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I come here every week, have for over 7 years, and post the update for the Oompah Hour and I can’t help but notice that there’s virtually zero activity here, and there hasn’t been for quite some time. Maybe a post once a month, that will get a few replies then that’s it.
I also notice that I’m the only one who produces content (shows) that are geared to part 15 and others (The Oompah Hour is on 28 stations including Part 15, college, LPFM, commercial stations and web streamers). I use it on my own station which is how it got started.
Has interest in Part 15 died? Or have most people figured out their operation and are just running their stations? I haven’t done anything technical for my station in years, as it’s been running perfectly nearly since the day I installed it.
I don’t see any other active forums, either.
Is it worth coming by to update the Oompah Hour here on the site? It’s kind of a tradition having done it weekly for over 7 years. And each week I notice the severe lack of activity. With over 2100 registered users you’d think there would be useful conversation now and then.
TIB
Well Tim, yes it seems the activity is down but like a roller coaster, it has it’s ups and downs.
I’m still updating The ALPB website with each and every new Ooompah show and would certainly miss it.
If you ever decide to dump your online storage, please let me know so that I may download all the shows for safe keeping as all I have are links to the shows.
Thanks for your dedication. There are still a few of us out there.
I agree with you Tim, you wonder with all the members how come it’s dead.
It could be everyone is just like yourself running the stations and nothing new to talk about without rehashing a subject talked about in the past.
The same thing with Microbroadcasters(ALPB) and the Facebook ones although they get some action here and there.I wouldn’t want to see these forums disappear.
I disagree with the original poster and the replies.
There’s plenty of activity and content being produced in the world of Part 15 broadcasting. Just not here.
I believe that people have stopped posting in the traditional Forums because it’s become too difficult to determine what is acceptable. Philosophies and moderation policies developed 15-20 years ago are still being applied.
If the Forums are going to survive, they’re going to have to change, and become more open to new ideas and different ways of thinking.
You can only discuss technical aspects for so long before they become tiresome. You might as well just use Google to search for previous discussions.
Hello Artisan! Nice to see you on here again. Yes you are right about technical aspects is a turn off just being rehashed again and again. Me personally I can’t think of new topics to post as everything has been talked about, or so I think.
As for things have to change, can you give some examples?
As for moderation the same. What has to change?
I am a moderator here as I told you a year ago off the forum as I remember but I have nothing here to moderate. It’s an easy job!
I want to be as lenient as possible and have only “moderated” on two occasions. Once when two members were having an argument on the forum and I terminated the thread and respectfully said to do this off the forum as this doesn’t look good to others seeing this. I think it was understood.
Another time one was telling the other to “ignore the FCC” and not worry about being out of compliance and they can’t find you anyway.
All I did was delete that couple of sentences out of the post as if I let that go I wouldn’t be doing my job as moderator this being a legal unlicensed forum as per guidelines.
If you can give some examples as to what has to change I’m sure admin. would be interested also as the moderators just follow the admin’s rules/guidelines and myself I want to interfere as little as possible and still be “one of the guys”.On another topic…have you had any success in talks with getting the Talking House certified here?
It’s too trite to blithely say that posting has its ups and downs, and we’re in a down cycle. That so called down cycle has certainly lasted a long time. Posters leave for a reason.
Posters are a unique lot. They form a small percentage of the membership of a Forum. It takes courage to post, and no small amount of self confidence. And what they say is important, at least to the original poster.
When you belittle their contributions as “trivial”, or continuously question their motivation, as was happening before the exodus, you are effectively attacking them. When posts disappear, often inconsistently, quite often the posters eventually disappear with them.
A colleague of mine once said “Radio is everything”. I believe that the content rules for this, and other, similar Forums need to be opened up (within legal and ethical boundaries of course). Make them more of a community of like-minded (and some not so like-minded) individuals. If people don’t want to read something, they don’t have to (which implies a different organizational structure).
Even a Forum such as Hobbybroadcaster, which has the largely unwarranted reputation of being focused on the technical aspects of Part 15, has had, in recent days, posts about dead non-radio celebrities, hot dogs and men’s health. While I’m not a fan of that site, they get it.
So you are saying that discussion should be more than just part 15 radio and related subjects even though it’s a hobby radio forum as per the example of Hobbybroadcaster?
It was done on the ALPB and it got a lot of posting but didn’t work out in the end. I liked it when it was like that with the political posts and such and we could talk about anything but it was tried and admin had to change it as some problems came along.
But it got a lot of action!But getting back to Tim’s post when he says his station just runs itself and he hasn’t done anything to it in years I agree that’s where it stagnates as no new topics come up. I am the same, it just runs 24/7 and don’t do anything new. I switched back to FM a few weeks ago with the Decade and could switch again who knows. May get a few comments and nothing again.
Somehow at Hobbybroadcaster the owner can constantly come up with new things.I see what you are saying….that this should be a more general discussion forum about all kinds of things than just sticking to part 15 radio.
But doesn’t every forum have a theme that it is based on? Not that I am disagreeing with you but just asking?
Would I go to Hobbybroadcaster or other part 15 forum to talk about hot dogs?But I am still curious to what happened with getting the Talkinghouse certified here?
The point I was attempting to make is that you have to treat what posters think is important seriously. Even if it’s only peripherally related to radio.
I was in discussions with Bill Baker about certifying the Talking House for Canada. The end result was that he wanted a business partner – someone who would certify the equipment and distribute it in Canada. He wasn’t prepared to do it on his own.
I didn’t want to take that on, and that’s where the situation was left.
Hi All, nice to see/read you again Artisan! To everyone, I am absolutely a big supporter of everyone who is interested in part15.org and would like to do more to make this a vibrant community. By all means if there is something that you can recommend, please message me directly – I am more than happy to make it happen! This was always a forum governed by the community and any ‘rules’ put in place by me have been almost entirely directed at keeping it a ‘civil’ place.
Cheers!
Jon Paul
Hi guys,
Great conversation. I won’t rehearse what has already been said, but in terms of new content, I’d love to see/hear about all the hundreds of Part 15 stations out there: A kind of self publicity profile. Like: Location, type of rig used, frequency, type of programming, unique initiatives followed, how the station adds to the listener’s choice in their area, what type of out reach do they do, etc.
I’m what we call a radio anorak (I don’t know if you have that term in North America). It os basically a radio enthusiast. We have a web forum over here in Ireland which lists unlicensed stations and it’s fun to take note of them and then try to tune into them when on a road trip or visiting a new town/city. This list could be of such use to radio anoraks in the US/Canada.
Just my two cents.
Pat
A VERY good idea!
I as a moderator will ask Admin about this to have a separate category for everyone to list their part 15 stations….format, location, transmitter and other gear, frequency, and where in particular in can be received in a certain town or city. Not just for N. America but any country where you may be. Anyone can go to see the listings at anytime if it’s a separate place that will not get shuffled down the thread list and lost in past threads.Today is the first time I logged into the site in around 2 years. Honestly I’d forgotten about it until I was cleaning out some email folders and came across it. I still dabble in part 15 but as I recall, after scanning the site, there isn’t much of anything that catches your eyes when you come into it.
Perhaps if the website were rebuilt to be more attractive to the eye; by that I mean, change the layout, add more forums, have a sub-forum where posters can showcase their stations along with pictures (might mean increasing the bandwidth somewhat) make it more user friendly, perhaps a different website provider, etc. In otherwords make it more attractive for the current membership base and for potential ones to join the website. It’s not going to happen overnight but with time you can build up a decent active base.
Just my thoughts.
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