Add Captcha?

Could you maybe add a Captcha requirement or such like to submit forms and comments? One example:

http://www.captcha.net/.

(No relation, just worked great for our business website).

Pete

Joe and Team

I have few ideas and ready to write again. 

DCC sound and keep alive install article

Hi Joe and team. I have an article written that I had submitted through the "normal" channels a while back.  Now hearing this I have no doubt that it got lost in the spam!

It's in .pdf form 

Let me know what will be the best way to send it to you.

Thanks

Not necessarily spam

Joe team isn't real efficient when it comes to correspondence.  I have an article I wrote and submitted five months ago, I know they received it, I've poked them about the status, and as far as I know they've never even read it.  Its just as likely that they lost it or just haven't gotten around to doing anything with it as it was buried by spammers.

Saturated with ops

Captcha

@Nelson

See, it only took six months for me to get an answer on a submission.

lol

Dave. Lol. And looking forward to mid 2021 and your professional work.
Joe:  You need a clone!  Thanks for your good service to the hobby.

Douglas

Not quite

Not quite

Your article was submitted in May and I responded in Sep. That's four months, 33% faster than you claimed. 

Hey, I freely admit I'm over-extended and if it doesn't have a deadline, I don't keep up very well, especially now with our staff layoffs (but that's getting better). That's also why we're making simplification changes that aren't always very popular -- but they're an attempt to chip away at the not-enough-time-to-keep-up problem.

@Nelsonb111563

Yep, found it and responded. Check your email, thanks!

@Mountaingoatgreg

I've got one for you Joe

It's so top secret I haven't even written anything down yet.

Kidding, of course!  Actually, I'm mulling over how to best present this little project I'm working on with my 3D printer. 3D Printing articles have been showing up more often, so that topic might be saturated as well, but I'd like to hear your opinion regardless. That is, if you're interested.

If you email me I'll explain further but I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Staying Alive Ou Ou Ou Ou

I'll second the need for keep-alive/stay-alive installation articles. I added my recent experiences building and installing a stay alive in a September What's on My Workbench post (it still isn't working) but think that there is a real need for an electronics subject area on the topic with in-depth articles. I am not a good author anymore and my writing limit is just a forum or blogspot post rather than full organized  expository writing.

Split the difference

May, June, July, August, Sept, five months.  I'll split the difference.

Still pretty poor.  I'm sure I only got an answer because I poked you.  Which was my point.  Your potential authors need to be aware that their submissions could sit on your desk for months before they are even read (I submitted mine in may and you read it in July) and you may not communicate with them unless they keep poking you.

Standard practice

Having done a considerable amount of freelance writing, four to six months for a response to a spec article is quite standard, not just for hobby magazines but for all magazines. I've had it take a year. Submissions always exceed available editorial time and unless you’re someone like Gregg Easterbrook, you're just not as important as you think you are. If it bothers you, do simultaneous submissions and tell the editor in your cover letter that you are doing so. Pros understand this, hobbyists who are amateur writers, not so much.

Op Sig

On the Op Sig virtual meets, I have made one virtual clinic on Trackage rights and have another scheduled at the end of October on Hazmat rules before 1977, plus a couple more working in the wings.

I mentioned this some time ago

Joe, I mentioned this some time ago, but what about a small N scale layout from start to finish?  Might be a series of 2-4 articles in the end but if there is interest, I'll submit the first part in the next couple weeks.

@skiloff - Multi-part articles

Multi-part articles raise the bar pretty high. Before we say yes, I need to know the following ...

1. How will we know for sure it will get completed? While you may have the best of intentions, things can happen.

2. Are you a contributor who has a track record with us already so we know what we're going to get?

Before we commit to a multi-part set of articles, we prefer to have at least three parts in hand. The rub there is if you've never been published with us before, then you stand a chance we'll reject it rather than publish it.

For the first submission to us, I recommend something far less grandiose, so you can learn what it takes to write an article than meets our needs and for us to see what to expect we'll get from you.

Before we commit to a multi-part series as a new contributor, we'd ideally like to have published at least three stand-alone articles from you so we can get to know your work.

Then, once we know we're happy to publish your work, we do ask for a multi-part series we see at least three parts up front.

In your case, Dave, we've published a number of editorials (Reverse Running) from you and a couple first look product pieces. I also see you were doing a project article that I am overdue on commenting on, so I've sent you an email on that. I would still like to see a real project article from you first before we commit to a multi-part series.

In fact, that's what I recommend

Yes, I'm sure that's true.

In fact, that's what I recommend if you want an answer sooner rather than later -- send a "what's going on?" request a month or two later if you've not heard from us. That's the unfortunate reality of how this works. We have the best of intentions, but if it doesn't have a deadline, then it can take time and sometimes it just falls through a crack.

I especially lose track of queries that get sent to me just via email because I get hundreds of emails a day. I try to answer most of the time, but I know I miss things, especially if the email isn't something I can answer quickly.

That's why it's important we get the query form system fixed because that keeps a logged list of the queries (as well as send us an email) and it's much harder for those to just fall through the cracks because we have a dedicated log of each one sent.

The spammers filling the log list with thousands of trash queries have totally destroyed any chance of us getting back to anyone, so we're back to just emails which I already know don't work as well.

By having a logged list of queries, I can also assign getting back to you to another staff member. As we continue staffing up again, that becomes a very good solution to not hearing from us very soon.

@JamesWillmus

James, check your email.

Writing my reply now

Writing my reply now

DCC install articles

If you take lots of photos to show the process, we're very interested in DCC install articles. We're especially interested in ones that include sound and stay alive.

The more challenging the install, the more interested we are. Solving space challenges can be most helpful for our readers.

WATCH OUT ON THE PHOTOS
One thing I will say, many folks take photos with their phone. While the resolution of those photos are plenty large now for our needs, I do have a couple caveats about phone photos.

1. Make sure to use plenty of light. The phones are set to try and get an image in any kind of light and if the light's not really bright, the result will be a grainy, shallow depth-of-field photo that doesn't scale up on our pages very well.
    
2. Double and triple check the focus by looking at the full-sized image and zooming in on it with your phone. Often a photo that looks great on the phone at a glance actually has a lot of motion blur or out-of-focus areas if you zoom in on the image.

Trying to take another photo after-the-fact on an install when you later discover about half your photos are blurry or have poor depth of field generally isn't an option. So make darn sure you have a great photo while you're shooting the pictures as you document the install.

Lots of light also helps the camera take a photo with more depth of field, so set up way more light than normal if you're planning to shoot step-by-step photos for a DCC install.

The spammers filling the log list?

What do they gain from that?   .....DaveB

It's a bot hack attempt

Bots roam the web all the time looking for forms to submit. The form submissions include known hacker exploits and they're trying to find a hole in the site's defenses. If one approach doesn't work then the bot will try another, and another, and another.

If they can finally break in, they will steal passwords and emails or try to inject code that trashes your site.

Or the form post will include links that if we click them, will infect our computer and give them all our passwords and logins.

It's something of a game ... or worse. If they do manage to break in and steal passwords and emails, then they'll take those and the bots will roam the web trying those emails and passwords on bank sites, eCommerce sites, eBay and so on until they can manage to break into someone's account.

Bottom line, they're up to all kinds of no good. That's why we have contracted with a firm to keep our site security updates current. Otherwise these bots will find and exploit a weakness and then all your logins will be stolen and used against you.

Needless to say, we have shut down the form submission links that are being exploited to avoid any chance of a break in.

P.S. I believe there's a special place of torment reserved for hackers and spammers. I consider their nefarious acts the equivalent to walking into your house and relieving themselves all over the floors, the furniture, etc. If there's anyone who deserves little mercy, it's people who make a career out of hacking and spamming.