up148 wrote:BTW, Rich asked about a sign-up link. It already is on every page at the top, labelled "register", right next to "log-in". Couldn't be more obvious.
That's the problem.....the link doesn't work. Due to the fact the forum gets hundreds of attempts to join (by bots) each week, sorting through them is a monumental task. The old software doesn't support any kind of protection, like even asking to confirm if they are human. New software with updated security would allow the vetting process for "real " new members to be infinitely easier. We have to keep in mind that Lee and his wife are continuing the forum in the memory of Bill......neither, to my knowledge, are modelers. It is a labor of love.
Butch, in this you are correct, but although that is a security thing and needs addressed, it has no bearing on the issue I've been trying to raise.
Likewise, the photo posting thing is largely untrue. It's as easy as noticing the "attachments" tab under the box you type in to write a post, hitting that tab, and following the prompts. If anything, server capacity or setting the server to dump the oldest data periodically would solve the issue of the photo cache filling up.
What I have been trying to get across is this. The notion these things solved by investment in software would bring new members flocking in and save the forum is, not just in my opinion, kidding yourselves.
If the (unsolicited) emails I've been getting on this subject during this thread and the last where we talked of such things are any valid indication, the following is true.
1) The environment created by the current membership of the forum in general is considered toxic and unwelcoming.
2) Anyone can read this forum in its entirety and everything that is said here is on public record.
3) The 2-rail subforum is not perceived as somehow an innocent portion separate of the whole. Neither is any other sub-forum. MTJ's reputation is based on the whole. One of many versions of this point emailed me covers the outside perception, "As long as the Crapper-car Lounge constitutes more posts than all the modeling [sub-]forums combined, its clear what the main purpose is and that it ain't trains. I want nothing to do with it."
4) "No-one models on the 2-rail forum", "old collectors", "doorstops only club", "grumpy old white men", is the perception. I also admit being asked more than once, "Why are you even trying?"
As far as people voluntarily joining something, perceptions are everything.
Based on the above,
1) If the current active membership want to continue business as usual as an insular little sanctuary for yourselves and Lee is good with footing the cost of new software, be honest with yourselves and with Lee that that is your purpose. It's fine, but don't expect a flock of folks who want to join up. You're kidding yourself.
2) If you want to increase the membership and increase the breadth of submissions beyond doorstops and boxes in closets, the owner and the current active membership need to agree to a reboot of this thing such that the forum
as a whole is a welcoming and civilised place to share the hobby, or they ain't comin'.
3) More than one email suggests actually flushing the entire thing (when the new software is brought up on line is as good a time as any) and starting over with a new sub-forum structure that does not include "Clubcar" and does include some sort of mutually agreed upon recourse for behavioural excesses, a recourse that is light-handed, fair, and balanced, "neither the anarchy of MTJ or the stifling autocracy of NK". "Make it a train forum and I'll consider it" appears more than once.
So, you guys who are the active membership (and the last men standing) and Lee as the owner can decide the direction you want to go and how you want to do it. I know what conditions need met before I would consider posting here again, those who have contacted me during these last exchanges know that for themselves too. I'm sure the O Scale and 3-rail communities at large do as well.
I can't send the message in clearer language than that, so I'll stop here and let you guys and Lee figure out your future for yourselves. The rest of us will watch and make our decisions for ourselves based on what that future holds.
