Are there any other Atlas Forum orphans out there?

[Anonymous]

I went this morning to check the latest on the Atlas Forum, only to discover they have shut it down for the next couple of months - for summer vacations,and to do another software upgrade and revamp to their website...so now what do I do? Are there any other Atlas Forum orphans out there? Can anybody point out some other 'free' discussion sites, I used to be a member of another RR site, catering to general topic and modeling, that was quite good and also busy, until it became a user pay site. I'd like to stay in touch with people, what with a lot of new items coming out and the NMRA Seattle convention taking place in July...anyone interested in chatting?
Thanks for listening...

Lorne Miller

[egmurphy]

Yeah, just saw that myself. I thought it was a bit sudden. I knew they shut down for summer vacation, but didn't expect it this soon or for that long. Some other sites, (obviously in addition to this one) include:
www.trainboard.com
www.the-gauge.com
www.railroadforum.com

Already going into withdrawal..........

Ed

[Anonymous]

it suprised the heck outta me when i went back earlier to check the forum. their summer shutdown doesnt usually come till July.

but, i think that they figured that the forum was getting a bit out of hand lately so they decided to shut it down earily.

WHAT DO I DO NOW!!!!![:D][:D]


well...i usually hang out at www.railroadforum.com we got a pretty good group over there. if i am not there, i am usually posting at www.the-gauge.com

Nightcrawler AKA Trainworm everywhere else.

[Anonymous]

I was not aware of the shut down. Tried to get in, thought I had a line problem.

To the point, I'm very comfortable here but occasionally visit
www.railroad.net
www.railroad-line.com
www.trainorders.com with a paid membership
www.trainboard.com

I suspect we could pick up some good talent

[Anonymous]

yep i have been going here for awhile, same Name to UP9899


Joey M.

[csxns]

Will miss Atlas guess i will try something diffrent.

[Anonymous]

I think the Atlas moderators just got sick of the Athearn-UP thread !!!

- George

[jeffshultz]

I'm here too.... It literally happened between one refresh and the next. I suspect that Rob and Paul are going to get soundly bawled out over the lack of warning when it does come back up.

[fiatfan]

Not so much an orphan but I frequent both forums. I guess I'll just have to spend more time on my trains. Oh, well!

Tom

[nfmisso]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeffshultz

I'm here too.... It literally happened between one refresh and the next. I suspect that Rob and Paul are going to get soundly bawled out over the lack of warning when it does come back up.

Not be anyone who plans to be on the Atlas forum for very long.....

I seriously doubt that Paul or Rob, or any other name actually on the Atlas forum had anything to do with the shut down. They were told to do it.....

[Anonymous]

THIS IS OK FOR ME. I JUST GOT SUSPENDED FROM THE ATLAS FORUM FOR 30 DAYS ANYWAY....NOW I WONT MISS ANYTHING.

[Anonymous]

I've only been online for just over a month, and had found the Atlas site and been lurking without registering, but generally following most of the postings and topics to pick up tips and get the general drift of other modeler's concerns and expertise. I could almost swear I had checked out the Atlas site early this morning, and checked the latest postings, and had noted that no one had seemed to have posted anything more since I last checked it late last night (Jun 03). I have checked out other forum sites since getting on line, but found myself being drawn back, again and again, to Atlas forum. Having just picked up a copy of Model Railroader today, I noticed, in my perusal, that MR mentioned their forum, which I had not been aware of before, and so I signed on to see what up.
I'm just getting back into model railroading, after an almost fifteen- year hiatus, and boy has so much changed. So I'll continue to monitor some of these forums as I begin, anew, to build my pike.
SteveO

[BRAKIE]

Hi Lorne!
I am not really a Atlas forum orphan as such as this was the first forum I sign up on when I started to do forums.Atlas was my second..If you are interested in chatting on line then you can talk to some of the guys on the Gauge Chat room.We gather there in force around 9:45-10:00pm EDST nightly.
Now IMHO I believe the Atlas forum was also shut down early for "Time out" reasons as well.I am sure you recall the number of lock threads so far this year and the needless attacks and bashing of Horizon/Athearn and of course now UP.. [:(] I can not blame Atlas for shutting down the forum early as things was getting out of hand-usually by the same hands at that even after repeated warnings by Paul Graf..[:(][:(!]
Now to my mind a forum should be a place to discuss a new product and any major errors that can not be readily fix by a detail part or a few minutes time and not a place for relentless attacks by those that may not like that given manufacturer be it Athearn or Kato.One man's junk is another's treasure or as I like to say their pride and joys.[:D] A forum should also be where questions can be answered without fear of being attacked because one may give another view from his/her own experience.

[jeffshultz]

I wouldn't doubt that there was a "time out" issue involved. But it would have been nice to have some warning - as well as something other than an error message when I try to access the HO forum directly.

Oh well. What is really annoying is that I really preferred the Atlas interface over most of the others out there.

[Anonymous]

I was in a middle of a search this afternoon when Atlas forum went down. I clicked on the thread I wanted to read, and poof, the dreaded error message. A little warning would be nice, but like some other have said, there seemed to be to much fur flying for their comfort / or to be useful to people with serious topics. I think it will be good for things to mellow out there.
I think it will give folks some time to get started on, or in my case re started on some projects.
As far as the software upgrade, I think it will probably ending up looking like the MR forum here, as MR is using a newer version of the forum software that Atlas was using.
Peter

[Anonymous]

I'm here! Maybe we could start SPF up here eh?

[Anonymous]

Hey Joey!

Me too, 30 days suspended and they close it down anyhow. Oh well.

Good to see the other Atlas Orphans here!

Paul

QUOTE: Originally posted by up9899

THIS IS OK FOR ME. I JUST GOT SUSPENDED FROM THE ATLAS FORUM FOR 30 DAYS ANYWAY....NOW I WONT MISS ANYTHING.

[dickiee]

I wasn't a member, yet, but I was trying to join and things got screwed up. Now I want to know: WHAT HAPPENED TO BENNY???!!!!!!!!!!! I'VE JUST GOT TO KNOW!!!!!!!!!

Richard

[Wdlgln005]

I miss the Atlas Forum too.
I will miss the photos the most.
I wonder if this site could accept some photos on a similar basis? It won't be the same SNFF or TNFF bot maybe we could have some MRPF?

[newhavenguy]

Yep! Kinda closed it early this year. I think it had everything to do with the UP-Modeler suit thread. It was gettin' a little out of hand [xx(] and was becoming annoying.

On the Altas forum I'm nhguy. Howdy![:D]

[Anonymous]

Yup I guess I am one kinda. I bounced between this one and Atlas's. The site was getting pretty rowdy but they all do get that way sometimes.

Jeremy

[Anonymous]

why not lets start SPF! it would be fun

[JDCoop]

I'm a frequent visitor to both this forum and the Atlas forum (although, over there I'm Wabash) and an infrequent poster on both (as evidenced by my post count). Anyway, I'm sure that the whole UP-Athearn thing probably had something to do with it. I'm to the point with the Atlas forum that I don't even bother to read any of the Athearn posts anymore. It's the same story over and over. You've got the anti-Athearn camp and the pro-Athearn camp that dusts it up every couple of weeks or so. Neither side is ever going to change their mind, so it gets pointless after a while other than arguing for the sake of arguing. Oh well, there's a bunch of great people on the Atlas forum as well as this one. I just skip over what doesn't interest me, read what grabs my attention, and respond to a topic occasionally. Happy modeling...

Jeff

[Javern]

so does everyone a Atlas take the summer off? must be nice, no wonder the price of stuff is going up, pays for those summer shut downs,and they all go to Disney Land. [:D]

[Anonymous]

FYI, there is another "temporary Atlas Forum" here:

[url]http://boards.gamers.com/messages/overview.asp?name=ModelRailroading[url]

I too was a little angry at the no warning whatsoever.....It seems like everytime I start reading the forum again (at least, beyond SNFF, that is), it is shut down. Three Months is a LONG time...I hope Atlas will reopen, if only for a little while.

I still don't see why they can't at least leave the forum up--just locked, so we at least have an archive.

Oh well, there's always google caches....

[dharmon]

As a member of both the MR and Atlas forums, both have something to offer, and then again both get a little...umm feisty at times. I do think the after the last few weekends on the Atlas forum, this weeks antics probably pushed it over the edge and led to the abrupt "time out". That or they would have to do a fair amount of suspension, and I am probably no less guilty than anyone else. But what's done is done.

For those folks that have just come over welcome. I think you'll find alot of the same folks here on both....but then again, hopefully you won't see some of them.


Dan

[Anonymous]

...good to see a lot of you over here, I'll check out some of the other site suggestions you've given me as well, I'll try to get involved in the guage at the prerequisite time - seeing as I reside on the west coast and operate right now on PDT, your 9:45 will be around my suppertime, so that shouldn't be too difficult to work around.
...chat with you guys on some of the other sites as well...

Lorne Miller

[Anonymous]

Just checking in, I'm here too. Gonna miss SPF though.

John Brock

[Anonymous]

I was not all that surprised to see it down. With all the personal attacks in the last few weeks alone. I mostly just lurked here and there but got a lot of info. Im glad to see you Brakie as you have, and most everybody else, been a great source of info. I went by k4mike on the Atlas forum. This forum so far seems far more subdued so far, but is also a little quieter in action. I too would love to see sff here.

[csxns]

Where is Curt Mac.