AA7BQ
08-04-2007, 07:07 PM
Looking over the WHOIS records the other day, I finally found the date
that the QRZ.COM name was first granted, October 28, 1993. In those
nearly 14 years since QRZ went online, there has been a tremendous
growth in the internet and the world of amateur radio has undergone a
transformation.
Gone are three license classes, Morse code examinations, and paper
callbooks. Technology embraces nearly every aspect of our hobby and
the Internet has grown to unbelievable breadth and capacity. When QRZ
was founded, there were already over 2,000,000 machines online. Today,
that number has grown by 200 times, to a staggering 433,000,000
computers. That makes QRZ older than 99.5 percent of the machines
on the internet! As an interesting side note, QRZ opened its online
doors the same year that the world's first web browser, Mosaic was
introduced.
Over the years QRZ has tried to provide the the most services to the
largest audience of hams possible, and over time we've added quite a
number of features that most of you have become quite familiar with and
in many cases, grown to depend on.
One of the most important upgrades to the original QRZ service, which
at first was simply a callsign lookup, was the addition of pictures and
biography pages to the callsign listings. Some 86,000 amateurs now
have information about themselves in these bio listings, and 130,000
pictures have been uploaded and are served by our server.
For several years now I've come to realize that for many hams, their
QRZ bio is an important part of their hobby, and is quite often shared
over the air as an informal QSL mechanism. A few years ago, while
vacationing in the south pacific, I had no television, internet or
telephone. I did have a small, Grundig Yacht Boy receiver and while
laying on the beach one afternoon I was listening to a QSO between a
fellow on a tanker ship near the Galapagos Islands and a ham in
Mexico. Towards the end of their conversation, they both mentioned
that their info was "Good in QRZ" and at that moment I suddenly and
proudly realized just how important the resource had become.
As with most public information systems, QRZ has maintained a set of
rules governing how the facilities could be used and what sorts of
content was acceptable. QRZ has always maintained rules that prohibit
pornography, obscenity, hate speech, etc., however one rule that we've
had for a long time has recently been reviewed and changed. This rule
deals with the so-called "commercial use" of the biography area.
It seemed sensible to adopt a prohibition against commercial
advertising in the bios because the rule sounded familiar to all of us:
i.e. the FCC has always placed that rule on our on-air activities. In
addition, there was a concern that allowing individuals to advertise in
their bio pages would be unfair to our paid commercial advertisers.
While this may have been true in the early days of QRZ when traffic was
light, it's not the case today.
With these things in mind it becomes clear that there is absolutely no
reason for our "non-commercial" rule to continue in the biography listings.
In fact, there are a number of reasons why the rule should be repealed.
QRZ is and has always been a small business enterprise. We embrace the
ideals of free enterprise and have been successful for it. Many of
today's big names in amateur radio like Elecraft, MFJ, and DX
Engineering were once just small, one-man operations. They've grown
through hard work and perseverance the hobby as a whole has benefited
from them. We should all encourage small businesses for the products
that they bring to the hobby, for any of them has the potential to
change the course of history.
With these things in mind, QRZ is pleased to announce its new
Biography Content Policy (/i/bio_policy.html) which outlines what types
of activity are permitted, both private and commercial. To
assuage the fears of some, let me say that this announcement is not a
precursor to any new revenue strategy or any attempt whatsoever to charge
for bio listings. The QRZ callsign database will continue to be free
to all of its participants and there will be no fees collected for the
posting of biographies, pictures, or QSL information. Each of us should
consider showing our gratitude to the advertisers who support this site
and for those who have chosen to voluntarily subscribe to our databases.
Their support has made QRZ what it is today.
To summarize the new changes in as few words as possible, we are hereby
allowing commercial material to appear in bio listings. There
are restrictions, however, in that these listings may not advertise
prices or facilitate online ordering. It is merely a place of contact
and perhaps a brochure-like description of products and services that
the individual has to offer. The posting of contact information, phone
numbers, and pointers to other websites is encouraged.
To add a final point of clarification, the prohibition against commercial
dealers selling in our Online Swapmeet forum will continue to stand.
So with that, I would like to welcome those of you who are self employed
or would otherwise like to promote some aspect of your business life on
your QRZ callsign page. Please be our welcome guest and please abide by
the rules which are posted therein.
73,
-fred AA7BQ
Reference: QRZ's Biography Content Policy (/i/bio_policy.html)
.
that the QRZ.COM name was first granted, October 28, 1993. In those
nearly 14 years since QRZ went online, there has been a tremendous
growth in the internet and the world of amateur radio has undergone a
transformation.
Gone are three license classes, Morse code examinations, and paper
callbooks. Technology embraces nearly every aspect of our hobby and
the Internet has grown to unbelievable breadth and capacity. When QRZ
was founded, there were already over 2,000,000 machines online. Today,
that number has grown by 200 times, to a staggering 433,000,000
computers. That makes QRZ older than 99.5 percent of the machines
on the internet! As an interesting side note, QRZ opened its online
doors the same year that the world's first web browser, Mosaic was
introduced.
Over the years QRZ has tried to provide the the most services to the
largest audience of hams possible, and over time we've added quite a
number of features that most of you have become quite familiar with and
in many cases, grown to depend on.
One of the most important upgrades to the original QRZ service, which
at first was simply a callsign lookup, was the addition of pictures and
biography pages to the callsign listings. Some 86,000 amateurs now
have information about themselves in these bio listings, and 130,000
pictures have been uploaded and are served by our server.
For several years now I've come to realize that for many hams, their
QRZ bio is an important part of their hobby, and is quite often shared
over the air as an informal QSL mechanism. A few years ago, while
vacationing in the south pacific, I had no television, internet or
telephone. I did have a small, Grundig Yacht Boy receiver and while
laying on the beach one afternoon I was listening to a QSO between a
fellow on a tanker ship near the Galapagos Islands and a ham in
Mexico. Towards the end of their conversation, they both mentioned
that their info was "Good in QRZ" and at that moment I suddenly and
proudly realized just how important the resource had become.
As with most public information systems, QRZ has maintained a set of
rules governing how the facilities could be used and what sorts of
content was acceptable. QRZ has always maintained rules that prohibit
pornography, obscenity, hate speech, etc., however one rule that we've
had for a long time has recently been reviewed and changed. This rule
deals with the so-called "commercial use" of the biography area.
It seemed sensible to adopt a prohibition against commercial
advertising in the bios because the rule sounded familiar to all of us:
i.e. the FCC has always placed that rule on our on-air activities. In
addition, there was a concern that allowing individuals to advertise in
their bio pages would be unfair to our paid commercial advertisers.
While this may have been true in the early days of QRZ when traffic was
light, it's not the case today.
With these things in mind it becomes clear that there is absolutely no
reason for our "non-commercial" rule to continue in the biography listings.
In fact, there are a number of reasons why the rule should be repealed.
QRZ is and has always been a small business enterprise. We embrace the
ideals of free enterprise and have been successful for it. Many of
today's big names in amateur radio like Elecraft, MFJ, and DX
Engineering were once just small, one-man operations. They've grown
through hard work and perseverance the hobby as a whole has benefited
from them. We should all encourage small businesses for the products
that they bring to the hobby, for any of them has the potential to
change the course of history.
With these things in mind, QRZ is pleased to announce its new
Biography Content Policy (/i/bio_policy.html) which outlines what types
of activity are permitted, both private and commercial. To
assuage the fears of some, let me say that this announcement is not a
precursor to any new revenue strategy or any attempt whatsoever to charge
for bio listings. The QRZ callsign database will continue to be free
to all of its participants and there will be no fees collected for the
posting of biographies, pictures, or QSL information. Each of us should
consider showing our gratitude to the advertisers who support this site
and for those who have chosen to voluntarily subscribe to our databases.
Their support has made QRZ what it is today.
To summarize the new changes in as few words as possible, we are hereby
allowing commercial material to appear in bio listings. There
are restrictions, however, in that these listings may not advertise
prices or facilitate online ordering. It is merely a place of contact
and perhaps a brochure-like description of products and services that
the individual has to offer. The posting of contact information, phone
numbers, and pointers to other websites is encouraged.
To add a final point of clarification, the prohibition against commercial
dealers selling in our Online Swapmeet forum will continue to stand.
So with that, I would like to welcome those of you who are self employed
or would otherwise like to promote some aspect of your business life on
your QRZ callsign page. Please be our welcome guest and please abide by
the rules which are posted therein.
73,
-fred AA7BQ
Reference: QRZ's Biography Content Policy (/i/bio_policy.html)
.