Ghost Town

[finescalerr]

Given the lack of activity on the forum I may be writing this to myself. Either way, here we go:

When I decided to stop publishing (because it no longer makes sense, not because I lost interest in modeling) I promised to keep this forum open as long as people continue to post and visit. My final book is still in stores, yet nearly all the mail, e-mail, and phone calls I used to receive have stopped. Worse, many modelers eager to post here before last December seem to have wandered off.

One wonders whether the reason might have something to do with self-interest: "Westlake isn't around to publish my stuff so why bother with the forum?"

If that's the case, the forum won't be around, either. I won't keep it if nobody uses it. It costs money I could spend on something else and takes time I could spend looking for the quality of modeling we used to see here in abundance.

It's not just a seasonal dip; it's a drought. Will somebody please explain what is going on?

Russ

[Mr Potato Head]

Hey Russ
How ya been, it's already been months since I saw you, again thanks for all the great stuff you brought to the meet, it's always a pleasure to see you and speak in person.
I was just visiting with Darryl Huffman, my neighbor, and he asked me, what I had new to show and tell, well I brought out two items that I had been working on all summer, neither model related. After he left I started to look around at all the projects I had started, and asked myself why are these still unfinished? Was it a lack of interest? I was so gung ho to get them started, do I have too many projects going on at the same time, is it bad time management ? Do I just don't care anymore?...................
When we were together last we spoke about how we both check out the forum each morning, and for me I check it out every morning and every evening. I love the forum, I love to see peoples work and read their posts, I would deeply miss the forum if it were to go away. All I can say for myself is time just gets in my way, even with my son long gone from home, and my life is 100 times more simple, there just never seams to be enough time in the day,........... I turned off my TV subscription so I would force me to do other things, It hasn't gotten any more models done? Maybe it that damn Facebook? I want to model more, I think about it every day, but thinking and watching is not doing, I hope this winter I get more modeling time,...................
Thanks for all the great time I have spent on this forum and thanks for hosting it.
Gil Flores

[Carlo]

Russ, and all -
I too would miss the Forum, and have been wondering where everyone went.

My reasons for not posting are, first, that my models are not strictly prototypical (there are freelance elements), and second, I model in 1" scale, which seems not to be small enough, considering others on the list. Finally, my work is nowhere near the finescale, museum quality efforts which usually appear.

I do, however check it every day, so as not to miss bits of prototype info, innovative modeling techniques, and inspiring modeling I see here.

Please keep it going, and encourage all the "regulars" to start posting again.
Regards, Carlo

[5thwheel]

I am on two other fine miniature forums suffering from the same fait. I think Carlo may have hit on something. Many modelers/miniaturists are overwhelmed--intimidated with the high quality and high standards put forth by severely excellent modelers and feel they re not adequate enough to post their work. Many just lurk and get educated but rarely post any thing even to comment on a post.

Bill Hudson

[EZnKY]

Russ,
I'm on here every day, and there are times it's the best part of my day.
I haven't had much time lately to model, so catching up on the goings-on here is my "fix."

You've created a world here that matters to me - the people, their knowledge, their approach, and their attitudes. 

Don't lose faith.

Eric Zabilka
Wilmore KY

[NE Brownstone]

I have no idea why, but most of the MRR forums seem to be lacking.   Well, a couple have hardly any administrative input and one has none what-so-ever.  I can't even renew my password and no one will respond to my emails.  I gave up.  Some forums can be a pain in the butt to upload photos.  

I think some of it may be from using Facebook.  That place will suck you in.  On the other hand, you can link up with anyone about anything you want to rather quickly.  And, you can upload your pics quickly and send them to your subscribed groups.  Blogs used to be more popular, but a lot of the owners seem to have let them slide and or have gone to the FB.  Paradigm shift?

Maybe it's a bit of burnout.  I'm like everyone else who has an excessive amount of projects collecting dust, but I have to admit that I have recently been knocking out a bunch of them.  Sadly, it requires me to get away from my computer and actually go work with my hands.

I hate to see the forum close.  I've learned a bunch here.  Particularly that there are people way better at modeling than me.  I try and give my input, however slightly related it may be to the subject.  I have a model that I've been planning  on building and putting it up here, but between the regular job and wife's health issues, a lot things have been getting back burner-ed.  

Oh, and I stop in on a daily basis.

[Ray Dunakin]

I check in here at least once a day, and usually several times a day. Unfortunately I've had a lot of "real world" stuff going on the past few months that have prevented me from getting any modeling done. And right now, what little modeling time I have, is being used for things that are worth posting about, such as converting my diesel to battery power (finally!) and converting the grain-of-rice bulbs in my buildings to LEDs.

[Chuck Doan]

I look in pert near every day. I used to post on RR Line and here. Then just here, strictly because of the time it takes to maintain a topic. I have also slowed down maintaining my Fotki album because of their unreliability. I do now post here and on Facebook, but rarely in as much detail over there. It really isn't set up for detailed descriptions, more just pics, so I am still posting more detail over here when I finally get something done. I will say that I have been exposed to a whole lot of really fine miniature work over there, but rarely with descriptions, just pictures and maybe a link to a website. A lot of modelers are promoting contest entries, books or selling products too, so no sense in giving it away for free.

I think there is good info here and I wish more builders would take the time to make detailed topics. The end of your mag has had no effect on my interest in posting here, I am just abnormally slow.

[1-32]

hi all
where else offers what westlake offers.the hits from non members seems to be really heigh,
russ worried by the expense why would you not be.just charge a membership you are giving away really good stuff for nothing.myself i would be only too happy to pay a membership fee i just like posting.i do not usually get a reply. ray is always there i just like posting my stuff.comments are optional
kind regards kim

[Ray Dunakin]

I would like to add that this forum is of great value to me, for the same reason that the mag/book was: It features a lot of high end modeling, of subjects that either aren't accepted or don't readily fit in anywhere else. In fact this forum is even more precious than ever now that the mag/book now defunct.

[Peter_T1958]

Hi all

As a fairly new member I would painfully miss that forum. I check it every day too, and you got right: lurking around for years it took quite a long time until I dared to post my own project. May be it is just because of the high standard here (It brings together some of the best modelers!)
What I particularly like above all - no flattering words, just constructive and objective criticisms.

I also find hardly time for my modelling between my regular job and my family, and indeed, after a long working day it's much easier to stare at the screen then to work with my own hands. So it takes quite some time to post an update but I will do as soon as possibe, even more the "language barrier" has already been melted to a tiny hill ...


Regards,
Peter

[mad gerald]

Russ,

personally speaking ... closing the Forum would be  a great loss to me!

In fact I do not login every day, but I'm stopping by at least 2 oder 3 times a day, apart from still contributing frequently though only in mid-term or long-term-intervals  ...

I can't explain what's going on, just making a wide step in the dark: I noticed, that meanwhile almost every forum suffers from a lack of activity (i. e. Buntbahn as well) and I suspect there is a large variety of reasons - not only one. To name a few, IMHO ...

... modelling costs have increased
... to little (or none) spare time for modelling
... fed up with modelling (burn out)
... to little "old school modelling" with a manageable amount of tools
... being too old (or too young) for modelling
... too many modelling projects going on
... modelling (or any other creative, non digital activity) seems to get out of style (as an example I as well feel attracted by digital arts like concept art performed by Ian McQue and others)  

I agree with Kim, that the number of visitors here is already rising quite a while, which seems to be a good sign of interest

Just my $1,45   ... 2ct ...  

Cheers

[finescalerr]

To each of you who has replied, thanks for the input. Don't worry, I'm not thinking about shutting things down anytime soon. I was just wondering why so many seem to have abandoned us.

Just as many of you, I have done no modeling for a while. Between nearly a year of renovating my house, garage/studio, and front and back yards and the time I have devoted to writing music and practicing, modeling has taken a backseat. I hope to get to it again before the end of the year. Months ago I posted a SketchUp drawing of my next project (in 1:32 scale).

My friend, Marc Reusser, whose ideas and colleagues created this forum, now checks in about once a month. Some of his friends seem to have abandoned us, too. Kim and Volker (who talked to me on Skype a few days ago) and Helmut and Mad Gerald and Gordie Birrell and Chuck and John Tolcher and some others continue to post brilliant work. Summer is ending and modeling tends to pick up around November so let's see whether anybody returns.

I check this forum twice a day. I know exactly what happens here. I suppose if only two dozen of us manage to keep it alive it will be worth maintaining for at least a couple of years. And those of you too "intimidated" to share your work, get over it! Just put up some images (no matter what the scale, Carlo) and show us what you're doing.

Russ

[jacq01]

 It is happeing on all fora i visit not only the modeling ones
I think a certain saturation level is reached in the way we communicate with this type of medium.

Jacq

[jim s-w]

I too look in on a near daily basis.  Obviously I don't post much but this forum is one of the few (perhaps the last) where you can get genuine, useful feedback.  I don't think you do too bad as its a small community really as I saw some interesting stats from the uk's biggest forum the other day.

They claim about 23,000 members, of those half have never even posted.  Only 5% have posted more than 300 posts and most of those are 'thats nice mate' type posts, wishlisting posts or arguements for the sake of arguement.  They recently held a national event to much fanfare with traders there reporting it really was a ghost town (less than 30 people in the queue on the first day) and most pics of th event show it to have been deserted.  Of course loads of members said they would go and the post mortem thread was quite entertaining as the excuses rolled out.  I did smile at the assault on one member who went but didn't like it but several members who didn't even bother to go themselves!

I guess what I'm saying is new posts aren't everything, as someone once said, never mind he width, feel the quality!

Cheers

Jim