Candidly speaking ...

Well after lurking here on and off for some time, and trying to stay out of some discussions I do have to comment.

We all know FSM made changes once before and lost members, I for one stood away for some time. I check in here now and then because I know many here from this forum and also from attending shows in this area.

Forums are like websites, you have to make changes to keep with the times. Sometimes they work good, sometimes not.

I got tired of the bs and politics found on most sites and decided to start my own. So the forum that has been mentioned here several times, MSC, is my forum. As far as the rule that you have to build and blog or you get banned. Well that is not a strict rule and is mainly intended to keep the spammers and those who  go on forums just for the sole purpose of stirring trouble.  The one rule about blogging mainly applied to the Model of the Month. This is also to deter those who just register on forums to enter and try and win contests. MSC is for the model who just likes to build models and have fun doing it. Plain and simple, how the hobby should be.

Now as far as FSM, well just give it time and things will level out again. MSC will also be doing some changes due to host changes. I would worry more about the people who don't build and just like to rattle cages with dumb comments.

FSM has always been a great magazine and forum, and will always be. I agree with Bill, and also check and post on various forums, always have and always will.

For those who came over to MSC, nice to have you but don't forget this place.

Cheers

Rob

Carl,

I thought that was the face of IPMS?!

Hmmm, ok, let's go with that. And btw, I feel a modeling marathon coming on in just a few days...

Tony

Tis gone

Carl, if I understood what you meant then I might know if you understood what I meant.

Tony

DoogsATX

No worries, Steve! Just read it wrong...check out Scale Plastic & Rail's forums though (sparforums.com)...I post on both and definitely feel it's the more beginner-friendly.

Thanks, I will check it out.

Careful now... you may find an unexpected visitor on their way to see you...

I changed it a little on you Stiks .

He didn't give a harumph

What i said is gone .

No worries, Steve! Just read it wrong...check out Scale Plastic & Rail's forums though (sparforums.com)...I post on both and definitely feel it's the more beginner-friendly.

DoogsATX

Steve58

I check the site out and the rules is that you must post or you will be banned. I have recently returned to the hobby and read and learn. I post rarely,but I do post. Do to the fact that I have yet anything to add. It's sounds a bit like beginners not welcome. I could be wrong.

Beginners are very much welcome, and honestly I would say this is one of the more beginner-friendly forums out there. All of us have been beginners are one point (or more than one point!), and most who post (posted?) here remember that. 

But to get the most out of a forum, this or any other, you have to participate. Even if you feel like you're at a beginner level, you can still comment on others' builds, or jump in and ask how something was done, why it was done a certain way, or what's the point of X technique...honestly participating in a good forum will push your modeling skills further, faster than any tool or brand of paint. 

DoogATX,

I was talking about the  Modelers Social Club. I think this site is very beginner friendly.

I don't think it's that hard to follow a few simple rules.  Lets build some models and enjoy each others work.  Winter is here, things will pick up again.  I'm enjoying getting back to the bench again myself.

Mike

Joe - well said and excellent perspective. The more things change, eh?

FWIW, I agree that it's about FSM trying to maintain a level of control over the forums. I don't have a problem with that at all, really. I just happen to feel there have been several situations (the aforementioned grievances) where a different approach could have yielded massively different results.

Also, Tim, Aaron, massive kudos to you guys for letting this thread run.

hmmm.............

joined this site jan 2004.  just a loner who built models in a corner.  spent some time learning the ropes around here.  met some folks who for some strange reason called me a friend and helped me to improve and come out of the box i was in.  then there was a bit of a bump when a blow up happened.  started when one member just decided that he needed to move on.  he made it clear that it was not a big thing but just where he was in his modeling "life".  people took up the fight and some left claiming fsm was to blame.  the individual in question told those of us who had joined him on his next adventure that he held no hard feeling toward fsm but needed to move on.  a member of fsm actually was with us in that early move.  i stuck around and gradually worked/posted my way to near the top of the list for number of posts.  a while later another large blowup happened.  cant really remember what that one was all about.  i think a couple of members had a large disagreement and things spiralled.  people left again.  good people whom i felt were friends.  i tried to play peacemaker and tried to lift moral with my postings.  a while after that another blow up, this time i was a part of it.  had some words with a person across the country over weathering.  some bad feelings were passed.  people left. 

you get my point?

blow ups happen for many reasons.  i stopped posting here for a long time, several years, over, among other things, a bunch of little stuff.  good people will leave, newcomers will come in and build their reputations, they will fill the void.  people will remember the "good ol days".  there have been too many blow ups to count in my time associated with this site.  i cannot count the number of the "good ones" that have left.  i also cannot count the number of good ones that have come in to pick up the pieces. 

i dont post a lot anymore.  many reasons for that.  i dont post much of my work anymore, again many reasons.  you all make your own choices.  you all decide to stay or to go.  i do the same. 

this latest blow up seems to be about members pushing the accepted level of what fsm will allow and fsm trying to find a way to control the situation.  see it for what it truely is.  it is not about fsm trying to make us the members conform.  it is about fsm trying to maintain a level of control on a situation.  it happens everywhere.  work, home, where you eat, etc.  some are charged to enforce the rules.  some feel they have the right to push the limit of those rules.

no i am not an employee of fsm.  just a model ...............well just a person who attempts to put glue to plastic.  it is just i, just like some of you, am a person who in my daytime job is a person who is charged to enforce rules.

going back to my dark corner.

joe

Hinksy

 poo

Hear! Hear! (or is it Here! Here! )

Regardless... if you want it to be Heard! Heard! you have to go over There! There! somewhere the people Are! Are!

If a post falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it get banned?

Those that know me know that I post in this type of thread so rarley it's just easier to say I odn't.  But above, since I was mentioned... well here I am.

The internet did not exist in my previous modelling life. FSM was my 1st forum when I came back to modelling.  I did a search for the 2 mags I read a long ago.  FSM and Scale Modeler.  The latter was gone so here I am.  The 7 years have been great.  If there weren't I would not in the top 10, (or at least I was) posters.  Fun was had, info was shared both ways and my modeling improved drastically.  And that all happened even with the occasional flair up of tempers, the use of a bad word or what someone else deems to be an inappropriate photo. And you know what kind I mean.  Because it is obviously not a rendition of a weapon whose sole purpose to to turn folks and he other side of your line into a pink mist. A nude photo, weapons and death, censorship.  "Offensive" is a broad brush.  Be that as it may,  as said, it's FSM's site and they can do what they want.  Now let me digress a little.  Since my grammar, or parsing or sentence structure stuff that I learnbed so long ago I don't remember any more... I have no idea where to start a new paragraph...

So I kinda want to do one now i am sorry to have offended anyone, I was having a bit of sarcastic fun.  But, now I have decided I really don't have anything else to say.  Maybe due to the empty room syndrome.

Hello?  (tap, tap, tap)  Is this mic on?

Oh one last thought.  If I post a photo of the a bomber or fighter (weapon=OK) that has the nude figure on the fuselage (nude =bad)... does that cause the logic loop, like the one in "WarGanes" that made the WOPR go off it's nut, cause forum to implode creating a black hole in Wisconsin?

Hi fellas,

Before I started building armour models I was a dead keen rifle shooter (and still am) so I used to frequent a lot of the shooting sites.

The 'main' sites like 'airgunbbs' started to lose members and threads like this started to appear. Like this site they were funded by magazine money etc and it was onbvious the mods would poo their pants as soon as something likely to be taken the wrong way by site sponsors was posted and LOTS of people got banned as a result. The mods banned them but, imo and others, it was not because they wanted to but simply to 'placate' the sponsors (i.e. to keep them happy).

I hope this is just a blip - this site is too good to go South. We need to get things in order as I'd be lost without FSM. Sure, I'm a member of other forums i.e. MilMod because I personally know a lot of the guys on there as it's obviously a British site and the MSC (Modellers Social Club). The MSC seems very slow and this place moves faster and is more user friendly (imo) than MilMod.

Keep the faith brothers

Guys, can't we just all get along? 

We just need to get back to the benches and work on our builds and share them. I know I would like to do more of that, but again, my schedule has been brutal of late.

From my experience here, good ones will leave and good ones will eventually take their place.

Gone

I find two things very interesting when someone leaves. Or gets left.

1) How many other personalities leave with them...

2) How many new personalities show up...

Tony

Where have all the flowers gone ?

        Gee guys....... don't be so  glummmm.                                                                                    

          I'M still here.

                         (Maybe that's what drove 'em off)

Maybe not as often (I bop in and out) but you won't find me postin' my junk on any other site either.

Army guy - I would say that most of us who have ventured elsewhere still have an affinity for this place, just not for what it has become/where it's at right now. It's kind of like Jaguar in the 80s and 90s. Nobody I've ever met has ever hated Jaguar (the way some people hate BMW or Lexus or whatnot), but the sense of disappointment during those years was profound. I can't speak for others, but I don't plan on leaving, hard stop. I have, however, found my activity here and my following of threads greatly diminished. This forum used to be my only stop. Now it's like my third or fourth.

As for modeling being in a recession...I disagree. The local hobby shop is being hammered, but honestly so are most physical retailers that sell things you don't have to feel or try on. But the hobby is positively booming online. I've been back at this a little over two years now, and the stuff that's come out even since I've been back is mind boggling. Peter Jackson owns a modeling company! Someone made a 1/32 B-25! Revell and Airfix are becoming respected names again with each new tooling they release.

Honestly I feel like we're in a golden age right now.

I'm confused  some post's say they do not like FSM and have gone to other site's so why are they

posting here. As for the freedom speech the true meaning of that  I'm afraid has long been lost

 I do have to agree that scale modeling is going through a recession of its own. In my local yellow

pages under hobby shops there are 29 listing 9 are hobby shops ( model kits,trains, RC and so on )

6 games, 5 train 9 I'm not sure about.  I miss the hobby shops like Big Bear, Hobby Horse

   So yes some forums are slow on post's but what do you want bench time or post time.

Now that winter is here I will have more bench time and more time to post things

Among all the things about this place that have managed to discourage me and drive me away over the last two years, the knowledge that all of the above intelligent and heartfelt posts will be gone by this time tomorrow is the most frustrating.

It has happened before all over this place, it will happen here as well.

It will be like none of you said anything and the wheel will turn. Very sad.

Bill

Well said, and as another of the armor forum regulars thanks for adding your comments.

Now Aaron & Tim,

if you go through the armor forum and look for the older regulars who post here....you will find Shell, Stick WBill, and myself and others. All of this discussion and this entire posting would not be happening if we all did not see a problem. As Bill and others have stated we have seen members come and go...we have seen changes. This time is different and there is some fundamental problems.

All of the regulars who have posted in this tread have the same basic loyalty to FSM. BUT be careful...if this continues or gets worse, even loyal friends will leave. I don't want to see these forums become a Dodo bird.

I suggest rather than having a "company line" you may want to think about a limited survey to members with over a particular amount of posts and years on the site (PS one thing that I hate is the loss of that info....the stars are bovine scatology). Say 10 or so from each major forum area and get their ideas to fix the mess. What did we like from the past.... what would we want to see in the future.

Most of the regulars here are like family and would be more than willing to help....its your house but it is our home. You family is telling your house we don't want to find a new home. Also if we did not care, we would not go through the effort to post in this thread.

OK....off my ammunition crate

Rounds Complete!!

Let me clear up my last statement. I was referring to the  Modelers Social Club.

Hi guys,

I admit it has slowed down but it is still, by FAR, my favourite forum

I've learnt a lot on here and continue to do so and above all have made some EXCELLENT friends- keep it up everyone!

I've been spending ALL of my recent FSM time concentrating on the 'Steel Cat's' GB run by Tigerman so I haven't been on the main Armour section for a while - that's all.

All the best,

Ben

Gone

I like the new forum that many of the guys moved to,But I see no reason to abandon this one,there are still plenty of great people here.