I forgot about that shill Blogger Hiroshi of the "Mighty Dragon Fan Club". He posted using Pidgin English and had nicknames for the various modeling companies, often based off of the company logo or name. Tamiya was "Two Star", Tristar was "Three Star", Trumpeter was "Bugler", Bronco was "Pony".

Because of this, many modelers called Dragon "Lizard".

Generally speaking, forums fell out of favor because our hobby is a visual one. Most forums required modelers to take photos, upload the photos to a hosting site, figure out how to embed the picture into your forum post (so it appears as a photo and not as a link to click), and then once photos were removed to make room for newer photos, the original thread became useless for viewing.

Just click on our testing forum and you'll see folks trying to figure out the whole picture in post issue.

Then there was the anonymity thing. Many modelers were very mean spirited when posting in forums, but once you saw their kits online and then saw their kits in person at a show, it was easy to call them out. You knew who they were.

Those types of guys took their bat and ball and went home because they couldn't be their mean self on forums. I had my own detractor here and once I identified him by his actual name, he virtually went invisible here. While I don't think we ever interacted in real life, I know we went to the same shows a couple of times.

Going way back into the 1990s when AOL had a model making chat room (I met Al Lefleche there first), most of the "serious" modelers were on the old USENET (User's Network) newsgroup rec.models.scale (Recreation: Models, Scale).

I can remember if you missed a day of discussion, it could take hours to catch up.

To some folks on that newsgroup, only true modelers built kits from scratch. Anyone else was a "kit assembler".

Most forums like this have the same issue, given that they're all a 00's method of communication that has long since been superceded by other forms of social media. Forums just aren't as popular as they used to be, not since Facebook came along. It takes a dedicated group (like the good people in FSM's editorial and IT offices) to maintain this type of platform these days. The same problem exists for anyone running their own blog. Those creators are lucky if they get any views & viewers at all, which makes it kind of surprising they're even bothering with a blog at all given that a Facebook page pretty much provides them with every feature they'll ever need plus gives them all the feedback opportunites imaginable. 

Blogs also come with their own toxicity that typically run the gamut from maddening to hilarious, with the bizarreness coming directly from the creator/owner themselves. There was this one guy in China way back in the 00's and early 10's who used to do the shill work for Dragon Models, calling himself "Blogger Hiroshi". The guys on the Missing Lynx forum absolutely detested him because he went out of his way to ferociously tear down every other company even more than he was boosting the Dragon products. To make it even weirder he wrote exactly like how a villain from a 1980's Hong Kong kung-fu movie would talk. Nothing but mean-spirited emoji-saturated commentary that was usually nonsense like "You built a kit from (e.g.) Two Star (Tamiya)?!?!?!?!? HAH HAH HAH, you poor deluded fool who threw away your valuable money on trash, you should have gone with DRAGON'S greatly superior FIVE STAR product! HAH HAH HAH!!!!!!". Gotta give the clown some credit for the extra effort, because as obnoxious as he truly was he really did earn the money that Dragon was paying him to be part of their promotional team. 

Tojo72

Sounds a lot like my pet peeve,"The Master Modeler" they get huge build blogs which they update in detail,which is fine,but its their only posts, no comments on anybody else's work or advice,just their updates that they feel we must be breathlessly awaiting.

 

Yeah, I've stopped commenting or even looking in on those guys threads. If they don't have the time to at least acknowledge a comment, respond to a question or critique, or comment on other folks work, I return that favor.

Tojo72

Sounds a lot like my pet peeve,"The Master Modeler" they get huge build blogs which they update in detail,which is fine,but its their only posts, no comments on anybody else's work or advice,just their updates that they feel we must be breathlessly awaiting.

 

Yeah, nothing personal against people who do that but I don't generally comment on people's threads that just post their stuff and ignore everyone else. 

Tojo72

Sounds a lot like my pet peeve,"The Master Modeler" they get huge build blogs which they update in detail,which is fine,but its their only posts, no comments on anybody else's work or advice,just their updates that they feel we must be breathlessly awaiting.

Yes, there's no discussion or back and forth. They don't answer the "how'd you do this" type questions. They don't check out your posts or other people's posts and add anything to the bulk of the forum beyond the pictures of their work.

Valid observation!

Sounds a lot like my pet peeve,"The Master Modeler" they get huge build blogs which they update in detail,which is fine,but its their only posts, no comments on anybody else's work or advice,just their updates that they feel we must be breathlessly awaiting.

Facebook is easy enough to use, to post about a build.  But there are definite drawbacks, besides the ones people mentioned.

It is really designed for short attention spans.  You can post, or see a post and reply, and in a short time, that post is gone, like "tears, in rain", or "like a fart in the wind", to use 2 great movie lines. It is difficult to go back and find things, the more time passes. It's not very conducive to the kind of in-depth discussion you can find on a forum.

It gets even worse as people gradually move to other platforms like Instagram. Less and less text, more and more images, and just click Like or something else, and move on.

Besides that, it's not a very user-friendly platform, with the constant changes its developers make to functionality.  And then yes, all of the other crap that others have mentioned.

So, it's a real dilemma.

castelnuovo

I noticed that too, kind of summer hybernation. But generally the forum is very inactive, hardly anybody on group builds.

Certain forums get more movement than others. I think armor is more active than any other modeling genre here at FSM.

Our sci-fi modeling forum gets some movement, but the posts here are what I consider "drive by" postings. "Drive bys" are when I notice similar posts across various websites that are virtually identical. It's like entering the same kit in multiple shows. No issues with that.

I'll see a build up of a sci-fi kit on Facebook (sometimes multiple pages), then here and perhaps another site or two that are virtually identical so I know it's the same person showing their build across multiple sites. If I comment on one site, I won't bother to comment at other ones. Usually comments go ignored until the next time the Drive Byer swings around.

I noticed that too, kind of summer hybernation. But generally the forum is very inactive, hardly anybody on group builds.

As for me, well....been in Dubrovnik for 3 weeks now so builfing is on hold.

But definetly no FB, TicToc or the like. Just not interested in that kind of exposure. But I must admit that I was lookin at other forums, just none of them to my liking

3rd Tojo and EC, Facebook is a cesspool, tiktok from what I've seen isn't a model friendly place...unless you're doing a stupid human trick, and I don't have time, energy, nor giveahoots to start a YouTube channel.

      Things may be slow here and a few other places hiwever I believe things will pick up. The stuff I have seen has been awesome, someone will be up to the challenge to best it.

Tojo72

I will NEVER join Facebook,Instagram,TikTok or the like,so I guess I'm out of luck here,but it's okay,I'm good.

No Facebook or any of those others for me either.  There are enough on-line security risks to deal with.  I sure don't need to be voluntarily walking into one.  Participation in this and a couple of other forums is about as "social" as my "social media" gets

Same here ,don't do too much model making in the  summer!

I just haven't been in much of a modeling mood period. Haven't posted much here, on the other modeling sites, or built much. 

Dunno why, just seems the 'blahs'.... 

I'll second what Tojo said above!

Stay Safe.

Jim 

I will NEVER join Facebook,Instagram,TikTok or the like,so I guess I'm out of luck here,but it's okay,I'm good.

Might have to join FSM on Facebook 

A lot of forum movement appears on Facebook. You can direct post photos there, get hundreds of comments or likes in a few days and see countless other modelers' works.

Here, you still need to upload a photo, link it to the forum and hope folks see it and respond to it.

True.

My interest here isn't what it used to be.  I used to get several replies if I ask a question or post something.  Now not much at all.  

Bummer!

Unfortunately,it's not just the summer Eugene 

Yes it is quite noticeable!

I think it slows down every summer as people get outside and enjoy the weather, chores, vacations, etc. But I've never seen the site this slow.