As many co-ordinators will recall, there was a discussion a few weeks ago on the FreeBMD lists about ways of downloading multiple scans easily. At the time, I was less than happy that such tips were being given, as they inevitably lead to a spate of people thinking that it is a good idea to download lots of scans that they are not due to transcribe. As expected, this was exactly what happened, and over the past few weeks a new mechanism was introduced to block excessive usage of the server. Where transcribers are blocked from downloading, we contact them to determine WHY they were downloading excessive numbers of scans. Almost invariably the answer is that they were engaged in some "personal project" or that they were doing some work that they had dreamed up to check other people's work. We need to remind transcribers that scan downloads have a cost to the organisation, and that FreeBMD is not in a position to provide facilities for mass downloads for personal projects. Neither do we have resources to fund well-meant attempts to duplicate existing quality control systems. Could I ask that all co-ordinators add to the initial information that they give to transcribers the fact that the scan download facility should only be used to download allocated scans. -- Dave Mayall