Moderators Heavy Workload: Proposal.

ID: 361618
Moderators Heavy Workload: Proposal. 
10.Nov.14 00:40
17

Bruce Morgenstern (CDN)
Editor
Articles: 12
Count of Thanks: 3

Hi Ernst

I have been, very reluctant, to send this e-mail, so have sat on it for some time. It seems to be like when I was younger, much younger, standing on a high diving board and mulling over whether or not to dive. Eventually I did dive and belly flopped. Wow, did it ever hurt. Feel free to just hit the delete button and there would be no hard feelings.

Regards                                                                                                                                   Bruce

 

Hi Ernst

I hope things are going well with you and you are enjoying the nice weather before winter comes.

For some time now I have been watching the following; Proposals for New Models, Proposals for New Manufacturers and Model Alteration Suggestions.

To me, what really stands out is what a, mega work load, this must be for the Moderators of these sections.  

A quick look at the approximate number of proposals outstanding daily, for these three sections, is around the 100 mark. In order for the Moderators to do a proper job of sifting through this maze, it has to be very time consuming, overwhelming, and almost impossible. The work load has to be formidable.

I would have to believe, when you set up the Radio Museum the intent was for it to be truly a Radio Museum. When one thinks of a museum, I believe, they visualize a, brick and mortar place or a virtual place on the internet to display, show, describe and document Antiques. I used the word, Antique, not vintage or collectable, as these two words have been used and abused to the point that just about anything can be called vintage or collectable. Antiques still have the connotation of being at least 50 or 60 years old or greater. Most, if not all, Museums have some sort of age restrictions.

What I see, being proposed frequently, are Models much newer than 50 and 60 years old, even with a quick glance, I see items only 20 years old and newer.  

I also look at some proposed models that are not radio models, and wonder, what relevance this item really has to the Radio Industry.

I also look at some proposed, New Manufacturers, and wonder what their relevance is to the radio Industry.

I WOULD LIKE TO PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING:

1 - All proposed new Models must have been manufactured 1965 and prior.

2 - All proposed Models that are not specifically a Radio Model must have a direct relevance to the radio industry and the relevance must be documented when the model is proposed.    

3 - All proposed New Manufacturers must have been in business on or before 1965 and must have a direct relevance to the radio industry and the relevance must be documented when the manufacturer is proposed.  

I don’t think it is necessary to go into a long discourse of how these recommendations would remove a huge burden of work from the Administrators workload. I also believe, these recommendations would greatly enhance the integrity of the Radio Museum.

Regards

Bruce Morgenstern                                                                                       lbmorgens@telus.net

 

To thank the Author because you find the post helpful or well done.

 2
I understand your concern, but would like to present my view 
10.Nov.14 05:23
17 from 1586

Ernst Erb (CH)
Officer
Articles: 5741
Count of Thanks: 2
Ernst Erb

Dear Bruce

Thank you for your kind information. It is good to see that somebody acknowledges the immense work done by the admins - not only model admins ...

Sometimes I think nobody can see what is done at radiomuseum.org: We try to build up a "most complete reference work for radios and related". When I look at other sites we find either just picture galleries - with a lot of wrongly placed models or schematics - or very well done small websites of some private collectors.

We serve for a very big audience of daily between >20,000 and more than 40,000 different users per day, delivering more than 200,000 pages each day. This shows the general interest - and if we go to details, we find that some collect only pre 1926 (like Alan Larsen) and others collect only transistor radios or even only gadget radios from 1970 onwards. Most collect a big variety of different ages of the sets.

Just to cover the topic age, you can see that people are most different in what they collect in our field. We also can see that newer sets attract younger persons and vice versa. This is quite natrual and what may be today a "new radio" might be a future collectible. Time is moving on. I still know the time when collectors thought a radio from the 1950 with its "teeth" (like SABA, Grundig etc.) is worthless and will be worthless - despite the best technique ever for an "ordinary" radio ... Now it is a very searched for collectible.
You can also go into a museum to see the very new painters/paintings.

With our features for selecting and sorting, one can opt out newer radios very easily - or "other stuff". This is indeed very essential.

Persons can be narrow or broad with their interest. I'm very interested if I see something which looks "electric" or something "very old", others may overlook and find it of no interest. For me and many broadly interested people, the history of radio goes back to electricity with (late) apparatus like these for instance:
Bonetti influence machine (electrostatic machine)
You will find nothing which would look like electricity can be used or that it can generate electricity. You have two plastic (before Galalith) disks you can move and they will turn reverse against each other. You will not find anything which touches them, but they generate more than 100,000 volts, jumping over from the disks to the metal. Can you imagine?

If you find something like this, you can be very lucky and you can explain many interesting phenomena about electricity and influence on early radio etc.

On the other hand, if you find this Conn Strobotuner and its earlier brothers with radio tubes, you might wonder what for it is (I would anyway), specially when you find a microphone with a cable in it. Well, only if you find it at radiomuseum and you are lucky that it is well described - or even find a link to a good YouTube demonstration, you will find out what for it is. The second part of the work (filling all details, getting pictures schematics etc.) might be done later - as we lack persons who care for such.

Now comes the most important point:
The Bonetti or the Strobotuner - and many other "findings" could attract young people to get interested in our fields - and might even pay something to our widows who want to sell "that old stuff". We can not attract young people who have the earphone set up all the time - with radio. We have to go an other way.

What we need is more interested members who care for what we do and help us to do the job - otherwise nobody cares for "old radios". There is no other project for "radios and related" which cares so much for quality - and we still show many things with errors or confused information. For me the glass is not even half full. Naturally: If we would have more input for antique radios, we would certainly prefer this and do this first. :-)

Cordially,
Ernest

 

Typo correction EE, Nov. 10, 2014.

To thank the Author because you find the post helpful or well done.

 3
Museum, Archive, or Library? 
10.Nov.14 08:14
39 from 1586

Steve Goodwin (USA)
Articles: 14
Count of Thanks: 3

I agree that Radiomuseum moderators may find some workload guidelines helpful, but the nature of invention will always outpace our abilitiy to keep up with the past. After all, much of the technology we find so exciting is found one step away from the trash bin. It is likely to be so into the future. Ten years ago I would not have bothered with transistor radios. Now I have several, and am slowly learning to restore them as technological snapshots. (It's hard to believe, though, that I'll ever find surface-mounted circuits fascinating!)

Since joining the Radiomuseum, I have been impressed by three distinct functions:

1. Museum-- a curated and organized display of electronic devices going back to the spark.

2. Archive -- primary-source documents that are organized and preserved for future reference

3. Library-- a living interactive system that supports current and future hobbyists, students, and inventors

It is this last function that Ernst describes so well... a library that is organized, accessible, and appealing to its users--- now and into the future. A good library anticipates trends and needs, sometimes even before the user is aware of what might be coming.

Our organization and its success depend on volunteers. Before our volunteers are totally overwhelmed, we should seek more ways to share the load, and develop research and technical expertise that will maintain the Radiomuseum as a world-class museum, archive, and library.

Thanks for everyone's work!

Steve

 

To thank the Author because you find the post helpful or well done.