACT TO REPORT...." Oh, we already tried that and it didn't work...
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of John Hackett Sent: March 4, 2008 2:17 AM To: sv1bsx@yahoo.gr Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org; Eu-amsat@yahoogroups.com Subject: [amsat-bb] More AO-7 log.
Mak, Despite our repeated requests ... yesterday ...
W7AIT 15:49 W7AIT 15:50 ... (seperate QSO's) PY4AJ CQ VK4ZQ CQ
Like I mentioned ... don't these people 'look' at what they write? ... or note how those that fill in the log correctly do it? ... or even read the Amsat mail?.
What can one do?.
Statistics are no use to man nor beast if they're incorrect - and over the first 3 months of this year there are enough errors to ensure that the statistics *ARE* wrong ... agreed, they're only small mistakes and agreed that - "it's only a hobby" - but what is the point in filling in the log in the first place if you're not going to do it correctly?.
Having pointed out the errors once, twice and three times on both bulletin boards in the last 14 days I assumed that ought to be enough - obviously it wasn't ... so I don't know about you but I'm not going to bother anymore.
Since the main "contenders" are English speaking one cannot blame the language. The panes are clear enough and cannot be misconscrued. The hour glass is self explanitory - you yourself have explained more than once how to fix things if they do occasionally go amok - (data is "data") - I'm referring to the - 'remember me' - checkbox issue.
It's a pity such a useful resource is allowed to become a mess.
EOR ... (End of rant).
73 John. la2qaa@amsat.org _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb