State of the Forum

[Dave Ambrose]

It's been three years since my last message. A lot has happened in the interim, and a recap is definitely in order. 

First off, thank you all for sticking with us through our browser compatibility problems. Like many software problems, the work to find the problem dwarfed the work to actually fix it. We should be good for the foreseeable future.

We survived COVID. The pandemic had a major impact on both the board and the hobby.  Our hobby lost some luminaries. It also gained a lot of new practitioners. They discovered that it's still fun, and can be as simple or as challenging as you care to make it. Many of them landed here. Thank you all for helping them out. Having something rewarding, and social connections were key for many to weather the physical isolation.

Thank you all who came up and introduced yourselves at GSL. It was by far the best part of my first (and last) GSL. The rest of the show was also amazing, and not only did I see some truly great builds, I made some new friends. Although there won't be any more GSLs, there's no reason other shows can't incorporate some of the elements that made GSL such a stand-out. We'll be discussing those topics in the future. 

Model builders have been getting back together in person for a while now. If you haven't been to a model car show, I recommend you go to one, and bring some builds. Talking to other builders, especially in person, supercharges your enjoyment. There is a lot to know in this hobby, and sharing knowledge is a key element of the fun. 

We have an outstanding community here. Our goal is to be welcoming, have fun building model cars, and exchange useful information. We've also shown we can be very supportive when people hit rough patches. For all this, I'm very grateful. It matters.

Thank you all for contributing here. We've had some amazing builds, great conversations, and it's just been fun to share. We have been running our Forum Finds in the printed magazine for a while now, and it's proven to be very popular. 

Those of you who keep an eye on the Model Cars Magazine masthead will notice that I've taken on the role of managing editor for the magazine.  Rest assured that this forum and our web presence are still very much part of my responsibilities. I've also retired from my day job and now have more time to devote to improvements.

We ran a survey a while back. Thank you to all who responded. It paints an interesting picture.  As many expected, the practitioners here are older. But fully 40% of our members are under 50. We do like our hotrods. Most of us build them at least occasionally. Other popular categories were Factory Stock, Box Stock, and Racecars. Unsurprisingly most of us build in 1/20-1/25 scales, plus some in 1/16. But there are also a significant number of modelers in the 1/32 and smaller scales.  

This is a challenging hobby, and we have questions. They're mostly about painting and detailing, but a lot of people want to learn more about design and build planning. Those topics will be making their way into the magazine and web site. 

Aircraft seem to be our popular "other" subject. Guess it needs to go fast to keep us interested. We also got a lot of constructive comments. Thank you all. It's nice to know we're on a good path here. 

It's a journey, and we document it with our builds. I sometimes spend a bit of time looking at the models in my display case. I'll reminisce about certain aspects of the builds, but mostly they remind me of how much fun I had. Though, I'll confess, it sometimes might not have sounded that way to nearby observers during construction. Let's just say that some builds were more educational than others. 

On a less happy note, we've been having trouble with spammers signing up, then posting nonsense everywhere. The automatic initial moderation seems to be keeping them at bay. I apologize for the inconvenience to our new members, but there doesn't seem to be any other way to ward off these attacks. Please report any spam when you see it. The forum has automatic moderation steps that kick in when posts get multiple reports. We're also seeing some fraud attempts in the trading area. They take the form of "I don't have the item, but my dear friend xxx@yyy.zzz does." Please report these when you get them. We'll ban them ourselves, then go back to their mail providers and get their accounts shut down. 

Our regulatory environment is changing. We'll be modifying our terms of service to comply with current regulations, and you'll need to explicitly accept them. It's primarily related to improving data privacy, and I don't think anyone will object. We don't sell your data now, and will not in the future. 

I would be completely remiss if I didn't give a hearty shout out to Mike (Xingu), Dan (iamsuperdan), and Mike (BadLuck13) who do all the day-to-day moderation, thus keeping the forums running smoothly. They make a lot of things possible, and I am grateful for their help on a daily basis. They are the reason that problems stay small here. 

We have good plans for the future. We are moving to a new server within the next few days. It will allow us better performance, resiliency, and most importantly, more storage. We consume somewhat more than 1/2 a terabyte for content. It's mostly photos, but we also have nearly 2 million posts going back to 2008. 

Lastly, thank you all for making this such a good forum. Model car building isn't as widespread as it used to be, and finding fellow modelers is very difficult for some. This is a challenging hobby and having fellow builders available is a must. We're privileged to provide that platform. Let's go build something cool. 

-- Dave Ambrose
 

[Dave Van]

Thanks to the entire crew.......nuff said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Thanks for the updae. 

[Rattlecan Dan]

Thanks for the informative (as well as entertaining) posting. I enjoy this forum very much and hopefully reflect as much in my posting and conversations with the fellow members here. I continue to appreciate the work you and the crew do to keep this a safe and happy place to come to. I will try to continue doing my part to make it so. Donato (a.k.a) Rattlecan Dan