[CQ-Contest] Let's call them "Spot Spam"

[jpescatore at aol.com]

Back in the late 1990s my job and a growing family had me take what Shin JA1NUT calls a "long QRX" - I was off the air for close to 10 years. When I came back on I was pretty amazed about what the packetcluster network had turned into - and worried.
We already knew from the Internet what lack of strong authentication would bring - spam and misinformation. Back then (2010) I reached out on CQ-CONTEST and directly to others about doing something to avoid that. Dave K1TTT's response pretty much captured the major issue:
| K1TTT said: "Same answer to all 3... the existing software and network 
implementation won't 
handle it.  Remember, the existing network was derived from the rf 
packetcluster network 
where by law encryption and security were prohibited. So all the existing 
software has an 
open text backbone structure that allows easy connection of net nodes to the 
network." |

Remember, back then many were complaining that LotW was being overly complex building a strong registration/authentication mechanism in...
I'd donate to a project to create a trustable cluster/skimmer subset and for software like N1MM Logger+ to have quality ratings in addition to reliability ratings. Realistically (see spam and misinformation level today) while that only solves part of the problem, and mostly for S&Pers vs. targeted runners, that is probably what is doable - kinda like the continual fight against crabgrass where it has had years to spread seeds...
73 John K3TN