Why the huge fluctuation in participation here at the Model Railroad Forums?


I'm a relative lightweight, with 3097 posts, mostly in the Coffee Shop. I find I frequent that specific space because the regulars are a friendly crowd, who mostly model in HO. There are some "World Class" modelers there, who model in HO and share knowledge readily. As Justin mentioned, I also belong to Trainboard, but haven't participated there in a long while, mainly because most of the activity is from N scale modelers. I also lurk in the MR forum, and sometimes, I rub elbows with the fellows in the Atlas Rescue Forum. There is relatively little that interests me in either of those, just enough to keep lurking.

I used to closely follow Yahoo Boards dedicated toward a specific prototype or category (Passenger Car List, PRR Lists, B&O etc.), but really don't bother, now that I have narrowed the focus of my modeling to a specific set of industrial branches, that most of the professors and keepers of the archives, wouldn't know existed. The short of it, is that time spent on the forum competes with actually working on the model railroad, household chores, watching hockey on TV, and other pursuits.

I have been into this hobby almost continuously since the early '60s, when I transitioned to HO from Lionel O-27, so I'm not a newcomer. I'm also not an expert. We can all learn something new about this hobby almost daily. However, as time goes on, needs change, and people change, and social outlets like these forums also change.
 
I think that Crandell summed it up very well. I am a member of several other forums but this one is my "home base". Perhaps the lower participation rate is an advantage. Over at Model Trains Forum, there is a lot going on, but I have to wade through the "O" scale (nothing wrong with it) and the (up until recently) excessive political garble to read what I am interested in. Their moderator can be a bit obnoxious at times as well. MRH forums are quite active, but there are too many "attaboys" over there that you have to wade through. As well, they really don't like non-DCC users much. Railroad Lines forum is good, but the best one was the "old" Gauge before Zealot took over. Big Blue is not really as active as this one, nor as good as The Gauge that it replaced.
Enough comparisons, the topic is participation rate. There seems to be several groups that participate here. The Coffee Shop can be (not always though) quite active, but it is frequented by about two dozen regulars who also post on other topics. There's another couple of dozen who post regularly outside the Coffee Shop but seem to only post in their areas of interest, "N" scale, "HO" scale etc. OK for them as well. And there are another dozen real active posters that contribute everywhere. Our problem seems to me to be a lack of thread starters. Once started, there seems to be no shortage of contributions. I am disappointed though, in the number of "newbies" who join and post a question that gets several responses but we never see any further posts from the OP, not even a thank you. I am willing to bet that the membership here has at least 9000 members who never make it past post # 10. Really should cull the list as it is difficult to search for an active member when needed.
I have noted that there are a number of active members who have recently experienced health or personal issues lately. That could contribute to the perceived lack of participation, along with the current holiday season.
Just my .02¢.

Willie
 
otiscnj said:
plus sell a deceased Uncle's coin collection, which is neither of our hobbies.
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If he has any 1943 pennies, use a magnet on them. If they do NOT stick to the magnet, they could be worth thousands of dollars. Due to the war, copper was strictly regulated in 1943, and pennies were supposed to be minted of steel. A small number were accidentally minted out of copper, and they are quite valuable.
 
I have 1943 steel pennies in my penny collection, it is easy to see they are not copper and made from steel, magnet or no magnet.
 
Model Railrod Hobbist forum, and other misc views

santafewillie said:
..... MRH forums are quite active, but there are too many "attaboys" over there that you have to wade through. As well, they really don't like non-DCC users much.

Willie
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I was rather surprised to hear that very few folks here seem to participate on MRH. I do find there appears to be pretty good participation over there, but there are LOTS of little quirks in their software. It is not near as good as this forum, particularly when it lacks the capability to notify a poster when someone else contributes a posting to a subject thread under discussion. One must go back to the forum and look to see if anyone else has joined the discussion.

There are a number of other 'strange' things about the software that runs their site.

I'm often surprised at the number of new folks that fail to search for previous postings on the subject they are interested in. By adding their posting to one of those subject threads they possible reach a larger 'existing audience' that have already contributed to the subject matter. There are many older subject thread that offer a wealth of information,...that should NOT just be regulated to the trash heap of the world wide web.

I also wonder about the overall effect of the Photobucket debacle on forum participation. If an active participate all of a sudden finds a lot of his contributed material in a discussion is virtually wiped out by the dumping of his photo(s) contributions, then likely he may just toss his hands up in disfavor and give up participating.

I'm hoping that after Christmas the forum activity will begin to re-emerge. I learn a lot from participating, and while pursuing the hobby I hope to contribute some of my own experiences.

Something that just occurred to me, I wonder how Youtube has contributed to a decline in written text communication. More and more folks seem to be able to make and post Youtube videos of there railroads, and thus avoid writing about them on text based forums??
 
It's a busy time with the Holidays approaching, winter signals a return to modelers working on layouts and many Forum members are just viewing posts.

Maybe Bob the Forum Administrator could offer some of his experience on this subject?

Greg
 
I'm not posting here as often as I did when I first joined the Forum back in the fall of 2005; I don't have as many questions now as I did back then, and haven't done anything new mrr-wise during the past few months (other than that Bachmann Geep upgrade which I posted about recently). So nowadays I only post if I have a project worth sharing about, or something useful to add to an existing thread.

For years I was posting regularly in the Coffee Shop, but now I'm only in there once or twice a week since I've discovered that it often takes me over an hour to compose a post, whenever I try to read thru [and comment on] everything that is going on with all the Shop patrons. I simply can't type that fast!:rolleyes: Since I still have a full-time day job plus other demands on my time when I get home, I have to budget my free time carefully.
 
I think that beiland brought up an extremely relevant point regarding Photobucket, that I hadn't thought of since I didn't use it. How many folks just threw up their hands when years of posting were trashed because their photos were no longer visible. That's the reason that I always posted mine directly into the forum.

Willie
 
Steel pennies...I purchase several rolls of uncirculated steel pennies in the late 60's thinking that they would become valuable. Last check about a quarter a piece. But, I think I do have a copper 1943 penny or two.

The 1943 copper pennies blend in with the other years' coins making them hard to spot and most people are unaware of their value. I used to obtain $50 bags of pennies from a bank and sort through them to find rare coins. Found many Indian Head coins. Did the same for nickles looking for Buffalo nickles.

Greg
 
Willie brought up a pertinent point about the changes to how we post photos here at the Model Railroad Forum. I was ready to quit posting here when this forum changed how we post photos a month or so back! If it wasn't for the help of Sherrel, taking me by the hand and telling me how to post photos after the change, i would have left here.
 
On my part, I try to participate as much as I can, but being very new to the hobby (3 years), it is very hard for me to answer questions on how to do things. But I do read every post (except the coffee thread). I think that if it wasn't for that thread, this forum would die. Don't get me wrong, if my layout was complete and I was retired, what a better place to have a coffee.

I once posted in my thread that I couldn't understand that if there was 500 views, how come only 2 posts? I stayed here because I do like the people and some members have asked me to stay and keep posting my progress.

Mark, I understand your frustration, I had a similar experience when I mentioned that I was going to be live on a show on YouTube explaining my layout and nobody from here showed up.

I would be curious to know how many members here model steam and how many have a finish layout (we all know that a layout is never finish, but you know what I mean)
 
Lloyd: If you're counting, I do not model steam, (but have four steam locomotives, I occasionally run), and my layout is not completed. I was also considering posting a chronicle of my build, but I decided that It wasn't my best idea. The layout was dormant, from August 2016 to August 2017, except for an occasional night running trains.

Most of my posts are in the Coffee shop thread, it's my comfort zone, just like this forum is my comfort zone, compared to other RR forums. Obviously, I read other threads here, but I mostly just lurk about.
 
I run both steam and 1st generation diesels on my Transition era layout which is not complete, either.
 
Come on guys,...those steam engines are much more exciting,...lots of external moving parts,...and those numerous great variety of horns,...etc.....ha...ha...ha,...just more exciting than those 'diesel engines in a box'

(I have both, and I don't limit myself to just a limited number of road names. my railroad goes from the east coast to the west coast so I can collect all sorts of interesting lines including B&O, C&O, NW, Santa Fe, BNSF, PRR, etc)
(I am also planning a new layout, but I am not fully committed to just a single plan....yet)
 
For my part, I don't understand the attraction to modern diesel power, as all the locomotives look alike to me! With First Generation Diesels, you had F units, Jeeps, Alcos and Baldwins to choose from, making this era more interesting, in my opinion.
 
NP2626 said:
For my part, I don't understand the attraction to modern diesel power, as all the locomotives look alike to me! With First Generation Diesels, you had F units, Jeeps, Alcos and Baldwins to choose from, making this era more interesting, in my opinion.
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Neither do I. My layout is Baldwin heavy, with some Alcos thrown in to the mix.
 
I am one of those who usually post on a regular basis on the Coffee Shop. I sit in front of a computer all day and have the site up all the time. Maybe I post too much. I do lurk and do check all of the posts. Some, I can't really comment on, such as anything that has to do with DCC, but I do follow many posts, such as Lloyds and Ken's D&J. I have been following these builds since they were started, but do not comment on every update. (Lurk Lurk).

I do like steam a lot. I do model the transition era and can remember seeing steam in operation when I was growing up. Also, during our traveling, if there is an operating steam railroad on the area, we will make it a point to visit if possible. We have visited many of them across the country. I also really like the first generation diesels a lot. Colorful a lot of the time with distinct paint schemes. You could easily tell them apart. Modern equipment all sort of look the same to me. Going back a couple of decades ago was a bit easier.

My steam locomotives are a mix of plastic offerings such as the Bachmann Spectrum consolidation, decapod and mogul, and a couple of mikes plus a few brass offerings. The majority of my diesels are the first edition of the Atlas Alco RS units with the Kato drive. These sure are some sweet running locomotives, even after many years of use. I am a fan of the early Alcos. I do have a few EMD units. Some early Athearn geeps and a couple of F-7's, all that have had motor transplants. Over the years I have picked up a few switchers from Stewart, Atlas and other manufacturers that are decorated for the Northern Pacific and the Milwaukee Road.

I am a bit anal about my time period, late sunner of 1957. Anything newer than that is not on my layout.

So far as participation goes, during the summer especially, folks are engaged in other activities such as camping, fishing and other warm weather things and some may not even see their layout during the warmer months. We have long winters up here and when it warms up, we really enjoy outdoors. I get very little done on my layout during the summer.

Winter is a different story. With the exception of snowmobiling and plowing the driveway, I prefer to keep my butt indoors where it's warm. This is when I get the most done on model railroad projects. I imagine that other that live in the northern climates are in the same boat.
 
So, now that the holidays are done, is there going to be a huge influx of participation here at the Model Railroad Forums? Have you been waiting with Baited Breath for the holidays to be over, so that participation here will go nuts? We must wait and see!
 
NP2626 said:
So, now that the holidays are done, is there going to be a huge influx of participation here at the Model Railroad Forums? Have you been waiting with Baited Breath for the holidays to be over, so that participation here will go nuts? We must wait and see!
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We have had an increase in new faces in the coffee shop. New and regular at that.

Justin
 
Hawkesburytrain said:
On my part, I try to participate as much as I can, but being very new to the hobby (3 years), it is very hard for me to answer questions on how to do things. But I do read every post (except the coffee thread). I think that if it wasn't for that thread, this forum would die. Don't get me wrong, if my layout was complete and I was retired, what a better place to have a coffee.
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WJLI26 said:
Most of my posts are in the Coffee shop thread, it's my comfort zone, just like this forum is my comfort zone, compared to other RR forums. Obviously, I read other threads here, but I mostly just lurk about.
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montanan said:
I am one of those who usually post on a regular basis on the Coffee Shop.
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And there is the event(s) I was hinting at earlier but didn't specify by name. When the coffee shop posts surge the regular threads seem to decrease. People who don't read the coffee shop regularly (like HawkesburyTrain and I) can loose interest during the lull, and seems we do loose regular members during those time periods. I believe that if the railroad / model railroad related posts that end up in the coffee shop were posted out on the corresponding forum sections, the forum in general would be much more consistently active. So one could argue that the coffee shop is keeping the board alive and killing it simultaneously.

And actually, that brings up another possible cause for waves of participation. For the number of people who post regularly here, it seems there are too many categories and topics in which to post threads. To keep this many categories active it seems we need at least 5x the number we have today. Many categories dilutes the conversation and makes it seem less busy than it is. Also with this many categories it is easier to loose a thread, even when one was participating on it. Hence a possible premature ending to a thread/conversation.
 
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