Hello Philip and everyone! I too find it to be a problem, however, I started doing something which helped bit. Basically, I stop the "bulk distribution" of the probe at conferences. I do try best to carry them and give out when someone asks for it. But I stop the act of taking hardware in hand during a conference and asking - "who needs it?" Instead I try to get hosts via two methods: 1. During IP routing or IXP workshops, I always take a few mins to explain the way traceroute works and only shows the forward path, making everyone curious about return path. Next, I suggest them of Atlas project. That gets me folks who are genuinely interested to ask for the probe. 2. Whenever anyone requests me for sending probe via email or my blog post about it - I tell them upfront that while probes are free to host, there is cost involved in hardware which RIPE is bearing and there is cost involved in sending it locally which folks like us are bearing and thus we expect probes to be connected as soon as they (the requester) receives it and also that requester is willing to spend some reasonable time to troubleshoot if the device goes offline. For #2, I have seen 30-40% people not replying back and that actually helps. That ensures I am not sending a probe to someone who does not pick phone call, someone who misses an email and does not have time to do basic troubleshooting. Thanks. On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 5:18 AM, Philip Paeps <philip@trouble.is> wrote:
I had a conversation with a new probe host who was wondering how many of the probes I hand out "walk off" never to be seen again.
Sadly, that's quite a lot of them in my case. I guess I need to find conferences with more reliable attendees?
People promise to plug them in but then they get distracted. Or they move and the probes end up in boxes.
How do other ambassadors twist their hosts' arms into actually plugging in probes? (And keeping them plugged in!)
Philip
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