Following thoughtful article seen on another medium.....

Amateur Radio Newsgroups: Total Meltdown
Paul W. Schleck (K3FU) on April 26, 2006


Way back in 1972, before there was a World-Wide Web, even before there was Usenet News, amateur radio enthusiasts on the then-ARPANet organized a mailing list known as Info-Hams. In 1979, a couple of researchers at Duke and UNC developed a system that used "Unix to Unix File Copy" or "uucp" to copy files from one system to another, to make a broadcast bulletin-board system called "Usenet." The Info-Hams mailing list eventually gatewayed to this system, becoming fa.info-hams (fa = "From ARPANet"), then rec.ham-radio, then rec.radio.amateur.*.

Fast-forward to the present, and the newsgroups rec.radio.amateur.misc and rec.radio.amateur.policy are now in complete meltdown (the *.antenna, *.dx, *.equipment, and *.space newsgroups still seem to be in good shape, though). Both forums are almost completely bereft of any topic discussion. Instead, one can find run-on threads consisting of short, sniping, and personal attacks containing obscene language from what must be fewer than a dozen, mostly anonymous, users.

What happened? -- Maybe too many run-on arguments about code, or attacks on individual ham's personal character. Maybe just the anarchy and Tragedy of the Commons that is encouraged by totally-open, unmoderated forums where no one is obliged to obey any rules, and no competent authority seems able or willing to enforce them if there were any. Further fanning the flames are free, and anonymous, news posting sites like Google Groups, Yahoo, etc., as well as any news site that simply doesn't care to enforce any net etiquette among its users. Some hams have even offered the explanation that better enforcement of amateur radio regulations by Riley Hollingsworth at the FCC has had the unintended consequence of driving problem hams off the bands and onto a less restrictive forum to wreck.

As for Google Groups, it certainly deserves credit for archiving most newsgroup discussions since 1981 (thanks to old backup tapes meticulously maintained by Henry Spencer at the University of Toronto), but also a big raspberry for contributing to this problem.

This hasn't happened to every newsgroup. Even though other newsgroups have trolls, there seems to be a "immune system" of constructive users who step in both to ostracize problem users, and continue positive contributions in the face of such troublemakers. Certainly this behavior is not tolerated on web logs such as qrz.com and eHam.net. The site owners simply would not allow it. There is at least one example of a licensed radio amateur who is Dr. Jekyll on the blogs, but Mr. Hyde on rec.radio.amateur.policy. There may even be others.

I'm sure some would argue that Usenet is obsolete, and we are all better off going to moderated blogs. Still, I can't help but think that something is being lost here. For example, 20 years into the future, will we be able to read archived and indexed articles from most web logs that exist today, as we now have with Google Groups? Are there constructive solutions to the meltdown on rec.radio.amateur.*, such as converting newsgroups to moderated status, even if such moderated status is simply a self-approval, or anonymous user filter, mechanism?

Posted from another medium
by The Man in the Maze
QRV at Baboquivari Peak