Hello Community,

since several days I am forced to write the time in the data record when I answer an eQSL. That's absolutely annoying! And, when I wrote the 4-digit time and pressed [Enter] I got an error. The software wants an ":" between hours and minutes. That's annoying, too.

Where can I switch off this "feature" ?

73 de Mario, dc7ccc

---

DC7CCC/P Mario H. Fietz

I like that feature which helps ensure the QSL exchange is genuine. What if the originator had made an error? Example, NA stations have logged me on 160m as W3OQK.
Andrew
GW3OQK

---

GW3OQK Andrew Fairgrieve

In general, I find the "feature" annoying. It doesn't add any security or validity since a person confirming a QSO they didn't have could still enter a number in there. Much like the excessive "security" of LOTW, this feature detracts from the user experience while doing nothing to improve the process of QSLing.

For my part, I rarely confirm out of the inbox: since I upload my logs 99.9% of the confirm QSLs get rejected. I do verify: uploading sometimes misses stuff, but generally, if it's giving me the confirmation clicks, it's probably a reject anyway.

---

73 de
VE3OIJ Darin Cowan

It has nothing to do with security or validity, it is to slow down users from just blindly confirming everything in their inbox without at least thinking about it.

If you upload log files, as most eQSL users do, there is no reason to ever need to manually confirm an eQSL. All matching eQSLs are confirmed automatically, anything left over with the option to confirm/reject should be rejected.

I always check here too, and most of the time they messed up; got the mode wrong (psk31 instead of psk63 for example), got the wrong date/time, once I had one with the wrong band. So I reject with the reason, that allows them to edit their outbox entry. Anything else gets rejected with a 'not in my log' message.

---

73, Dave - VA3KAB

Let me put it another way then...

For all the things that could be worked on/fixed/improved for this site, I'm very surprised "make people manually enter time" was anywhere near the top of the list, let alone on top.

It seems apparent, from the feedback I've been reading on the forum, that it's not popular. I'd love to know how much positive feedback is being received and what the drivers were.

My own station is electronic, so this feature is a mild annoyance. However, I also administer a club station and the confirmations there are (were) mostly manual. The "enter a time" feature is far too time consuming, so I basically don't confirm QSLs here for that station any more. Maybe one day if that station goes electronic, there will be a massive confirmation catch-up, but it's simply not a priority because eQSL has made it too hard.

I am certain I'm not the only person in that boat.

---

73 de
VE3OIJ Darin Cowan
Edited by VE3OIJ P. Darin Cowan on Apr 19, 2013 at 10:15 PM

"It has nothing to do with security or validity, it is to slow down users from just blindly confirming everything in their inbox without at least thinking about it."

Since all you have to do is type the time shown in the inbox it does nothing to encourage people to check the QSO details in their logbook.

73 Dave G3YMC

---

G3YMC Dave Sergeant

And if after checking your log you then mistype it in the box instead of it telling you the time doesn't match it promptly generates a new eQSL QSO for that mistyped time and leaves the original one unconfirmed in your inbox. I just made that error, typed 10:21 instead of 20:21 in the box - fortunately the station alerted me to the error but I wasted far too much time correcting my outbox. A pointless exercise, PLEASE restore to the old way.

73 Dave G3YMC

---

G3YMC Dave Sergeant

Interesting point.

Ok I can't make any promises because it is not up to me, but I'll try and get the discussion reopened anyway.

---

73, Dave - VA3KAB