[aprssig] Screen Scraping of findU

[Gregg Wonderly]

Steve Dimse wrote:
> Hoping users will do the right thing is simply not enough. This usage  
> of findU is not acceptable, it is exactly the thing I have always  
> prohibited in the findU FAQ. findU is not the back end database for  
> everyone else's code. Your program should only be used by connecting  to 
> the APRS IS, and I hope you will drop the screen-scraping part of  your 
> code.

I am working in this direction.  The filtering mechanisms for APRS-IS have some 
limitations that complicate software design, so I did take the easy route first.

I'll continue to use posit.cgi on a users request to get the track of a station.

> Obviously, there is nothing I can do to prevent you from releasing  
> programs that do this, but when I see someone using this feature of  the 
> code, I will be blocking the IP (which blocks all findU access  from 
> that IP, not just your code). I'm sorry to be playing hardball  here, 
> but it is very frustrating to have the weather data feed to the  NWS 
> interrupted because people are using findU in place of an APRS IS  
> parser. 

I appreciate your needs here and will work to not be an impact on your abilities 
to provide these services.

 > In my opinion, the NWS work I do is top priority, the APRS/CW
> feed is the second largest mesonet and is depended upon by NWS  forcast 
> offices. When something causes a problem, I hear about it! I  will take 
> whatever steps I need to to assure the reliability of the  NWS feed.

Good enough.

Gregg Wonderly
W5GGW