[FADCA] Protocol Warrior behavior:

[David Calder]

This is lengthy but I though it was well written and some would enjoy.

Happy New Year

Dave n4zkf



Protocol Warrior behavior:

A character flaw common among digital ham radio enthusiasts, where 
consideration of a pet product, project, paradigm, or protocol looms larger 
in their thoughts than any consideration of the amateur radio service 
itself, or of their fellow hams.


Most hams have met or known protocol warriors, and they are easy to 
recognize... The protocol warrior is full of certainty that his way, and 
only his way is worthy of consideration. - Hams who do something different 
are ( ignorant, luddites, lids, troublemakers, ) etc., and so are not worthy

of everyday decency, consideration, respect or cooperation.

To a protocol warrior, it is "OK" to undercut or marginalize their fellow 
hams, as long as those hams are doing something different. Since they use a 
"competing" product, project, paradigm, or protocol, then they are the 
"competition", worthy only of hostility.

More than once, I have heard protocol warriors professing a craven, 
shameless eagerness for ham radio's "old guard" to pass away. - Where 
ignorance marries arrogance, there you find a protocol warrior.

This, instead of their treating their fellow hams with the respect, 
consideration and amity that has marked this hobby since its beginning.

Obviously this attitude has no place in Ham Radio - but it has found a way 
into the hobby anyway, and does not appear to be going away on it's own. 
Many digital enthusiasts remember packet radio's protocol wars as a note of 
discord within the hobby from a decade or more ago, not realizing that this 
problem is still with us today.

Just as it was a decade ago, the protocol wars stunt the progress that would

otherwise be possible with digital amateur radio. Protocol Warrior attitudes

have brought digital ham radio in the US to a virtual standstill, making it 
almost impossible to evaluate and apply new technology as it becomes 
available.

Many hams criticize the ARRL for not taking a lead in developing a digital 
ham radio network in the US. - They criticize because they do not understand

that almost every digital proposal the ARRL gets is put forward as a 
"hatchet job" on other methods that are proposed or that are already in use 
by many hams. Everybody seems to want their pet product, project, paradigm, 
or protocol to be given top consideration, at everything and everybody 
else's expense.

TAPR's "IP Only" promotion that they had going through Steve Stroh's column 
in CQ magazine a few years ago is an example of shameless protocol warrior 
behavior. Literally every digital enthusiast who did not care for amateur 
tcpip ( the great majority ) were instantly marginalized and left out by 
this program.

This organization that sees nothing wrong with policy that excludes the 
great majority of hams is looked to for leadership in digital amateur radio.

A recent proposal to the ARRL concerning ARES emergency communications had 
three of the big wheels from SCS communications "packed" into the committee.

SCS is the German company that manufactures the $1,000 PACTOR III modems 
that take up fifteen PSK31 QSO's worth of bandwidth... Want to guess what 
modem and protocol their proposal requires, at the expense of all other 
systems?

I have communicated with this group and they have no interest whatsoever in 
working with anybody doing anything even slightly different. To them, 
cooperation with other hams would be a waste of time. Unprofitable too, I am

sure.

It's precisely this "My way or the Highway" attitude that has made it almost

impossible for the ARRL to act upon the great majority of the proposals they

get. - Most of them are loaded up with this same combination of ignorance 
and arrogance, the kind associated with protocol warrior behavior.

Whatever finally is proposed, good or bad, is immediately attacked. In fact,

it is almost impossible to discuss packet radio networking anywhere without 
being attacked by protocol warriors. It is no different in the ARRL's board 
room, which goes far in explaining the ARRL's general lack of progress with 
digital ham radio.

This is a primary malaise of amateur packet radio in the USA. - Protocol 
Warrior behavior.

How I Won the Protocol Wars

Perhaps because I am an old hand at digital amateur radio and can remember 
how friendly and inclusive packet radio was before the protocol wars, I have

taken an interest in this problem.

Packet radio used to fit in with ham radio a lot better than it does today. 
It used to be mainstream, but now most really decent hams avoid packet - 
because of the intolerant, often nasty "protocol warrior" behavior that is 
so widely associated with amateur packet radio today. Nobody wants discord 
and disharmony, or to be run down because of the equipment or software they 
use.

My first clue in getting past this problem was that in discussions and 
arguements with Protocol Warrior types, they were always outraged at my 
unfairness if I brought up the idea of considering their fellow hams. They 
reacted this way almost every time... This response was so out of whack with

everything I have ever known about ham radio that I immediately recognized 
this as their central weakness, their blind spot; the hole in their internal

logic.

Perhaps the most outrageously anti-ham aspect of protocol warrior thinking, 
I discovered, was the recurring theme of the "protocol" somehow being held 
in higher consideration than people, ( fellow hams ) especially when those 
people use a "competing" protocol. The idea of cooperation with "Joe Ham" 
was just too repugnant to consider. If you are not of the alleged "elite", 
then of course you are out.

This "Them or Us" attitude, being applied against fellow hams who have done 
nothing more offensive than to use different equipment or software is a 
recognized hallmark of the protocol warrior. Again, though this behavior is 
obviously unworthy of the amateur radio service, still it has crept into our

everyday dealings with each other.

Over and over, I saw a lack of respect for their fellow hams, a cynical 
attitude about the hobby, and a basic inability to play well with others as 
outstanding characteristics of the protocol warrior. This told me that a 
good counter-attitude would be to simply respect our fellow hams, and the 
hobby that brings us together to work and play.

As a packet networker, this implied to me that the endless emphasis on 
products, projects, paradigm, and protocol are misplaced. - That the most 
important network component is people, and people who had built working, 
usable network used and enjoyed by average hams are the real experts in the 
art and science of amateur packet radio.

I quit looking at what equipment a digital group was using, or what protocol

they were using and looked at the results they were getting instead. I 
started looking for people who had discovered how to play well together 
because every time I found that, I also found impressive accomplishment no 
matter what kind of equipment they used.

I believe my main points have been made, so now I will invite you to look 
over the NETWORK page here at USPacket, to see the kind of expertise that 
matters in the amateur packet radio world today. - The kind that we need 
more of, just as we need less of the kind of thinking that drives the 
"protocol warrior" in us all.

Charles Brabham, N5PVL

Director: USPacket http://www.uspacket.org

Admin: HamBlog.Com http://www.hamblog.com

Weblog:  http://www.hamblog.com/blog_n5pvl.php