Can you belive they locked the trains.com MR forum?


dthurman said:
You know Jeff you bring up an interesting point that I overlooked by all this. The troll attack was one thing, and I can see some upset things being taken care of, but if you are referring to the Walthers/LifeLike/Walmart topic and how it did get a little heated, I wonder if this is what Terry was talking about. WE ALL KNOW that Walthers is big in their town as it relates to MR and also Kalmbach. Maybe they are worried the heat of the topic may make Walthers mad. Terry did jump in on that topic. Also the reviews of products is always pretty nice to the product and the company. Maybe with all that free speech we were doing ruffled more then an anger over trolls, and we all know how when a topic is hot, like the religion thread, then the troll thread posted by MR staff how both got wiped after it generated a firestorm.

Sorry for the delay in answering, I was in the shop tearing down a Genesis 2-8-2 for a repaint.. Been awhile so I had to find all the screws again :eek: ..

I didn't actually see that particular thread but have seen many like it on forums and especially on USNET where opinions run wild. I have no quams with Kalmbach, in fact, as a company, I have a rather large amount of respect for them.. A lot of magazines come and go but MR has been around for over 70 years.. Says alot for staying power of the mag as well as the hobby.

One other item I noticed, and I don't frequent the Garden forum, or most of the others, besides the Train one, it seems the moderators participate with the posters, as were the MR forum, I hardly ever say any polls or questions presented. You know something that would have been smart on their part, was to have Tony Koester, Andy S, Lionel Strang (sp) post a how to on the forums, think of what that would have meant as a gesture of good will.

Sorry started getting carried away... I will turn around and operate my trains...

It would have, true. A lot of good modelers there filling those voids though.. I see some of them are here..

Jeff
:D
 
Hi, guys ... one thing this forum needs is faster confirmation emails. 6+ hours is for the birds. <sigh> Probably to keep out the trolls, right? Could at least mention that you'll have to wait, though. :rolleyes:

Anyhow, I've spoken with MR from time to time about internet things and as an internet professional, I sense they spend more time thinking about their current big profit center ... the paper publications.

This internet thing is a sideline ... and they don't necessarily have it all figured out yet, nor even know how to handle it sometimes. No slight on them, it's true of many businesses who's main line of business is not technology.

When something like just what happened comes at them, they are kind of caught off guard ... since it's a sideline anyhow (in their minds), then let's just shut the thing down and take some time to think.

I agree it's a bit of an over reaction, but I also don't think they will take to the offers of volunteer moderation of their forum either. It's the whole notion of "giving away the keys to the company to outsiders who don't work for us" that probably won't fly with them.

But can you really blame them? Consider: I get volunteers who want to help me on the Siskiyou Line from time to time, and I've learned something: having the motivation doesn't mean you are any good at it. So unless I know the person has the skill in the area they are volunteering for, I just smile and say thanks, but tell them that's a part of the hobby I like to do.

So in that sense, I can see MR's position ... what if they turn the moderation over to some volunteer moderators and their moderation skills suck? Now your forum has really gone south, made you look like a dufus, and now you have to make some people mad by telling them they suck as moderators. What fun is that?

Still, there is a mentality with the internet that is more community and flies in the face of the close-to-the-vest approach to business. Witness the open source movement, for example. Everyone gets together with a common interest and we write software together for the benefit of all.

And the amazing thing is it's working! The technology businesses like IBM, Sun, etc are getting it. Kalmbach is basically a hobby media business, and they will need to dramatically embrace the internet as the primary media vehicle of the future if they are going to survive much past the next decade.

So to keep up with the times, anyone in the business of presenting information to people needs to see the internet as more than just a sideline, and you need to embrace the community mindset that's building some great resources over the internet for us all.

How they handle this latest debacle with the MR forum will tell us if they are starting to "get it" with regard to the internet. For example, take the folks that volunteered and ask for their forum moderation credentials, similar to what you would do for an job interview. Pick a couple really qualified volunteers and offer them a free subscription to MR as payment if they do a good job.

Okay, my turn to get off the soapbox. ;)
 
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HELLO EVERYONE great to see some familliar faces in the forum, i have migrated from the MR forum to this one, hope i didn't miss anything
Later
 
Howdy! Another MR forum refugee here, or should I say "displaced person"? You'll note I actually joined this forum back in June, but never did get around to following it until now. Thanks Kalmbach! :D

While I've been on the MR forum for a while (1400+ posts), I seemed to be getting a lot less satisfaction and/or interest in the past while. Way too many silly and unecessary polls, they are neverending. Like how many times do we need to hear "What is your favorite engine....car.... railroad...." whatever?

Sunday morning and the Atlas forum is down too. :mad: Whazzup here? Are they all falling like dominoes?

I find that the posts on the MR forum that are critical of the magazine could be taken by management possibly as constructive feedback to what they are doing. But maybe Kalmbach is so institutionalized these days (their only goal is to make more money at any cost), they aren't capable of taking criticism. The recent thread about their product reviews being more or less useless was one, but I doubt if they would change for fear of losing advertisers.

Anyway I'm still trying to figure my way around these forums, there's so much to see!
 
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Hi Bob we have very few polls here so you shouldn't have that problem unless it gets transported here. I agree with your views on the magazine, and would like to say it that those in the publishing business that do not pay attention to their public eventually suffer the consequences. For myself I gave up buying the magazine a few years ago. The reason I did is "to me" the content value is not equal to the cover price in my opinion, so I use the money to support the few hobby shops we have left.

Bob if I might suggest for a quick view of events, use the "Active Topics" dropdown menu located in the bottom banner (Blue) of the page header. Myself I use the "Last3 days" option that way I dont miss any new posts that haven't been answered in more than a 24 hr period.

13.gif
Willis
 
Railphotog said:
Howdy! Another MR forum refugee here, or should I say "displaced person"? You'll note I actually joined this forum back in June, but never did get around to following it until now. Thanks Kalmbach! :D

While I've been on the MR forum for a while (1400+ posts), I seemed to be getting a lot less satisfaction and/or interest in the past while. Way too many silly and unecessary polls, they are neverending. Like how many times do we need to hear "What is your favorite engine....car.... railroad...." whatever?

Sunday morning and the Atlas forum is down too. :mad: Whazzup here? Are they all falling like dominoes?

I find that the posts on the MR forum that are critical of the magazine could be taken by management possibly as constructive feedback to what they are doing. But maybe Kalmbach is so institutionalized these days (their only goal is to make more money at any cost), they aren't capable of taking criticism. The recent thread about their product reviews being more or less useless was one, but I doubt if they would change for fear of losing advertisers.

Anyway I'm still trying to figure my way around these forums, there's so much to see!


Welcome aboard, Bob!

I understand your disdain for the polls and beginner type posts. That said, the younger model railroaders have to get their start somewhere, and we should help and encourage them throughout their beginnings in the hobby. Someday, many of them will be posting pics of their MR empires that will dazzle us. Then they'll be the advanced modelers that have to grin thru the polls and "what's your favorite engine" posts of the younger members... :)
 



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