The New Trains.com

[Paul of Covington]

   C.O., I don't disagree with anything you just said, but the same goes with being in the phonebook or the current online equivalent.  When the Bill Of Rights was passed, freedom of speech pretty much meant shouting from a soap box.  We have seen how the internet can be used to spread disinformation, not only by individuals, but by foreign or domestic organizations.

   In the last few years, two individuals fairly high in local law enforcement and legal departments lost their jobs when they were found to be posting opinions on cases in which they were involved, but it took a bit of detective work to find them out.  We don't all have the resources of the FBI or CIA.

[Convicted One]

Paul of Covington

 "... was maliciously doxxed by someone ..."    Yes, by someone hiding behind his cloak of anonymity.

The point I was trying to make earlier, once you surrender your anonymity, there are abundant resources available that enable some sicko to find your home address.....meaning your children's home address as well.

If you were to say something  that didn't set well with some sicko.....are you willing to gamble with how seriously he is going to take it?

But most important of all Paul, it's very misguided to believe that the sick cannot be intelligent too (meant to address your "assuming they can think twice" comment).  Often the sick command considerable intellect, yet fail to perceive "reasonable" boundries. Who knows to what length such a person might go seeking.....validation?

[Paul of Covington]

Overmod wrote the following post yesterday:

 

 

Convicted One

 

Paul of Covington

 I have always felt that anonymity is a big part of the problem with the internet.

By the same measure, would you want the "foaming at the mouth' haters  to know how to easily  find you?

 

 

In fact this is not silly; I know of at least one person on Kalmbach forums who was unwise enough to leave his 'real world' E-mail unguarded and was maliciously doxxed by someone who didn't approve of some of his posts.

___________

   Now the "Add Quote to your Post" doesn't seem to work, so I copied and pasted the entry.

   "... was maliciously doxxed by someone ..."    Yes, by someone hiding behind his cloak of anonymity.

   Now I tried the "Preview Post" function on this entry and got a blank.  After adding this last line, I tried "Preview Post" again, and it worked.

   Since my answer looked lost in all that mess, I put it in bold.

   Now I wonder if the failure of "Add Quote to your Post" was temporary like the "Preview Post", but I'm not going to start over.

[Overmod]

Lithonia Operator

But maybe they haven't gotten to the forums yet.

Forums are stage 3, remember; spring 2021, according to Steve Otte at MR.

[MMLDelete]

I went to the new Trains site and navigated to this forum from there. It appears that the look and experience here remains the same.

But maybe they haven't gotten to the forums yet.

One feature I'd love to have here (and do have on all the other forums I frequent) is the abilty to go directly to the first post I have not yet seen in a thread.

[GERALD L MCFARLANE JR]

Electroliner 1935

 

Flintlock76

 Thanks Mod-man!

I checked the links, and honestly it still leaves a lot of questions un-answered.  

Have to wait and see, I suppose.  

I too checked the links and stopped when I saw I had to agree to accept ads. I get TOO many already. 

 

 

One huge advantage is that the new site is a secure website as opposed to the old site through Kalmbach.com, that's a huge issue when it comes to phishing and other internet issues.  So that should no longer show the site as potentially being the home of malware, etc.(I have seen that on a few occasions).

[Overmod]

York1

I don't consider myself part of a captive market.  I'm here voluntarily, fully aware that my information may be used for marketing.

The problem is that Kalmbach is repeatedly on record as stating you're part of a captive market, one which they claimed they were going to be able to leverage with other 'partners'.  It was in that sense I was concerned, as it appeared to go far beyond what traditional use the company has made of subscriber or online-member information.

I am one of the, I suspect, very few here who does not use an ad-blocker on the forums.  I do that because I too accept that I may be used for marketing; it's an acceptable cost of 'free' forum access.  However, I draw the line at how much I will be used, and that line is short of malformed intrusive ad content crashing my browsers, or site-served code locking up my phone as the one-billionth winner or five-minute-and-counting infection with some iPhone virus.

[York1]

Overmod

The partners that were going to benefit from the captive enthusiast market represented by railroad fans.  That will almost certainly be peddled the list of 'sweepstakes participants'...

 

While I agree with most of what you say ...   (How's that for a warning of words to come?)

I don't consider myself part of a captive market.  I'm here voluntarily, fully aware that my information may be used for marketing.  I know the fine print on sweepstakes entry forms says information may be used for any number of uses.

 

Off topic:  I know someone who actually won the total showcase on "The Price is Right".  Much of what he won was sold to cover and avoid the taxes.

[Overmod]

Convicted One

And if I opt out of receiving news and updates, am I not setting up a self-excluding barrier?

I took "news" to mean Kalmbach news, as e-mail blasted to 'everybody'.  Not a targeted communication to just one person: you, to tell you you were a winnah!

[Convicted One]

Overmod

The problem comes when you try to collect your large money damages for breach of implied contract or whatever

Where did THAT come from? Who said anything about suing?

I'm merely pondering the likelihood that  notification of my winning might be considered "news". And if I opt out of receiving news and updates, am I not setting up a self-excluding barrier?

[Overmod]

Convicted One

Wouldn't the fact that I've won, be considered news?

Well, it would be new to you ... so perhaps yes.  The problem comes when you try to collect your large money damages for breach of implied contract or whatever.  Don't spend it all before you get the check and it posts...

Something I never tire of, just like seeing different ways people lie with statistics, is all the different ways something 'free' turns out to have caveats, and strings attached, that are usually cleverly "disclosed" in language that does anything but.  Here they make much out of the fact that you can opt out of 'news' (about the exciting new world of the trains.com experience!) and 'offers' from the Kalmbach railroad publications -- and I'll be generous, from other Kalmbach publications as well -- but nothing is said about all those "partners" that Kalmbach so happily described in their golden future plans back in early 2018.  The partners that were going to benefit from the captive enthusiast market represented by railroad fans.  That will almost certainly be peddled the list of 'sweepstakes participants'...

I shall not be one such, not that I think it will help much.  

[Convicted One]

Overmod

Probably not

Wouldn't the fact that I've won, be considered news?

[Convicted One]

Paul of Covington

 Why would the "foaming at the mouth" haters be looking for me? 

There are a good many people out there who believe that if they can't change your mind, they can sure enough make your life unpleasant. Certainly you've witnessed even right here the type of people who are so convinced that their views are the only way any "decent" person should think, that they harbor contempt for "strays" who have not been "enlightened" yet.

Often, the people who are most empassioned with their own views, see little wrong with clandestine evangelizing.

I could share horror stories, that would far exceed the scope of this forum.  But that could end up fueling the wrong fires.  Generally, whenever I see someone ranting about "cowards" and "anonymity" in the same sentence, that is a red flag, IMO.

[daveklepper]

And on Yahoo and gmail one can direct repeated annoyances to Spam.

[daveklepper]

I'd rather get the complaints or worse from those who dissaprove than be unavailable to those wishing friendship.

And I might just learn something from the others.

[Overmod]

Convicted One

 

Paul of Covington

 I have always felt that anonymity is a big part of the problem with the internet.

By the same measure, would you want the "foaming at the mouth' haters  to know how to easily  find you?

In fact this is not silly; I know of at least one person on Kalmbach forums who was unwise enough to leave his 'real world' E-mail unguarded and was maliciously doxxed by someone who didn't approve of some of his posts.

[Overmod]

Convicted One

Question: If I decline to check the box for "I would like to receive news and offers from trains.com"....does that mean they don't have to tell me if I've won the contest?

Probably not.  It just means you opt out of the bulk email and promotions ... and note that it conveniently says nothing about all their 'partners' with whom they'll doubtless share the e-mail harvest from the sweepstakes entries.  They'll be telling you if you won, and a whole lot more...

[Paul of Covington]

Convicted One

 

 

Paul of Covington

 I have always felt that anonymity is a big part of the problem with the internet.

 

 

By the same measure, would you want the "foaming at the mouth' haters  to know how to easily  find you?

 

   Why would the "foaming at the mouth" haters be looking for me?  If the "foaming at the mouth" haters knew that they could be readily found, they'd think twice about what they post (assuming they can think twice).  

[Convicted One]

Paul of Covington

 I have always felt that anonymity is a big part of the problem with the internet.

By the same measure, would you want the "foaming at the mouth' haters  to know how to easily  find you?

[Paul of Covington]

Flintlock76

No, I don't blame google/yahoo/anyone, but the cowards that hide behind the anonymity of a computer screen are here and will always be with us.

   I have always felt that anonymity is a big part of the problem with the internet.

[Convicted One]

Overmod

EDIT: Oh my, lookee here, they're running a sweepstakes promotion to advertise the new changes.  You may be the lucky winner of free access for a year! https://traincontests.secondstreetapp.com/All-Aboard/?utm_source=Yesmail&utm_medium=email&utm_email=[e-mail]&utm_campaign=SA000_TRN_201010_000000_Trains.comPre-LaunchSweepstakes_CTR/CTT/GRW/MRR/MRV/TRN Again I have no idea how you adjust this to your own specs or how to get the unredirected URL to the sweepstakes out of an e-mail on a phone.  Perhaps Kalmbach can provide the appropriate links here, or to me, and I can edit this post appropriately to include them

Question: If I decline to check the box for "I would like to receive news and offers from trains.com"....does that mean they don't have to tell me if I've won the contest?

[Backshop]

Freedom of Speech only applies to the government.  Private entities can put limits on whatever they want.

[CMStPnP]

Flintlock76

Anyway, both had comment sections for the various news stories and both dropped the same.  Since both papers lean in a particular political direction (I won't say what) I suspect they dropped the comments because they didn't like the " Who are you trying to kid?" back-talk they were getting.  

Yup, my opinion exactly.   The root cause is intolerance of opposing viewpoints and the fact some authors can't stand to be corrected on their factual mistakes.   On Military dot com it all started with the head of the News Department not liking very negative comments made about his articles.  As well as the some of the posters would link to competing websites and/or quote from copyrighted sources without attribution.   Would have loved to be a bug on the wall in some of those internal meetings to hear exactly what the complaints were vs getting it second hand.

[Flintlock76]

zugmann

 

 

SD60MAC9500

PC culture rules the day.. Google got the ball rolling years ago by deleting content and shadowbans on it's associated platforms.

 

 

Yeah, nothing like having a bunch of racists or homophobes or whatever scum of the earth making 45,000 hate and threat-filled posts on every article posted.  Do you blame google/yahoo/anyone? 

 

No, I don't blame google/yahoo/anyone, but the cowards that hide behind the anonymity of a computer screen are here and will always be with us.  Like Mac advises I just ignore the worst of what I see, not that I see much on the sites I go to.  And I never rise to the bait and argue with the loons, you can't win.

On the other hand, there are two sites I go to, northjersey.com and nj.com, both on-line versions of local newspapers.  I like to see what's going on with the home folks.  Anyway, both had comment sections for the various news stories and both dropped the same.  Since both papers lean in a particular political direction (I won't say what) I suspect they dropped the comments because they didn't like the " Who are you trying to kid?" back-talk they were getting.  

A lot of that back-talk was well-reasoned and very well written, by the way.  Sure, there were some dopes, but a distinct minority.

And it's probably cheaper to run a website without a "Comments" section anyway, which I can understand.

[SD60MAC9500]

 

zugmann

 

 

SD60MAC9500

PC culture rules the day.. Google got the ball rolling years ago by deleting content and shadowbans on it's associated platforms.

 

 

Yeah, nothing like having a bunch of racists or homophobes or whatever scum of the earth making 45,000 hate and threat-filled posts on every article posted.  Do you blame google/yahoo/anyone? 

 

You live in a country of free and unencumbered speech so you have to take the good with the bad. You can't just parse what you feel is offensive. Yet people's convictions are opinion. So treat it as such and move on if you disagree with their language. The exception to the rule would be death threats at that point you should be removed.

 

 

[zugmann]

SD60MAC9500

PC culture rules the day.. Google got the ball rolling years ago by deleting content and shadowbans on it's associated platforms.

Yeah, nothing like having a bunch of racists or homophobes or whatever scum of the earth making 45,000 hate and threat-filled posts on every article posted.  Do you blame google/yahoo/anyone? 

[Overmod]

Erik_Mag

a joke Windoze error message from ca 1997, where the "yes" button remained stationary and the "no" button would evade the mouse pointer.

That's funnier than either of the joke Macintosh versions, one of which had the clickable buttons run away from mouseover and the other of which kept moving 'Restart' with just enough lag that you thought you could click on something else real quick ... but couldn't.  (There was also the fake page with no options but shutdown and restart that you couldn't back your way out of, but that was just cruelty.  

For a while I had a screensaver which changed your cursor into a butterfly which a little cat would chase around the screen.  Simpler things were delightful then...

[Erik_Mag]

Flintlock76

I don't mind accepting ads IF, and it's a very big IF, they keep them in their place.  By this I mean on the periphery of the on-line content, NOT right in the middle of something I'm trying to read, and then having it jump all over the aforementioned content so I have to chase it with the cursor to eliminate it.

Pretty much my thought, don't mind ads if they're not blocking the content, by having to do the cursor chase is really annoying - which reminds me of a joke Windoze error message from ca 1997, where the "yes" button remained stationary and the "no" button would evade the mouse pointer.

[Overmod]

Lithonia Operator

All I saw there was a (nice) video hyping what's coming. But I got no sense of what's coming. Maybe I missed something.

You have to click on the button all the way at the bottom to get to the sample site.

[Overmod]

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