[UK-CONTEST] Robots or web-page : Rcvd Logs

[Les Allwood]

As both an adjudicator and an entrant, I have mixed views about "robots".



Certainly, from an adjudication point of view, they would automatically 
filter out all those spam messages offering untold wealth or awesome sexual 
prowess (I already have both!!!), but they would also, presumably, reject 
all submitted logs not in the correct format. In an ideal world that would 
be no problem, but, certainly in the Commonwealth Contest, logs do arrive in 
a wide variety of pseudo-Cabrillo formats, as well as a range of others. 
Currently I have the option to extract the relevant data and re-format it 
appropriately, only "bouncing" those which are totally unusable.



Surely the current system of submitting a log, AND receiving an 
acknowledgement, is more user-friendly. What did contesters do before the 
internet and e-mail? Did you just entrust the log to the Royal Mail and 
expect delivery, or did you include an SAE for a hard-copy receipt? 
Whichever you did, you must surely agree that the present system is easier, 
faster and cheaper, thus encouraging a wider range of entrants than before. 
I am not against the concept of well-implemented robots, but I do not accept 
that they are a panacea for everything.



73 de Les, G3VQO



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nigel G3TXF" <nigel at G3TXF.com>
To: "UK Contest Reflector" <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 1:02 PM
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] Robots or web-page : Rcvd Logs


> Hello Steve
>
> Yes, I agree. If no ROBOT (with a quasi-instantaneous response) is 
> possible
> yet, then a web-page with a simple list of received logs for each RSGB CC
> event would be great.
>
> In recent weeks I have submitted logs to ARRL-CW, REF-CW, PACC and RDXC. 
> The
> receipt of my log in each case is confirmed by checking on the appropriate
> web-page.
>
> E-mail is fundamentally reliable, however when things do go wrong, as they
> do occasionally (e.g a 'lost' log), it's a real downer!
>
> 73 - Nigel G3TXF
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Steve White" <g3zvw at talktalk.net>
> To: <uk-contest at contesting.com>
> Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 9:54 AM
> Subject: [UK-CONTEST] Robots
>
>
>> As a member of a group whose e-mailed entries into more than one RSGB
>> event
>> have been lost over the past couple of years ago, I can vouch for the 
>> fact
>> that it is very demotivating (even though on one occasion receipt of the
>> entry was confirmed). If a robot is not a viable option at this time,
>> maybe
>> the HFCC web site could have a page which is updated by the 
>> adjudicator(s)
>> to list the callsigns of entries that have been received. At least that
>> way
>> we would have a chance of re-sending if they aren't listed. A halfway
>> house
>> might be to instigate a claimed scores web page, along the lines of the
>> one
>> on the VHFCC web site, which the adjudicator(s) could refer to.
>>
>> Steve, G3ZVW
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
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