Changing the face of the forum

[johncolley]

OK, you asked for input/feedback, so here are my opinions: 1. Much of the information exchange such as scenery, benchwork, operations, etc. ar in one way or another applicable and useful to all scales. 2. The boxcar thing, judging from it's very small turnout is important mostly to the sponsor, which is OK, it's their website, but I think the space would be more useful as an electrical/control DCand/or DCC section. Other than that I figure, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" jc5729 

[Pathfinder]

Railroad Line Forums ( http://www.railroad-line.com/ ) has many, many forums for specific topics and interests.  It is my favorite forum as most of those on it are craftsman type modelers as opposed to newer modelers.  

The forum software makes all of the separate forums work fine, as it always opens showing only those forums with new posts.   That way it is easy to select the topics you want to follow.  I think there were 24 new messages when I logged on first thing this morning, I read probably 20 of them, the others weren't of interest to me.

So their forum software can make multiple forums work, but it doesn't appear that the Trains.com forums could be operated the same way.

 

 

You bring up a good point about this forum software.  All other forums I am on have some way of telling you as soon as you log on if there are new posts since the last time, but not here.  The best this site can do is the My Forums heading but that only applies to forums you have posted to, not ones where all you have done is to read it.

A suggestion for a future up-grade would be to have some indication of what topics have new posts, that would go a long way to making this site more user friendly.

 

[switchman]

Awwww Shaving Cream !!! I Like that phrase saw it somewhere but for me, it says it all.

I'm just an occasional poster. I visit every once in a while. But in-Clicks or out-clacks, talks threads, train threads. All that is what makes up a site. This is official MRR site and they can and do run it as they see fit. 

I model in N Scale only. So scale specific data, other than N scale, has no interest for me. I could care less what the best HO turnouts are, or the best pulling HO steamer.  So an N Scale forum gets my attention first. 

IMO (I did not say humble cause I ain't) This entire thread is a social discussion. The in guys vs the out guys.

Me I don't like the social forums at all. I'm here for General Model Train related and N Scale specific information. I subscribe to MRR magazine but I don't really like it because it IMO, does not give enough attention to N Scale, 

All that being said I've found that technical MRR (be it N scale or general) questions This forum gives the quickest, most detailed, and best answers of all. 

See ya  

  

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Don't fix what ain't broke!

 

 

I agree completely. I see nothing wrong with the way things are.

[PA Belt]

AMEN!!!!!

[jblackwelljr]

At one time I felt that breaking the forum up into several discussion topics might be good, but I'm not so sure now.  Sometimes I just like to browse the forum and other times I like to search for specific information.  As long as there is a sufficient search function, I usually can find what I'm after. 

Having more discussion topics would probably discourage me from browsing so much and therefore miss some interesting discussions that I might learn from.

In other words, I think it's fine the way it is.

 

Edit:  And then I went back and read the original post and realized my reply doesn't address Tom's comment at all.  Yes, I think all the specialized threads do spread good information out, maybe too much.  But, since I participate in one of those threads, I'm not helping the situation, am I?  However, I still think use of the search function helps me to find information I need.  Hope that makes sense.