Protocol Warrior behavior:
A character flaw common among digital ham radio enthusiasts, where consideration of a pet product, project, paradigm, or protocol looms larger in their thoughts than any consideration of the amateur radio service itself, or of their fellow hams.
Most hams have met or known protocol warriors, and they are easy to recognize... The protocol warrior is full of certainty that his way, and only his way is worthy of consideration. - Hams who do something different are ( ignorant, luddites, lids, troublemakers, ) etc., and so are not worthy of everyday decency, consideration, respect or cooperation.
To a protocol warrior, it is "OK" to undercut or marginalize their fellow hams, as long as those hams are doing something different. Since they use a "competing" product, project, paradigm, or protocol, then they are the "competition", worthy only of hostility.
More than once, I have heard protocol warriors professing a craven, shameless eagerness for ham radio's "old guard" to pass away. - Where ignorance marries arrogance, there you find a protocol warrior.
This, instead of their treating their fellow hams with the respect, consideration and amity that has marked this hobby since its beginning.
Obviously this unfriendly attitude has no place in Ham Radio - but it has found a way into the hobby anyway, and does not appear to be going away on it's own. Many digital enthusiasts remember packet radio's protocol wars as a note of discord within the hobby from a decade or more ago, not realizing that this problem is still with us today.
Just as it was a decade ago, the protocol wars inhibit cooperation among amateurs and so it stunts the progress that would otherwise be possible. Protocol Warrior attitudes have brought digital amateur radio in the United States to a virtual standstill, making it almost impossible to evaluate and apply new technology as it becomes available.
Many hams criticize the ARRL for not taking a lead in developing a digital ham radio network in the US. - They criticize because they do not understand that almost every digital proposal the ARRL gets is put forward as a "hatchet job" on other methods that are proposed or that are already in use by many hams. Everybody seems to want their pet product, project, paradigm, or protocol to be given top consideration, at everything and everybody else's expense.
It's precisely this "My way or the Highway" attitude that has made it almost impossible for the ARRL to act upon the great majority of the proposals they get. - Most of them are loaded up with this same antisocial combination of ignorance and arrogance, the kind associated with protocol warrior behavior.
Whatever finally is proposed, good or bad, is immediately attacked. In fact, it is almost impossible to discuss digital amateur radio networking anywhere without being attacked by protocol warriors. It is no different in the ARRL's board room, which goes far in explaining the ARRL's general lack of progress with digital ham radio.
This is the primary malaise of amateur packet radio in the USA. - Protocol Warrior behavior.
How I Won the Protocol Wars
Perhaps because I am an old hand at digital amateur radio and can remember how friendly and inclusive packet was before the protocol wars, I have taken an interest in this problem.
Packet radio used to fit in with ham radio a lot better than it does today. It used to be mainstream, but now most really decent hams avoid packet - because of the intolerant, often nasty "protocol warrior" behavior that is so widely associated with packet radio today. Nobody wants discord and disharmony, or to be run down because of the equipment or software they use.
My first clue in getting past this problem was that in discussions and arguements with Protocol Warrior types, they were always outraged at my unfairness if I brought up the idea of considering their fellow hams. They reacted this way almost every time... This response was so out of whack with everything I have ever known about ham radio that I immediately recognized this as their central weakness, their blind spot; the hole in their internal logic.
Perhaps the most outrageously anti-ham aspect of protocol warrior thinking, I discovered, was the recurring theme of the "protocol" somehow being held in higher consideration than people, ( fellow hams ) especially when those people use a "competing" protocol. The idea of cooperation with "Joe Ham" was just too repugnant to consider. If you are not of the alleged "elite", then of course you are out.
This "Them or Us" attitude, being applied against fellow hams who have done nothing more offensive than to use different equipment or software is a recognized hallmark of the protocol warrior. Again, though this behavior is obviously unworthy of the amateur radio service, still it has crept into our everyday dealings with each other. - Thus the general malaise that has affected digital amateur radio.
Over and over, I saw a lack of respect for their fellow hams, a cynical attitude about the hobby, and a basic inability to play well with others as outstanding characteristics of the protocol warrior. This told me that a good counter-attitude would be to simply respect our fellow hams, and the hobby that brings us together to work and play.
As a packet networker, this implied to me that the endless emphasis on products, projects, paradigm, and protocol are misplaced. - That the most important network component is people, and people who had built working, usable network used and enjoyed by average hams are the real experts in the art and science of amateur packet radio.
I quit looking at what equipment a digital group was using, or what protocol they were using and looked at the results they were getting instead. I started looking for people who had discovered how to play well together because every time I found that, I also found impressive accomplishment no matter what kind of equipment they used.
I believe my main points have been made, so now I will invite you to look over the NETWORK area here at USPacket, to see the kind of expertise that matters in the amateur packet radio world today. - The kind that we need more of, just as we need less of the kind of thinking that drives the "protocol warrior" in us all.
Charles Brabham, N5PVL
n5pvl@uspacket.org