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What going on with Trains Mag Websites lately??

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What going on with Trains Mag Websites lately??
Posted by conrailman on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 1:30 PM

I been getting this thing on the site said, You have 5 views remaining on the Site. Click here to learn more about Unlitied Membership?? What is going on with Trains Website?? I getting tired see this on the site about unlitied membership and i have 5 views remaining. Is Trains getting try more money from people?? I been on this websites since 2001 and getting Trains Mag since the 90s.Angry

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Posted by SD70Dude on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 1:49 PM

Isn't this just for Newswire articles and other stuff that used to be paywalled anyway?

Greetings from Alberta

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Posted by GeoPRR on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 1:53 PM

Me too.  Have not yet been able to read the Siemans Charger - Amtrak piece, because I "have 0 views remaining," yet am greeted by name at the top of the page and get no result when I click on "Sign In."  

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Posted by adkrr64 on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 2:18 PM

You do have to sign-in to the web site to read the articles once your free article allotment runs out. It has been that way for a while now (several months) since they rolled out the new web site, and maybe even before that. 

I believe if you are a print subscriber, you will have access to the new articles as part of that subscription. I think there may be some premium content that requires an additional fee, but not entirely sure about that. I just know I have a print subscription and I can read all the news articles once I sigin in.

Note that the web site user name/ password is NOT the same as your forum user name/ password.

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Posted by conrailman on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 2:24 PM

Trains Mags need too fix this stuff Now??

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 2:43 PM

conrailman

Trains Mags need too fix this stuff Now??

Doesn't sound like anything is broken.  If you have a magazine subscription, you're in.  It costs money to run a site like this.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 3:03 PM

tree68
 
conrailman

Trains Mags need too fix this stuff Now?? 

Doesn't sound like anything is broken.  If you have a magazine subscription, you're in.  It costs money to run a site like this.

I haven't seen anything that links my subscription to anything in Kalmbach's on line offerings.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 3:18 PM

If you have a magazine subscription, then you can read the Newswire articles (if you're signed in). Beyond that, you must have the Unlimited Membership to read anything once your allotment of freebies has been used up.

If you get Classic Trains, you can see Picture of the Day without the Unlimited.

Still in training.


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Posted by MidlandMike on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 6:26 PM

GeoPRR

Me too.  Have not yet been able to read the Siemans Charger - Amtrak piece, because I "have 0 views remaining," yet am greeted by name at the top of the page and get no result when I click on "Sign In."  

 

Like you, I show signed in under my name at the top, but still am blocked from this one article.  None of the hypertext seem to link to anything.  It only seems to happen for random articles.

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Posted by rdamon on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 7:14 PM

Use of another browser tends to reset your count.  

You can also try "private mode" as well.

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Posted by matthewsaggie on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 8:22 PM

Been a subscriber since 1972. Even when signed in there is at least one newswire article every day that I can't open. Really annoying.

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Posted by Juniata Man on Thursday, February 10, 2022 9:18 AM

This happens to me periodically as well. For me at least, signing out then signing back in can usually "fix" this.

CW

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Posted by Backshop on Thursday, February 10, 2022 10:38 AM

I have a sub to Classic Trains and I still get the "you have "blank number" of views" remaining on my Classic Trains emails.

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Posted by ClassA on Thursday, February 10, 2022 2:58 PM

I have a multi-year subscription to the previous extended MR subscription that included MR Video Plus. Even though I paid for that service, half of the MR videos are now locked against me. :-( 

 

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Posted by ClassA on Thursday, February 10, 2022 3:09 PM

Hahaha. I even tried using their customer support form and it twice failed. So I used the email address they provided instead and it was bounced. What a joke. 

I work in IT support. I would have been fired years ago for this level of quality. 

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, February 10, 2022 3:28 PM

I've tried to sign up for the newsletter but after changing email providers, it's just not possible. "Unable to register" it says. I've given up on it. I've been subscribing to Trains for at least 10 years so I don't understand the problem. 

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, February 10, 2022 3:40 PM

ClassA
I have a multi-year subscription to the previous extended MR subscription that included MR Video Plus. Even though I paid for that service, half of the MR videos are now locked against me. :-( 

And at one point we actually had a Kalmbach staffer tell us that situation would be fixed 'by the weekend'... years and years ago, now.  

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Posted by conrailman on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 10:33 PM

They need too fix all the problem on this website Now?? Not Years from Now.

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, February 17, 2022 7:54 AM

conrailman
They need too fix all the problem on this website Now?? Not Years from Now.

In the 19 years I have been a member they fix old problems to make new ones.  Be careful what you ask for.

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Thursday, February 17, 2022 9:38 AM

Geez guys. Kalmbach makes this forum available at no charge ...

Still in training.


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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, February 17, 2022 9:46 AM

Lithonia Operator
Geez guys. Kalmbach makes this forum available at no charge ...

There are also any number of other 'free' forums that don't have all the failures that Kalmbach forums possess.

Kalmbach believes, for whatever the reasons, that they have to reinvent the wheel of forum software.  With each reinvention that fixes something of the predecessor's failures it creates new failures of its own.

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Posted by Euclid on Thursday, February 17, 2022 11:23 AM

Maybe this general problem is caused by Windows 10.

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Posted by ClassA on Thursday, February 17, 2022 11:26 AM

It's not just about the forums. My complaint is about the main site with parts that I have paid for access to and they do not seem to care that I cannot access. They took my money and fail to deliver the agreed upon services. 

 

Paul

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, February 17, 2022 12:16 PM

Euclid
Maybe this general problem is caused by Windows 10.

I suspect Kalmbach problems have existed in various forms since Windows 95 and probably since Microsoft DOS and will probably exist through Windows Infinity and Beyond.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Thursday, February 17, 2022 12:21 PM

ClassA

It's not just about the forums. My complaint is about the main site with parts that I have paid for access to and they do not seem to care that I cannot access. They took my money and fail to deliver the agreed upon services. 

 

Paul

 

Call customer service. my experience with them has been positive.

Still in training.


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Posted by ClassA on Thursday, February 17, 2022 1:31 PM

I suspect it will require an actual phone call as all of their other support channels do not work. Email, web forms, etc all fail. 

I'll have to carve out time to call. My hearing isn't what it was when I was younger, so I tend to avoid using phones whenever possible. :-/

 

Paul

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Posted by Euclid on Thursday, February 17, 2022 1:56 PM

BaltACD

 

 
Euclid
Maybe this general problem is caused by Windows 10.

 

I suspect Kalmbach problems have existed in various forms since Windows 95 and probably since Microsoft DOS and will probably exist through Windows Infinity and Beyond.

 

I don't recall the frequency of problems experienced or reported to have been as high in say the era of 2005-2015 as they are now.  People always assume buggy behavior is in their programs, but it can also be caused by the operating system, and then manifest in the programs.  

My conclusion is that if you are having buggy behavior, attempt to document it and define it.  If that is impossible due to a radom, erratic malfunctioning, that strikes in seemingly unlimited ways;  that indicates that the problem is in the OS and not your program.  

Can anybody here document and define the problem that we experience here frequently?  

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Posted by Convicted One on Friday, February 18, 2022 9:43 AM

Lithonia Operator
Geez guys. Kalmbach makes this forum available at no charge ...

And for that, they deserve our appreciation and accolades....no question.

But at the same time, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect things to at least work the way they are intended to work?

A television with a broken remote control is less enjoyable than a television with a fully functional remote, "free" programming notwithstanding...etc?

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Friday, February 18, 2022 10:10 AM

It's a shame that a remote has gotten more complex lately.  I think that you can do everything with your remote except improve the quality of programming.

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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, February 18, 2022 10:53 AM

CSSHEGEWISCH
It's a shame that a remote has gotten more complex lately.  I think that you can do everything with your remote except improve the quality of programming.

A broken remote, unlike a broken clock isn't right twice a day.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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