[CQ-Contest] New Contesters & CQ-Contest

[jpescatore at aol.com]

I remember in the early 90's when George (WB5VZL at the time) and I (WB2EKK at the time) kept lists of contester email addresses and then Trey (WN4KKN at the time) started up CQ-CONTEST (@tgv.com at the time) within mere weeks there were endless threads about the 10 minute rule, packetcluster as the death of DXing and contesting skills and so on. Having been off the air for most of the last 10 years, it has been interesting to see the same threads still in progress here! Sort of like on 75 phone the same guys (with new callsigns) seem to be having the same QSOs they were having back then when I'd pop up on there during SSB Sprints.



This type of problem is pretty much endemic to the medium. The original FAQ for CQ-CONTEST said "Eschew flamage.If someone sends a flame to the list and you can't bite your tongue, send your flaming reply directly back to the flamingindividual, not back to the list. No one wants to pay $1.00 to read these messages (the original flame + your reply).  Treat flamers the?way you would 2-meter repeater jammers - ignore them."




The way this is always handled is either to open up a moderated list or people just devolve back to private email lists. But a small increase in flamage eschewal and large increases in direct replies and tongue-biting can go a long way.




John K3TN