Good write up, Mike. I agree. A 1 hour submission limit is ludicrous, IMO!
73, Geo...
George Wagner, K5KG
941-312-9420
941-400-1960 cell
In a message dated 5/13/2008 3:42:52 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
mjc5@psu.edu writes:
>
I've been reading some of the posts calling for a one hour deadline
for log submissions. I don't think it will work very well. And I have
actual facts to support that opinion.
In way of personal experience, I added a "logs received" page to our
website to allow Ops to see if we actually got their submissions.
A fair number of folks sent in their logs, but we never got them. The
logs were lost somewhere in the ether. I don't know where, but they
were. Having that web page allowed people to check.
Important:
1.If a sponsor does not get an email, they don't know that they
didn't get it.
2. Perhaps most importantly, email is terribly unreliable. I deal in
many hundreds of emails a day, and some mail gets lost almost every
day. Possible culprits are:
misaddressing
Petulant spam filters
unknown black holes
3. Is everyone's net access always running, 24/7/365.25? I've got
pretty good cable web, but it goes down from time to time. It would
be a pity to have all the hard work from a contest be for naught
because there was a DOS attack going on right after a contest. Even
more sinister, some miscreant could bring the contest site's servers
down, and they would know just when to do it!
4. Transit time - Try an experiment - time some email. It does not go
at the speed of light. I've had email delays of well over an hour on
occasion (these were emails sent to me automatically, so I know when
they were sent.
5. All these things are correctable, but not if you only have an hour
to correct them. Is it fair to DQ an Op because his/her internet
connection went down or they didn't have the right address or one of
a hundred things that can go wrong?
I would respectfully suggest that the idea of a one hour time limit
for log submission is Draconian, would eliminate entire classes
(honest officer, I had a good reason to be going 150 mph - I had to
get to a wifi hotspot to submit my mobile log before time runs out!)
First time Ops often have issues with logging programs, and it takes
them a while t get things ready. I've talked several through
preparing their logs.
Now, how about the person who submits their log 60 minutes and 1
second after the contest? Or sends it right after the contest and
transit time delays it? I'd give up on contesting if I was at the
mercy of my web connection.
I'm pretty convinced such a short deadline would have a deleterious
effect on contesting, and those very few who do cheat would just find
other ways to cheat.
-73 de Mike N3LI -
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