I've been using eQSL since the early 2000s, regardless of what my account says (Currently says I've only been a member since 2018, though I'm fairly certain I had an eQSL account since 2003 or 2004... I donated way back when, as well) In that time I've asked for support, both here on the forums and via email, multiple times.. Never have I got a single reply to any of my queries for support.

1) Since signing up, features have slowly disappeared over the years. When I first signed up, I was able to upload a photo for use as a background on my eQSL cards. That feature was removed... but the photo I had uploaded was allowed to stay on my eQSL card...at least until last year when it disappeared with no explanation. Where'd my photo go? When was that forced out, and why was I not notified that feature would be removed?

2) I've had multiple QTHs, and wanted to be able to link up software like NetLogger to eQSL. Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to do that if you have more than one QTH. NetLogger's authors said to ask eQSL support. I did that. At least twice. No replies or response from either eQSL or its users... in fact, after posting the request to the forums, my post never appeared. Odd, that...

3) Now, it seems, I cannot access my inbox unless I click one of two links. One link implies I'm destitute or just plain cheap. The other is a demand for money. Don't the ads all over the pages of eQSL pay for most of the costs?

4) If I submit and pay your demanded $1.50/mo for a Bronze "Membership", which features which have been removed over the years will come back? I mean, besides the inbox, of course... Will a method for logging in to eQSL and choosing my current (correct) QTH become available? Will the photo which was removed from my no-longer-existing eQSL design be restored? Will I be able to confirm QSOs for others to get their awards?

5) If I don't submit and pay the $1.50/mo, will QSOs uploaded to eQSL by others be confirmed automatically as if I performed the action, or will the stations I worked be out-of-luck for awards? It seems keeping people from being able to confirm QSOs also limits your income, since confirmed QSOs are required for awards, and awards are a paid service. Are you willing to rob Peter to pay Paul, or are you just going to auto-confirm any QSOs uploaded by others?

There are other electronic QSL services out there.. QRZ pays for theirs with awards costs and ads... I use eQSL and QRZ for electronic confirmation.. or at least I did up until today.
I won't be clicking either of those links on the inbox page... and I guess I won't be uploading to the outbox for the time being.. No sense earning eQSL income if I can't access necessary features for the cost of seeing ads all over the eQSL page.

Someone let me know what's what, here, please, because this kind of without-warning change to the service has left a rather acrid taste in my mouth.

73 de AI8W, Chris

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AI8W CHRISTOPHER G PETTY

You had an account in January 2001. Congrats on being one of the earliest users of our system! And in 2007 you paid for a membership, which earned you the ability to upload a truck photo for your eQSL. According to the rules, if a membership expires and you're downgraded, you don't suddenly lose the photo you might be using for your eQSL. But if you want to change it or upload a new one, you would need to get a paid membership again.

Let me answer a few questions:

1. Features haven't slowly disappeared, in fact we have been adding new features all the time. But what happens is when someone lets their paid membership lapse, some of the paid features disappear for them.

For the past 25 years, we have been letting around 92% of our users get a free ride, at the expense of the other 8% who are doing the right thing. We just decided to poke the 92% a little bit and see if maybe they could afford $1.50 a month. Most of them pay that much for coffee every week. A lot of them have Netflix or Amazon Prime memberships. A lot of them pay a lot of money every month for Internet or cellphones. It seems $1.50 a month should not be too much to ask, so we have started asking. Not demanding. Nobody is getting cut off if they can't afford $1.50 a month. We just want to ask for help in a little more direct way.

2. Check the FAQs under "QTH" to see how to set up new attached accounts for all your QTHes, upload the different logs into those accounts, and be able to move around between accounts. We have had this ability for many years now. Most loggers support our "nicknames" that let you specify which of your various accounts to upload into, if you haven't used portable slashes in the callsign.

3. Advertising covers almost none of our costs at all. We found most of the advertising systems want to follow our users around the Internet, intrude on their email, build profiles about them, and other things we consider intrusive. So we use our own internally developed ad server. And we can't afford an advertising salesperson, so our ad revenue is virtually non-existent. Most of the ads you see are actually just link sharing. MFJ puts an ad for eQSL on their web site, we put an ad for MFJ on our web site. No money changes hands. I think we made $30 on ads this month. The vast majority of our ability to cover expenses comes from membership dues from 8% of the users.

4. Yes to all

5. No we don't auto-confirm anything. Awards are earning for received eQSLs, not for ones sent. But not paying $1.50 a month will not stop you from uploading your logs just as you have in the past. In fact not paying $1.50 a month does not stop you from doing anything. You can still use the system for free just as you have been doing, and let others pay for it.

Hope this answers some questions.

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Of course, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong!

73,
Dave Morris, N5UP