Thank you ever so much for providing the rest of us with this platform…

Myself, I am a somewhat inactive ham, as I don’t have as much time as I wish to devote to this fascinating hobby. (I’m one of the many… probably the majority… that rather than talking on the air all evening, are usually doing some sort of project in the shack, with a few radios simply playing in the background.)

Of course during my work day I’ll normally check the ARRL site at least once, as it is the premiere source of Ham related news, and it provides me an important easily accessible source to all of the back issues of QST. (I gave away my huge collection of QST years ago for distribution to Eastern Europe, as they were taking up way too much space.)

This migration to a brand new website frightens me. Normally, in such a complex undertaking, and since server space is so darn cheap, it would make sense to run both sites simultaneously until all of the bugs were completely worked out. While the old ARRL site was somewhat long in the tooth, it worked very well, everything was easily accessible, and it was fast… really fast. So much so that when I thought I was having problems with my wireless connection which I use during the day at work, I would click ARRL in the Bookmark Bar and watch the Kbps meter to verify my connection quality.

Perhaps it is simply the rush of a huge number of users at the moment, but the site right now is a pig, and is slower than AOL at lunchtime. Yesterday, the 12th, the back issues of QST was not functional, but today it seems to be up. But… the search feature is not yet functional on keywords, so it appears that the site is still being completed in bits and pieces, and the membership are the Beta Testers.

Also, I have yet to be able to find a button to simplify the presentation for those like myself who have a relatively slow connection speed… glits, graphics and ads do eat at the presentation speed of the pages, and slows it down to a crawl.

While I really believe that it is ultimately most desirable to have the League make this major upgrade to its public face, I would think that the League would not wish to present an imperfect product to the public, especially by an organization which prides itself on its technical and journalistic competence.

I do hope that the other regular users of the site find their way here, (maybe you can do some magic with the Keywords on the searches), as I would love to explore other reactions to the implementation of this upgrade.

Thanks again for creating this forum.

Mike Zydiak (W2MJZ)

Will you be entertaining that commentary here, or is there some other location where I can browse comments and complaints.

Mike Zydiak (W2MJZ)

I agree with the comments about content getting out of date. This is the curse of a large web site…the maintenance burden can kill you. I recently spotted some fundamental errors on the ARRL site concerning auxiliary stations (the FCC rules had changed) and reported them. It has been months and these errors are still not fixed. On any web site, I think you need to consciously decide which docs are the foundation that need to stay updated and which ones can be let go over time (blog style).

It is easy to dismiss the style issues, but some attention to keeping the site up to date is important (without the overdone whizzy java scripts, etc.) Style can’t overcome crappy content but it can certainly enhance it. The logical side of our brains will argue that it is only content that matters but given the way humans are wired, style can have a positive effect. Just don’t get the priorities reversed. (See Pig, Putting on Lipstick.)

More aggressive use of blogs would be a really smart move for the ARRL, sending the message of reaching out to the ham community. I would allow comments but keep them moderated. If necessary, restrict comments to members only, registered on the web site. (This will provide a degree of accountability….often missing in the trashed out web sites.) In the extreme, any bad boy members can be permanently banned from the comment feature.

The ARRL is pinging out content via twitter: http://twitter.com/arrl
This is a good example of using the web infrastructure that exists without having to invent it. (Isn’t that always the smart move on the internet? Leverage, not invent.) We need to do more of that.

73, Bob K0NR

Handling comments would be tricky, but waiting 6 months for your letter to the editor to appear in QST is not what I call interactive! It’s all a matter of priorities — the resources could be found.

Blogging is really different from writing editorials and other print articles. Ideally, it’s all about a rapid-fire exchange of ideas that is fairly informal. I really appreciate what Ed Hare W1RFI has done with his many posts to the BPL reflector and elsewhere. He’s one guy you can sort of get to know through his Internet activity.

Not everyone is cut out for this or has the time. I wouldn’t want to pressure all the senior League folks to commit to blogging actively, but it should be encouraged as a good way to reach out to the world – and the membership.