Effective immediately, Radio Discussions and Radio Discussions.com is ceasing operation. www.radiodiscussions.com/
Recently, or at least the last time I checked, Ramsey also had closed their AM-FM Transmitter Forums, and now we lose Radio Discussions.
Who does that leave but us.
In the comments quoted in Rich's link it was said that it didn't make sense to spend money and not make a profit or something to that effect. This is just good business but some things in life are not done solely to make a profit.
Hobby activities usually fall into this category. Think of the time and effort that a lot of us posters invest in posting our experiences and advice without the expectation of profit. It is done for the love of the hobby and to share information.
I don't fault those who function for profit but I admire and appreciate those who do not and who contribute to and support hobby activities despite the costs.
A big down side in my opinion is that the intellectual property of the posters is no longer available.
Neil
Commercial business is necessarily hounded by profit driven decisions.
Providing a forum for special interest discussion costs money but may not generate enough return on investment to break even. Of course a popular forum could possibly be considered an advertising or promotional expense, in which case it would be measured by sales results at a later time. Ramsey probably considered their forums a possible attraction for steady customers, but forum management cannot be left on automatic pilot and needs a devoted employee to keep an eye on it. It can become a distraction from the core business.
A similar problem has prevented commercial radio stations and networks from maintaining archive libraries of past programs, because having a historian-curator on staff is not likely to be justified by corporate headquarters.
Hobbyists shall inherit the earth. At their own expense.
If profit were the motivation, there would be no ALPB. I would have no Part 15 operation. I would not be streaming NOAA WX from Akron, Ohio. I wouldn't have 3 PC's and supporting equipment running 24/7 to maintain all of these activities.
Yes, my operation has grown. In addition to electricity and equipment maintenance cost there are also domain name costs, hosting sites and other fees.
I don't really know what my costs are, don't care. If finances get tight it'll be a tough decision as to what goes.
spent nearly $12,000.00 and 10 years of my life building my studios. i have yet to see a dime back on my investment and don't ever expect to.
Virtual Engineer is a discussion group that made this post welcoming those displaced by the closing of Radio Discussion...
http://www.broadcastengineering.info/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=4428
Radio-Talk is fully able to handle both the traffic and has the same discussion topic forums that RI/RD had.
RT is well prepared to take the place of RI/RD, insight has crashed under the load already. they were slow even before the mass exodus.
this is just my recommendation to folks and the policies and moderation are more like part15us where insight is more heavy handed like RI/RD.
doesn't make sense to me (probably due to the fact im autistic) but i been doing broadcast radio for 5 years and part 15 for 6 years and im almost 19... i just recently spent 20G's on new radio equipment for KDSX... in june im giving b101 to my friend thebigkwal... (im helping my sister taking care of her kids)
so long story short i have invested money for my operation and time and effort and if thats the case on profit wise for radio info, i don't know how were going to do this for anybody doing part 15 radio, radio forums and whatever else... its real hard to come back after the downfall...
maybe one day it will return
Radio-Talk also now features a top 25 market section for those that requested it.
insight seems to have very quickly fixed the site load issues and have added a community radio forum as well. something they didn't have in the past.