Thomas,

I bet you'll get the "has been asked before" response at some point during this discussion since it has literally just been disc a few weeks back :).

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 1:14 PM, Thomas Doyle tomdoyle1948@gmail.comwrote:

The bulletin board system AMSAT is using is well suited for information that

To be precise, it is not a BBS but a mailing list or reflector.

is useful for only a relatively short time. If there is a trip to a rare grid location that information is of little use after the event takes place. IMHO what is missing is a way to share information that has relevance beyond a few days.

The discussion after the trip with the learnings can be of interest longer, but you're generally right, it's mostly interesting in the days prior.

When I became active again on the sats I asked a question on the board. I received an email telling me that "that question has been asked several times before". It was helpful beyond belief.

You did ask the mighty Google, did you? :) Google never tells you that and is always nice. Ok, just kidding.

In the last few days someone posted a nice check list of things to do to try and get your SatPC32 station running. A bit later someone posted a correction that added a vital step that was missing in the first posting. Suppose a newbie subscribes to the board today - he has already looked at the articles from 1997-2004 in the new users section on the AMSAT website but needs a little current info. He posts a message on the board asking about getting his SatPC32 station working. Lets hope no one sends him a message telling him that "that question has been asked before". I also hope no one sends him a message suggesting he uses the search funtion. That would be like the 4th grade teacher who responded to my question "How do you spell pneumonia ?" - by telling me to "Look it up in the dictionary" - I spent a lot of time looking for words that started with "N" before asking my folks when I got home.

Now the question again is: did he search the archives? I'm not referring to article archives but the mailing list archives. You hopefully are aware of those. Btw. they're plain text and platform independent.

If they did search - what would they look for. What are the chances that they would find the initial post AND the correction post. I realize

In this specific case starting with Satpc32 would be a good start.

everything is perfect as it is but perhaps it would be nice to have

Then why change it? Never change a running system.

something similar to the Yahoo Groups where subscribers can post files and pictures of things that would be of interest for more than a day or two.

If Yahoo groups, then the problem becomes that the content will be locked into Yahoo's format. One of the big problems we have to today in the computing world is the use of proprietary formats which lock information into the products of certain vendors. Yahoo (or Google for that matter) are not too different from that. Questions here are: can you extract all data from your Yahoo group when necessary at any time into a useable format to use it somewhere else? Are Yahoo groups open to searches from Google so that when someone looks for something it comes up? There are plenty of ways to host a file somewhere and share the link. It is a good idea to not share files through a mailing list. Not everybody cares for the files. I know Yahoo groups can convert them into links and they're hosted with Yahoo. What I find always interesting is that groups much larger who produce pretty much all of the essential software that today allows you to actually use the Internet (Apache, sendmail, Bind, Linux, *BSD) use either Majordomo or the newer mailman. Why? Because it just works.

Take a look at the SDR-Radio or Softrock groups on Yahoo. There are files

and pictures that have been very helpful to me. There was a recent posting here from someone asking for a current Doppler.SQF file. I sent him mine but it would have been better if there was a place to store it where anyone could access it.

The best place would've been your blog where not only you could share the file but also the knowledge you gathered while creating it thus making more people smarter. Remember, what you learn you must share, what you know you must teach.

Some people have their stations working well but are not all that excited about spending a lot of time documenting it and posting it for a handful of people who might look at it before it disappears into the abyss of the message archive.

See my quote above. People who aren't willing or interested to share and help others improve and better themselves will not necessarily care for your approach to change over to another service :).

Bottom line is, the system of today is working. The feature of sending files is probably not as strongly desired to warrant a change. Biggest problem being reliance on somebody elses service which can be gone tomorrow including your data. Then what?

On a side note regarding search functions etc. I do find a lot that people ask indeed questions before even attempting to do their homework and show a little initiative. This is true for multiple areas, not just ham radio lists. People today seem to have become to lazy to actually go out there and do a simple Google search and instead just post questions to forums or lists that they could've answered by themselves in the same amount of time it took to post the question. Like Thomas Watson jr. once said: "All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work."

73 Mike K5TRI

p.s.: You may not like what I wrote in return, but at least I threw a Thomas Watson quote in there :)

Does this bulletin board have a 'files' section like a Yahoo Group? In a Yahoo Group, that can be done and questions that are recurring can be stored and a new questioner can be referred to that file, if no one is inclined to answer the question.

If not, maybe its time to make the AMSAT board a Yahoo Group that would still be moderated. HRD, Kenwood, Yaesu radio groups do it quite successfully

(assuming someone's Sacred Cow is not stepped on !)

TK, K7TRK

-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Doyle Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 11:15 AM To: AMSAT-BB@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] A Modest Proposal

The bulletin board system AMSAT is using is well suited for information that is useful for only a relatively short time. If there is a trip to a rare grid location that information is of little use after the event takes place. IMHO what is missing is a way to share information that has relevance beyond a few days.

When I became active again on the sats I asked a question on the board. I received an email telling me that "that question has been asked several times before". It was helpful beyond belief.

In the last few days someone posted a nice check list of things to do to try and get your SatPC32 station running. A bit later someone posted a correction that added a vital step that was missing in the first posting. Suppose a newbie subscribes to the board today - he has already looked at the articles from 1997-2004 in the new users section on the AMSAT website but needs a little current info. He posts a message on the board asking about getting his SatPC32 station working. Lets hope no one sends him a message telling him that "that question has been asked before". I also hope no one sends him a message suggesting he uses the search function. That would be like the 4th grade teacher who responded to my question "How do you spell pneumonia ?" - by telling me to "Look it up in the dictionary" - I spent a lot of time looking for words that started with "N" before asking my folks when I got home.

If they did search - what would they look for. What are the chances that they would find the initial post AND the correction post. I realize everything is perfect as it is but perhaps it would be nice to have something similar to the Yahoo Groups where subscribers can post files and pictures of things that would be of interest for more than a day or two. Take a look at the SDR-Radio or Softrock groups on Yahoo. There are files and pictures that have been very helpful to me. There was a recent posting here from someone asking for a current Doppler.SQF file. I sent him mine but it would have been better if there was a place to store it where anyone could access it.

Some people have their stations working well but are not all that excited about spending a lot of time documenting it and posting it for a handful of people who might look at it before it disappears into the abyss of the message archive.

You may not like what you read but be thankful I fought the urge to include some sort of Jonathan Swift reference. _______________________________________________ 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