Harry P.

USPS ought to sell posters of all of those! Look at the denominaton. The higher, the newer.

Unless you're a Hindu... oops. No religion!

See, this is the perfect example of why we need an "off topic" area. Without one, we'd all have to make do without all of this "witty reparté"....

Sorry, but if we're going to have a Comedy section I'd want someone who's funny to be headlining!

Do we need a comedy section, too?

Right now I'm thinking about reworking the first section (General). Now it has only 2 subsections (Read the Rules and General). I'm thinking about renaming the "General" section... maybe call it "Model Talk" or something. Not sure. Then moving the Q&A/Tips section up into the "General" area. So we would have: GENERAL • Read the Rules • Welcome/Introduce Yourself (for new members) • Model Talk (the revised "General" section, now strictly model/automotive-related topics only!) • Modeling Q&A • Tips, Tricks and Tutorials So the current stand-alone Q&A/Tips section would go away, because those would now be at the top, within the "General" area. Then a new "off topic" section within the "Community" section, below Links, Advertisers and Web sites, where all the truly off-topic posts could go (except religion or politics, which we still won't allow!). Any feedback welcome.

I think we (those of us in charge of the forum) sort of created our own problem by not clearly defining what was acceptable or not in the "General" section. Yeah, it's supposed to be limited to general topics that are related to models cars (or real cars, I guess)... but we started letting more and more non-model stuff in, and before you knew it we had people posting about their dead pets, quitting smoking, etc. I actually do not have a problem with people here using a part of the forum to socialize... I actually like the idea of having a place where we can talk about "stuff" not necessarily directly related to model cars, and as you all know, I am probably one of the most frequent posters in the General section. But earlier today Brett posted an idea that I think is a good one and would work... adding a separate off-topic section somewhere down at the bottom, and then the mods keeping the "General" section strictly to topics that are in some way related to models and real cars. If we started to edit the "General" section as it is now, all of the off-topic stuff would be removed from the forum altogether... I think there's enough of a demand to keep some sort of "all the rest" type of area here, while keeping the "General" section restricted to model-related stuff.

Fine by me!

Looks like the hood and fender tops could use a repaint.

Yeah, I've already thought of that. But the point that all kinds of goofy stuff is mixed in with actual model related stuff in the "General" section is a valid point. Maybe if we had a separate off-topic section it would be better. But you're right... there will be people posting in the wrong place anyway. That's one thing I don't see ever going away, no matter what we do or how things are arranged. There will always be those people who will find a way to post in the wrong place. And they'll blame the forum, they'll blame me, they'll blame anything and everything.

Yeah, Rants and Raves didn't go so well. But maybe because it was called Rants and Raves? So we were basically asking for people to go off. Maybe "Off Topic" would work better? I don't know... but I do like Brett's idea of a model-related "General" section and a separate, truly off-topic "Off Topic" section at the bottom of the page. That seems like a logical idea to me.

If every member thought the way you do, my job would be waaaaaaay easier! Thanks for the thumbs-up.

I like it, looks cool! But the flames wouldn't cross the door panel lines in one piece unless they had some sort of magic powers!

And you know what? All the people who now complain that they don't post in the right place because the right place is too far down the page... they would have no problem finding the "off topic" section at the very bottom of the page! I guarantee it!

Exactly!

"Pinned" topics don't work. Most people ignore them. I'm kind of liking Brett's idea... keep "General" limited to model-related topics, and maybe have the actual off-topic (my dog died, my wife left me, etc.) stuff down at the bottom of the page... maybe simply call it "Off Topic."

And then how do I deal with all the people who will undoubtedly get upset if I add another category because they think there are already too many! Please Brett... and upset the other guy. Please the other guy... and upset Brett. See my point?

How would you do it? A "general" topic for "general" model-related stuff and also a "general" topic for all else? Maybe call one "General Modeling/Automotive Topics" and the other "All the rest?" Is that what you're thinking?

Nah. An occasional venting is all I need.

I haven't said anything about this for a long time. Just kept my mouth shut and kept moving posts every single day, time after time after time. I even rewrote the descriptions under the "Q&A" and "Tips" headers to make it absolutely clear what goes where. But even that didn't work. People just kept on posting in the wrong place, and I just kept on moving them without saying a word or complaining about it. Over and over and over and over and over again. Just like I have so far sent out well over 500 PMs to people who don't have their full name in their posts, to many people not once but twice and even three times, explaining something that is clearly spelled out in the rules everyone is supposed to read and agree to before they sign up. Well, I'm getting a little tired of being not only the mod, but also a babysitter. I'm tired of spending time sending notes to people about their full names, tired of arguing with them when they refuse to post their full names for all sorts of stupid reasons, and tired of moving posts because people can't be bothered with paying attention. And I'm tired of then getting slammed when I ask you guys to just do what you're supposed to do!

Because, like I told you, that big "General" section is the single most popular section of all! And we keep it apart from the "real modeling" stuff so that people like you who don't like it can easily avoid it.

After I saw Virgil's Morgan, I had to have one! The model is Minicraft's 1935 Morgan Super Sport. It's almost absurd to post this in the "Big Boyz" section... yeah, it's 1/16 scale, but it's smaller than the typical 1/25 scale model! This thing is tiny! Here are a couple of real ones... they were built for many years, very much unchanged until they "grew up" and had that 4th wheel added. As you can see, they were powered by a modified V twin motorcycle engine mounted ahead of the front axle. A driveshaft ran back to a rear-mounted transaxle, where power to the rear wheel was transferred via a motorcycle-like sprocket and chain drive. I started with the chassis, which is very spindly and fragile. It's so tiny, and the parts are so thin and flexible that it's like assembling a bunch of cooked spaghetti noodles. I used brass rod to make a new sway bar, the kit piece had too much flash to bother with. The white things on the lower axle will be the mounting brackets for the front brake lines (not included in the kit but very obvious and visible on the real car). The partially finished chassis so far: The kit is supposed to include a decal for the wood part of the dash, but that decal was missing from my kit... the perfect excuse to make a dash out of real wood. What looks more like real wood than real wood, right? Anyway, I cut the instrument cluster out of the kit dash, made a new dash from birch veneer that I stained and "varnished" with Future, and glued the instrument cluster back in place. The "chrome" trim ring around the gauge panel is thin solder, and the bezels on the instruments are thin rings I cut from aluminum tubing. I also added several switches that were missing from the kit's dash. More to come...

Whenever I go to a restaurant, I always order the first item on the menu. I can't be bothered to look down any further. Obviously, everything else below that first item is garbage, and not worth ordering.

Adding an FAQ section would be a mess. First of all we would need someone to constantly edit it and remove redundant questions. Then we would have the unenviable task of teaching people to use that section correctly, which from what I see, would be next to impossible!