Forum Changes

[Xingu]

We will never please everyone. There is always going to be someone who says they are never going to use the board again. We are getting ideas and will discuss pros and cons of any change we make. If we open everything up to a poll, we will more than likely still only get a small percentage of registered members to participate. There have been a few new voices in this thread, that is good to see. Most of the time it is the same small group of vocal members who participate. We know that there is a downside to any change that is made. We have to try and make the best informed decisions that we can that helps the long term outlook of this board.

[Bugatti Fan]

I am retired on limited income and would like to see a buy and sell on here, but not as a 'premium' item requiring a regular fee.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Well if you can't please everyone just block adblockers. It's not that difficult to just ignore the ads. I see only 40 members and 160 guests right now. All of the guests see the ads. How many of those members care about the ads?

Edited Friday at 09:21 PM by bobthehobbyguy

[Ace-Garageguy]

12 minutes ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

Well if you can't please everyone just block adblockers. It's not that difficult to just ignore the ads. I see only 40 members and 160 guests right now. All of the guests see the ads. How many of those members care about the ads?

I don't want to see the ads and I'm willing to pay to not have to.

Just because YOU don't mind them doesn't mean everyone else should be forced to see them or be...essentially...banned.

EDIT: Or maybe it does.

It's for the mods to decide, and the rest of us to react to.

Edited Friday at 09:32 PM by Ace-Garageguy

[sidcharles]

1 hour ago, Xingu said:

We will never please everyone. . . . 

a thought: while supplies & parts are definitely a major part of the hobby, we need to reinforce the major part of model building is creativity.

if someone needs reinforcement of this, look at the roots of motorsports. whether customs, dragsters, or anything with wheels, the very inception of that vehicle started in someone's mind.

yes; even the lowly model T Ford.

that creativity cannot be bought. it can be capitalized upon, but the seed was planted before the contract will be written.

go for a walk some day with a zip-lock bag. pick up some things: a crushed nut, piece of rusty metal, a shiny dime (if you live in the upper crust), whatever you can put in the bag.

come home and make something from the stuff you found. you'll be surprised how much fun it can be.

 

sid

[Rodent]

57 minutes ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

It's not that difficult to just ignore the ads.

I hate to dredge this up again, but every other site I visit SOMEHOW knows I like cars, build models, recently did a kitchen remodel, shop at Amazon and Lowes, like to cook, etc., but this site sends me Temu and Etsy ads with scantily clad women, t-shirts with R-rated phrases, and lately some very strange "click here" ads about daughters of former presidents and how "big" they are or pics of their "partner". This is on my office PC that I have never searched for anything related to this, and it is in full view of anyone walking behind me if I don't scroll past it fast enough. Reporting these ads does no good. Some of them do not have a way to report them.

I personally wouldn't mind donating to the forum AND seeing ads if they were relevant. It's not like this site is like some of the news sites with constant video ads, popups, etc. One ad per page in the header is about all I ever see here, plus sometimes a smaller one mid-page. They seem to have solved the ads covering content issue.

[bobthehobbyguy]

I have no issue with the paying for no ads as long as the free access allows access to everything available now in some form.

The pay feature should be added value. Adding selling is added value. Trades and wanted items should be accessible but have posting limits with additional access to more listing's is reasonable. I think making existing features premium access is artificially creating value.

Personally I don't believe that there are that many people that bothered by the ads and this is an attempt to fix something that isn't a big issue. And the more complexity that is created means more resources required to administer it.  Curious to see how this gets resolved.

 

[stavanzer]

9 hours ago, Xingu said:

We have been discussing making the Marketplace one of the premium areas and allowing buying and selling. There would probably need to be an extra set of rules for this area that members would need to acknowledge before being allowed to use it.

That sounds like  both a good idea, and a fair one.

Need some fairly Heavy Duty Disclaimers I think, but I'd sign up for it.

[Redisetta]

I’ve been around here for about 11 years, you guys have done a fantastic job providing this great source of abundant information for our wonderful hobby.l know it takes a lot of effort to make it function properly.  I’m also in favor of some type of pay feature . I also like the idea of a Marketplace. I’m sure any changes you make will be met with some criticism but that’s to be expected. 

 

[OldNYJim]

Agreed with the previous comments on making the NASCAR forum a little more generic so weekend warrior type short track cars have a more obvious home 

And if I were allowed to post, say, a hot rod T bucket with a pickup bed in with the hot rods legally without feeling bad, then that would be cool…

And I’d 100% pay for a premium version of the site!  The photo hosting is important to me, but I don’t need tonnes of it - but it would be worth paying for, for me.

I’d recommend that a magazine subscription adds some kind of tier-perk to being a forum member also…win win for the forum AND for adding magazine subs 

[Bugatti Fan]

The ads don't really bother me. If they pay for the site to be run, that's fine by me. A small price to pay for free usage !

The nature of some of the ads that could be deemed very undesirable appear to be out of the site's control it would seem.  I'm afraid we just have to live with that sort of content in ads these days. It was pointed out in an earlier post that they are viewed by all guests looking at the site as well as members, so from the advertiser's point of view this forum and many others too  are a rich vein to promote their products.

It this forum goes over to being fee paying, and other free to use forums up to now do the same, then the users will be forced to be selective about what sites they chose to use eventually. Could be some attrition as a result overall.

Edited 17 hours ago by Bugatti Fan

[Straightliner59]

18 minutes ago, Bugatti Fan said:

The ads don't really bother me. If they pay for the site to be run, that's fine by me. A small price to pay for free usage !

That would echo my sentiment. There are tradeoffs, with everything. I really barely notice the ads, anyway. It would be cool if they could be ads for places like Albion Metals, Scale Hardware, Micro-Mark, Sherline, etc., but whatever pays the bills! Nobody's being harmed by ads. If you are being hassled over the ads on here, you might want to find some more reasonable people to hang out with!

[sidcharles]

sidebar:

Q: do the advertisers pay to display their goods?

[stitchdup]

At the moment the advertisers pay google, who then pay us something. I believe part of the aim with having a paid option on the forum is so we can sell our own ads which would be relevant to us. What i'd like to see is it being successful for the advertisers, our members and ourselves so that we could possibly have special deals for members in the future. I'd also like to see any advertisers have their own news section for new supplies or products so they can become part of our community too. it can only benefit us all if we get it right.

[stitchdup]

13 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

I am retired on limited income and would like to see a buy and sell on here, but not as a 'premium' item requiring a regular fee.

I think buying and selling needs to be premium to prevent scammers. they are less likelly to show up if it costs them money and their payments can be traced back to them. instead of thinking of it as pay to play, think of it as a virus blocker on your computer. For it to work for us honest folk we need them to go away. we dont want anyone being robbed and if a fee prevents that it might be the only option but nothings set in stone yet and its early days

[peteski]

The big question is: does Google pay the forum for just displaying the ads, or does one actually have to click on the ad for it to bring money (like it used to be in a distant past of the Internet)?

I guess the ads are not all that bad, except for the ones that masquerade as a link to a post, say "click here to continue", take over the entire browser window or mess up the forum's formatting on the screen.  Then they really suck! There have been plenty of examples of those super annoying ads.

I would also be for some sort of ability of selling and buying (although I would be happy if that was only available  for individual members selling off their excess models or few 3D printed parts). Why? because to me eBay is no longer a valid option for this flea market or garage sale type of selling.  I'm not looking for someone to set up a fully blown online shop.  Of course with a disclaimer that MCM forum is not responsible for any problems arising from the trades.

[sidcharles]

some YT video guys have a code for their sponsor so if something is ordered with it, the viewer gets a little off the price, and the sponsor knows whose selling their stuff.

i've used a code [from Martin @ Night Shift] for Michigan Toy Soldier. Micro-Mark offers a discount for NMRA members with no code, just declaring membership.

[bobthehobbyguy]

1 hour ago, peteski said:

The big question is: does Google pay the forum for just displaying the ads, or does one actually have to click on the ad for it to bring money (like it used to be in a distant past of the Internet)?

 

Ads pay for clicks and views. 1000 views pay a small amount while clicks generate more revenue. That's why there are clickbait ads to entice people to click on the ad itself.

[DJMar]

17 hours ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

I have no issue with the paying for no ads as long as the free access allows access to everything available now in some form.

The pay feature should be added value. Adding selling is added value. Trades and wanted items should be accessible but have posting limits with additional access to more listing's is reasonable. I think making existing features premium access is artificially creating value.

Just my 2 copper, but I think this is a really important point.

I use a number of hobbyist/enthusiast sites. Many of them have some sort of pay-to-play option, but it's always a value added proposition. All of the sites I frequent that have paid tiers of support offer 1) an ad free experience AND 2) some sort of fee-free classifieds section or marketplace. This seems to be the general baseline for a lot of sites, although others go further with members-only sections of their forums, exclusive site merchandise, and/or other bits (like "supporting member" banners under their username, bigger inboxes, special avatars, etc.) that aren't accessible to free users.

Personally, I think nuking ads for supporting users is a no-brainer, but a non-commercial classifieds section could be a huge perk for any number of us. Online marketplaces (eBay, Etsy, et al.) have driven prices higher and higher partly because of their fee structure, and allowing paid members to sell fee-free through the forums would be a benefit I could get behind, assuming the cost per year (or month or quarter) isn't prohibitive. I know that I would rather sell a few kits to fellow modelers at reasonable prices through this site, rather than posting them to eBay, but if the cost of doing so is just as bad as paying the listing and sales fees at the other place, then it doesn't make sense.

As Bob already mentioned, making existing features a paid premium is not added value, and I see such a move potentially driving away users who have limited discretionary income. 

 

13 hours ago, OldNYJim said:

I’d recommend that a magazine subscription adds some kind of tier-perk to being a forum member also…win win for the forum AND for adding magazine subs 

Adding premium forum access to an upgraded MCM subscription would be a solid value add, and IMHO is something the admins should definitely consider.

[Xingu]

We discussed possibly leaving the Wanted section as free to use, but the remainder of the Marketplace as a paid tier. There are pros and cons to every scenario.

[bytownshaker]

I have never seen any ads I deem objectionable but I have not seen anyone mention the you can tell google that you don't want see that ad. There is usually somewhere in the ad a icon?to stop seeing that ad.

Ads by 

Stop seeing this adWhy this ad? 

[stitchdup]

4 minutes ago, bytownshaker said:

I have never seen any ads I deem objectionable but I have not seen anyone mention the you can tell google that you don't want see that ad. There is usually somewhere in the ad a icon?to stop seeing that ad.

Ads by 

Stop seeing this adWhy this ad? 

on some screens it barely shows up and if you add a little glare and reflections its basicly gone

[Bugatti Fan]

Les (Stitchup) mentioned in an earlier post that buy and sell might need to be a premium paid up feature to avoid scammers. A UK site allows buying and selling but only after signed up site members have contributed 100 posts or more.

Xingu mentioned it being discussed shout only leaving the wanted part of the market place free to use, and the kit and bit disposal part a fee paying tier.   Not sure how that would either pan out or how users will react to it?I

From what I can gather the execs have lots to discuss this weekend, and it will be interesting to learn what decisions will be made, and how people react to them afterwards. I guess the final decisions will need the site owner's approval whoever that may be.

Edited 17 hours ago by Bugatti Fan

[stitchdup]

One of the reasons spoken about for keeping wanted free was we know how much it helps those on limited incomes and generally its done by trading rather than cash and i dont think i've had any complaints about being ripped off (though there are still a few my friend has the part messages which i thank you for continuing to report). Its not really something we could make you pay for either, it would be like charging you to breathe fresh air. The reason for trading going into a paid tier is to prevent the inevitable trade cash for this kit posts trying to sell without proving they are genuine. We dont want to take anything away from you but for somethings to work it might have to happen in some limited areas. we know that without you folks we wouldn't have this resource and it really is a case of you are all as much a part of this as we are. We included you guys before any meetings because of your importance to the forum and all your input is greatly appreciated. If you have ideas or thought please continue to share them, it all helps with any decisions

[Jordan White]

On 8/20/2025 at 5:42 PM, Perspect Scale Modelworks said:

I'd like to see a section for motorcycles. Also, it may be time to move "The Official 3D Printing Discussion Thread" out of the General section and into it's own section.

 

Honestly a 3D printing section would be a good idea with how easy it is to get into nowadays and how popular 3D printed parts are becoming.

On 8/20/2025 at 7:51 PM, stavanzer said:

I have difficulty paying for things online. I've got the money, just no way to pay. I'll NEVER use PayPal,and stick mostly to Postal Money Orders.

That said, this forum is important enough to me that I will gladly figure out a way to pay to use it.

It's easy enough now to get a reloadable Visa card for online orders where you can just put on enough for your purchase, and if the number gets compromised, you don't have to worry about the rest of your money being taken.

On 8/20/2025 at 10:27 PM, bobthehobbyguy said:

Personally I don't see that making more categories makes much sense because you simply can't please everyone. I think the categories we have are just fine.

I agree right now that the amount of categories is sufficient with the amount of traffic the site is getting (other than adding the aforementioned 3D printing section).

On 8/20/2025 at 10:33 PM, bobthehobbyguy said:

Besides editing the post content is limited to a short period of time.

It would be nice if you are paying, that you could have unlimited editing time. Of course, this is probably more of a software limitation and couldn't distinguish between unpaid and paid members.

Edited 13 hours ago by Jordan White