XPost: rec.radio.amateur.misc, rec.radio.amateur.antenna, rec.ra
io.amateur.digital.misc
XPost: rec.radio.amateur.homebrew
From: pschleck@novia.net

The Amateur Radio Elmers Resource Directory, a list of experts, mentors,
and gurus for amateur radio on the Internet, went on indefinite hiatus
on June 1, 2000 after just over 9 years of service.  This decision was
not forced upon me by anyone for any particular legal or technical
reason.  Rather, I decided to retire from maintenance to focus on other
personal and professional interests and obligations.

I also felt that I had taken this project to the limit of my expertise
and spare time in terms of format, visibility, automation of
maintenance, effective recruiting, and even good Web design.  It's clear
that the Internet had changed greatly over the 9 years that the
Directory had been in existence.  The Directory had evolved from a flat
text file edited on a VAX running VMS to a well-featured Web site.
However, in that time, much better amateur radio-related web sites had
emerged (including QRZ, Ham Radio Online, and ARRL) that make my site
rather simplistic by comparison.  Also, it's clear that many more
enhancements would be required to make the Directory more maintainable
and secure.  One requirement that the Directory did not address is
reasonably shielding the Elmers from having their E-mail addresses
harvested for junk-mail distribution lists.

I want to emphasize that I do believe that using the Internet, the
Usenet Newsgroups, and the World-Wide Web to bring Elmers and amateurs
requiring assistance together continues to be worthwhile.  Because of
this, I would consider a highly-qualified and motivated volunteer to
take it over immediately.  The Directory consisted of a moderate number
of large text files, scripts, and other configuration files.  It's
neatly arranged, and can probably be easily transplanted to another
Unix/Linux environment.  I would also be willing to assist with
importing the data into a database such as mySQL.  To help transition
this project to another maintainer, I had prepared a maintainer's guide,
available on request.  The ideal candidate will be a motivated
self-starter and self-teacher possessing several years of experience in:

- Unix/Linux
- C or Java
- HTML
- Perl or Python
- Procmail
- Version control systems such as SCCS, RCS, CVS, etc.

(this also implies that you have the above tools installed in your
environment)

preferably on or more of the following:

- SQL
- PHP
- CSS

and have approximately 4-6 hours of spare time per month for
maintenance. A track history of successfully completing projects would
be a firm requirement.  Please note that hosting sites are already
available.  Offers to host the project, but not maintain it, are not
being sought at this time.

Familiarity with news.answers formatting conventions and the auto-faq
FAQ Management and Posting Package would be a plus.  Concrete proposals
for enhancing the Directory to be a top-10 amateur-radio-related Web
site would also be desirable.  I would also consider the Directory being
incorporated into an existing commercial amateur-radio-related Web site
as long as the essential non-commercial character of the Directory was
maintained.

If you feel that you possess the interest, motivation, and immediate,
hit-the-ground-running, skill set to do this, please send your statement
of interest and any proposals you wish to make regarding your plans for
future enhancements to elmers-request@novia.net.

I would like to thank all of the volunteer Elmers, as well as courteous
users of the Directory, for making this service a success, as well as an
enjoyable experience for me over 9 years.

--
73, Paul W. Schleck, K3FU
elmers-request@novia.net

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