It's Been Rather Quiet Here

[Epap]

The question has come up on several other forums which I participate in, so I thought I'd raise it here as well. There seems to be a tendency for fewer threads and posting replies that has some members wondering whether we are losing our collective ardor. Some believe that the sluggish economy is partly to blame while others contend that the members of the various forums are too sharply focused on certain aspects of their hobbies or collecting penchants. Still others note the fact that certain forums feature a surprising amount of member bashing, when someone posts a comment that others disagree with; obviously this practice, which I haven't seen here, discourages open debate. Another reason that has been given is the feeling that everything that needs to be said has been said, so why go all over it again? Also worth noting is the way some forums are organized. This includes the option to scan the latest posts, which is fine, but often causes members to miss other posts that failed to qualify for the "latest" listings. Picture hosting is also part of the equation. Only one of the five forums which I am active in has an internal picture hosting/posting facility. The rest require the poster to use Photobucket or a similar service and often insist on the pictures being re sized---- which is a tedious affair and has caused quite a few members I know of to "drop out', as it were.

This forum is the newest of those I frequent and its membership is obviously, not as large as the others. Also, I like the email notification system when someone replies to a thread/post; none of the other forums offers this option. Still, and I may be wrong on this so please correct me if it is warranted, but I sense that some of the same issues regarding energy levels may apply here too. I wonder if anyone would care to comment?

[MichaelB]

Photo posting is easy here; there are three ways:
You can attach to a post.
You can link to a photo sharing site.
You can add it to the gallery.
...no problem.

This site often goes quiet - I suppose that since we have so few members it's gonna happen. However, when a "hot" topic turns up it certainly brings the flies to the honey! Please continue to add posts of your collecting areas - and include pictures! Don't hesitate to report new finds in the "market" out there...we're always hungry for news!
I have not seen any "flaming" on this forum - let's keep it that way!
But most of all - post about collecting and what's going on! Don't wait for someone else to pipe up about their experiences - write about your own!
What's your favorite line to collect? Favorite airplane? Favorite individual piece? Have a good "hunt" story?
Michael

[grwebster]

One reason forums want members to use photobucket or similar free photo sites is that it keeps the storage fees to a minimum. All sites have to pay a host to store the forums. We encourage photobucket and try to kept these costs to a minimum.
If any member has a problem with posting emails, send them to me and I'll post them for you.
To resize a photo one easy way is to prepare an email from your photo album in 'Small' or 'Medium size' then move the modified email to your desk top, no need to send the email, and upload that to photobucket.

As far as using the Board Index> 'Most Recent' to follow the action on the forum topics, the best way is to subscribe to the forums that interest you by going to >board Index> forum> scroll to bottom of the forum page>click on the word 'Subscribe' even though you see a box with a check in it. If you are already subscribed, it will have a similar symbol with the word 'Unsubscribe'

About members participation, for years Ed before you started collecting, I and a group of other collectors ran The Plane News, later called Miniature Aircraft Quarterly {TPN and MAQ as we refer to them here}. We all donated our time, no one received any money, and for its 10 years of existence, when needed, I supported it financially making up the difference between dues and costs of printing and mailing 4 color magazines a year. At one point we had accumulated about 1,000 people who had requested a sample copy, from which we for a very short period obtained 450 subscribers, but the number of sustaining members never exceeded apx 300-350. From this almost all of them were non-contributors, as about 15-20 people did all the articles and submitted photos {+- 5%!} and almost all of those people are still with us here on this forum. If you note those who have posted here, the number is much better but still no where near, say 20%.

Back when we created the yahoo site, now inactive, some of us were upset at the lack of interaction, and so we purged the members from time to time. Eventually I felt, along with Michael Bludworth and Barry Clay {the three founders of this forum}, that the Yahoo system sucked and lacked any way to keep photos and topics organized. So we started this free site. We also decided to let those who just wanted to read the posts and not contribute to do so without fear of being purged. After all, some members may feel intimidated because of the depth of some of the collections of our members, and want to keep a low profile - they shouldn't, but that's human nature I suspect. No problem, some of us are retired and have the time to mess around with photoshop and post, others don't have this situation.
We do not care if we have 100 members {the case today} or 1,000 as the cost is the same and there is no monetary gain. We do not accept advertising.
As long as we have some good interaction and enjoy what we do here, all is ok.
I am taking Michael's excellent suggestions and starting new topics in General Discussions for What's your favorite line to collect? Favorite Category? Favorite airplane and Favorite individual piece? Share a good "hunt" story in 'Treasure Hunts'? All are now topics in 'General Disussion'. Take a look now and post when you can.
If there is a forum category we have not yet defined, let us know and we can set it up with you as the moderator.
If there is something you do not like, speak up.
About conflicts and senseless arguments, neither I nor Barry, nor Michael have yet to eliminate posts or moderate discussions, or ban someone. There really has not been any so far. It may happen eventually but for now is been clean. Sometimes our threads wander off topic, but that's ok, too. It is supposed to be fun.

[ramseyd]

I thought this site was just getting slow, but apparently I am no longer getting emails to the forums I am supposedly subscribed to. If I am not the only one seeing this, then this could explain the lack of readers. I just noticed this as I have been out of town a good bit this summer, and just assumed that most folks were not posting. I am back and started to take a quick look and noted that almost all the forums I track (and I am subscribed to) have had postings that I did not receive as email updates/notifications.

Did the automatic emails cease with the changeover to a new ISP host?
Am I the only one with this issue? It looks like I stopped getting updates in June- wow a lot of catching up to do, now!!
Or do I need to do something to get back into "good" graces with this site?

Dennis

[grwebster]

never fear dennis, you don't have to do anything!
I get on this with our computer guy, any others have this problem?

[Epap]

I'm still getting my email alerts, GR.