Advice for Andy S.

[Anonymous]

You have read criticism of this forum, and in my opinion, most of it is legitimate. This forum is too klutzy. But it occurred to me that if you base your opinions on the Layout Design Sig at Yahoo! Groups, you may not be well informed. It isn't that great a forum either. I am not talking about the level and knowledge of the participants (LDSig), but of the quality of the forum engine itself - the quality of participants is excellent there.

So here is what I suggest. You need to join a forum or two that is excellent - in terms of forum design. Get yourself a hotmail name (with secret identy - how about - Andy_the_spike - LOL!!) and post about once a day for a month, so you can experience directly what a good forum feels like in terms of organization, etc.

I would recommend two:

1) Atlas is well known and widely used. Its secret is that it has very few forums - 4 in total. But people respond to it and it is very active. www.atlasrr.com

2) The other one is trainboard. It isn't as active, but offers a wide selection of forums - in actual fact to wide - as the forum seems quiter than it really is, because the posts are spread out over too wide an area. I am a moderator there and I know they are thinking of cutting back. eg. CN and CP forums will disappear and become Canadian RR forum (thus more posts about more Canadian roads other than CN and CP).

I am rsn48 but I had to format my hard drive and am too lazy to get yet another password I will lose, so I am posting through my son's name, who isn't as lazy as I am.

In layout design sig I am nicholson1318

Cheers.
Rick Nicholson

[Anonymous]

Andy:

Another great site is www.thegauge.com. I have found over the past few months that I visit those sites with greater frequency than this site and find a lot of really useful info on them.

Jim

[Anonymous]

I don't know what you guys are complaining about, I am no "web-wizard", but, I think that this site is pretty darned good compared to a lot of the others out there. I guess the only thing I'd like to see different, would be a free "bulliten board". You know, where railfans could post items of interest that didn't warrant taking out a classified ad in the magazine. Selling things would be not permitted, but if someone was looking for something in particular, I think that should be allowed. Also, notices of upcoming events, such as open houses, swap meets, etc.
Just my two-cents worth.
Todd C.

[Anonymous]

Here's what, IMHO, is missing on this forum:
The ability to
1)Read an entire thread at a time.
2)Determine new (i.e. unread) posts.
3)Post small pictures or drawings.
4)Access user profiles.
5)Have some (not too many) sub-forums.

[Sperandeo]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the advice, but you're giving it to the wrong person. You need to address your concerns – many of which I agree with – to the editor of Trains.com, Tom Chmielewski. He'll probably see this anyway, but it can't hurt to know who you should be talking to.

So long,

Andy

Andy Sperandeo
MODEL RAILROADER Magazine

[Anonymous]

You're always the perfect gentleman, Andy. While you are not directly in charge of this forum, You are, in my opinion, the "man-in-charge" of "Model Railroader. I think you are doing a great job. But I suppose some readers of this forum assume you handle this site also. Perhaps a "Masthead" on the web page would help folks understand who is in charge of the site. (Not unlike the masthead in the Magazine).
Just an idea, Heck, I wrote to David P. Morgan twice between his untimely death, and when I was finally made aware of his demise. Those letters, of course, went unanswered. I only had the privelage of meeting him once. It was a NS steam excursion out of Detroit. I saw a familiar face on the "photo line", thought I knew who he was, but when I saw him with notebook, instead of camera, then I knew. I introduced myself, and he did the same, I told him that I had enjoyed reading "The magazine of railroading" for years,
Well, he just gave me one of his "half-way grins", and asked me if I was enjoying the trip. I replied in the affirmative, and later I sat with him and like a kid in a candy store, was in heaven. I was only about twenty at the time, but DPM's mark will always be a part of me.
Andy, you are on your way to being the next "Kalmbach legend".
Keep up the superb work, Todd C.

[Anonymous]

Quit 'sucking up' Todd...Andy needs his hat size to stay the same as it is.[Just kidding folks].
I've enjoyed Andy's stuff all the way back to the "Washita & Santa Fe", only thing was, some of my friends abandoned model railroading, and went with the derivative hobby of "C-Clamping"...it was understandable, but kind of a shame....they keep waiting for the P2K and Genesis C-clamps that never seem to come.
regards /Mike

[Anonymous]

Mike, I'm not "sucking up". I just "call-em-as-I-see-em"! I think Andy has put MR back to it's former quality that it had in Linn Westcott's days. Yes, the W&SF series was great too. I just wi***he folks "down the hall" (Trains Magazine) would try to attain the level that MR has achieved. It only takes me about an hour, at most, to read all the interesting articles in Trains, seems like the rest of the magazine is just advertisments, and fluff. Now, "Classic Trains" magazine is superb. I just wish it was a bi-monthly, instead of a quarterly. I have not had a subscription to MR in a couple of years, but I pick up a copy when it has something of interest to me. I have had past subscriptions all the way back to 1975. I used to really enjoy Art Curren's kitbashing articles. He is no longer with us, R.I.P. Another favorite was E.L. Moore.
I built a passenger station from scratch using his plans in an old MR issue.
By the way, what is this "C-clamping" you speak of?
I suppose I've been "out of the loop" for a while.
Todd C.

[Anonymous]

Hey Rick, Just how are things in the Northern most state of the USA.LOL. Sorry couldn't resist.

John

[Anonymous]

Cascade is my son's "handle". I post under his name now as I had to re-format my hard drive and can't remember my password, etc for here. And I am to lazy to go through the process again.

I am trying to make do with as few passwords, etc as I possibly can. This will work as long as my son stays signed in...lol.

Also, we live in Vancouver, British Columbia not in Washington, so I guess we are even North of the Pacific Northwest, except when Canadians use the term to refer to our area. Then they are mis-using it as it is an American reference, not a Canadian reference. Remember in Canada, I live South. Just ask the Inuit who hold us Southerner's in contempt - we're wousys's according to them... lol. They might be right, but not many Inuit model rail roaders.

[BR60103]

I'll put in that what frustrates me is backing out of a thread after I've read the entries. When I did it at work, my internet commection would crash if I backed up more than 4 or 5 entries. using the "Forums" button means coming in again from the top.
My only other nit is the lack of ID on a lot of the posts.
--David

[Anonymous]

I beg to differ on the guage being a great site.Hard to navigate and too many ads hit you after joining.Atlas is a good one but I have seen a few cheap shots which all forums could do without.Railroadline was a great one until it`s demise due to a moderator problem,two of them could`nt play in the same sandbox.I just recently urged the members at the now defunct rr- to try it out over here and would like to see alot more comaraderie.Hope that`s spelled right it`s late.At this time they`re over at atlas.I would like to see less Model Railroader bashing(I believe they put the best magazine out at this time.)As for all sites there are good and bad qualities that most of the time you have to put up with.Just gotta figure out which ones that have the worst problems or the ones you just don`t enjoy participating in.There are new forums starting up quite often because of the interest and loyalty to the hobby.Yes,I too have griped over here in the past about this and that about the magazine and was emailed an invitation to write an article and submit it(I found it extremely hard to write an interesting piece)I know I`ve gotten off the subject,someday,someone,will build the perfect site and they will come! This reply is not intended to make anybody to believe that this was an attack and just an opinion.My wife and dog think I`m a really nice guy! Jerry

[rogerhensley]

Yes, this forum needs reformatted, BUT (and you just knew that there would be a but didn't you) I have now made this forum my first read out of the eight that I check daily. It is not because of the format, but because of the content. Other than comments on the forum, I find less bickering here and more legitimate questions, comments and answers.

My 2 cents worth for what it's worth.

Roger Hensley
http://www.nmra.org/beginner
== NMRA Beginner's Pages ==

[Anonymous]

The reformatting issue for the Forums has been heating up lately, but so is our desire to change it. I don't have a firm date for a new forum format yet, but we are getting closer. I'm sure we won't satisfy everyone, but it will be easier to use. But I do believe that regardless of what we do, the content of this forum will continue to be of high quality.

Tom Chmielewski
Editor, Trains.com

[ronsmith]

I am glad to here you are planning some updates. The Atlas form is easier to read; but this form by far has the best contributers, subjects, and most people participating.
By chance is the form Remote Control going to change to DCC by chance??
Ron Smith
Texas