Web based forums

Me too - I have found that over 99 percent of the useful info has come from Usenet, the forums are just too slow and difficult to navigate. Eventually they'll set up formums that behave like Usenet, except you will have to supply your personal details so they can mail-spam you.

Regards

Mike

I've been spending time in the Model Cars Magazine forums, and have been pretty happy. Then again, I mostly model cars. Wouldn't be of use to those of other (possibly inferior) persuasions. :-)

I like it here tho. Can anyone suggest a good, free news server? The marketing bastards at Cox are turning off usenet support on June 30.

Cheers, Dave Ambrose

Dave Ambrose wrote: : : I like it here tho. Can anyone suggest a good, free news server? The : marketing bastards at Cox are turning off usenet support on June 30. : I am using TeraNews. Not free, because you have to pay a "set up" fee, but there is no monthly after that.

Drawbacks are that the "free" server(s) is(are) slow to connect at times. I spend more time that I care to watching what should be ASCII are of a twirling bar, well, not twirl.

Bruce

My clue stick shoots you a cube which reads "news.eternal-september.org".

Cheers! Gernot

Don Stauffer wrote: I fear I was misunderstood. My intent was not to leave this forum, but to supplement it. Some days there are only a couple of posts. This is not enough to supply my modeling fix. The idea of web-based forums is to SUPPLEMENT the messages from here.

I also intend to stay here to the last. It is a nostalgia thing. I figure I have been with this group for at least fifteen years, and was the first modeling activity I indulged in on the net.

But, I need more!

While not free (I pay $1.66/month by prepaying for a full year), I've been happy with a "Mini" newsgroup account at Newsguy ...

I started out with the Basic account (at $5/month) but then switched to the cheaper option once they started offering it since my meager text usenet usage falls well within their 3GB/month mini account.

John

FalconGuy wrote: : I am using nntp.aioe.org . It is free and reliable. But no binaries, : text only. : I found them to be reliably unreliable. There was many a time I could not connect to these guys, so I went with terranews.

Bruce

One's I regularly frequent

StarShip Modeler -

- yes, you have to join to see the threads, but John and Linda (the one's who run it) keep it lean - mainly by not having any in-line pictures - links only - and I've never recieved spam that could be traced back to them

And they keep a clean board - any attacks/spam/etc are flushed ASAP and the offending party is banned

One thing to note: SSM deals strictly with F&SF and Space subjects, no Real World subjects unless it's Space Based (Apollo, Soyuz, Shuttle, etc)

Hobby Talk -

- More selection of subjects, allows in-line pictures - fairly busy and quite a few SSM people pop in there as well

Another closely moderated board, keeps the riff-raff at bay

Resin Illuminati -

- more free-form than the others, there's a special area for disagreements (flame wars) and any topics that start crossing the line are split and placed down in the appropriate area

Lots of inline pictures, and a number of SSM alumni are also here

All three of these also have insights to several companies

Hobby Talk has a Moebius topic, and Moebius people post in there about upcoming projects

SSM has a resident Round 2 person (PhantomStranger) who also lets us know upcoming things from them - even had a "hat draw" contest a few months ago - anyone saying "yes" in the topic had their name tossed in a hat, then the winner got a pre-sale copy of the 1000-scale Refit Enterprise - a full month before it hit the store shelves

Here is one you may want to check out

Old-Techie wrote: : : StarShip Modeler -

- yes, you have to join to : see the threads, : What was the reason for that? I didn't see any explanation. Certainly to post, but just to browse?

Still, a good site. Bit silly at times, just like here. :-)

Bruce

Dunno the reasons - just that John and Linda wanted it that way

It's their site, payed for by their money, they can do what they want

I'm usually on

as What-If stuff is my main interest and I get on well with the folk over there. is one I browse through for the very wide range of topics on everything from ships to tanks to dioramas to (surprisingly!) aircraft of all eras.

I read this newsgroup via Teranews. Cheap at $3.95 for an unending membership but the servers do drop out now and again.

Nick

I've tried most of them, and I really can't get used to the way they feel. Same with the non-modelling forums I read, so maybe it's me. I like the low-tech usenet presentation (no bloody passwords, for a start), as well as the people who hang out here - shame we've lost so many over the years.

Any chance of a roll-call of the 'old-timers'?

RobG (the Aussie one)

How old do you want? ;)

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

LMAO Bill...

I was referring to 'age' as a measure of how long you'd been hanging around on RMS, not so much on Planet Earth.

I'm just a kid here, coming up on nine years v. soon but I know some of you have been here a lot longer than that.

RobG (the Aussie one)

I turn 50 later this year, and have been hanging out here since the end of 1996. Does this count ?

Usenet seems to be dying.  We

I think I've been hanging around since '97 or '98. I read about this group in Scale Aircraft Monthly and insisted my son show me how to get into newsgroups. We still had Rama Lamas and the Mon-kee when I started. We also had occasional discussions of whether to split the group or not.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Yup

RobG (the Aussie one)