Banned on QRZ.com: Ethic?

Many colleagues have asked on the air why I no longer appear on QRZ.com. I have usually replied that I was unilaterally banned, without having done anything noteworthy. But here is the full story:

The short version

In my post titled “Why I left the Brandmeister initiative”, I explained that although the project held promise at first, two things pulled me away: my daughter’s birth and growing internal tensions within the development team, which lacked clear direction. At that time, the team asked me to finish an API I was working on. Unable to meet their deadlines, I handed my code over to another developer, and that was the end of my involvement.

Behind the scenes, however, a conflict was brewing between the boards of QRZ.com and Brandmeister. I know many of the details, but out of respect for privacy—and to maintain civility—I will not share everything. Let’s say that everything was about money.

Eventually, I discovered that I had been banned from QRZ.com. It seems that the dispute between those two organizations precipitated my removal. At the time, I was focused on my family and paid little attention to the ban. Today, I can say honestly that I don’t care about not being on QRZ.com. Still, I want others to decide for themselves whether it was ethical to block my access to a public website where I had willingly shared my own information—just as any other user—and from which the site profited. In my view, that decision was indefensible. Not a single person at QRZ.com reached out to explain or even discuss the matter before terminating my account. That was their choice; I’ve moved on.

Now I’m fully back into amateur radio and radio-related projects. If I can continue or improve my work and others work without relying on QRZ.com and its commercial interests, I will.

Finally, take a look at the picture below. It is supposed it corresponds to an account that doesn’t exist from public view, but, if you know enough how to do it, the information appears. You can read my name, you can see my email and callsign, but most importantly, in the red bubble you can read “This user account is closed”. Believe me if I tell you that wasn’t me.

It’s completely disgraceful.