Divisions of Railwire

[chuck geiger]

Being we can be trendetters that Atlas and MR can't on their forums, should we look at some divisions of the forum; N Scale layout planning and design, N Scale locomotive and rolling stock, N scale weathering and scratchbuilding, N Scale Operations and prototype modeling and N Scale Scenery. I come on and it's like product reveiw after product reveiw and very little on modeling. Don't go postal on the California guy. It's due to volumne. We don't have the base the other sites have. So there is a tendency for the same topics to stay in N Scale day after day after day. I came to this site because of the next level modelers here and the change from the ball scratchers at MR. But I am finding more of a variety back on The MR forum. Just a thought, don't freakin nuke me.

[TiVoPrince]

All forums
are what the participants make of them.  Posting a question on layout planning or scenery will get some responses.  If someone doesen't ask, tere won't be a discussion.

RailWire tends to be just a bit East-centric so specific California questions may be better served elsewhere since there are only a few of us West Coast types around here...

[Hyperion]

I don't think we need to have "N Scale X" and "N Scale Y", but it would help to have some additional segregation.

Not only do I personally hate scale-ism, I just don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to break out some topics -- Layout Planning, Weathering, Operations, Scenery -- it all applies to all scales equally.  Far more often than not, a technique/idea/whatever in one scale works just as well as any other.

I understand you have to worry somewhat about dilution with such a small userbase.  But more often than not here, "N Scale" seems to be where pretty much everything is discussed, whether it's N-scale related or not (this post included).  And I think that scares some people off when they check out the Forum and see that there's about 10 times as many posts here than any other Forum, though a very significant portion of those posts probably aren't N Scale related at all.  

I'd like to see a "Layout Planning/Designing/Building" Forum.  And perhaps turn "Proto Photo" into a joint Prototype/Operations Forum.  And then a catch-all "General Discussion" Forum (which there may already be, I know a lot of Forums hide this from new members like myself until they reach a certain post count or seniority).

[Ian MacMillan]

Well we kinda like to think that we are a little bit more in depth here... Some of the users on the MR and Atlas forums feel the need for a reach around on everything they do, and post post post on what ever they are doing. Why not do it like the guys here and hammer out all ideas, and not necessarily post a new topic or post on every little thing said person is doing. This also keeps good informative threads from going the way side like they do at MR and Atlas where they vanish into useless oblivion in a matter of hours.

A lot of us save our "work" for the Weekend thread, and that way it doesn't clutter the forum. Its ok to start a thread for your layout or project, but its also nice to have a well organized forum where you don't have to search through 400 pages of rambling. Pretty much every one of our members has come to appreciate that everything is centralized or easy to find most of the time.  This is one of the things that you find on the tech forums, that is not found on MR or Atlas. If anyone posted like they do on MR or Atlas on a tech forum they are instantly blasted with "USE THE DAMN SEARCH FEATURE"..and its true..why not post another thread on "My Wifi connection is not working" when there is already a friggin 5 page thread on it where it is already explained 50 times over...

All product reviews? I think it is mostly product reviews inside of modeling. Why not let your fellow modelers know how good or crappy a product was while you were using it, and slide some photos in for comfort?

Think of Railwire as the car show....If you like cars and quality, you to to a classic/custom/concept car show and learn and appreciate the 100 or so cars there. If you like cars and really don't care about the quality of the content, or usefulness the majority of the time, sit by the interstate.

[wm3798]

First of all, let me welcome the new guys, and thank them for their input.  Then let me follow up by saying that we have a pretty good recipe here, and it's not likely that we'll be shaking it up any time soon.  I participate in another forum that has a million divisions, and frankly, it gets a little fatiguing trying to remember where everything is.

Yes, we're East Coast-centric... we seem to have concentrations on the east coast of the US, UK and New Zealand, to name a few...  We don't discriminate, and besides, Chuck needs some company when he's on the air by himself out there when it's 3 a.m. here...

And to follow up on Ian's comment, our focus here is very much on "Applied Model Railroading"... in other words, there aren't many of us who collect Happy Birthday Cars as an investment, and we appreciate the time and effort that goes into a modeling project that has been well thought out, and well executed.  That can range from scratch building a Heisler in N scale up to filling a basement with the Pennsylvania Railroad.

While we take our modeling efforts seriously, we don't take ourselves too seriously.  You'll find some irreverence, some poking of fun at each other, and the occasional flare up, but it's usually over a technical aspect of modeling, or railroading or something along those lines. 

We constantly challenge each other to advance our skills, increase our knowledge, and stretch the envelope of what's possible.  It's not that we don't welcome beginners or more casual modelers, we hope they come to expand their own experience in this great hobby.  If you look at some of the membership here, browse their websites, read their blogs, there's a lot of ground-breaking stuff going on here.  But don't expect to be spoon fed. 

If you have a question, ask it, but as Ian said, try the search engine first.  Photos are always helpful in discerning a problem you might be having, and let us know what you're hoping to accomplish with your project.  We may not be as quick to respond as the other boards, but believe me, it'll be worth the wait.

It's also important to let you know that you should expect a certain level of constructive criticism here.  That's the challenge part.  Don't take it personally, we're not picking a fight.  We just like to work to a higher standard (generally) and our goal is to encourage you to set your sights a little higher to achieve a new level of satisfaction with your own work.

Thanks again for joining the best forum for modelers on the internet.
Lee

[tillsbury]

FWIW, I read the Railwire over every other forum because of three things.  It's N-scale, it has the best modellers, and it isn't divided into a million different sub-areas of stuff.  I have to admit to only reading this particular area...  I know that there are others, but the inspiration happens here...

Charles

[wcfn100]

I would welcome dividing the threads into catagories, but only after they have run their course.  It could make looking for older post a bit easier.

My only problem with Railwire is that it has the most occurrences of bringing up threads on other forums and not because they are useful and/or informative.  Besides that, I always rely on this forum for the threads with the most to offer me (which has gone way down with the weather ) and like the fact it's not all fractionalized.


Jason

[sirenwerks]

It seems like everyone here has to ride the short bus anyway, so we've already segregated ourselves, why go further? I like reading about topics I normally wouldn't, tempted by them sitting in front of my eye sockets, as I always seem to learn something. I say "no" to further delimiting topics.

[DKS]

One of the reasons I gravitated to Railwire is that it isn't divided into a gazillion forums. The divisions that have taken place here have been a result of "evolution", in response to changes in membership and needs over time. For example, the Z scale forum is relatively new, born from a small, sudden burst of interest in this scale; I'm sure that more changes will come as membership and needs continue to evolve. I do think that the existing divisions serve to prevent cluttering up any one forum, but further division I believe would be counterproductive. FWIW.

[tom mann]

Yeah, I agree with David.  Additional forums should happen as a result of anticipated needs.  Too many arbitrary divisions cause stagnation and lead to disorganization.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I agree with everyone who is saying to keep it centralized.

Personally, I'd like to see everything combined into one big forum... but that's a different topic to debate.

[Bob Bufkin]

Couldn't agree with David and Tom more.  One of the reason I like this forum over others (and I'm not a great modeler by any means) is it's easy to follow and not cluttered like MR and others.  Also I've talked and met with some great individuals here and hope to meet more.
Bob

[Erik W]

One of the reasons I gravitated to Railwire is that it isn't divided into a gazillion forums.

I agree as well.  This forum is laid back.  If you post something model railroad related, but not N scale, in the N scale segment, no one will bite your head off.  Some of the things I like about the members of this forum is they don't take themselves too seriously, they almost universally have a good sense of humor and along with that have a thick skin.  You don't often see too many people getting their panties in a wad because someone inadvertently hurt their feelings. 

While other forums have much more traffic, a lot of the posts are boring or not very thought provoking and engaging (in my opinion).  One word posts and the need for some members to reply to every single topic, even if they don’t have anything to say, doesn’t really do it for me.

Erik

P.S. - It's funny, I kind of feel like the Railwire is my forum even though I only have ~250 posts.  I've been participating sporadically here since it was the old forum years ago. 

[chuck geiger]

It seems like everyone here has to ride the short bus anyway, so we've already segregated ourselves, why go further? I like reading about topics I normally wouldn't, tempted by them sitting in front of my eye sockets, as I always seem to learn something. I say "no" to further delimiting topics.

Christ I have a helmet and I;m driving it!

[chuck geiger]

How about just a seperation of the product reveiws from the other posts?