WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

I remember joining (under another account name Reevesy) and this forum was truly alive. Now it's just dead....

Police gone digital.
Social media just as fast for finding out details of incidents before the mainstream media reports it.
With less people posting, less people are inclined to post running commentary of incidents as they likely feel very few people are reading.

I think we've done well to survive this long since the Police went digital. I fully expected it to die soon after.

We have niche area's like the DFES area where summer fire threats can be talked about real time.

I don't expect the site to die, I expect it to be a history of times past, and still a relevant source of information for other frequencies/companies.

Plus of course the Amateur Radio stuff will keep going and going

yorky wrote:We have niche area's like the DFES area where summer fire threats can be talked about real time.

I don't expect the site to die, I expect it to be a history of times past, and still a relevant source of information for other frequencies/companies.

The analogue days of the Police subforum and more active days of the fire forum hold genuine historical artefacts concerning major incidents from the past 10 years.
Examples include
http://warsug.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=813
http://warsug.info/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5536

It is a shame a lot of the pictures are no longer accessible and many posts have been deleted, but nonetheless the forum is a great resource for finding things heard on the scanner in bygone times.

Once DFES go digital I expect there will be even less activity on this forum!

helimedic wrote:Once DFES go digital I expect there will be even less activity on this forum!

Yup

The fact that DFES is being quite heavy handed in trying to control media doesn't help.

We used to be able to post details and photos from incidents but now that's been effectively shut down by DFES with their one rule fits all approach, so anything posted online, whether positive or negative is frowned upon.

The important thing though is that a forum stands or falls on the activity level.

For this (and any other) forum to succeed, it needs people to post content that other people wish to read.

So the lack of activity is due to you, me and every other forum member. If we want it to improve then we must collectively do something about it rather than wait for 'someone else' to post stuff.

Places like DFES etc certainly do have an impact because emergency service members are bound by their guidelines when they are acting in a role with an emergency service organisation. I'm new to DFES but I view it in the same way as I view my other interests and my paid employment. If I come across some information that's not public but I have access to it by way of my membership in an organisation or by way of my employment, then I keep it to myself. If I come across some information that is publicly known (or could easily be so) then I'll share that information whether I have a membership or employment relationship concerning that info or not.

Other people of course can choose what level of involvement they are prepared to participate in based on their own circumstances.