That answers that…
what does it mean " Meaning we are allowed to keep it on the site."
Richard
Glad I left, me.
‘there may be trouble ahead…’
tac
You don’t think I saw those negative posts? I said I did my research. I also found numerous forums that were THRIVING under VS’s care. In fact, their memberships were better priced than mine, took away most advertising, and people were treated well.
I have been very tolerant and let a lot of behavior slide over the years. Probably too tolerant. I’ve only asked 3 people in 13 years to leave and not come back. One came back and apologized profusely and I reinstated him. The other two are still bitter, call me names, question my integrity at every turn, and post here regularly. To hell with them. I’ve done nothing wrong. I stand by all my decisions. I’m sure Bob can tell you, running a forum and being the man in the middle on all the disagreements is very difficult and draining. I can’t tell you how many nights sleep I’ve lost worrying about situations going on at MLS.
Unfortunately there have been a handful of people that made running the site, and ultimately my hobby less enjoyable, and they won out on many occasions over the thousands of people that truly appreciate the work that I did over 13 years.
If you want to know facts, instead of making stuff up and borrowing trouble, why don’t you ask me or the new admin? Get it straight from the horses mouth so to speak.
Hey Shad.
I dont think anyone is questioning your decision to sell the site, or get out part of your investment you’ve done over the last 13 years. I know it’d have to be a pretty pile for me to sell this site.
What’s causing the angst (and you think this thread is bad? You should see my private emails!) is that VS has, for lack of a better phrase, a terrible track record dealing with the forum spaces they get into. There’s no denying that, there are dozens of threads about it. Combine that with LSers being an opinionated bunch, and naturally distrustful of any change (see various NMRA threads) it turns into a perfect storm of paranoia. We’re a creative bunch, too, and love to share, and don’t want to get into a position where someone says “No, this content is mine”. Its a legitimate concern, and I’m glad that VS has responded.
Shad - I am most likely the launching point here since I posted the links to some rather negative reviews.
My intent was in no way to attack you or your decision to sell MLS. I joined MLS about the same time I joined here, and like others have followed the changes, both good and bad, that have occurred since then. As I believe was stated we all tend to resist change and be somewhat distrustful of new owners. I did the same kind of research when my company was sold recently, finding similar negative posts one the net about them as well. Some of those posts have turned out to be false, and some have been quite accurate. I take a ‘forewarned is forearmed’ attitude on things. If I know that an event is possible, I am not shocked if it happens, and prepared to take ‘evasive action’ as required.
Personally I hope that MLS survives and thrives, as there are people who ‘live’ there that don’t come here. As here, there are some great people, and some I choose to ignore, as I am sure there are others practicing the inverse. My observation of the two sites is MLS tends to be more Mainline and Staeam followers, while LSC seems to be more heavily populated by Narrow Gaugers and battery operation.l
My tuppence.
Bob C.
Having had several conversations in the last hour or so, I’m revising my Threat Level to ‘cautiously optimistic’.
If VS will own the rights to host any article posted by a member who has created said aqticle, then has the member the right to delete the entire article or portion thereof or has VS the right without the member’s permission to publish the article on another form of media?
MLS had a bunch of very creative, talented modellers who were quite prolific with contributions. Now an enterprising new owner could utilise those contributions for their own good by say publishing those works in a media format such as an instructional hobby book or DVD.
Does the contributor have a say in this or how his works are used? VS is not doing this as a public service. They seem experienced in managing/manipulating fora for a profit, thus would be very protective of contributions on their sites.
My advice to those who still post on MLS would be to contribute separate articles to the sites that they post on, with minor changes, including different photographs in each article. This way I hope your contributions will not backlash on this site that many call ‘home’. Many read both sites so why not post on this site and simply make reference to the posting (with no links included) on any other site. I do not believe that Bob’s software precludes non-members viewing this site public content. If you only referred to another site posting with no direct links then I fail to see how VS could claim cross ownership.
Shad Pulley said:
I have been very tolerant and let a lot of behavior slide over the years. Probably too tolerant. I’ve only asked 3 people in 13 years to leave and not come back. One came back and apologized profusely and I reinstated him. The other two are still bitter, call me names, question my integrity at every turn, and post here regularly. To hell with them. I’ve done nothing wrong. I stand by all my decisions. I’m sure Bob can tell you, running a forum and being the man in the middle on all the disagreements is very difficult and draining. I can’t tell you how many nights sleep I’ve lost worrying about situations going on at MLS.
Unfortunately there have been a handful of people that made running the site, and ultimately my hobby less enjoyable, and they won out on many occasions over the thousands of people that truly appreciate the work that I did over 13 years.
If you want to know facts, instead of making stuff up and borrowing trouble, why don’t you ask me or the new admin? Get it straight from the horses mouth so to speak.
It all depends, some people may appear bitter because they have very long memories, they may also have a different standard when it comes to integrety. Even those who asked for a refund and received it.
But that’s neither here nor there, time will tell how things work out and how the MLS membership feels about it.
My concern goes only as far as to advise the members of the forum I run what could happen. What they do with that information is their problem.
Over 1400 posts in 47 pages, right up to now: http://gmtnation.com/f18/so-who-still-uses-old-site-959/index47.html
Bunch of complainers, yeah, right.
This, up through 2012, interesting comments, 10 pages:
http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39544&page=10
The reason core people leave is VS lies. That included Jim, and his successor,Stu. We didn’t leave until VS unveiled the new ‘format’.
The guy that sold out waited for his non compete to expire and became a member, and sponsor, of www.ducatimonsterforum.org.
They lied to him too about the form the forum would take after the takeover.
Ads are one thing, but we already have Walmart here…we don’t need our forums to be an online version of that.
Now, based upon past performance, we have a whole raft of folks who were presented all the data on the LGB fiasco, and those folks entered denial mode.
Aristo’s fall, same almost exact denial took place.
Now we have all the folks (will they prove to be the same?) who can’t read anything with comprehension, telling us “all is well”.
Well…as Bob says, now he’s “cautiously optomistic”?
We’ll see.
Looks okay at the MLS end…but read up on banning anyone who complains, non-compete, ownership of data on the sites, format changes, dummied up site hits data, 300% increase in advertising rates (based upon that data?).
And for those stupid enough to drag this stuff over to MLS, remember, these are quotes and questions based upon those quotes.
I am not doing anything but reporting.
Did they get it all fixed, and as the admin fella says, everything is fine?
If I had anything left there, it would be gone yesterday.
if it were me, I’d be out spending my new found $$$, not fooling around on a forum. 'course it’s not me, so I’m here for the show (and pop-corn…Rooster, pass the pop-corn will-ya)
edit: that really didn’t come out the right way…carry on
HJ,
we know that idler did not join this site to become a ‘member’, but merely to keep tab on comments made and respond to such comments. I hope his shadow does not decide to review his membership here. He joined and only responded once to comments made and told our benevolent dictator how he would run the forum if it was his forum.
A ship can only have one captain and does not need others to tell him how to run his ship. As regards memories of events and how they transpired, well there are always two sides and some like to recall only their side of the ‘discussion’. Once the discussion of MLS is off the boil then the new member will go his own way as he has other non-train related interests to fill his day.
Cale Nelson said:
if it were me, I’d be out spending my new found $$$, not fooling around on a forum. 'course it’s not me, so I’m here for the show (and pop-corn…Rooster, pass the pop-corn will-ya)
It’s in the microwave…coke? pepsi? mountain dew?
Ken Brunt said:
Cale Nelson said:
if it were me, I’d be out spending my new found $$$, not fooling around on a forum. 'course it’s not me, so I’m here for the show (and pop-corn…Rooster, pass the pop-corn will-ya)
It’s in the microwave…coke? pepsi? mountain dew?
Southern Comfort.
There are a bunch of “ol salts” (and yet, I’m older than many of them) that have done a lot to continue to promote this hobby. I aplaude all of them and thank them for their efforts. Shad you stepped up, as did Bob, when it seemed quite dark. Thank you. Nothing else needs to be said. If you don’t remember that month, it wasn’t fun.
Dave,
interesting reading on the adminzone link. I had no idea that forums were such big business. I thought that forums were for members to ‘talk’ to each other and exchange ideas, not dollars.
An intersting response from the owner of a large forum in that VS offered a low six figure sum for a site that the owner was already receiving a high five figure annual return from. Of cause not all sites are making money but a forum returning a high five figure sum must be hosting a lot of advertising.
I like the signature of one respondent who own a forum or two, “I buy forums, PM me”. Obviously, some forum owners see their sites as money making ventures and not for the benefit of their forum community.
Curmudgeon mcneely said:
Ken Brunt said:
Cale Nelson said:
if it were me, I’d be out spending my new found $$$, not fooling around on a forum. 'course it’s not me, so I’m here for the show (and pop-corn…Rooster, pass the pop-corn will-ya)
It’s in the microwave…coke? pepsi? mountain dew?
Southern Comfort.
SWEET TEA Please
Before the memory fades into oblivion might I remind readers that during that “month” of darkness there were actually three Large Scale sites that sprung up after LSOL pulled the plug overnight.
The two aforementioned and one by Russ Reinberg of Outdoor Railroader repute.
The site Russ started was eventually driven out after a short time by some rather unpleasant behaviour from some rather nasty people on another site.
If you want some good laughs and an insight into how forums are manipulated, read page 46 of the first link that Dave posted above. Some sites encourage spammers as their spamming posts contribute to the site statistics and thus attract adverising dollars. The forum member is just a commodity to be dispensed with when the site has made a dollar return for the owners.
Cale Nelson said:
Curmudgeon mcneely said:
Ken Brunt said:
Cale Nelson said:
if it were me, I’d be out spending my new found $$$, not fooling around on a forum. 'course it’s not me, so I’m here for the show (and pop-corn…Rooster, pass the pop-corn will-ya)
It’s in the microwave…coke? pepsi? mountain dew?
Southern Comfort.
SWEET TEA Please
I’m home I can have a berkshire ale.
Richard