I’m a fairly recent arrival in these forums (fora ?) and so forgive me if i’m asking something that has been hashed over a few times before…
I received the latest issue of MR today in the post - very impressive when you consider I live in the UK. But I was somewhat confused by the date references in one of the articles - until I realised I was holding the April issue. We’re still in February - has MR entered some kind of space time continuum unknown in the UK? Most magazines here are just releasing their March 2016 issues.
The MR Archives are great - but search facility essentially seems to have two options. I can search by article title, or I can search through the text using keywords like “kitbash”. My problem is that if “Kitbash” isn’t used in the title an article won’t show up and if used in the text I can be swamped with “Kitbash” references that are irrelevent. Is there a method for weeding out irrelevent results, or could articles be tagged by subject matter? Currently I’ve been looking through back issues from cover to cover bookmarking anything of interest but this doesn’t seem very efficient (but is a lot of fun!).
It took me about 2 weeks to get my March issue once the preview appeared on the MR website. That would put deliver into the 1st or 2nd week of March, for the April issue, which is typical of monthly magazines in the US.
Weekly mags are delivered consistently on time, monthlies are a little more variable and newletters that are shipped bulk mail may take several weeks before everyone receives the current issue.
Can’t help you with number 2. This forum is the only one I participate in where you can’t search using and/or, dates or authors. I’m not surprised if the mag is the same.
I’m wondering if this explains why my sister in Tennessee complains her English riding magazines are always “weeks out of date” when she gets them as British magazines are just issuing their March issues this week!
I thought April was a good issue though (for me as a returnee to the hobby anyway).
I mean the back issues of the magazine held online. The quality of material is great but little effort seems to have been put into the search function (unless I’m completely missing something - which is perfectly possible).
I would have preferred to have bought the back issues on a CD to be honest.
As a former retailer that had an account with Kalmbach just a couple years ago, I can tell you that it is common practice for US magazines that the date on the cover is the date the item is to be removed from the rack.
So when the magazine has “April 2016” printed on the cover, it is to be removed from the rack on April 1st, 2016 and replaced with the May issue. Since the next issue has to be at the retailer’s business a few days before the first of the month (for inventory and other purposes), and one needs to leave time for shipping, etc., the issue is usually shipped a week before the first of the month.
Therefore, subscribers (who get the issue direct from the printer) tend to get the issue 2 months ahead of the month that’s actually printed on the cover.
Note that the OP got the April 2016 issue in the Post (Mail) in the UK. That is impressive in that hard copy subscribers in the US just received the March issue a couple weeks ago and will not recieve their copies of the April issue until some time in March.
By the way the April 2016 issue is in the All Time Digital Archives.
if (and I mean if) the search engine is similar to google, you can put words between quotes (e.g. “kitbashed locomotives”) to find things with exactly that phrase which avoids find things with both of those words anywhwere in the text.
the other thing is the minus option which means things not having the word. Example, structures -stations, would find things with structures but exclude any with stations.
The best way to search this site is to go to your favorite search engine and enter http://cs.trains.com plus your search word. The result should be only links to pages on this site.
The OP’s specific question is about navigating through the “All-Time Digital Archives”, not just the forums.
Since I just resubscribed to the print version of MRR, I also subscribed to the Archives, and it’s great. I haven’t tried to use the search function in the archives yet, but I’m going to give it a try.
I would think it should work like any search function, such as seperating words with commas, or surrounding in parenthesis, or even adding “and” between the words. I guess I’ll have to go try it out!
It is awkward to search for things in the old issues of MR strored on this site on the digital archives – or for that matter, in the paper issues stored on your shelves (and I have MR solid back to 1949, with sporadic issues back to 1934, but I often use the digital archive All Access Pass magazines because they are convenient.
As a rule I use the magazine index under “Resources” on this site and then seek out the digital or paper issue.
A true “word” search would be a really nice addition to the All Access Pass digital archive, so that even if a word (or a name) was embedded in a letter to the editor it could be found. That matters because over the years many articles have been corrected by letters to the editor, including scale drawings that had mistakes, electronic ciruits that were printed in error, and such. And some pieces that are like articles are part of something like Clinic or the editorial.
I have paper indexes going back well before 1960 but that too can be a laborious way to search for something, although I have used color coded highlighters to indicate articles I know I will want to find again. Also at various times the compilers of the annual index have changed topic headings or indexing criteria. What I do find useful, although it comes to a halt around 1985, are the softbound Stephans’ Railroad Directory indexes for MR, Trains, and RMC.
Dave - isn’t that what the word search in the Archives does? I know if you search by word it brings up that word even if included in adverts, so I’m sure it does so in letters too.
The biggest problem is if you are just searching on a general basis - so if you want to fill a space on your layout and are looking for plans of an industry to fill it, then you need to make multiple searches using keywords. Or just go through the article index each month and bookmark anything that looks promising (which is much more fun and allows you to additionally find stuff you weren’t really looking for but is nice to have).
If each article was tagged with a few keywords then you could have a search system that worked a bit like Walthers website - hit “structures”, specify “scale” and zero in from there.
is the issue delivered in UK actually printed in the US? My copy ships from a local business, so if it was printed in the US then it comes in a bulk shipment and re-shipped locally.
Problem is, it is a search function, not a filter function. A filter would be very difficult for MR to create, but it is useful when ordering computer parts.
I can search MEMORY and the apply filters for DDR3 memore, for 8 GB, for Brand Name etc.
You could try searching “Kitbash”+“Stations”+“1900” and see what that will do.
We’re well aware of the limitations of the search function in the MR All-Time Archive. We, too, would much prefer a Google-like algorithm. Unfortunately, the companies that could write that code for us expect Google-like pay. [:|]
Thanks Greg - that is much more what I was looking for. I looked for “drawings” with your method and picked up just over a thousand results in MR. Using the Archive search function I got 24 results using the “Article” search, and 10041 hits using the text search (no date limits for either). Obviously 1030 is rather more manageable than 10041. As you say, if that could be linked directly, it would be wonderful.
So Steven, the functionality is already in one part of your indexing system…
Here’s an interesting observation: Malcolm has received his April issue in England, but it has yet to arrive at my local hobby shop on the Maryland/Pennsylvania State Line!