[SEDXC] QRZ.com

[BLamboley at aol.com]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: _Jeffrey M. Swiger_ (mailto:N8NOE at ARRL.NET)   
To: _sysops_ (mailto:sysops at dxcluster.info)  
Sent: Sunday, June 19,  2011 3:52 PM
Subject: [sysops] QRZ Callsign Database Policy  Change

QRZ Callsign Database Policy Change 

Effective today, the QRZ Callsign database is changing the way we serve  
callsign data to our web (browser) based users. These changes have been  
brought on by a steadily increasing number of automated systems that access  the 
QRZ data in so-called hidden or stealth mode. Such systems create a  
significant load on the QRZ servers and in doing so, deprive ordinary users of  the 
performance that they deserve.


These robots (or 'bots') come in many forms. Some are designed to scrape  
the entire website for every piece of information we have. Others, known as  
"log checkers" are programs written by hams that repeatedly query the QRZ  
servers while working through lists of 10's of thousands of callsigns, doing  
it as rapidly as possible. Finally, some logging programs provide "auto 
fill"  features that use the QRZ servers in the background to fetch callsign 
data as  soon as the user types in a callsign. 


For the past several years, QRZ has provided an XML Data service that was  
specifically designed to serve automated requests such as those described  
above. The XML service is an extremely lightweight and flexible system that  
places less than 1/10 of the load on our database that a "stealth" callsign  
lookup does on our regular pages. In addition, our advertisers are being  
deprived of ad exposures by these programs which routinely ignore or discard  
all such non-callsign data as they scrape our site.


Today's changes address these issues with a new set of constraints that we  
have developed with the goal of providing fast and fair access to all QRZ  
users. The following is a summary of what these measures mean:  
Callsign data, including name, address, and other QSL and logging  
information will be shown only to registered users of QRZ who are logged in at  the 
time of the request. Guests that have not logged in will still see the  
callsign Bio page and pictures, but no callsign information will be shown.  
Registered users who are logged in will see the full detail on callsign  
pages.  
Ham users, i.e. those whose user name matches a callsign in our database,  
are limited to 150 callsign page lookups per day, not including their own  
callsign page.  
Non-ham users, i.e. users who aren't hams or don't have a username that  
matches one of our callsigns, will be limited to 25 callsign lookups per day.  
QRZ subscribers, of any type, are granted unlimited daily access to the  
QRZ callsign data.

These limits are designed for fairness and the vast majority of our ham  
users will never be affected by them, aside from the new requirement that you  
must be logged in to see callsign data. Note as well that when looking up 
or  viewing your own callsign page that the act does not count against your 
daily  lookup limit.


We ask for your support in accepting these changes and understanding that  
they were necessary in order to maintain the high level of service and 
support  that our users have grown accustomed to.


Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ 

Publisher, _QRZ.COM_ (http://qrz.com/) 

_aa7bq at qrz.com_ (mailto:aa7bq at qrz.com)