Since it's my suggestion that started this little lit match
discussion...let me explain my reasoning. Feel free to send flames to
/dev/null. We're all in this together, ok?
1. I'm not speaking for Jim; he and perhaps one or two other people
maintain the allstarlink.org site. I'm assuming it is NOT their day
job. And, when they do maintain it, it's FOR FREE. I dislike imposing
on ANYONE, especially one who has done so much to help US that we should
expect him (or them, for that matter) to add to their responsibilities
and develop an interactive site for US, THE USERS to swap the fruits of
our labor from THEIR efforts. Links are cheap. Maintaining a site
isn't; it takes time, effort, disk space, bandwidth, dealing with the
clueless, etc. Got to help out those who help us.
2. The analogy, stated by another is apt. If you're going to put all
your eggs in one basket, make sure it's a damn strong basket. And the
internet ain't, regardless of what we think. DNSs get scrogged, disks
go tango uniform, firewalls get dain bramaged, people fatfinger
URLs...you name it. Resilient, it ain't. So, like many sites, there
are mirrors, off-site repositories, etc. It's not a big deal. Done all
the time. And is no reflection on the 'mother ship'.
3. Scott's offer was made in a gentlemanly manner IMHO (and he has a day
job too...) of assistance and in the spirit of open source cooperation.
Thank you, Scott.
4. It does no good to jump to conclusions, etc. as to motives or
agendas, or what have you. Different sites? That's what the
bookmark/favorites/etc tab is for in the browser. Even better, do what
lots of folks who've been on the web since the 90s do, and make a local
web page with links to ALL of your interests (mine range from restoring
british sports cars to medieval theology to broadcast engineering to
amateur radio to the american civil war...) in it, store it on the local
machine (well, I actually store it on my server and load from there...)
with all the requisite links. You'd be amazed how easy it is, and,
instead of being handed a fish, you build your own pole and go out and
grab what you want.
5. We're hams. We build stuff, make it work, and keep tweaking till
we're done. Well...there's a wealth of knowledge out there, neat things
we've all done, insights into how the system operates, or how we can
twist its dongles a little more to our liking. In that spirit...it
makes sense to share what we've all accomplished. For the good of all
of us.
5. Thank you, Jim, for letting us fill up your mailbox today with
something that really didn't need to go to the level it did.
Bryan
WB0YLE
27294, 27295, 27673, 27720, 37774, 90102
