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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Lorenzo<br>
<br>
Not in any particular order:<br>
<ul>
<li>You are a commercial entity which decided, without ever
asking anyone, whether it would be OK to AUTOMATICALLY send
spots to the network. And doing this to the extent that about
half of all spots were WWA related for several days. <br>
</li>
<li>You are using bandwidth provided by others - at their
expense - for your commercial gain.<br>
</li>
<li>Someone contacted you and was informed that this would stop
last Wednesday, but it didn't stop until the evening before
least weekend's contest.</li>
<li>For at least the first three days, spots were being sent
from unknown users (who were not visibly logged on anywhere)
on unknown nodes with apparently forged IP addresses from a
node connection (apparently in the USA) that was not visible
on the network. There was very little "Ham Spirit" visible
there.<br>
</li>
<li>As for validating users via qrz.com, a quick scan through
the archive will tell you that you are, at best, misinformed.
<br>
</li>
<li>We all noticed that once we started to filter out this
traffic that your tactics changed - for the better - but not
enough, so no cigar.<br>
</li>
<li>I looked at your website on the day that this started any
the ONLY information that I could find (not easily) was a very
odd postal address suggesting a location in Italy. No
callsign, no email address - nothing useful. <br>
</li>
<li>We have no bias against anyone that uses the system
responsibly. And we define "responsibly" as a human operator
either typing a spot or pressing a (function) key in a user
app.</li>
<li>You are not the only app/system that sends stuff
automatically. Whichever Ftx app(s) are automatically spotting
each contact that they hear/make are next on my list. </li>
</ul>
<p>If you wish / need a distributed channel for communications
through the network. There are better methods of doing that
without diluting the spot feed. The user base can do that,
manually, well enough without machine help :-(. <br>
</p>
<p>Your assumption that your idea of "Ham Spirit" would allow your
app to do what it did managed to piss off all the active node
sysops and a large proportion of the existing user base. As well
as causing the sysops a lot of extra work trying to manage it. <br>
</p>
<p>But, on a positive note, I had a good hard look at the
filtering code, fixed a few small bugs and improved the
debugging messages so that, next time, when someone tries
something that behaves in a dumping huge gobs of spots on the
network - we will be better prepared.</p>
<p>If you wish to discuss how to use the network responsibly, and
in the first instance, please feel free to contact me directly.</p>
<p>But, BE WARNED, any attempt to flood spots onto the network
will not be permitted. And will hold you to your statement
saying that all spots are generated manually and will insist
your system makes sure that users are logged into (a) real
node(s) with real IP addresses. I may yet invoke the "nuclear
option" of dumping all protocol spots from users that cannot be
identified in real time, one way or another, via the routing
tables for all active users/nodes that each DXSpider node has. </p>
<p>Dirk G1TLH <br>
</p>
<br>
On 04/02/2025 14:14, Dirk Koopman via Dxspider-support wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2327fdf3-d1dd-4cbf-9ef2-ccef38d6c6a7@tobit.co.uk">On
04/02/2025 14:02, Lorenzo IU1NSA via Dxspider-support wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Good afternoon,
<br>
<br>
I am Lorenzo IU1NSA, and I am part of the HamAward team.
<br>
First of all, I would like to thank Niklas for informing us
about this mailing list.
<br>
<br>
I am writing to express our deep concern regarding the recent
ban of our node IU1NSA-6 and the IPs of HamAward, which we only
became aware of thanks to reports from our users during an
important event. Operators informed us that their spots were not
appearing on many web clusters, forcing us to intervene promptly
to ensure the proper execution of the event, in respect of both
participants and sponsors involved.
<br>
<br>
We are unable to understand the reasons for this ban, especially
since we never received any prior communication, neither
directed to IU1NSA nor to HamAward. From the emails you
exchanged, it is evident that some of you visited our website: I
therefore wonder why none of our contacts, clearly visible on
every page, were used to reach out to us and clarify any doubts.
This total lack of communication has left us puzzled and
concerned, considering the impact such decisions can have on the
activities of thousands of operators.
<br>
<br>
Personally, I was particularly struck by the attitude of Luigi
Carlotto IK5ZUK. I know Luigi IK5ZUK well, as we collaborated to
organize the WRTC 2022 cluster node in Italy, and until
recently, we exchanged advice on which servers to rent for
managing our nodes.
<br>
Moreover, Luigi IK5ZUK has my direct phone number, and we have
often communicated via WhatsApp. Therefore, I find it difficult
to understand why he decided to ban my node without even
contacting me, despite having the means to quickly resolve any
issues. This behavior, combined with your arbitrary handling of
the situation, forced us to reorganize independently to continue
our activities, while also raising concerns about a potential
unjustified bias against us.
<br>
<br>
I would like to emphasize that the HamAward platform complies
with all the rules required for sending spots: every user is
registered through a mandatory QRZ authentication procedure and
can only spot under their own name, with a limit of once every
10 minutes. There has never been any flooding of the network,
and no spot has been generated automatically. All spots were
manually submitted by users. Your assumptions regarding
automation do not reflect the reality of the situation.
<br>
<br>
We believe that banning nodes without first attempting to
contact us for clarification is inconsistent with the Ham
spirit, especially when all the necessary means to do so were
readily available. This is even more serious considering that we
have official agreements with A.R.I. Italia for the management
of awards, and the HamAward node was banned even during one of
these official events. I wonder what the Ham spirit represents
when an activity linked to A.R.I. itself is blocked.
<br>
<br>
We feel it is important to open a direct dialogue with you to
understand the reasons behind what happened and, above all, to
prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.
Transparency and communication are fundamental to the proper
functioning of this community.
<br>
<br>
I take this opportunity to commend you for the excellent work
you do in managing the network and Dirk G1TLH for the
development of DXSpider software, which represents a benchmark
for all of us.
<br>
We appreciate the work you do and recognize your technical
expertise, and we hope that in the future we can establish a
more transparent and direct dialogue, with mutual respect and
for the benefit of the entire community.
<br>
<br>
I look forward to your response.
<br>
<br>
Kind regards,
<br>
Lorenzo IU1NSA
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
<br>
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