Peter wrote:
That’s completely wrong, LeSving… what we have on EuroGA is a nice group of pilots who fly because they like flying and because they like to see interesting places and like to meet up other pilots at interesting places.
That’s all fine, I had a couple of smileys there 
Besides, tourism comes in many shapes and sizes.
A more serious point. I have discovered we cannot edit our posts after a couple of days or something. So if a person wants to leave, and leave no traces behind, he cannot do it. It’s all here for ever. I have never seen such a practice anywhere (not that I have been around everywhere), but is it even legal? (privacy an all that).
Yes there is a 2 hour edit window.
This was discussed heavily at the time, 3 years ago.
It was done this way because many/most European aviation forums have been ruined by trolls who pop up, post something, wind people up, and then go back and change it. Of course they have been ruined by other things too, like vast quantities of one-liners, advertising, fighting (lack of moderation), moderators summarily kicking out people they don’t like the look of or who simply disagree with the moderator, etc. But you have to start by setting the right framework. Moderation is impossible if somebody can go back and edit an old post to create some “effect”. No moderator can keep an eye on stuff like that. I do this job for free…
We have always said that if a post raises some issue of illegality, embarrassment, or something serious like that, we will edit or remove it on request, and have actually done so many times. In fact I have once or twice emailed a poster whether they really want that post online because it showed something illegal, and they gratefully agreed But one needs to balance this against the ability of a poster to trash the value of potentially many past discussions, by deleting or editing his/her posts going way back. That would deliver no value to anybody, especially if the poster’s identity is just a nickname.
It was predicted by many that EuroGA will be trashed within a year – just like the others have mostly been. It is 3 years now and there is no sign of it. So I think the formula is working.
Ok, a few things…
LeSving, yes, it’s perfectly legal as far as I am aware. The T&C’s (link at the bottom of every page) spell out the position – you own what you write, but by writing it here you give us the right to publish it. The European regulations around the right to be forgotten mean that if you wrote something personal about yourself, or if someone else did, you’d have the right to have it removed, but that doesn’t apply to a discussion about fuel pumps because it’s not personal. However, I don’t want to get in to the subtleties of a legal debate (not least because I’m not qualified to have it) because in reality we would respond to any reasonable request to remove anything sensitive etc. That being said, as ever, I advise caution about what one posts online and to assume everything you say or do is visible to everyone, everywhere and forever.
As Peter said, we don’t allow an extended edit window because it can be troublesome.
We are far from alone in each of these things.
With regard to search, Google does use a variety of factors in their results, but searching for ‘autopilot servo tachometer’ in totally clean browser and from an IP address I’ve never used before for me brings up a link to peter2000 first, an avionics workshop second and euroga third. The SEO of this site is very good, even if you’ve never visited it before. That’s why we get a lot of visitors (who don’t register or contribute).
And finally to the original point, I’m not sure there is much to discuss personally. If people want to add the name next to the ICAO code that’s great for them and for others who are interested. Other people are happy to look them up, or just not know. It takes all sorts.
You might implement an ICAO code lookup upon mouseover/clicking any 4 letter abbreviation in the “location” field to solve this debate and make it even easier for simpletons like me that don’t know all ICAO codes in the world by heart.
Yes one could, easily, but it would make discussions mentioning Landing Fuel On Board even more confusing.
Me too – see no probs.
Why would you put “Landing Fuel on Board” in the location field?
