I am completely and totally confused by the changes. I may give Kalmbach a call in the morning to figure out my MRVP situation. Is Kalmbach looking to end printed subscriptions?
Joe Staten Island West
PruittI just got off the phone with MRVP Customer Service.
Yes, me also. I had just started getting an "urgent message" emails saying my MRVP subscription was ending, so I needed to figure out what that was about. As I understand it, subject to clarification of others:
a. If I only want the magazine subscription, I don't have to get the new Trains.com thing. The magazine subscription will continue at whatever your current price is, but will also include the abiility to view the magazine digitally.
You will not be able to look at archived, Kalmbach, magazines.
b. The new Trains.com site will not cost me an additional $84/year ($6.99/month X 12 months). The additional cost will be the difference between the $84 and what I'm currently paying for MRVP.
c. If I want to look at the track plans or the Kalmback train related magazine archives, I will need to sign up for the new Trains.com site.
c-1. If I understood the rep correctly, I will be able to read the other Kalmbach train related magazines on-line without an additional subscription. I am not certain about that, so I could very well be mistaken. I'd appreciate if someone else can clear that up. So please don't yell at me if I'm incorrect.
d. The all inclusive magazine index is going away. To me this willl be the biggest loss. But I am reluctant to complain about something that I wasn't paying for.
On the other hand, that magazine archive was invented elsewhere, so maybe we can hope that service will be picked up by someone else.
I just got off the phone with MRVP Customer Service.
Kalmbach is not offering to transfer service from MRVP to Trains.com. If you want to switch, you have to cancel your MRVP subscription, and they will refund the unused portion of your subscription to your credit card. You can then sign up for Trains.com if you want (which really accomplishes the exact same thing).
They could not answer any questions about the reduced new content on TMTV, nor what series will appear where. In all fairness I didn't expect they could - they deal with the subscriptions, and they were able to answer all my questions in that regard.
I canceled my MRVP subscription, since it appears to be almost spurious at this point anyway.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Well, I have four Kalmbach subscriptions; MR, Trains, Classic Trains and MRVP (which is now pretty much useless) and now they want me to payout another $80 something dollars for the new Trains.com. I don't think so. I really felt towards the end MRVP was starting to be a waist of money because they were posting less and less videos. Yes, I know that we are in a pandemic, but I'm still not getting what I paid for except this year's Summer Camp was really nice but outside of a few more it really started drying up the closer we got to the new Trains.com rollout.
I think I will cancel my MRVP. I just don't want to have to payout everything they are asking just to get the "whole Kalmbach experience".
Ralph
DrumguyNow we are few days into very vocal dissent about the handling of this change. Granted, Kalmbach is not required to monitor these forums but obviously they are not deaf to it. And still, we have radio silence from Kalmbach. I'm beginning to believe this is out of the hands of the MRR names we are familiar with, and being driven by the suits who don't have a clue about their customers.
The names we know may not have much political clout in the company and the suits are deaf to the fourm.
Here is the Leadership Team https://www.kalmbach.com/leadership-team/
We all need to write to:
Dan Hickey CEO
KALMBACH MEDIA
21027 Crossroads Circle
P.O. Box 1612
Waukesha, WI 53187-1612
Tell him what we think about the roll out, the lack of clarity, or how much you love it and think they are right on.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Well, the header at the top of the page looks OK now on my tablet. Thanks for that, anyway.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Now we are few days into very vocal dissent about the handling of this change. Granted, Kalmbach is not required to monitor these forums but obviously they are not deaf to it. And still, we have radio silence from Kalmbach. I'm beginning to believe this is out of the hands of the MRR names we are familiar with, and being driven by the suits who don't have a clue about their customers. Kalmbach is a fairly large publisher with interests far beyond railroads real or modeled. But if they don't give us answers soon, I'm done with them. Which is a very, very sad thought. The magazine is an institution, one must look to the likes of National Geographic to find longevity like this.It reminds me of the early/mid 90s when Quark Xpress literally owned the desktop publishing market. Some new suit in charge decided "wow, these Mac clowns only have 7% of the market" not realizing we Mac clowns had 95% of the design an desktop publishing market. So they focused dev on Windows, ignored Mac, and lost the market to Adobe InDesign in the span of roughly one year. C'mon Kalmbach, the only thing worse than screwing up a rollout is pretending you didn't. Own up, tell us what's going on, and I'm optimistically confident the vast majority of us will give you a pass.
The magazine index has disappeared and today the trackplan database is not available as the page is under construction. That and constantly being harrassed to try the 30 day membership. The whole new site hass been poorly thought out an implemented. They should have kept the old site which functioned in place until the bugs were worked out of this. I am an MR subscriber and about the only thing they have yet to screw up is my access to the digital archives. I have not idea how my subscrption will be intergrated into this new site.
Poor planning and poor communication for the people involved in this.
One thing that I think they miss in their calulations is how many people come just to look on this forum. It is not participation that counts alone. I know people here that never or rarely post but have been a member way longer than me. I myself have been to this forum long before joining and there is no way they could have tracked that. Just in this house in three years, I have been though 5 ip addresses at least (funny that I found out what was blowing the modems but the IT guys could not).
I fear that this goes back to the editorial changes at the magazine last year. The print version has decreased in quality and as noted elsewhere, in page count.
Right now, I will not be renewing my print subscription. I don't use any of the other stuff.
I left Massachusetts 3 years ago, but in all the time since I haven't been able to update my profile to tell people I'm in Delaware.
Pruitt rrinker Wow, they were all over the place - my subscription for MRVP (and only MRVP, no archive, etc) is $2.25/mo. --Randy That's MRVP only for me too. How'd you manage that? Mine was just the regular 3 year renewal price, what I thought was the best deal. Scammed!
rrinker Wow, they were all over the place - my subscription for MRVP (and only MRVP, no archive, etc) is $2.25/mo. --Randy
--Randy
That's MRVP only for me too. How'd you manage that? Mine was just the regular 3 year renewal price, what I thought was the best deal. Scammed!
That was back when they first started, I did the add MRVP to my existing subscription, and picked the monthly option instead of yearly, and it's just continued at that same rate ever since, no renewing or anything, it's automatically recurring every month.
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
hon30critter I paid Kalmbach a bunch of money last year to renew my subscriptions and I have no idea whether or not those payments will carry over into the new Trains.com site. If they don't, then I expect a refund for the unused portion of my old subscription.
That's where I'm at. My magazine and digital archive subscriptions just renewed, it's about $71.
The archives have no method to search, like the previous version did, and I cannot access things that having a magazine subscription allowed me to view, like the track plan database, and some of the videos.
I think to sign up for the new Trains.com thing is about $80. ?
Outside working weather is getting close for me, as I'm not in here as much during those months.
I think I will not sign up for the Trains.com, and let my subscriptions expire, than I'll see what's next. Maybe it will all be figured out by the time I'm back in the late fall.
Mike.
My You Tube
rrinkerWow, they were all over the place - my subscription for MRVP (and only MRVP, no archive, etc) is $2.25/mo. --Randy
Well that did get me back to the old MRVP - but even the first episode of Back on Track that I watched the othe day is no longer there.
This is indeed a mess - not even beta-worthy, as Drumguy said. ANd NONE of this has been communicated to existing subscribers at all - I checked my spam. They have my email - I still get my newsletters all the time for Trains, Classic Trains, MRR, and Classic Toy Trains. A little communications as to what happens with existing subscriptions would bne nice. If no new content is going to MRVP, then there's no point in paying for it, there's not much is anything I would want to watch over and over again. At least, nothing that shows me something I don't already know that I can't also find for free on YouTube, just not by some 'famous' model railroader.
Wow, they were all over the place - my subscription for MRVP (and only MRVP, no archive, etc) is $2.25/mo.
I haven't posted in awhile but this rollout is a disaster on 2 fronts: first, Kalmbach has been completely opaque as to what is going on (in marketing this is called Messaging, it's not that complicated). They need to send emails, add sticky posts to forums, and have front and center links on all home pages telling us all "if you have X subscription, this is what happens. If you have digital archive, this is what happens,if you have x, y, and z, this is what happens", and so on.
Second, the site is not even remotely ready for beta testing--it's barely ready for a staging server. Not just the obvious like no search function for digital archive, broken links, and messed up headers. Things like is no hyphenation for text in narrow columns. And the pandemic is no excuse for this-- the only times I have been in the same room as the developers I work with is when we happen to be in the same city and meet for drinks.
With the exception of the forum, people are paying for this content. And right now at least some of it isn't worth anything (an archive you can't search? Useless).
PruittI hope I'm wrong, and that Kalmbach will honor our subscriptions to MRVP by posting the videos we really already paid for there, but I'll bet I'm right. Cone on, Kalmbach, how about one of you people come on the forums and explain exactly how these subscriptions play together?
Mark, I totally agree! I paid Kalmbach a bunch of money last year to renew my subscriptions and I have no idea whether or not those payments will carry over into the new Trains.com site. If they don't, then I expect a refund for the unused portion of my old subscription.
Please Kalmbach, send me a letter explaining exactly where I stand!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
My current cost of MRVP cames out to $3.99 per month. My subscription expires 10/23/2022. That gives me 19 months left, or $75.81 worth of subscription.
Trains.com is $6.50 / month, I believe. So if Kalmbach were to offer me 11 2/3 months' subscription to Trains.com, the equivalent price, I might consider that as a fair-ish exchange.
rrinker Wow wait, what? If this is going to remain that way, I'm canceling my MRVP subscription. I don't even see a way to get to MRVP any more. ALL the videos are locked - and if I click on any it says my limit of 8 articles has been reached. What, from watching the alst 2 Cody's Office episodes and the last Off the Rails and the first Back on Track through the MRVP link before it went away along with the top header from the forums? --Randy
I don't even see a way to get to MRVP any more. ALL the videos are locked - and if I click on any it says my limit of 8 articles has been reached. What, from watching the alst 2 Cody's Office episodes and the last Off the Rails and the first Back on Track through the MRVP link before it went away along with the top header from the forums?
I bookmarked MRVP directly years ago. Try this:
Model Railroader Video Plus (trains.com) (it's https://mrv.trains.com)
OOPS! After posting I saw that Henry already posted that. Ignore me.
rrinker I don't even see a way to get to MRVP any more. ALL the videos are locked
This gets me to the old MRVP
Wow wait, what? If this is going to remain that way, I'm canceling my MRVP subscription.
Pruitt episodes two and three of Gerry Leone's
I tried my MRVP login to see those and I was told I am limited out.
I totally agree with your sentiments. I can log into my account but I cannot see when my MRVP subscription ends. A total Fubar.
If what I suspect is happening actually is happening, they'll darn sure lose me.
I toddled over to the new Trains.com and scrolled down a bit, to "Video Series and Workshops." What do I see there? Videos I can't see on MRVP (plus one I can see, and a free intro video from Popp)!
There are four videos there right now - episodes two and three of Gerry Leone's "Back on Track," "The Hills' Line" episode 11 (that's the one on MRVP), and the aforementioned Popp intro video.
What's telling is that Popp says in the intro video that if you subscribe you'll have access to all magazine archives and "...all videos, including exclusive series made specifically for members..." and some other stuff.
So I guess we know why MRVP content has gotten so thin lately - it's being diverted to Trains.com. I guess those of us with unexpired MRVP subscriptions are just out of luck.
I hope I'm wrong, and that Kalmbach will honor our subscriptions to MRVP by posting the videos we really already paid for there, but I'll bet I'm right.
Cone on, Kalmbach, how about one of you people come on the forums and explain exactly how these subscriptions play together?
Engi1487seeing the first forum you ever jouned get a new interface look. It feels fresh. Wat do you all think?
This is the only thread with this take. There are at least another 5 others that ask what happened to this or that.
OK I mispoke there are 7 8
Online cutback https://tinyurl.com/yzcazx6kMRVP vs Trains.com https://tinyurl.com/yhjdw9vrThe New Trains.com https://tinyurl.com/yhbg8zzsMR Revised Website Appearance https://tinyurl.com/ykywx2bzModel Railroader on-line content cutback https://tinyurl.com/yzcazx6kHow do I find things in the new Website? https://tinyurl.com/yzoxymorMagazine index is gone https://tinyurl.com/yzcazx6k
Photos https://tinyurl.com/ye3gexx5
If they play their cards just right, they could lose the lot of us.
tstage A new facelift...but still the same 'ol ugly wrinkles underneath...so far. Tom
A new facelift...but still the same 'ol ugly wrinkles underneath...so far.
Tom
AntonioFP45Maybe it's just me...........but this "new format" looks like a slightly cleaned up version of the old one.
Maybe it's just me...........but this "new format" looks like a slightly cleaned up version of the old one. I was expecting new colors, features, eliminations of glitches, etc. But since this is a "free" forum, then I guess that I should just continue to contribute and work with what we have.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
In my 15 years here, I think we have gone through three different versions of forum software adopted by Kalmbach. Each time, I though it wasn't an improvement, just different. I can't see that this one is any different. But maybe the improvement is simply behind the scenes and better for their current business policies and operations. I surely couldn't begrudge them that novelty if it meets their needs; it's a free site to us after all. The bells and whistles cost extra, and that is to be understood.
I currently subscribe to Classic Trains magazine and for the first time ever am an MR magazine subscriber. I don't want the burden of having to read and be involved in the other subscriptions and their attendant accessory offerings. The forums are enough...thanks.
I'm getting used to the new footprint. In a few weeks it will feel like home, just like all the MQ's our family lived in during my 30 year military career.
It still looks the same to me.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.