[Chugman]

I was just thinking this morning about forums in general and this one in particular. Does the forum seem a little "sleepy" to you, or is it just me?

What do you think might be lacking?

What positive things in your opinion would cause more active and constructive participation?

Art

 

[gimme30]

I've been doing my part over in the N scale section when I can but yeah, it's still kinda dead. Maybe as winter sets in it will pick up.

In the meantime coffee is the answer. We all need to drink more. Chock full O' Nuts and lots of it.

 

[ogaugeguy]

I don't think it's your imagination, Art. because if it is then we're sharing the same imaginings. Don't know the cure or what's causing it as it seems systemic to here since the other major O gauge forum as well as the new upstart one don't seem to be sharing a similar situation and I've noticed that some folks whose posting has crawled to a snails pace here still post regularly on those other two.
I too, welcome suggestions how to reinvigorate the atmosphere here to revitalize postings.

 

[Yellowstone Special]

Well, you may not want to liven it up too much here. This forum and the O scale section in particular, seems to have a lot of "characters" in it. So you have to be careful what you post, or if it gets too lively, then the thread may be closed and locked.

As one poster stated in the Electric Trains Forum thread (in Union Station), big boys that play with trains can get upset about anything. And he is definitely right.

I think a lot of forum members have unrealistic expectations of what model train forums are supposed to be. Many spent more time posting on them about every little thing, than they do running their trains.

 

[Krieglok]

It is probably just a natural lull. The nature of this forum doesn’t lend itself to mass amounts of postings like OGR does, but the posts here seem to be of a better quality.

Figure people are going to shows and getting ready for the holiday season. Another interesting thing is the number of people who view the O gauge forum and any given time. I work nights and when I get a chance, I log on and look. At 2am there can be as many as 140 people viewing the O gauge forum.

There are a few new people posting here, which is great. I think we have to encourage more participation by keeping things upbeat and keep conflicts to an absolute minimum...

Tom

 

[Severn]

I think it's pretty lively if you look at the new posts and ignore forum specific info.

 

[Lehigh74]

It’s up to the people that call MTF home to wake things up. Post threads and images of what you are working on, what your finished layout looks like, what you are thinking about doing, or what locos/rolling stock you recently added. Start a new thread that others can contribute to (like what did you do on your layout lately).

 

[ogaugeguy]

...There are a few new people posting here, which is great. I think we have to encourage more participation by keeping things upbeat and keep conflicts to an absolute minimum...

Tom

Good advice,Tom. I agree. I also agree with you, Lehigh74, since the types of topics you mention seem more prevalent on the two forums I mentioned.
While I'm not advocating a posting competition between us and them, we MTF members have to keep the postings frequent to be "fresh enough" so that people will stop by here on a regular basis to check out and comment on what's been happening with fellow members.

 

[Fire21]

Chugman wondered about "active and constructive participation". The best way to get lots of activity would be to open Union Station to political and religious debate. But that has been tried and was terribly destructive.

I belong to a small NASCAR forum. Most of our members no longer come to it because they are all on Facebook and make their contacts with each other there. None of us active members have been able to figure how to overcome that.

Personally I find MTF has quite a lot of activity, although a lot of it pertains to subjects I find irrelevant to me. Nonetheless, I often read most posts, even though I likely have nothing to add to it.

I guess if one seeks more activity, perhaps they just need to belong to and frequently visit other train forums in addition to MTF. JMHO.

 

[Jeff T]

Over the years I've participated in many forums for various lengths due to interest in a specific item or hobby...

One of the best was V8Buick.com. They had a section called "The Bench", a majority of the posts were here. This is where guys really got to know each other, trade life events, family stories and basic bs...

With MTF most members go to the scale they are most interested in, for most of us here its "O". When we want to post something non train related, we are asked to go to Union Station and share it with the class per say. I believe most of us have a comfort level here on the O gauge section.

Having a section like Union Station in the O gauge section open to all conversations would open it up a bit, I think...

Just a thought...

 

[seayakbill]

A lot of folks on this forum are viewers and not posters. If the numbers are correct, typically there are between 100 to 150 viewing this O Gauge forum at any given time throughout the day. On the new kid on the block there are between 3 and 15 viewing at any given time during the day. When I wrote this there were 141 viewing this O Guage forum and 9 viewing the new one.

It would be interesting to see how many are viewing OGR through the day but I don't know if there is a viewer count being shown.

Bill

 

[Spence]

I think it runs in cycles. A couple years ago I started basically the same thread that Art started because it was real slow but it picks up you have ups and downs and as someone previously stated Thanksgiving is coming and a lot of people are busy with that and lotta the husbands have a honey do list before they can even get to their trains.

 

[NorfolkSouthernguy]

I think it is a bit dead and been that way for a while now. I do not venture on other train forums but I am going to just to see the difference.

I just responded today to my own question I asked weeks ago. It has sat for over 6 weeks with not one response or even a attempt to try to answer it. I never thought I would have a question no one could answer but it’s true. I guess a good experiment would be to ask the same question on another forum and see how that goes.

I started up a poll on here recently not just to see the results but a attempt to liven things up on here. Only 107 votes casted yet viewed 1,339 times. Polls are a good way to test how many people are actually active on forums like this or just a lot of lurkers whom do not participate.

I hope things do not dry up completely on here but never say never.

 

[Big Ed]

Some of you have not been here long enough to see changes, or notice them. :smokin:

 

[Millstonemike]

I can think of two things: The move by some to the new forum (some of those were daily/multiple posters here); and (2) The time of year.

Perhaps the Christmas season will prove to be more lively with purchases/gifts and colder weather kicking up train related activities.

We see.

 

[teledoc]

To add to Millstonemike’s comment of a lot of older members, who started a new forum, a few were busy posters. That alone appeared, that this forum was busy & active. The downside was, that a lot of the posts, were just short comments, with no value, to the original subject, but more along the lines of a “Like”, and nothing more. I read a lot of threads, but if I can’t add anything constructive to the subject, I don’t post to it. My primary interest is Tinplate first, followed by O gauge. There aren’t many members active in the Tinplate sub forum, so that doesn’t see a lot of activity.

 

[Big Ed]

To add to Millstonemike’s comment of a lot of older members, who started a new forum, a few were busy posters. That alone appeared, that this forum was busy & active. The downside was, that a lot of the posts, were just short comments, with no value, to the original subject, but more along the lines of a “Like”, and nothing more. I read a lot of threads, but if I can’t add anything constructive to the subject, I don’t post to it. My primary interest is Tinplate first, followed by O gauge. There aren’t many members active in the Tinplate sub forum, so that doesn’t see a lot of activity.

I was going to say something like that and I could add more but won't.
Someone will start a thread and the whole thread will be,
Atta boy, nice, sweet, I like, wow, got to get me one, thanks, etc etc now that makes for an interesting forum.

Should be named The good old Atta boy forum.

 

[MattR]

Well I can tell you that teledoc is right. No value. Puffing each other. Constant Brown nosing. Fake, fake, crap. But.....it makes posts!!

Just for fun go see the kissing ptc's butt they are currently busy with. "Thank you ptc, we love you, thanks for ogf, we're the best" Celebrating his 1000th post. Who gives a rats bottom. Grown men. Truly embarrassing for them. But again...it makes posts! And it's all the old originals from here. A few i didn't expect to be such huge butt kissers. But they're joining right in, all puckered up!

 

[MattR]

Ha! Ed, you and I were typing same thing at the same time! You just finished faster!

 

[Big Ed]

Ha! Ed, you and I were typing same thing at the same time! You just finished faster!

Yes but I think you explained it better. ha ha ha thanks I love it, great, well said, etc, etc, pat pat on the back, shake shake hands, atta boy