[TRLog] Adding logs to TRMASTER

[D. R. Evans]

On 29 Feb 00, at 22:41, Tom Delker wrote:

> 
> Regarding Tim's problem of getting rid of old calls with lots of hits, I
> include the contest date in data field #3.  It is an extra pass in

Yes, exactly. (In other words, what Tim is asking for is basically already 
there.)

Your comment about an extra pass suggests that maybe, at the risk of 
overloading poor Tree, I could re-suggest yet another old request: that 
multiple fields could be updated with a single pass. Updating TRMASTER from 
SS logs is a real pain because of the need for multiple passes, especially 
since I use one of the user-defined fields to store the PREC. (It's highly 
debatable whether this is worth it. On the whole I think it is. But then 
I've never done SS seriously.)

Tim, I have quite a different system of weeding old calls. It's probably 
the kind of thing that would occur only to a software hacker type. I wrote 
a bunch of programs that let me add AD1C data files, marking the calls as 
having come from a trusted source. I can also remove them (so that next 
year I can remove all this year's AD1C calls and replace them with a 
different set, all by running a simple program.) I also periodically age my 
TRMASTER by reducing the hit count by one for every call in it (and 
automatically removing all the ones with a hit count of -1).

The trouble with the AD1C files is that they are very weak on JAs. (Yes, I 
know there's a ton of them in the file, but there's still not enough for 
people out west.) So it's not enough to rely only on the distributed AD1C 
files. One has to augment those with data from one's own contest 
experience, while still recognizing that one's own logs are more likely to 
contain errors than the AD1C files.

And FWIW I don't recommend using anyone else's distributed TRMASTER files 
that are available here and there on the Net. I've tried a few. All of 
them, ALL OF THEM, were broken. Busted calls. No-longer-valid calls. 
Erroneous entries in various fields. Incorrectly formatted. You name it. I 
decided that the only way to have quality control is to use only the most 
current AD1C file augmented with your own data.

  73 -- Doc  N7DR


----------------------------------------------------------
D.R. Evans N7DR / G4AMJ                       N7DR@sff.net
Member, 1998 Nebula Novel Jury 
  http://www.sff.net/people/N7DR/nebula98.html

"Palindor Chronicles" information and extracts:
   http://www.sff.net/people/N7DR/drevans.htp
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