Hi folks
With the GR being folded into MR, and me currently contemplating what to do with LSC for the future, I figure I’d open a discussion separate from the GR thread.
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)
I’d like to keep this on topic, please.
So, what can I do?
I’ve never submitted an article to GR, so I can’t say for sure - but do contributors (other than regular features) write for the money? I’d think it’s more for the pride and recognition. That being said, we have a pretty nice Articles section here already. Perhaps it can be improved upon making it more easily searchable with indexing and key words. I don’t know what it would take to do that on the software side, but it’s a thought.
It’s also been a long time since I composed an article for LSC. The last time I did, I remember the editor being kind of cumbersome. Perhaps it’s better now.
For both forum posts and articles, the key is easy picture posting. From your other post it sounds like at least one candidate has that feature. Support for mobile phones is another hot topic. You know how easy it is to post a cell phone picture to social media. If it was that easy here I think we would get more participation from our younger members.
Just my $0.0199’s worth.
I have been away from this site for much of the last four years due to our other interests that have taken up much of our free time.
But for me the biggest issue this site has (and I think I have seen posted recently you are looking at ways of correcting it) and has always had is it is incredibly difficult and aggravating to post pictures and videos.
There have been plenty of times I would of liked to share new plantings, buildings, general clean up of our railway but have not done it due to I had forgotten how! I shouldn’t need a refresher course each time I visit to learn how, I should just be able to post a picture or a video.
We have taken plenty of short videos this season of our trains running and I honestly wouldn’t even know where to start on trying to post them here.
I think if those issues could be corrected you would get a lot more traffic on this site.
Just my opinion which is currently worth even less than two cents.
As a fairly prolific contributor to Garden Railways (http://jbrr.com/articles.html ) I CAN say that the money was pretty nice, but, for me, it was also a chance to “pay back” what I had learned over the years (though mostly from Model Railroader) - I don’t think I got any fame. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-embarassed.gif)
I understand this is NOT a paywall site, so there’s NO money to pay authors of articles, but it might be nice to showcase those articles a bit more. I don’t think you want to echo the printed magazine, so you don’t want to have regular issue dates - maybe just a random one or two articles featured on the home page, much like you already do with photos?
It might be nice if folks were allowed to use their own editor and print it as a pdf for uploading. Of course reading it as a .pdf online might be an issue but the real key HAS to be ease of use. (Maybe you just can’t win? (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif))
I do agree with the others on the ease of posting pictures. It seems pretty easy to add a picture to your freight shed, but if I want to post a picture to a forum, I’ve got to first load it to the freight shed, then get it over to the forum somehow and paste something that most don’t understand. It MIGHT be cool if while in a forum, I could either load a picture from my freight shed, the Internet, OR my computer. And if loading from my computer, I could tell it which directory in my freight shed it should AUTOMATICALLY go. (Yeah, NOTHING is impossible to the person that doesn’t have to do it!)
Pictures are always going to be a problem, just because they take up so much storage space, but posting a picture should be as easy as posting a picture or video to Facebook; but, of course Facebook doesn’t have the concept of directories of your pictures, so not sure how THAT might factor in. (I do support the subscription charge that an extended freight shed needs and I think it is REALLY cool to get a basic storage shed for free! Please don’t EVER have different classes of users; no need!)
And after having to edit my post, it MIGHT be nice to have a preview function?
Bob McCown said:
Hi folks
With the GR being folded into MR, and me currently contemplating what to do with LSC for the future
I personally have learned a fair amount from this site and if it wasn’t for the poking and goading from the members here I don’t think my modeling ability would be where it’s at and I still have a lot to learn!
I don’t think you are interested in making any money off of it but I think you should make at least a little for the time you put into it (only my opinion).I also think that if the site gets into the red you should let us know so we can help when we can. You should not have to did into your own pocket for us.
I personally don’t understand why folks have a hard time posting pictures. Perhaps from their phone or Ipad maybe but I use neither? What would be nice is an automatic photo resizer in the Freight Shed but I know nothing about it if there is a cost or even if it’s doable? I do have pics in my freight shed but I don’t use them as they are not resized. Sadly with Photobucket going money hungry I lost a lot of my build log pics. However I like Photobucket and now Flickr as it auto resizes or gives you the option to choose the size you wish.
Thank you for the 20yrs!!!
I personally don’t understand why folks have a hard time posting pictures. Perhaps from their phone or Ipad maybe but I use neither?
Not many people use computers these days. You’ll have noticed many websites now have a 3-bar “open Menu” icon and large fonts, just for the under-50 crowd.
If you don’t provide good support to the phones and tablets, they will never use your site.
Like Bruce, I contributed a few articles to GR and other magazines over the years. Nowadays a picture-loaded build thread is much the same. I noted several articles on Bruce’s website list that I read here on LSC. (Who needs GR when they are all here?)
MLS used to have a great feature for the threads: “view printer friendly version”. It allowed you to print the thread - nowadays you can ‘print to pdf’ so saving a thread for future use was easy. There are many useful threads saved by Moderators on their own website for safe-keeping.
Perhaps that’s something we can do here, to answer Bob’s question. If we (most of us) decide a thread is worth keeping, we convert it to ‘print-friendly’ and then make it an article. Dwight Ennis over on MLS did a sterling job saving various articles for posterity:
https://forums.mylargescale.com/27-masterclass-articles/20743-masterclasses-articles-index-downloads.html
Making it easy to load pictures from a mobile phone or tablet is the key. Auto-resize is pretty useful for the website if you don’t want to overwhelmed - my pictures start at 4032x3024 and I have to resize them after sending them to my computer, where I can upload them to the freightshed. GSC has a drag-and-drop and they get lots of pictures posted on their threads.
As both a reader and poster of builds I ask if there is a way to :
Maybe an original poster top section for all postings he/she makes on the build, with a scroll down to section for comments by others.
Also allow original poster the option of posting comments in either area to answer inquiries.
A better keyword search as suggested would be great
As would the ease of posting pics. I know there are two different formats for posting pics on this site since all I need to do when in chat is right click on an online photo and
‘copy image location’ then simply paste it in the chat box.
functions.
back to get to where you were before you opened the pictures.
OMO(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Pictures, pictures, pictures. No pictures, it didn’t happen.
The problem is storing pictures is expensive, more expensive than Bob can afford and this site can support.
So…you have to link to an outside host that you can link to its internet location (except for the limited space in LSC Freight Shed). It’s true you have to store your picture in an outside host and then link to that host location in the thread, but what else can be done? On top of that, hosts like Facebook, the various Drives and Clouds, and places like Pinterest won’t let you link to the pictures on their sites even if you wanted to, and even if they’re your own pictures. Not a money-making proposition for them. Boo hiss.
The only thing I can think of is if Bob can make it easier somehow to place a picture from the Freight Shed into a post.
I’m not trashing anybody out, but I don’t see how it can get any easier to post pictures from outside hosts…you copy the link location in the source field of the picture icon. Maybe that’s more complicated than I think it is, and it’s true it is an extra step.
Maybe Bob could make it so you don’t have to use the picture icon? You put the link the in text of the post and the software automatically makes it a picture? Or maybe something to make it clearer on how to link to that picture at the outside host.
The insurmountable problem (it seems to me) is that even if Bob makes it clearer and easier on how to post outside pictures, the fact remains everybody doesn’t have an outside host for their pictures and Bob can’t store everybody’s pictures for them on his servers.
I’ve gone on too long just to say maybe Bob can make it easier to post pictures from the Freight Shed and from outside hosts.
Personally, the value of this site far outweighs any picture inconvenience…but what the hell do I know.
EDIT: Let me add something (like anybody is hanging on my every word!!!) When it comes to videos, I use Youtube to store videos, and the embed code to post them here. Youtube is “free” especially if you use Adblock Plus! Besides, all my children, nieces, nephews, sisters, brothers, and even in-laws are impressed I have my own Youtube channel. (Maybe the embed code process could be easier, I don’t know.)
I’ll echo others’ comments about posting photos and video. 'nuf said about that.
What I think is missing from this site is a way for folks to easily find things months/years later. The search feature is like playing roulette. I can search for a post I know I made in the past, and it does not come up in the search. Maybe you could add a keyword bar to forum posts so the author can add keywords which would make searching easier down the road. Related to that, perhaps a way to limit searches to certain specific forums in order to narrow the results. For example, if I search “Bachmann 2-8-0” with the notion of seeing what folks have done to modify theirs, I would want to exclude results from the “for sale” section, etc.
How about blending the “Articles” and forums? I rarely peruse the articles, so I don’t see what people post there. Is there a way to put the articles on the forum page within their most-suitably-related heading? Maybe just a box at the top of each page with a list of pertinent articles folks can click on. (Open in new tab or window, please) Also, when one posts an article, have it automatically create a post in the forum of whatever heading it is listed for follow-up discussion. Also, default notification to the author that someone posts something so their question can be answered in a timely fashion. My biggest gripe with GR’s website architecture was that I had no way of knowing when anyone asked a question on one of my product reviews. The readers’ questions would hang out there for months (years!) without an answer.
I think anything we can do to make finding material that’s already here easier and quicker would be a good thing. A magazine’s strength is that it’s a permanent record, and one that can be easily searched with a proper index. One of the most common responses I read when a newcomer posts a question is “did you try searching?” (in varying degrees of rudeness). The sad reality is that many web site search functions are an exercise in futility for folks who already know what they’re looking for, and absolute frustration for those who do not. Anything that can be done to make that a more logical, navigable process would be a delight to see.
Later,
K
Kevin Strong said:
What I think is missing from this site is a way for folks to easily find things months/years later. The search feature is like playing roulette. I can search for a post I know I made in the past, and it does not come up in the search. Maybe you could add a keyword bar to forum posts so the author can add keywords which would make searching easier down the road. Related to that, perhaps a way to limit searches to certain specific forums in order to narrow the results. For example, if I search “Bachmann 2-8-0” with the notion of seeing what folks have done to modify theirs, I would want to exclude results from the “for sale” section, etc.
I can certainly agree with that. I created this article https://www.largescalecentral.com/articles/150/a-master-index-for-the-j-b-rr. just so I could find what I had done. It’s sort of a pain to keep up with, and I have probably been the only person to really use it, but it has been SO helpful to me so I can sort of remind myself just how I did something way back when.
I WOULD like a “search” function that allows me to search all posts by a specific person - I KNOW so and so wrote something, but I can’t remember exactly what. (Yeah, I know, MY memory is going. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-embarassed.gif))
My $.02. And I’ll offer again, Bob, that I’m a software developer by trade and am willing to donate some work to help, since it may be tricky to find an off the shelf piece of software that does what you want. Of course, it would need to be a part of the site that is easy to separate out…
To me the key thing that brings me to LSC are the builds.
The thing I have missed on the current site are:
A better chat would be nice: more obvious how to share photos (auto sized so they don’t get too big) and videos (embeded not just a pointer off site) and pointers to posts on the site (so you can talk about the cool stuff people are doing), along with more fun stuff to do interactively (though the “twit” easter egg has been getting a good workout). How about a video chat room you can join if you like?
Sorry, went on for too long here. The software developer in me…
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.
Second, there is a great monthly publication called “The Garden Whistle” in New Zealand. It is free and emailed to their mailing list monthly and is well worth reading with great photos. If only someone in the USA could do something similar it would fill the gap now left vacant by the demise of GR.
Regards
Peter Lucas
MyLocoSound
Bob,
First, the sustains:
My suggestion would include:
improve the search function. As a user and not a programmer, I find that having a list of tags helped us at work when we needed legacy projects. The list was “hard,” meaning you could not add to it to prevent it from becoming broad to the point of meaningless. I bet there are 20 words (steam, diesel, goods, passenger, industry, station, etc.) that would fit most articles.
Increase discoverability. I found this website by shear accident. Could this auto-feed an eponymous FaceBook site, for instance? Are there search terms or phrases a new person would use that might guide them here when they go to Google / Bing? For instance, “How do I fix my Bachmann 10-wheeler I just bought?” Sorry, sore spot…
Create “family” accounts. It is no secret I am trying to keep my kids involved in the hobby. It is also no secret that there is a lot of kvetching about the lack of young people in the hobby. Is there a way to create an account for minors that is linked to their parent’s (parents’) account(s)? For example, OD posts, I get a notification she wants to post something, and then I approve it? It would provide a minor a degree of independent interaction under a screen name with the site without taking their parents out of the loop.
Thanks for taking input!
Eric
Bob McCown said:
Hi folks
With the GR being folded into MR, and me currently contemplating what to do with LSC for the future, I figure I’d open a discussion separate from the GR thread.
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)
I’d like to keep this on topic, please.
So, what can I do?
Bob
I thought about this and think I have a suggestion on how some of the void can be filled.
One aspect Deb and I enjoyed in GR was Nancy Norrris’s regional reporters section. The reason is that we liked reading about what others were doing to address an issue. For example in the fall issue She is doing a section on building tunnels which we contributed to.
We do similar things here but if you do not know where to look they are hard to find and if you are new, you do not even know it is there.
Perhaps we could do something similar here but do it differently that we do now.
Every couple of months you could select a topic and have some contributors across the site describe how they handled the topic. The difference would be that these how to posts would be in a separate forum topic and each contributors contribution in a locked thread so only each of the contributions was displayed. A separate thread could then be constructed per topic were we all could comment on the approaches discussed. Over time this would provide an excellent knowledge base of specific topic related issues that would be easy to reference should you need to go back and look at it.
This would require a two level tread base, the top level would be say How To, and the second level would be on topics.
Just a thought.
Stan
Stanley Ames said:
Bob McCown said:
Hi folks
With the GR being folded into MR, and me currently contemplating what to do with LSC for the future, I figure I’d open a discussion separate from the GR thread.
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)
I’d like to keep this on topic, please.
So, what can I do?
Bob
I thought about this and think I have a suggestion on how some of the void can be filled.
One aspect Deb and I enjoyed in GR was Nancy Norrris’s regional reporters section. The reason is that we liked reading about what others were doing to address an issue. For example in the fall issue She is doing a section on building tunnels which we contributed to.
We do similar things here but if you do not know where to look they are hard to find and if you are new, you do not even know it is there.
Perhaps we could do something similar here but do it differently that we do now.
Every couple of months you could select a topic and have some contributors across the site describe how they handled the topic. The difference would be that these how to posts would be in a separate forum topic and each contributors contribution in a locked thread so only each of the contributions was displayed. A separate thread could then be constructed per topic were we all could comment on the approaches discussed. Over time this would provide an excellent knowledge base of specific topic related issues that would be easy to reference should you need to go back and look at it.
This would require a two level tread base, the top level would be say How To, and the second level would be on topics.
Just a thought.
Stan
Stan,
I think that’s a good idea, but coming up with a topic might be tough. We could have a forum where folks could submit ideas for a future topic. Perhaps a poll, or just have our BD make a selection from there.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-embarassed.gif)
Jim Rowson said:
My $.02. And I’ll offer again, Bob, that I’m a software developer by trade and am willing to donate some work to help, since it may be tricky to find an off the shelf piece of software that does what you want. Of course, it would need to be a part of the site that is easy to separate out…
To me the key thing that brings me to LSC are the builds.
- For the author the reward is the documentation and interaction and help and ego stroking
- For the “expert” or “old fart” reader, it is fun to see others at work and build relationships, and always learning new things and getting motivated to get on with new projects
- For “newbies” the builds are a fantastic place to learn something new and to be inspired
The thing I have missed on the current site are:
- Look at just the build posts in a topic. Not just filter to the original author, but down to just the parts that move the build forward (the author would have to mark them I am guessing, or the UI could have a different place to add a build post vs a reply to a comment from somebody else)
- Tagging or something to help me find techniques. Even within a build topic you might have, for example for a building: architecture ideas, framing and walls, roof details, weathering, details that bring it to life, placing it on the layout, lighting, outdoor resiliency, etc. etc. etc. Again the author might need to add these but they could be prompted
- Follow authors not just topics. Everything from Ray Dunakin (well, the build posts at least)
- Have options for notification: just build posts not comments, everything, etc. Once a day summary of activity I’m following with more details than is available in the current updates dropdown (in that dropdown you don’t know what topic is being mentioned for example)
- Tagging for era, motive power, climate, etc. so you can go see the latest or most popular steam or amtrak (rooster!) or modern diesel, or gets hints for what plants work in your climate
- Tagging allows info to be a bit more easily found, maybe. though a good search is super useful (just build in google search with site:lsc and leverage all that work)
- Of course easy picture and video, particularly from phones and tablets
- Lists of builds by first post recency, by recent activity, by popularity, that I follow; available for an author, for a tag
- Profile for an author could be a spot to have reference info: their builds (similar to Bruce’s build article), pointers off site to other info for their railroad (on facebook, their own site, whatever). I find the current setup a bit frustrating mostly because I can’t see the builds that the author has started in any useful way, just their recent activity. Or maybe I just don’t know how to do that
- Can we add questions as first class objects? In other worse, embed a question in a post that has a life of its own and can have its own page, notifications, etc.? That can become a repository for questions/answers (a community created FAQ).
- Can we somehow “vote” on really clever ideas hidden inside a longer build so they can also be looked at separately and maybe tagged
- Videos can also be super helpful. Can we find videos within builds that illustrate clever techniques and make a “tv” area within each “tag”?
A better chat would be nice: more obvious how to share photos (auto sized so they don’t get too big) and videos (embeded not just a pointer off site) and pointers to posts on the site (so you can talk about the cool stuff people are doing), along with more fun stuff to do interactively (though the “twit” easter egg has been getting a good workout). How about a video chat room you can join if you like?
Sorry, went on for too long here. The software developer in me…
Jim, I’m like you, a “Builder” and for me not so much about running of trains, but the trains bring life to the detail scenery, buildings, etc. that I build. Since I’ve been modeling most of my life, I get most of my ideas from other railroad scales, that is, I can take say, an HO article and convert it to G Scale, or any scale I want. If I was starting over today I would be in Fn3 and not G Scale, but at age 75 I’m not going to get rid of all my LGB and USA Trains and start over, I’m just rebuilding them to a more scale like model, if you have ever been in RC airplanes, they have a scale called, “Stand Off Scale”, that’s where I’m at today. I’m in the process of rebuilding around 40 G Scale rolling stock cars and 4 LGB engines, that should keep me busy for sometime.
trainman
I support Jim Rowson’s thoughts. I have not posted here for sometime as I too have found posting photos, drawings, etc., difficult although I have used TinyPic for some solutions. I understand Bob’s problem about storage but today it’s cheap and getting cheaper. I would be willing to pay a membership fee if that were to help with storage costs and perhaps easier website software to navigate for direct postings from personal computers. Or perhaps Bob, in order to save costs, could delete posts after a period to save space and render the site more manageable.
I, like other comments made here, have noted the majority of posters are East coast folks and have largely dwindled to a few dozen or so participants. That I haven’t posted much recently makes me part of the problem as a Westerner, other than the California few. I seldom see information from folks that are relatively near by that I could visit. For example, is anyone aware here of a incredible club-developed railroad at Torilla Flats, AZ? I’ve never heard mention of it here, but perhaps I’ve overlooked it.
One mention made here is an excellent idea. Bob may be able to draw relevant advertisement to the site in lieu of GR’s disappearance. Perhaps an excellent source of revenue for him. None of us really want to pay to play on this site, but costs are costs and Bob’s ability to maintain a free site has been remarkable up to now, but costs need money. It may be time for all of us to recognize that.
Nothing stays the same forever and perhaps it’s time for an adjustment to LSC to benefit the creator and manager for it’s continuance. I look forward to what Bob decides and will support whatever it takes.
Everyone stay safe and duck this damn virus!
Maybe a peak under the subscription tab will open the way for additional pictures and I find ease of posting. Not one click and done but simple enough. IMHO (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
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A thought about ads: I subscribe to a couple of news sites that then remove ads. This gives folks the option To see ads or not. Those news sites end up being faster to load with no ads, too.
Might still be interesting to have a page to go just to see ads for when you are searching for a product. Even for subscribers.
Does eBay have some kind of affiliate program like amazon does where LSC, for example, could get a kickback on items purchased from am LSC page?
edited to add pointer to eBay network partner program: [link]
