Running Bear's October 2019 Coffee Shop


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Bruette said:
I am all in favor of making English the official language of the United States.
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Louis: Not for nothing, it bothers me that many immigrants no longer want to learn or use English, they want to be accommodated in their own native language. It. really doesn't matter in the isolated community they exist in, but effectively restricts them to the most mundane occupations. I learned this first hand, because my maternal grandmother, refused to change, and isolated herself from everyone, not part of her community. Realistically, they are only hurting themselves, but...

Boris
 
Didn't take the ads off by deleting that car post, now there's a bigger one right above this reply box for a B&G Zeus3 sailing electronics gadget. None of them have a comment number and no way I can see to close or delete them. Hope Bob can work it out.
 
tootnkumin said:
Didn't take the ads off by deleting that car post, now there's a bigger one right above this reply box for a B&G Zeus3 sailing electronics gadget. None of them have a comment number and no way I can see to close or delete them. Hope Bob can work it out.
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Still not seeing them over on this side of the world. I hope that Bob can take care of it so it doesn't affect others.
 
Unfortunately, the ads you're seeing aren't from a spammer, they're from me. I'm making some changes to the ads, and still fine tuning quantity and placement etc.

Why make the changes? Simple. I lease the server to run the forum. It costs about $2,000 per year for the server, bandwidth, hosting fees, domain fees, forum software licenses, facebook ads. (OK, maybe more like $3K). Ad revenues last month? $15. I'm not looking to get rich, but I can use a bit more help paying for the place.
 
bob said:
Unfortunately, the ads you're seeing aren't from a spammer, they're from me. I'm making some changes to the ads, and still fine tuning quantity and placement etc.

Why make the changes? Simple. I lease the server to run the forum. It costs about $2,000 per year for the server, bandwidth, hosting fees, domain fees, forum software licenses, facebook ads. (OK, maybe more like $3K). Ad revenues last month? $15. I'm not looking to get rich, but I can use a bit more help paying for the place.
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Another train forum I am on also runs as a "charity case." Those responsible actually have registered as a charity on PayPal and once a year, maybe every other year, they put out the request for donations to keep the servers running (I think the call has gone out once since I joined almost two years ago). Most people donate a small amount, and they usually quickly put out the call again that no more donations are needed.
 
Donations are tough, and usually end up penalizing the members who are most active. Since they're already creating content for the website by posting, I don't feel it's fair to ask them to pay for the privilege. The ads are a way to have everyone contribute, in a small and fairly pain free manner. They're by Google, and so are customized for each viewer. The idea is to show you a relatively small selection of ads for products you might actually be interested in.
 
Good morning. 45 degrees to start the day with an expected high possibly in the low 60's, but rain may be moving in later in the week.

Bob - I did see the ads with big gaps between the posts plus ads mixed in with the posts. I also don't see any problem with the ads as you are providing us with a great forum.

Karl - Nice photo of the Alco. Keep the photos coming.

Louis - Love the old trolley photos.

Curt - the 2-6-2 is something that I cobbled together. Got the locomotive only from a friends scrap box. It had no tender, headlight, pilot and other parts. Found a tender at Walthers and used what other parts that I had on hand to put it together. I think it could be an old Mantua loco, but not sure.

IBKen - Sorry to hear of the set back your wife had. Sure hope the doctors can sort thing out for her.

Tom - I believe that I shouldn't have any problem getting all three locomotives set up with Digitrax. They are all Walthers units and apparently speed matched right out of the box. They really ran exceptionally well at the club. I imagine that it would be handy to have a test track at home, but being that I only need DCC at the club, it's an expense I don;t need.

When I was making room in my staging tracks I came across these two box cars for the Timkem Roller Bearing. These roller bearings were quite a big thing for the railroads, but I don;t think there is a prototype for them.

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Later
 
bob said:
Donations are tough, and usually end up penalizing the members who are most active. Since they're already creating content for the website by posting, I don't feel it's fair to ask them to pay for the privilege. The ads are a way to have everyone contribute, in a small and fairly pain free manner. They're by Google, and so are customized for each viewer. The idea is to show you a relatively small selection of ads for products you might actually be interested in.
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It's your forum and you can run it how you would like to. I know in the other train forum, people like the ad-free nature of it and since they get value from it, are willing to make small, very periodic contributions. They shut the contributions off once they get enough to run a year or two. Donations are voluntary and non-public so no one has to contribute or no one knows who does or who doesn't (except you).

I don't see the call for donations as penalizing anyone any more than having ads appear on your screen is penalizing you, personally.

$15 a month in ad income won't come close to paying your bills to run and maintain the forum. If you can double or triple it with your changes, you are still not close to paying your bills.

I personally don't mind a few ads here and there, as long as they are relatively benign and tasteful. A lot of people run ad blockers so won't see the ads anyway. And I don't mind making a small donation to the forums that I value and are of use to me.

Anyway, I've said my piece. I want to thank you for the forum and the work (and cost you bear) to make it happen.
 
bob said:
The idea is to show you a relatively small selection of ads for products you might actually be interested in.
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Sorry, I totally disagree! If I want to shop, I will go looking. I have said it before that you should have a "donate" link on here where those who enjoy the forum as much as I personally do - can make a contribution.
I would gladly pay to eliminate commercials on TV. They drive me almost to violence.
I could say more, but not sure it would help.
Fortunately, I have not seen ANY ads except at the top and botton - which is OK!
 
I am a member of another Railroad Forum and usually try to contribute a paltry $5.00 a month on an annual basis.
I missed last year, so will play "catchup" over the next few months. It is strictly voluntary and no one publishes who does and who does not. Only the person who maintains the server knows!
 
The ads placement is automated, and the controls are fairly coarse. I'm making some adjustments, but they can take a couple of hours to fully apply, then you see the results and try again. Over time they should be dialed in to a reasonable amount.

"$15 a month in ad income won't come close to paying your bills" No, it won't. It used to be roughly $50 a month, which helped a lot more. Experimenting with quantity and placement to try and find a good balance.
 
Good morning all. Overcast, rainy and muggy day in H-town.

Everyone knows the World Series must go through Houston

I haven't seen ads, but that said as long as they don't get carried away with them, I'm OK.
 
bob said:
Donations are tough, and usually end up penalizing the members who are most active. Since they're already creating content for the website by posting, I don't feel it's fair to ask them to pay for the privilege. The ads are a way to have everyone contribute, in a small and fairly pain free manner. They're by Google, and so are customized for each viewer. The idea is to show you a relatively small selection of ads for products you might actually be interested in.
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Bob:
Thanks, for the advice. I was wondering why one of those "Medicare Advantage" Plan ads was placed between two posts. I really don't have a problem with the advertising, as long as it doesn't take over.
Boris
 
montanan said:
I came across these two box cars for the Timkem Roller Bearing. These roller bearings were quite a big thing for the railroads, but I don;t think there is a prototype for them.
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Chet: Sure is...by Lionel! Seriously, I believe that one box car equipped with Timken Roller Bearings, was painted to advertise Timken bearings. It would have belonged to a carrier or private car line which then received advertising revenue in addition to car hire fees and transportation costs.

Disclaimer, I don't remember where I might have seen the article, so I could be wrong. I'm not wrong about the 6464 series Lionel box painted like the yellow box. It was in their catalog from about 1955 to around 1958.
Boris
 
The last several days have been really nice. Up into the highs 60s at least, and staying in the mid to upper 40s at night. The house got up to 75F yesterday and only cooled down to 68F by this morning (and is warming up again with the window blinds open right now). No icicles hanging off the kids' noses this week. A big change from the couple days we had last week where it was 25F or colder in the night and the day was mid30s to low 40s.

I did some checks on my KATO E7/W7 Shinkansen model sets. My E7 set actually has as a prototype one of the ones that was flooded out over the weekend in the Typhoon. My W7 not. Luckily I am not a rivet counter, or I would otherwise have to drown my model and then scrap it.
 
Afternoon all,

Once again the best laid plans of mice and men...(No train time :-( )

Bob, thanks for letting us know about the ads and keeping us with a great site. I have learned a lot more about my hobby by being here.

Everyone else, thanks for posting the pictures of your layout and other RR memorabilia. It gives me better ideas of what I want to accomplish.
 
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