Quiet Times on RMR

I now have five kids -- with a total age of 12 years. So my modeling comes in fits and spurts lately. (But I am sure it will get better when they are all teenagers.)

*** Who's out there?

--------------------------------------------------- I'm still here. I've never seen rmr this quiet, either.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

History of N Scale: Railroad Bookstore: to 1,100 sites:

*** (But I am sure it will get better when they are all teenagers.)

-------------------------------------------------- Hah!

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

History of N Scale: Railroad Bookstore: to 1,100 sites:

I've been following rmr for quite some years and now to me it is a secondary souce of info, help, etc. I'm on 18 YahooGroups, of which I own/moderate 3. I do a lot of checking on the Trains.com Model Railroader forum where there is a heck of a lot of messages, some of which are useful. It seems to have taken over much of the rmr action these days. I've visited the Atlas forum a few times and will probably continue once in a while.

On some of the other newsgroups I follow, mostly re photography, there has been so much trolling that they are hardly worthwhile even visiting anymore. One or more resident trolls have been spending a lot of time disrupting the groups, and I have so many words, names, etc. in my killfile that I don't know if I'm missing much or not. Life is too short to put up with too much of this crap! Amazing the amount of time these trolls will spend disrupting groups, must not have much of a life otherwise.

Bob Boudreau

On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 07:21:36 GMT, "Bruce Favinger" wrote:

You want that the DC- VS -DCC threads should atart up again?

The same thing has happened to this NG as has happened to the NMRA.

Special Interest Groups ---SIGs

I wouldn't say Yahoo Groups exclusively, but that is a part of it. There are other list servers run by individulas that have lured the experienced and seasoned modelers away frm r.m.r. and into more compact and focused groups. rec.models.railroad is a catch-all that does not cater to any particular interest. It's just whatever happens to come up today. There is everything from tinplate to finescale covered here at various times. Unfortunately, this NG has not proven to be highly fertile ground for any particular facet of the hobby of playing with toy trains. The diversity is too great and the interests are too varied. Information recieved for questions asked is not reliable as too many people simply repeat erroneous hearsay that they have chosen to believe without research. Some people find this interesting. I did once, but not so much any more. Since Big John Dalton died several years ago, the board has been on a steady downhill run. Many active modelers have opted to leave for the SIGs, including me. I rarely post anything much here any more, although I do read the board almost daily. When I have questions I go elsewhere. On the SIGs there are no trolls. Moderators can simply shut them out. There is no spam, and, depending on the group, there is little or no off-topic BS to wade through. Steam guys stick to steam, Diesel guys stick to diesels and so on. Passenger cars; freight cars; operations; layout design, it's all there in the SIGs. You just have to find them. If I had to make a guess, I would guess that the "glory days" of rec.models.railroad are over. ........F>

Agreed it's slow these days. My train room rebuild after the January-February rain damage is complete except for replacing a couple of lights and putting in some baseboards in what will become the 'crew area'. Planning is underway for the storage shelves that will be built (and which will form the base for the new layout); the planning is complete for the backdrop (which will go in and be painted 'sky blue' before the storage shelves get built), just need to get going on it. But yardwork and a busy time at the office take time too.

Matt

Reasons for r.m.r's downfall in no particular order:

1). Lack of NNTP access for some ISP's these days. 2). The rise of free web forums like Atlas, Model Railroader, etc. that siphon away newbies. 3). The friggin' idiots here that respond to spam, which only encourages the spammers. 4). The text-only nature of the newsgroup (not saying that we should have binaries). 5). The lame off topic political and religious bullshit that shows up here more often than train topics. 6). The rise of the e-mail lists, including the Yahoo groups.

Basically, r.m.r is free and wide open, but not easy to get to nor easy to wade through the junk. The only thing that could really save r.m.r is if/when the free web forums/Yahoo groups become pay sites. If that happens, I see a resurgance of r.m.r's relevance in model railroading, but until then, it's gonna be a glide path to meaninglessness...

Paul A. Cutler III

************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************

I, too, still check the group daily. I've been posting here since, IIRC, 1998-9. The death of Big John, the disappearance of TOM and others, have left a gaping hole in this group's collective conscience. Instead, the "meek" have inherited the earth, as it were. The folks who were barely tolerated before are now some of the most prolific posters of political claptrap, and there aren't enough people willing to stop the nonsense...not anymore. Sad, really...

Paul A. Cutler III

************* Weather Or No Go New Haven *************

It sure has quieted down - partly because it is almost summer (up here anyway) and, most recently, the DCC vs DC wars have quieted down. Then, also, the liveliest contributors, including Big John Dalton, Nurse Diesel, TOM and Sheriff John Sheridan are long gone; Sheriff John was the closest we had to a moderator and went to great lengths to arrest the trolls. I think Dimitri is still around but under a different name.

I suspect the SIGs have absorbed many of the serious modelers & readers. I know that my Y Group list has grown a lot.

Times they are a'changing...

You're kidding, right?

:-)

It';s the week after April 15th, and everyone found out how much they owe the IRS.....

Come to think of it, I never did see a picture of those plaques we bought for the RDC in memory of Big John. Anyone have one?

Seems like MOST ISP's are dropping NNTP access, luckily Earthlink hasn't (yet).

They've got to be more stupid than the spammers themselves.

Yes, lately there's been one who has been hitting ALL the newsgroups. The stupid arse even left his real return address in his headers, and I know quite a few people who've sent him nasty e-mails in return. Maybe it will make him think about what he is doing. I have no problem with those who have religious beliefs, just DON'T spew them on me.

Lately Yahoo Groups has a "new look" which my eyes cannot tolerate. So I've abandoned them.

Summer? Where? It's barely into spring here in the USA.

I participate in a number of model RR related Yahoo lists. But I suspect that a subsetting of r.m.r could compete if w enough people wanted to try that. Like r.m.r.construction, r.m.r.scenery, etc..

But it's also nice to have a general forum for discussion of issues of interest to all, or even most, of us. For instance, if I ever get caught up, I've got a question or two on the state of hobby organizations. Doesn't really belong on a special interest group.

I don't understand this. I see little or no spam. Occasionally a reply to a spammer gets through my filters. If someone is incapable, or unwilling, to learn how to use filters, or to switch to a newsreader that has filtering capabilities, then yes, I suggest they'd be happier in a moderated mailing list.

Peter King took care of everything. The plaques are in place and all is fine with the world. There were photos, but it's been a long time now. ........F>

If and when they do, I'm gone. I spend very little time with the web browser. almost all my internet activity is email and usenet. I have other hobbies besides playing with toy trains; horticulture (roses), white-water rafting, Jeeps, fishing, music, and garden ponds, to name a few.

They are getting worse and worse. I own a group on Yahoo and subscribe to one other. That's all I can tolerate. ........F>

They have. Many of the names you knew here from years ago are to be found there now. ........F>

Not where I live. Winter is long since dead and departed. Good riddance. I won't see cold weather again until December. Fine with me. It was cold enough for me last July. For the Antipodians reading, that's mid-summer for us. But you knew that. ........F>