RE: The Model Train Magazine Index has moved!

Jul 15, 2010 22 Replies

Jeff Scarbrough wrote (a long time ago):


>>>> As of this afternoon, The Model Train Magazine Index has moved to:
>>>>>
formatting link
>>>>
>>>>> I want to thank Accurail for their 25 months of great support of the
>>>>> index and for their generosity in making it freely available to model
>>>>> railroaders everywhere. Please support them next time you visit the
>>>>> hobby shop. They're great people, with the best interests of the hobby
>>>>> and hobbyists always on their minds.
>>>>>
>>>>> The move is the result of the sale of the site to Kalmbach; I wish them
>>>>> well with their new index!
>>>>> jeff scherb
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> To Kalmbach? One can't help but wonder if they're going to devote equal
>>>> time and effort to indexing publications from other companies as they
>>>> will no doubt devote to indexing their own.
>>>
>>>
>>> Andy Sperandeo's editorial in the June 2000 Model Railroader says the index
>>> will continue to include other publishers and update it for current >>> publications.
>>
>>
>> Yea, right, ok.
>
>
> Far be it for me to be Andy's protector, but give the man a chance!
> It won't be too difficult to see if they are being even-handed...no
> matter what magazine you are looking for, guess who's name you'll see?
> So they get the advertising benefit, and the good will...

The ten-year run of hosting of the Model Train Index at Kalmbach is over.


The web site says:


To our readers:



The advancement in Internet browser technology has created an insurmountable problem for the Model Train Index, which has been a fixture on Trains.com for many years.



The information in the Model Train Index and its integrated software originally were written in MS-DOS language 20 years ago by a train hobbyist on his PC as a personal project. It was not designed for the Internet and the software is unique to the index.



Kalmbach Publishing Co. purchased the index and its software many years ago. We created a website interface for the index and made the index a featured part of the Trains.com website.



Today, the progression of technologies on the Internet and the antiquated software of the Model Train Index have intersected to the point that we can no longer offer the index to our website visitors because we can no longer keep the index free of viruses or other even more significant Internet security risks.



The index software cannot be rewritten to update its security level, nor is there any method of transferring the index text information to a more modern software platform since the design of the index software and the index text information are integral to each other.



Because of these issues, we have reluctantly removed the index from Trains.com.


And the entire explanation is Total Bullshit!

Kalmbach Publishing is well-known for their, um, "creative inventions" when it comes to explaining their actions.

Another example of these would be the way they removed their old free Schedule Of Upcoming Events from the back Model Railroader Magazine, citing lack a of space in the magazine and a lack of interest on the part of the modelling public.

And that's the way it was for a bit...

Then the "Schedule of Events" section suddenly reappeared in Model Railroader, only now it was a classified advertising section being charged for at the same rates as ads......making it evident that that is exactly what they had planned to do right from the beginning: increase their revenue stream by charging for something that had previously been free.

Now: the change may have been justified. Who knows? But the way they lied their way through the entire episode in hopes that nobody would notice what was going on tells you that Kalmbach has the collective moral compass of a rabid weasel, and a total lack of respect for the intelligence of their readers and subscribers.

~Pete

The way they bundle up 6 or 7 old articles - generally each less than comprehensive and in some no nearer - and sell them as a guide to this or that certianly argues for that point.

If I could get my hands on the data I'd be happy to try to translate it into a form any web based search engine could use.

Kalmbach Publishing is well-known for their, um, "creative inventions" when it comes to explaining their actions.

Another example of these would be the way they removed their old free Schedule Of Upcoming Events from the back Model Railroader Magazine, citing lack a of space in the magazine and a lack of interest on the part of the modelling public.

And that's the way it was for a bit...

Then the "Schedule of Events" section suddenly reappeared in Model Railroader, only now it was a classified advertising section being charged for at the same rates as ads......making it evident that that is exactly what they had planned to do right from the beginning: increase their revenue stream by charging for something that had previously been free.

Now: the change may have been justified. Who knows? But the way they lied their way through the entire episode in hopes that nobody would notice what was going on tells you that Kalmbach has the collective moral compass of a rabid weasel, and a total lack of respect for the intelligence of their readers and subscribers.

~Pete

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, it gets Worse. Was shopping on eBay last night, looking at some Gazette issues that were actually within the realm of reasonably priced. Formerly I would have gone to the Index to check the table of contents for each issue, but knowing that was gone I went direct to the Gazette. Found their link to contents of back issues and - WAIT FOR IT! - up pops Kalmbach whining about viruses and other fates worse than death and how Hard it would be to sort that out.

Sigh!

Yeah, but don't hold it against NG&SLG.

It's pretty much a one-man operation, and he's got just so much time.

~Pete

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­--------

Yeah, but don't hold it against NG&SLG.

It's pretty much a one-man operation, and he's got just so much time.

~Pete

================================= No, I'm not. K likely let all the other mags think they would keep it up. I'd be surprised if Anyone got any notice of this.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­--------

Yeah, but don't hold it against NG&SLG.

It's pretty much a one-man operation, and he's got just so much time.

~Pete

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, I think Kalmbach now distributes the Gazette!

Timber Times has its own TOC!! YAY!!!

I just received the following e-mail this morning in one of my model RR oriented e-mail lists at Yahoo:

Very good news if true.

On 7/17/2010 8:35 AM Rick Jones spake thus:

And hopefully that means accessible to the public *for free*, as it was before.

It wasn't "for free", since it, like all Kalmbach services, was paid for directly or indirectly by advertising revenue. Which of course comes out of your pocket whenever you buy an advertised product.

NMRA is funded primarily by member fees and donations. So I would interpret your wish as "I want someone else to pay for the service."

cheers, wolf k.

NMRA will do what they want with it. Don't they already have a lookup service for members?

You're playing with semantics in order to pretend that nothing will be different if the NMRA decides to only allow access to the index for it's members, and that's not true: hitherto *anyone* could access it, and if the NMRA decides it's going to be a "members only" thing, that will *not* be true.

Get it?

Everyone stop wasting your breathe here. Just contact Kalmbach and let them know you would really like to see the service continued. Other train forums are saying, contact them.

Ok, some just like to Rant. Does not matter the subject.

r

And apparently you're one of them.

Welcome.

On 7/19/2010 12:08 PM Twibil spake thus:

I'm with you here. Things don't happen in this world unless someone's feet are held to the fire. Human nature, dontcha know.

And apparently you're one of them.

Welcome.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some come to Rant, and some come to play Some merely come to pass time away Some come to laugh, their voices do ring But as for me, I come for to ding

Some of you like me, others do not Some love to extol on what I ain't got But I don't care, it don't mean a thing I just keep coming, keep coming to ding

You have your choice of guitar, banjo, or uke backup.

Which key would you prefer?

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