[CQ-Contest] QSO Party Spam

[David A. Pruett]

I'm going to ask this question only once, then I will shut up on this subject.

How do the participants in this reflector feel about receiving what amounts 
to press releases about state QSO parties every few days?  Is this 
something you don't mind, is it something you're interested in, or is it 
something you find presumptuous and annoying, like the unwanted spam which 
fills our e-mail in-boxes?

I ask this question because I want to establish (if for no one other than 
myself) what the users of this reflector (and moderator) think is appropriate.

The annual "spamming" of CQ-Contest by the sponsors of the Florida QSO 
Party has begun, almost a month before the event occurs.  Why they do this 
is understandable - they are trying to promote their event; nothing wrong 
with that.

There are other state QSO parties which are on the schedule before FQP.  GA 
is next weekend, MI the following weekend, THEN comes FQP.  I'm sure the 
sponsors of these and other state QSO parties are just as interested in 
publicity and promotion.  But at the same time let's be honest - state QSO 
parties are the most important to the sponsors, and those in the target state.

I am the chairman of the Michigan QSO Party committee.  Our philosophy for 
using CQ-Contest to promote our event has been to refrain until the week of 
the contest.  Otherwise we confine MiQP announcements to a mailing list 
which we maintain of previous entrants, our e-mail reflector 
(MiQP-Mail at miqp.org) and some targeted mailings to known in-state contesters.

Despite the tone of this note, this is not intended as a blast at the FQP 
folks.  I count many of the FCGers who work behind the scenes as friends 
who run a great event and I wish them luck.  However, I think they are 
taking advantage of this reflector for purposes of publicity, but if no one 
seems to mind that's OK.  If that's the case, then count on MiQP (and I 
would suspect other QSO parties as well) to ratchet up the PR spam.  We too 
have organizational activities for the contest going on like an on-line map 
filling in with counties to be activated, in case you're interested.

Speaking now as a CQ-Contest subscriber, I would like to see a policy where 
state QSO party announcements are limited to the week of the event.  This 
should be plenty to time to establish awareness of the event and get people 
on the air.  It will also eliminate PR overlap between succeeding events 
and reduce confusion in the minds of the casual participant that we're all 
trying to attract.

Now I'll QRT on this subject.

73,

Dave/K8CC