what did you do while the board was down?

[mikemodeler]

My SAE/SA collection is complete back to 1988 so I can go back well before Kalmbach bought SA out & Lee is right. SA did go to a thinner paper around 2002, with the last major redesign, & while the overall content did get thin itself for a while there, it has rebounded a great deal from when they had the "revolving door" of editors a few years ago that caused the biggest stumble as it searched for the right direction. Getting & keeping one editor in place made things better, but it took time. Their content has improved, though it's still not the magazine it once was, but that's due as much to changes in the hobby & the publishing business as it is anything else. We can't go back to the "good old days" of SAE because the environment that created those days has changed. Kalmbach bought out SAE in 1996 & didn't really make any changes to it until 1997 IIRC, & those weren't editorial changes, but a redesign of the appearance, (& a good one at that). It wasn't until 2002 IIRC that it changed from SAE to SA & the editorial content really began to suffer. Again though, too many editors passing through too rapidly, & the hobby going through a lot of upheaval at the time also contributed.

Having a consistent editor will, for better or worse, give a sense of consistency to the magazine, & that's where SA needed attention & got it. Heck I can remember letter to the editor in the old, Highland Publications owened era of SAE complaining about the directions taken & changes made then, & that's been almost 20 years ago!

I like both magazines & being honest, still think that SA provides the better magazine, albeit not by much, most times it's neck & neck. The overall layout, feel & look of SA appeals to me more, with a more professional approach to it, though I think that MCM provides the better forum. Oddly enough, it's the layout, look & feel of SA's forum that I dislike so much compared to MCM.

MCM also needs to address the spotty distribution it has, & once it does so, make it known here on the forum, so we can all find the magazine more easily.

Both magazines have their positives & their negatives & provide a valuable asset to the hobby & that needs to be realized.

Mark, you have said what I have felt for a long time. My only complaint about the two magazines is that while SA always gets bashed here, MCM always gets praised and never bashed.

In a perfect world,we would get a new magazine every two weeks with all the how-to articles, contest coverage, kit reviews etc.that we could ever want!

In the meantime, I will settle for the November and Decemeber 2010 issues of MCM that have yet to arrive.

As far as what did I do when the board was down? Well, I fiddled at the bench on a couple of projects and got caught up on my reading. That work thing got in the way too so I didn't have as much free time as usual. I also surfed the web looking for some detail pieces for some projects that are in the works.

[Joe Handley]

"What did you do while the board was down?"

I'm just wondering how many baby modelers will be born in October 2011.

[Brokentail58]

once the shakes went away, i played call of duty black ops till my eyes bled.

That's what I did too.