Weekend Update 3/2/25

[Dave V]

It is not just that Dave. It is how the info is presented on FB. It is just a constant stream of photos or messages.  You can't have a nice "build" thread which is well organized and can go on for a long time while the builder reports their progress over time.    Online forum is a much better venue for this type of information. Same goes for tutorials.

Online forums (fora?) of this type are becoming endangered species though. Yep, I do love me some Railwire, but there's just so much more content out there in social media land. You really, truly are missing out on some spectacular modeling and some really esoteric prototype stuff by restricting yourself to this format alone. If you're fine with that, great. But no one owes you posts in a traditional and--dare I say--anachronistic forum.

As long as @tom mann keeps the lights on, I plan to keep sharing stuff here and supporting TRW. But it's still but a fraction of what I put on social media.

[peteski]

I guess that's one of the reasons the world is becoming hectic, disorganized, ADD kind of a world.   

I guess I'll be like that librarian in a Twilight Zone episode:  All the books from a library are there for me to read, but I broke my eyeglasses and can't read any of them.  Of course for me not using those "eyeglasses" is a choice.

[Dave V]

I guess that's one of the reasons the world is becoming hectic, disorganized, ADD kind of a world.   

I guess I'll be like that librarian in a Twilight Zone episode:  All the books from a library are there for me to read, but I broke my eyeglasses and can't read any of them.  Of course for me not using those "eyeglasses" is a choice.

To be fair, I'm not suggesting the social media construct is "better," only that it's "easier." Or rather, it's better for the content creator even if it's worse for the content consumer. I used to try to maintain static webpages for my model railroad projects. Ugh. Never again! And forums do have limited reach compared to Facebook, Reddit, Insta, etc. So no, I'm not trying to convince you that social media is better...but that's where the majority of the good model railroading content--outside of this critical bastion of real modeling--is found nowadays.

EDIT: I do agree with you on the idea that a forum like this is much better for a long-term build or tutorial compared to Facebook.

[Maletrain]

Dave, the other side of that coin is that creators will not have their work seen by people who do not go to the media types the creators chose to limit themselves to using to display their work.

So, at least direct provide links here to what you want us to see. 

Searching through all sorts of different media user interfaces is not something that most of us are inclined to spend our time doing. 

For instance, I joined FaceBook for a very limited purpose, and now constantly get "notification" emails that somebody posted something, but I cannot just click on a link in those e-mails to see what the notification is specifically talking about - it doesn't take me right there - it just dumps me into the middle of a lot of other posts I am not interested in seeing.  So, now I completely ignore all FaceBook "notifications".  There is a filter I set up to automatically dump them into a separate folder, which I clear without reading once in a while.  The ratio of interesting content to silliness is just too low to bother with.

And the typical "tweet' on twitter was just a link, with no reason provided to create enough interest to even click on it.  With the amount of hijacked e-mail addresses currently being used to post links to malware these days, I need a lot of reason to click on any link, these days.  So, ironically changing the name of Twitter to "X" seems like an invitation to do what I do, which is delete those tweets without clicking on the links.

At least here on TRW, links have some content association in the posts, and the posters are (mostly) known to us.

[Chris333]

The key to FB is to use it your way and not their way.

[Dave V]

Dave, the other side of that coin is that creators will not have their work seen by people who do not go to the media types the creators chose to limit themselves to using to display their work.

LOL, the audience size on social media is orders of magnitude greater than the audience size in a traditional forum. No one's really losing sleep over folks who don't use it.

You can explain to me all the live-long day the limitations and frustrations of Facebook. I get it. I'm only still on there because of the train and modeling content. But your arguments won't change the fact that there's a ton of excellent stuff out there that is actually very easy to find if you're willing. It's like you're trying to convince me that Facebook is bad. It is. I'm not a shill for Zuckerberg...I'm just telling the truth. There's really great content there, and no one owes you that content in a format of your own choosing.

So, at least direct provide links here to what you want us to see. 

Absolutely not my job to point your toward good content, but here you go anyway. Just one example:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/323934314699332

[peteski]

LOL, the audience size on social media is orders of magnitude greater than the audience size in a traditional forum. No one's really losing sleep over folks who don't use it.

Oh well, and here I thought you were staying up all night worrying that I won't  be accessing the latest and greatest info from all those wonderful modeling influencers. 

My mind is made up and I'm not going to join the wonderful social media platforms where things happen. I'm crawling back to my den and booting up my VIC20 computer.  I don't  care if you think of me as an anachronism or a social media Luddite.  I was happy in my model hobbies before the Internet has been introduced to genera public and I'll be ok without accessing the latest and greatest social media platforms.  When the old-school forums go offline, I will too.  At my age I can live without the wonderful social media chock full of wonderful modeling and prototype groups.  I'm not a trend follower either.

[Dave V]

Oh well, and here I thought you were staying up all night worrying that I won't  be accessing the latest and greatest info from all those wonderful modeling influencers. 

My mind is made up and I'm not going to join the wonderful social media platforms where things happen. I'm crawling back to my den and booting up my VIC20 computer.  I don't  care if you think of me as an anachronism or a social media Luddite.  I was happy in my model hobbies before the Internet has been introduced to genera public and I'll be ok without accessing the latest and greatest social media platforms.  When the old-school forums go offline, I will too.  At my age I can live without the wonderful social media chock full of wonderful modeling and prototype groups.  I'm not a trend follower either.

Doesn't bother me any. Just don't get upset when other people post things in places you won't go. That was my whole point. I really could care less about who here uses what platforms. Bruce doesn't owe you content on a platform of your choosing.

[Maletrain]

Bruce doesn't "owe" us anything.

My point is simply that if Bruce on anybody else posts about something here that he has explained better or illustrated better someplace else, it would be best to post a direct link to that material here. 

And, if it requires a "membership" at that other location, don't be surprised if some choose to not submit themselves to the barrages of useless e-mails that come from those other locations, even if they are "free" to join.

Remember your content is being used by them to make money for themselves.

As for "using FB my way instead of their way" being the "key"  - my way is to have a direct link in to what I want to see.

[Mike C]

  I don't like Facebook , but without it I would have never found some of my favorite bands . The Warning from Mexico , Marissa and the Moths from England , or Broken Peach . Yep I gotta turn off a bunch of their "features" and use the Facebook Purity app to make it do what I want , but thats better than not hearing from my friends .

[Chris333]

This is what my "feed" looks like:


I click on any of the groups I want to see. Look at what's new, then go to the next group.

[John]

Well, this weekend update went all off the rails     ...  The one thing I don't like about FB is that some "groups" require membership to see the content .. while that's not true with Bruce - it does put a lot of good modeling behind a wall .. we have the same feature here -- but mainly restrict the crew lounge from universal view ..

[OldEastRR]

Still, a very interesting thread. It seems like going FB, X, TT, etc is like going somewhere by jet instead of train -- yeah, it's faster, but the security checks, baggage hassle, making connections, delayed flights and most of all crammed for a long time into a long tube full of people in seats too small for anybody but little kids are things you just accept and don't notice the wear and tear it does on you because "personal reasons." I guess being part of that internet overload is like people who drive through congested, slow-moving freeway traffic twice a day, day after day, year after year. They don't mind while a guy who only travels at rush hour infrequently is overwhelmed and freaked-out at the madness. Humans get used to anything if subjected to it enough. Like nobody gets really shocked by mass shootings anymore. They just are accepted as normal now.

[James Costello]

It is not just that Dave. It is how the info is presented on FB. It is just a constant stream of photos or messages.  You can't have a nice "build" thread which is well organized and can go on for a long time while the builder reports their progress over time.

FYI as a non-user of Facebook, this is obviously not correct. There are any number of really great layouts with their own Facebook page, or group, where progress is documented over time and people follow along. It's no different than a traditional forum and of course "nice" is entirely subjective.

[wazzou]

I like turtles.