[IRCA] Thanks IRCA! (or no thanks NRC)

["David Hochfelder" <xxmugginsxx@xxxxxxxxx>]

Craig,

This has been a subject of discussion on the LBI Yahoo list (it's a
leftover from our November Long Beach Island DXpedition, and it's
morphed into a mini-DX list for us in the NJ and PA area).  We
were all pretty torqued about the NRC's decision to dump its listserv,
which never happened of course.  What amazed us about Paul
Swearingen's latest screed in DX News was the dismissive attitude
toward the membership.  The tone was that we're all a bunch of
whiners who won't volunteer for the club.  Yet in the past Paul
has said that the members are not truly members, in the sense of
participating in the club's decisionmaking, but are more like
subscribers to DXN.

Case in point:  several NRC members expressed a desire for the NRC
Log in electronic format, either a password protected file on a server,
or on a mailed CD.  It's far cheaper to deliver the content that
way but they are paranoid about their "intellectual property."  I
would gladly pay the same price for an electronic version with search
capabilities that I pay for the paper copy.  The club would reap a
much higher profit.  Also, an electronic file could be updated in
realtime.  The NRC Log is great, but it's basically outdated when
it ships.  I would like something like the European MW Guide.

My NRC membership expires in September and I doubt I'll renew.

But this poses a more general problem for those of us on the east coast
who are disaffected with NRC.  Yes, IRCA is a great list, no flame
wars, etc.  But most of the traffic on the list is of relevance to
west coasters.  I suppose this could be dealt with if more of us
posted loggings and so forth.  I used to be pretty religious about
posting my loggings to both lists and submitting them to DXN and DXM
but I find that I can get pretty good realtime information sharing from
the #mwdx chat room and the LBI list.

So I think the hobby is changing thanks to the Internet.  It's
becoming more realtime and adhoc and we really don't need an
organization like NRC anymore, particularly an organization that
increasingly alienates its members, er, subscribers.

Dave
Highland Park, NJ

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 10:32:59 -0400
From: "Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [IRCA] Thanks, IRCA!
To: "IRCA List" <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID: <001d01c6992d$7c54d430$3c32a8c0

@ng1u>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

I am glad I'm here and not..'somewhere else'.

Recently a post was made on a DX corporation site that castigated a bunch of
people. It appeared to include me and a number of others on this list.  A
minor quote to put this in context: "..if I offended certain individuals, I
meant to..".  There was a notation that the post was approved by management.

A very questionable PR move to have it on their site.  Why open up wounds
that are attempting to heal?

Some reply to their counterproductive rant is necessary, lest people
mistakenly think there is some truth to it.

All this is because we advised against some actions, including creation of a
forum-type page.  I had run one for a couple of years on my site, and it
never really took off.  This was due pretty much to the fact that it's
rather inconvenient.  It's also unstable software at times.  Mine crashed,
theirs did too.  Been there, done that.  But, they pushed ahead and learned
for themselves.

OK, My curiousity was piqued.  In their members' list it shows how many
messages each person has posted, and the percentage of the total message
count
that it is.  Accurate as to a day or so ago.  Top three:

P. S.   49.05%
F. V.   16.77%
B. C.   10.60%

The biggest poster has almost half of the content, probably 300 or so
of the 625 total messages.  It's not a forum, it's a blog by the same
grouchy person quoted above.

The *vast* majority of members are listed with zero percent.  Never
posted even one message.

These are all facts culled directly from the public areas of their site.
If these facts are in error, it's because the source was corrupt.

If anyone is offended by this, or contests the accuracy of the facts,
I would hope they would complain directly to me offlist, rather than
chicken out and bother the moderators here.  This was not pre-approved by
these moderators, so there's no need for anyone to hide behind them.
Leave them alone.  Complain to me directly.

In my years of running a FIDO BBS and moderating some of those echoes, it's
plain that there is a critical mass of writers needed to sustain a viable
echo (or forum).  Fall below that number and it dries up *very* quickly.
Sure, a moderator can post a lot to cover it up and artificially pump the
traffic. By that time it's already dead. Why would anyone would buy "dead"?


I am very happy that IRCA exists.  There seems to be a harmony here which
is refreshing.  There is also an activity level which is stimulating. I am
very glad to be here.  It is also evident that the reasons for the genesis
of IRCA in 1963 is still very much with us, which is sad. Don't they
*ever* learn?

Thanks!

Craig Healy
Providence, RI

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