Large Scale Central

The future of LSC and the demise of GR

Website
#21

First, I’d like to Thank Bob for letting us have input on what might come in the future. He doesn’t have to ask us, you know.

.

Second - I tried a few articles early on and as I got older and can’t remember much, that became too difficult. So like many, I just started writing in the proper forum and just keep it as a running saga. Some for a year and start over and some just continuous. It would be nice if pictures were easier and maybe some day I’ll get back to trying to remember and stay a master of that. Probably a big maybe.

.

This is all good and personally I’m not surprised that GR folded. I quit getting it, over 6 years ago now. I get Model Railroader, the Gazette and a couple of historical quarterlies, but hardly have time to read them.

.

Just keep this going Bob. Its sometimes the best part of my day and I have some pretty great days. Thanks Bob and Martha too.(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#22

Bruce Chandler said:

And after having to edit my post, it MIGHT be nice to have a preview function?

A Preview function has always been here on LSC. It’s the EYE button third from the right on the top row of the reply box.

#23

Just keeping it open for a start is a huge thank you.

For my own 2¢… the ability to post pics from a phone, similar to the way Facebook is able to would contribute greatly. I’ve reached the limit of my free storage and will be purchasing additional storage. But just getting pictures from my phone which is my current platform, into my account is extremely difficult. I have to email the pictures to myself, download it to a desktop/laptop resize on Photo, then save it to my album. As a result of my limited access to a laptop I haven’t posted much. Where as I can post pics to FB directly from my phone. This is my only foible. I would post alot more here if I could post pictures from my phone easier. I am not the only one who has been talking about this. That is all.

#24

My thoughts on picture posting. There are three basic scenarios for where pictures are stored. Fisrt, pictures can be stored in Freight Shed. Second, like me, they can be stored in a personal web space (I pay for a domain and hosting on Godaddy). Third, so called free* picture hosting. All three work equally well in function, I think the difficulty is there is no ‘tutorial’ on HOW to post the pictures, especially when new people join the site, or for folks who don’t post often enough to remember the process. Then mix in operating systems (Windows in it’s various incarnations still in use, Apple, Linux) and it seems an issue.

Folks have mentioned Facebook as an example of how easy it is. I wonder how easy it would be for Bob if all he had to do was enlist his multitude of paid programmers to code in that mindless photo posting to the bazillion bytes of storage that is paid for by the billions of dollars of advertisement payments Facebook collects each year.

Please quit comparing LSC to Facebook Bob does not have the financial wherewithal to go down that road.

  • lets not forget the ransom ware activity of Photobucket, and the many threads that are now all but useless due to broken links.
#25

Joe Zullo said:

Bruce Chandler said:

And after having to edit my post, it MIGHT be nice to have a preview function?

A Preview function has always been here on LSC. It’s the EYE button third from the right on the top row of the reply box.

D’oh! That works - thanks. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

#26

Bob McCown said:… What, as an online site, can we do to fill the niche that GR had? I’m really not in a financial position to pay for articles, since I’m already operating LSC at break-even (possible solutions for that are another thread)

…

wrong question.

paper magazines are a thing of the past. they fold, because their niche does not exist any longer.

i had nearly a dozen of subscriptions - of different areas of interest - BEFORE the internet. now none. but i get much more info that is relevant (to me)

the question should be:what to do, not to become extinct too.

where we, untill about a generation ago, had the problem to find relevant information, now we got the problem to find the relevant needle in the info-haystack.

and i doubt, that many would be willing to go back.

so, the right question would be: “what do we do, not to become obsolete?”

(my) answers:

1 - make the forum “idiot-proof” simple for the user.

2 - make it accessible for as many platforms and softwares possible.

3 - more specific: accept all pics of any size, format and source imaginable.

4 - make the financial ends meet.

to 1- as people are less and less patient and educated (and willing to learn new tricks) use buttons instead of descriptions.

(example: to search this forum, using google, make a button “search forum with google”)

choose some robust and add-on friendly software. then find some friends (Jim?(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif) ) who help you write add-ons as you need them for this forum.

to 2 - the “thumbwriters”, using a cigarette-pack sized gimmick and the guys like me, who need/want at least a square foot of screen, have all to be (tecnically) welcome.

to 3 - the "ouch"point… the forum could use two buttons up front (“freightshed pics” and “outside pics”)

further it should resize each and every pic that is bigger then …? (i sugest 800 width) when it goes on the threads. (even if it’s bigger in the freightshed) (that should include pics of dead poultry! (could not resist this thought))

eliminate these thumbnail miniature pics.

and don’t make the same mistake as GSC. they don’t accept the old http pics, only https. either your users with private-rented space stop posting, or they “actualize” their space and you (and other forums) loose their pics in the old threads.

(same rules for videos)

to 4 - all the above said boils down to one thing: money.

keep the forum free!! no paywall or similar. people hate to pay. so, if you must make them pay, let them pay as seldom as possible.

if you make us pay ten cent per day, that will anger us more than make us pay 50$ once a year.

introduce ads. who doe not want to see the ads can pay X dollars for that privilege.

raise the freightshed rent. 35$, 55$ and 100$

raise sponsorship from 75 to 99.80$ (that’s only 0.27 $ daily! but not paid daily)

edit: ps: you could (if you want to torture yourself) include a weekly or monthly online magazine (without direct answering possibility). we could write something, submit it to you…

…and then argue with you, why you didn’t include it.

another edit: pps.: personly i beleive, that my building threads AND my building projects got better through comments, banter, questions and suggestions by the other guys.

#27

What Korm said about pictures on old threads! No matter what, old data should be preserved including pictures. Bob has done an excellent job of this over numerous software upgrades. Hopefully, the next generation software can accommodate the old data as well.

SEE EDIT FOR UPDATE: Requiring the secure http protocol for even new pictures going forward could give those of us like Bob Cope and myself who use paid hosts trouble. I utilize sub-domains and a complex directory structure to organize my on-line files. My host service offers free a HTTPS certificate, but only for the top level (www) domain. They want to sell me certificates for each sub-domain. I’m not sure of the price since I wasn’t interested in spending the time to set that up for numerous sub-domains.

EDIT to update: I just spent a few minutes on the dashboard of my web service provider. Apparently they have changed how they apply certificates, now it appears that sub-domains are included. I can now open photos using the https prefix. My index is considered mixed content because of a few links back to http pages. I think with a few hours work I can fix that. I realized after making a test post that I can only support HTTPS going forward. Old post would require each photo link be edited which is not going to happen manually.

#28

Bob Cope said:

Please quit comparing LSC to Facebook Bob does not have the financial wherewithal to go down that road.

Bob I understand perfectly that LSC and FB cannot be the same. But like it or not, smartphones ARE the future, and older desktop based sites like here need to find a way to allow that form of interaction, ESPECIALLY if you want to attract a younger crowd.

Another thing that would be very helpful would be the ability to resize images when we load them into the storage, I don’t know if we already have this. I know we can resize the image when it’s put into a post, but my phone even on lowest setting still creates pics with a Brazilian pixels that eat storage space. Being able to directly reduce them would be a great help.

#29

Keeping it up and running is #1! But for improvements- if at all possible definitely support Phones, tablets etc. computers are going to the wayside. And the ease of adding pictures would improve tremendously. And I’m pretty sure that guys On here would do something like donations if needed.

Jason

#30

Vic, et al,

I have no beef with smart phones or tablets or iPads or any other form of hardware. The issue I have is that all of those devices depend on others to store the photos they share. I agree that support for those devices is an important feature to include moving forward. All I am asking is for all you smart phone users to explain how Bob is to do what you ask without Bob bearing the cost of storing YOUR PICTURES. Facebook works as easily as it does because when you post a pic to Facebook it copies the picture to the Facebook servers. By the way, have any of you folks that so love Facebook read the EULA in detail?

#31

Another thought…

Any way possible to make a topic that is created on LSC shareable to other media?

Say if I create a topic on LSC and wanted to share it to my Facebook page or to another group?

Like you can do with yahoo, msn, YouTube etc?

#32

Bob Cope said:

Vic, et al,

By the way, have any of you folks that so love Facebook read the EULA in detail?

I don’t get why you are so hung up on people requesting what they would like, many keep mentioning FB because it is easy to operate on and that is what is lacking on LSC.

If you are one that is hung up on what someone else may or may not do with what you post on the internet then you probably shouldn’t post anything.

#33

Vincent, my hang up is NOT people asking for what they want. My hang up is asking Bob to bear the FINANCIAL BURDEN of what you want. I asked the Facebook crowd to explain how to get the operability they desire with out bankrupting Bob. All I hear is crickets.

'nuf said.

#34

Bob Cope said:

Please quit comparing LSC to Facebook Bob does not have the financial wherewithal to go down that road.

Bob, it was your unfortunate choice of words. The comparison was with the ease of use of posting pics, not the cost of the storage.

We do take your point, that Facebook is making it easy to store/display photos from the mobile phone in order to keep us engaged so they can show us more ads. [However, posting a photo in a Facebook thread is not the same as storing it somewhere where you can get at it. Facebook makes the storage very opaque and difficult. Just try finding a photo again a few weeks after you posted it.]

What was not mentioned by the folk who want to easily post photos from their phone (and directly to your point,) was that the photos are stored somewhere, at someone’s expense. I pay extra for more space on my Freightshed as I find it the most convenient storage, but it certainly isn’t the easiest to use. GSC, on the other hand, lets you store photos and resizes them if you drag-and-drop, but the storage is paid for by advertising. You can pay to get rid of the ads, rather than paying for ad-free storage. Interestingly different philosophy. Should LSC be ad-free if you pay?

#35

There are quite a few places that will store your photos at no expense. Most all of the photos I post here are stored off site. The belief / request that a future site (maybe not the next one) be more friendly to phone and/or tablet use is a pretty reasonable one.

#36

Dear BD, thanks for opening this up for discussion. Lots of great ideas here so far.

Maybe you’ll consider doing more than one thing as part of the potential upgrade, so I’ll throw out a couple of thoughts for those “extra” features.

It might be interesting to see who’d sign up for writing at least one or two article per year, perhaps with a reduced cost or enhanced features in membership.

Along the same lines, people could sign up to manage various topics (elicit articles, review / collaborate with the author on them) if you wanted the help.

It could be fun for new articles to be “published” on the first of he month, just to have something periodic to look forward to. Even if it’s just one article.

I suppose you could use your existing forum structure to topically organize and get responses to articles.

Lastly, you might consider correlating all the ideas, and getting us all to vote on fave’s, just to help you quantify best bang for the effort.

Thanks for all you’re doing Bob,

Cliff

#37

With reference to picture storage I use the old fashioned method of downloading my pictures from my phone or camera onto a 1TB USB HDD (cost $75 AU). I actually have 2 of them and replicate them so I have some redundancy.

I then post them onto FB, GSC, Blogger and here from the HDD.

I retain possession of my pictures and because I organise them in a folder structure I can go back and find them at any time bit like an electronic version of the photo album.

Not very high tech “in the cloud” stuff but it works for me.

The only difficulty I have is the method of posting onto LSC, I found it a bit time consuming because of the number of steps compared to other forums, but I can work around that.

I would write an article and submit it for free if I thought I had something of interest to write about.

#38

Pete Thornton said:

We do take your point, that Facebook is making it easy to store/display photos from the mobile phone in order to keep us engaged so they can show us more ads. [However, posting a photo in a Facebook thread is not the same as storing it somewhere where you can get at it. Facebook makes the storage very opaque and difficult. Just try finding a photo again a few weeks after you posted it.]

What was not mentioned by the folk who want to easily post photos from their phone (and directly to your point,) was that the photos are stored somewhere, at someone’s expense. I pay extra for more space on my Freightshed as I find it the most convenient storage, but it certainly isn’t the easiest to use. GSC, on the other hand, lets you store photos and resizes them if you drag-and-drop, but the storage is paid for by advertising. You can pay to get rid of the ads, rather than paying for ad-free storage. Interestingly different philosophy. Should LSC be ad-free if you pay?

Thank you Pete, you put into words what I was trying to get to.

Chris, free is never free, you will always pay in some means. Photobucket showed it’s true colors when it became Ransombucket. I would rather pay a small fee per year to a reliable storage site than depend on a source I don’t control. Go search some of the old threads where the really good builds are. Those with private photo storage are still available. The Photobucket held photos are all broken links making the build thread useless. As I said above, I pay for my storage, and find it to be inexpensive in the long run. And as someone else mentioned, many of the free storage sites a beginning to block the ability to link to the photos stored there.

#39

Peter Lucas said:

I want to say two things. First, the demise of GR gives LSC a great opportunity to pick up advertising revenue. My company, MyLocoSound, is looking for somewhere to advertise to large scale enthusiasts and I am sure other companies are doing the same. Bob just needs to buy a copy of GR and email all the advertisers a plan for advertising in LSC.

I was going to mention that but thought I might get in trouble for saying it? You cannot attract new folks into the hobby if they do not know who the manufactures/ vendors are?? I personally would LOVE to see large ads from manufacturers or vendors and their products with out bashing reviews of the products …If you don’t like their product “THEN MAKE YOUR OWN” and advertise on LSC !

Perhaps it’s ironic but I find that some of the folks that complain about LSC and it’s members contribute their (mental) 2 cents to LSC and that’s about it!

2 cents don’t get much these days so why not blow the dust off the wallet and contribute to a great form that has been around for 20yrs?

I don’t contribute much of anything except “Post count and Amtrash” with an occasional historical build (cough …steam era). I’m mainly attracted to LSC for my post count and useless modern era builds which I have been able to FREELY do such over the years. The 2 cent’ers love to complain about though!

This post has been edited by Rooster: I forgot the proper punctuation even though it’s,it is probably still incorrect and VERY important on a hobbyists website that is FREE??

#40

As an occasional ‘article’ writer, I wanted to discuss the thread versus article format issue.

Someone pointed out that an “informative thread” can get fragmented by folks posting attaboys or questions, and it can occasionally get derailed. Then there’s the problem of the author getting sidetracked or delayed (can’t paint my coach as it is 90 deg/90% here in MD; can’t finish the project as I went back to my winter home and left it behind.) The suggestion was made that comments could be posted after the thread text?

I’d suggest taking a completed thread (if there is any such thing,) and letting the author edit it into a cohesive article. It could still look like a thread, but with comments and digressions moved to the end?

Thinking about it: it doesn’t need to be the author - any competent editor could be asked to massage it into a simple article. I would leave the original alone - warts, comments, queries, digressions and all; but create an informative article out of the thread.