It's only $14.50 in some places. Yes, there is. People do all sorts of things for free. Or, they are paid in ways other than money - education, fun, accomplishment. Maybe. Why did you "help people every day for a year" and wind up with no food? Didn't you have a job or some source of reliable income? To be an effective volunteer, one must have the resources to help out for free. What about everyone else? Should no one volunteer their time, effort and know-how? Should everyone be paid for everything they do? The OP asked for volunteers. Anyone can say no. Yes, it does. Should VEs be paid? How about radio club officers? If someone asks a question here on the Zed, and I write an answer which solves their problem, should they have to pay me? Without volunteers, a lot of good things would just collapse.
Why the secrecy? Are you the Illuminati? Knights Templar? The mafia? INTERPOL? al Quada? The PLO? Skull and bones society? What are you hiding? Is it classified, eyes only stuff? Are you risking OPSEC by sharing? Cool, how about some links to your social media pages and blogs, upcoming seminar dates and locations and a list of guest whom you have had speak? At an undisclosed location. Is it Area 51.....nah, that would probably be considered Southwest. I guess. Based on your lack of information, the only people who might be interested are those looking for a secret society to join.
Yes, indeed. Jim and I go way back on-line, and we could probably tell you a number of stories about our dealings with multiple toxic trolls in otherwise useful forums about amateur radio. Trolls that were effectively neutralized with coordinated effort by Internet "concerned citizens." Jim was also a member of our team (we enjoy the contributions of many good people who rotate in and out over the years) and might want to elaborate further on his role, either here, or in a private message. Just ask him. 73, Paul, K3FU
The police can't be everywhere or know everything. Nor are the police required to act to protect any individual citizen, just society at large. Individuals can and do impact public safety through observation, reporting, even techniques to pre-emptively make themselves a hard target against criminal activity. That's why we have things like Neighborhood Watch. Similarly, on the Internet, site administrators can't be everywhere, or know everything that is going on at large, technically complex sites. In many case, they rely on reports from concerned users about various issues ranging from criminal activity to abusive conduct. Some distributed Internet forums such as Usenet newsgroups have no central nexus of control, with servers spanning multiple countries, requiring more nuanced solutions and broad cooperation by administrators and users to deal with abusive users and rogue server sites. Abuse on the Internet can, and does, spill over into the real world with threats, harassment, even criminal conduct. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away. For example, multiple ISP's were made aware by us of an individual kicked off of previous ISP's for bragging and providing detailed descriptions on various forums about using an amplifier on Citizen's Band running well in excess of even Part 97 power limits. Some of these sites were not aware of his conduct, his prior bans from other ISP's, or even that his actions were illegal. They were politely advised of this, including the fact that the FCC fine schedule (at the time) started at $3,000 and goes up from there. Ignorance of the law, or of the conduct of their users, would likely not be accepted as excuses. Even if they were not found liable, they would be caught up in investigations of the primary offender, and ongoing complaints from users. In another example, a non-QRZ blog site was enabling very toxic trolls that were driving off useful contributors, either from indifference, or an excessively pure devotion to a misconception about what is "Free Speech": https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/eham-what-is-it/ https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2013/05/...g-become-the-sdr-troll-fest-of-amateur-radio/ Their users provided useful feedback to their administrators about this growing problem, sometimes "voting with their feet" by leaving (including not renewing premium subscriptions, impacting their bottom line). The troll problem has since abated with more active editorial involvement by their administrators. They had the control, but clearly needed external advice to achieve the awareness and political will to apply it appropriately. Here on QRZ, which generally has exerted appropriate control over abusive misconduct, the site administrators may occasionally redact the callback entries of radio amateurs involved in potentially illegal or unethical conduct. In one case, various technical errors with the site caused a redacted callback entry to reappear, against the wishes of the QRZ site administrators. We let them know about it, the page was removed, then it appeared again, so we advised them again. The page was eventually removed permanently, we received a reply thanking us, and explaining the cause of the error that caused the page to keep reappearing out of the control of the site administrators. QRZ had the control to fix the problem, they just needed to be aware of it, and dig deeper at our prompting when initial fixes didn't stick. While we were not directly involved in this, another concerned amateur contacted the FAA to convince them to suspend the pilot's license of a radio amateur who had exhibited by public behavior, criminal convictions, FCC inquires, and other evidence a likelihood that he was a potential danger to general aviation. The FAA had the control, they just needed the awareness. In short, no site exists in a vacuum, and must coexist with larger society. We are happy to provide expertise and awareness regarding problems that sites may be struggling with. Thanks aren't necessary, but are all we really ask for.
Hummm... Missed this the first time around. Damn fine read! Much entertainment value in the ham radio secret police! Does membership come with a badge and decoder ring, or do concerned citizen have to supply that themselves?
Not if you have a secret decoder ring. FREE!!! in every specially marked box of Punchy Crunchy cereal. AND... for a limited time, there is a free countermeasure in every box !!!
