Results from Poll #1, #2, & #3

[Anonymous]

Here's the results all together, you folks can draw your own conclusions, I'm still gathering more data concerning age groups, if I can.

Poll #1, Hobby stability
. "Is the hobby stable, growing or in decline"?????

Stable
38% (26 votes)

Growing
38% (26 votes)

Beginning to decline
24% (16 votes)


Poll Status: Open »» Total Votes: 68 counted »» Last Vote: 01/24/2004 12:59:01


Poll #2 Hobby stability
What's wrong with hobby?????

Peoples Attitudes, clubs, critics, etc
33% (18 votes)

RTR
4% (2 votes)

Prices
29% (16 votes)

Limited additions
7% (4 votes)

Nothing in your opinion
27% (15 votes)


Poll Status: Open »» Total Votes: 55 counted »» Last Vote: 01/23/2004 22:48:31


Poll #3 Rtr over Kits
Do you think Ready to Run is better for the hobby these days over Kits????

Yes, RTR is better
17% (11 votes)

No, KITS are better
38% (24 votes)

Maybe yes, Maybe no
37% (23 votes)

Totally befuddled and undecided
8% (5 votes)


Poll Status: Open »» Total Votes: 63 counted »» Last Vote: 01/25/2004 17:02:55


In looking at poll #1, of 68 votes, only 26 said that the hobby is growing. Twenty six said the hobby was stable, which is to say, it isn't growing, and 16 said, it's definately in decline. This poll, up to a point says that the glass is either half full or half empty until you add in the votes that say its declining. I'm not real sure what this says for the hobby, but what it boils down to is this, only 38% of those that voted say the hobby is growing, 62% say it's not growing.Hmmmmmmmmm?????


In looking at poll #2, I think that the data speaks for itself. In general most folks feel that peoples attitudes, clubs, and crittics are the biggest detriments to the hobby, prices ran a close second and 27% said nothing is wrong. However in looking at the poll as a whole, 73% have posted a negative vote. Seems to me a lot things need to be fixed if this hobby is going to survive the next 10-15 years.


Poll #3, Well 38% said they like KITS better than RTR, this, I really wonder if this is more a function of age groupings rather that being spread across the board. .Fully 45% said they weren't sure or didn't know. Seventeen percent said they like RTR, which is to say, RTR does have a niche. You comments and interpretations are welcome, the more feed back we get, maybe we can get a better picture of what may really be going on.

I really wonder if there is any kind of polarization of age groups, that may have dictated the results. What do you think???????

[Anonymous]

I agree with all the winning votes

[Anonymous]

Hey Emerald,

Thanks for posting your findings. It would appear that the hobby is going to experience some change, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your views. The good news is that model railroading seems stable given the competition of video games, etc. I hope the 'old timers' (no offense meant to the mature crowd!) will be pleased, too, as their experience will prove invaluable to newcomers. It would also have been interesting to find out how many woman support the hobby--whether through their significant others or solely on their own (I know the gals are out there!). Well, that's my two cent's worth. LONG LIVE MODEL RAILROADING!!!

[Anonymous]

I found this on one of the other threds and felt it may explain part of the poll concerning RTR vs KITS....

[Please excuse the delay in responding to your e-mail relating to
Walthers ready-to-run products vs. kits. I've been awaiting a reply
from our Marketing department.

Essentially, sir, our marketing research is showing an ever increasing
demand for ready-to-run, pre-assembled model railroad equipment. As
such, it appears as though Walthers HO freight and passenger equipment
will follow this trend. As a distributor, we will still be carrying the
kits offered by other vendors, and our CORNERSTONE SERIES line of
structures will continue to be predominantly offered in kit form.

While we regret the shift away from offering our model equipment in
kit form, it appears as though the current trend in model railroading
seems to be moving toward the "ready-to-run" items, especially amongst
newcomers to the hobby.

I hope this helps to clarify this matter for you].

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by emeraldisle

I found this on one of the other threds and felt it may explain part of the poll concerning RTR vs KITS....

[Please excuse the delay in responding to your e-mail relating to
Walthers ready-to-run products vs. kits. I've been awaiting a reply
from our Marketing department.

Essentially, sir, our marketing research is showing an ever increasing
demand for ready-to-run, pre-assembled model railroad equipment. As
such, it appears as though Walthers HO freight and passenger equipment
will follow this trend. As a distributor, we will still be carrying the
kits offered by other vendors, and our CORNERSTONE SERIES line of
structures will continue to be predominantly offered in kit form.

While we regret the shift away from offering our model equipment in
kit form, it appears as though the current trend in model railroading
seems to be moving toward the "ready-to-run" items, especially amongst
newcomers to the hobby.

I read this reply. I think the operative word should be balance. Give newcomers greater options...but the kits should never be relegated to the back-burner in favor of RTR, so as to keep everyone satisfied.[:D]

[CNJ831]

While I will readily agree that the responses to Polls #2 and #3 have relevance, since in those instances personal "opinion" is what matters, the results for Poll #1are essentially meaningless. Those replies need to be based on facts and figures, baseless opinion being worthless. Not a single poster offered any concrete evidence for growth or even stability in the hobby, so how can one draw any meaningful conclusion? Sadly, I do note that published numerical evidence for a decline has been cited repeatedly in posts that have appeared on this forum.

CNJ831

[RhB_HJ]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dougal

I agree with all the winning votes

Hey!

That was hard to predict![;)][:)]

[Anonymous]

While I think it is certainly o.k. to ask the opinons of the people whom partake in this media, I would caution against drawing conclusions based upon the opinions of the small amount of people whom read and respond to items posted on this forum. Your talking about the opinons of less than 100 people! I have no idea how many people are involved in this hobby and would venture using the total circulation of Model Railroader would be considerably less than the total. All I have been givin to understanding, is the hobby is seeing strong growth at this time!

[Anonymous]

emeraldisle, I think you tried to start a worthwhile exercise, but unfortunately that cannot be done with any degree of accuracy in ANY online forum poll...the sample size will be too small. Even if your response total was multiplied by 10 , the response sample would still be too small, and too "non-representative" to be considered.

There's more than one reason for this, but one of the key reasons is that the "average" hobbyist does not even participate in these forums.

Anyway, I still think you should get credit for trying to gather data.
best regards
Mike[:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

Thanks Emerald for the time and effort spent on those polls. I realize that these are merely opinion polls but sometimes these things have a way of foretelling trends. Anyway, here's MY opinion or [2c] worth. Poll Nr1. Yes, people's attitudes do and are now doing a lot of influencing on newcomers to the hobby. Maybe we should tell people to join this forum or some like it to see what the REAL hobbyists are doing and how they help each other. I've seen members of clubs go from the extreme of what happened to juby4ever (destruction of private property) to a total ignoring of new people as though they didn't exist. This is not the way to gain new members folks. If I go to any membership type socitey whether it be church or a model club. if people ignore me or act superior to me I go away, not because they scare me off but because I figure I can better spend my time where I am accepted.

The second most-voted on item was prices. I look at some of these locomotives that are priced at several hundred dollars. I can't afford that. I'm retired and have a fixed amount of money to spend on my hobby. One reason why I'm modeling my layout standard gauge instead of narrow-gauge (heresy) is that I refuse to pay between $500 and $1,000 for a single loco. Until recently, with the advent of On30, you saw few manufactures giving thought to narrow-gauge modelers. I guess they were considered outsiders to the mainstream and not worth bothering about (another attitude).

Limited-edition kits. They really get my goat. There are some pretty fabulous kits out there, selling for $300+. The manufacturers keep the edition limited to jack the price up (their right to make money) and then there are those who call potential subscribers and ask them if they would like to give the manufacturer their credit card number and they will be sent a copy of each forthcoming kit. In a lot of cases, these kits arrive at their destination and without even being unwrapped are stored in a closet somewhere until 4 or 5 years have passed. The kits are then brought out and offered for sale at 4 or 5 times their original value. It's a unique way to make a lot of money but very selfish. Of course when you've got the money in hand who cares about selfish ?

The young 'uns. Until the advent of TAMR, these people were virtually ignored. I mean, after all who want's a bunch of brats wandering around inside of a model railroad club? They'll cause problems and probably destroy things. But they don't do they? Think about it. These are the future of the hobby. If the hobby is to have a future, we need to include them. It's a little bit like life isn't it? If you don't show interest in your kids, they won't show any interest in you. I've seen some of the layouts that these kids have built and wish I could do as well and I'm 70.

Now that I've had my say and generated some hate and discontent I'll get off my [soapbox]

JR

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jrlauch

Thanks Emerald for the time and effort spent on those polls. I realize that these are merely opinion polls but sometimes these things have a way of foretelling trends. Anyway, here's MY opinion or [2c] worth. Poll Nr1. Yes, people's attitudes do and are now doing a lot of influencing on newcomers to the hobby. Maybe we should tell people to join this forum or some like it to see what the REAL hobbyists are doing and how they help each other. I've seen members of clubs go from the extreme of what happened to juby4ever (destruction of private property) to a total ignoring of new people as though they didn't exist. This is not the way to gain new members folks. If I go to any membership type socitey whether it be church or a model club. if people ignore me or act superior to me I go away, not because they scare me off but because I figure I can better spend my time where I am accepted.

The second most-voted on item was prices. I look at some of these locomotives that are priced at several hundred dollars. I can't afford that. I'm retired and have a fixed amount of money to spend on my hobby. One reason why I'm modeling my layout standard gauge instead of narrow-gauge (heresy) is that I refuse to pay between $500 and $1,000 for a single loco. Until recently, with the advent of On30, you saw few manufactures giving thought to narrow-gauge modelers. I guess they were considered outsiders to the mainstream and not worth bothering about (another attitude).

Limited-edition kits. They really get my goat. There are some pretty fabulous kits out there, selling for $300+. The manufacturers keep the edition limited to jack the price up (their right to make money) and then there are those who call potential subscribers and ask them if they would like to give the manufacturer their credit card number and they will be sent a copy of each forthcoming kit. In a lot of cases, these kits arrive at their destination and without even being unwrapped are stored in a closet somewhere until 4 or 5 years have passed. The kits are then brought out and offered for sale at 4 or 5 times their original value. It's a unique way to make a lot of money but very selfish. Of course when you've got the money in hand who cares about selfish ?

The young 'uns. Until the advent of TAMR, these people were virtually ignored. I mean, after all who want's a bunch of brats wandering around inside of a model railroad club? They'll cause problems and probably destroy things. But they don't do they? Think about it. These are the future of the hobby. If the hobby is to have a future, we need to include them. It's a little bit like life isn't it? If you don't show interest in your kids, they won't show any interest in you. I've seen some of the layouts that these kids have built and wish I could do as well and I'm 70.

Now that I've had my say and generated some hate and discontent I'll get off my [soapbox]

JR

Thanks, and I do agree that even small polls like this may not have even a minor inpact on the hobby , however I think it does reflect a trend and even a possible major impact in our hobby in the future. I'm not saying that it reflects the attitude of all MRR's, but of those that did take the time to respond, most did say that the hobby isn't completely healthyand THAT is a trend. Trends tend to start small and only become major if , what ever started the trend to begin with doesn't change, in this case, "peoples attitudes". Bad attitudes lead to a decline in participation, and that leads to a decline in the hobby. It's a domino affect. I wouldn't be too ready to just ignor it. This was the principle reason for the whopping huge decline in the model ship building hobby in this country. Same bad attitudes, same bad result.