Indeed. Just to set the record straight here, I am A HUGE proponent and unofficial cheerleader of free, open and decentralized protocols. Free as in freedom, jot necessarily free beer, as that saying goes. Normal people probably don’t think about these things, but they underpin an internet that maintains a low barrier to entry and exit. Meaning, it’s made for ordinary people to use, participate in, and even help build with their own services. Things like Lemmy, Mastodon, Matrix and the other tools you can host yourself are amazing and personally interesting to me. I mean, email is decentralized…we sort of take that one for granted but that’s a side topic discussion right there.

However, I don’t get recreating closed walled off systems that don’t do the job as well as I mentioned, and require you to be licensed in your country to use it to boot.

These networks are run by centralized authorities, or sometimes just one or two people. I’m assuming this app is another scenario like this.

To me, this the worst of all combinations.

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I got licensed because I like the “radio” part of ham radio.

Computers? Cool…hook them to radios.

Networking protocols? Cool, how can I use radios to build networks?

Packet radio? Still has radio involved.

All-star node? Great! It’s hooked into a dedicated radio.

Just got my first HF amplifier for my…you guessed it, HF radio.

OK I’m starting to sound like an ass. I don’t understand why anyone would go through the trouble to test and get licensed only to get involved with things that have…no radio?

Right? I’ve been working on modernizing our messaging product and recently have been reading through the email RFCs to make sure we implement things correctly…

Are new users appearing on the fediverse in larger numbers during September?

I had to reqd that Wikipedia article to get the reference. I think I’m totally missing your point, though.

Can you explain it another way?

“every radio operator should also be willing to hang a sign which encourages passersby to come ask questions and engage”

I thought about this EXACTLY! We travel a good bit in our bus conversion. I’m working on building some semi permanent radio equipment in here. Often we find ourselves in parks and other natural areas, which I plan on setting up antennas for fun.

I was thinking that I should put up a little sign that says come talk about radios!