Well after 50 years or so of being an MR subscriber on and off I finally will call it quits. Why, because I don’t feel the value is there any more. The subscription price is way above what other magazines charge for equal content and the MR video plus seems to be just another add on to increase revenue without that much added value while taking away from the already high magazine subscription price. plus the hassle of trying to get the videos to play ( which I did) When you pay close to $70 for a magazine and some, yes excellent videos, but where do you say no.
I wish MR well and I will miss the monthly magazine and will continue to purchase the magazine at the newsstand when something of interest catches my eye.
I have lurked on the forum for years and have learned a lot from the talented folks who willing give there excellent advice and I thank you profusely for sharing your wisdom. I will still do so until that is taken away.
Again thanks to all who shared there knowledge and the best wishes to the MR staff, It was a great ride.
You don’t have to be a subscriber to use these forums. Our most active moderator doesn’t subscribe.
A cost versus value judgement is always a personal thing, and I have no interest in trying to tell you how to spend your money. I will make the wry comment that my subscription to Tetsudo Mokei Shumi (Japanese language equivalent to MR) runs me about $250/year. Because of my prototype interests I consider it a good value. I doubt that most of our fellow forum followers would agree.
By all means stick around, and don’t hesitate to participate in (or even start) discussions. You’ll always be welcome.
N scale magazine costs almost as much as MRR, it comes around every two months and there aren’t very many pages. It’s N scale exlusive which is why I subscribe I just wish it didn’t cost as much as MRR.
I agree with Tomikawa, do stick around it’s great to have lots of people around.
Our public library subscribes to MR. Yours may also. It’s worth a visit.
In this digital age where we can find so much online, the library is a forgotten resource. We use ours to get books-on-disk, which we take on long drives to pass the time. Pay them a visit - but you don’t have to pay them.
Mister B, you haven’t been to our library lately, it is usually crowded, especially during peak hours.
To the OP, I hear you. I have been a subscriber for a short 10 years now, but like all hobby magazines, it is hard to find enough content of interest after a while. For me, the same is true with tropical fish magazines and golf magazines. I am constantly asking myself if I should continue to subscribe to any magazines.
Concur. And there’s an added benefit. Our library only keeps 3 years of MR (current and 2 previous), so when I returned to the hobby in 2005 I asked them each November if I could have the oldest year’s issues which they’d otherwise trash. They agreed, and I used those issues to create a legacy base for my subscription.
I have to say that I feel the value is there and in comparison with other magazines on Model Railroading MR is certainly competitive. Whether it is worth the price, is a judgment call we all have to make.
That’s true. Even if we didn’t use it, though, I’d consider it a worthwhile government expense, unlike a lot of them we pay for.
Our library isn’t crowded. But, we’re a small suburban town, and computer ownership and broadband-at-home is pretty much universal. Like many libraries, ours also provides computers and free wi-fi.
Gee. We have our own library. We have volumes dating back into the 1600s, right now I am reading a history published in 1904. I was looking at a four volume set of “Modern History” published in 1800.
I suppose we must have well over 100,000 volumes in our library. The religion section at the local university takes up one shelf. The religion section in our library takes up one whole room.
Private libraries are not free. We have to by the computers, the catalog software we have to assign a monk as librarian, and of course we have to buy the books. We have a substantial budget for books.
Nicest part about the Library is that my layout lives in a classroom above the library.
I totally agree with your observation of value is something each individual must weigh. MR is the only model railroading magazine that I still subscribe to because it was the best value. For the price of a half tank of gas in my pickup I could pay for a year’s subscription to the MR magazine so that’s not the real issue. Maybe I should have stated in more detail the whys of my decision. MR has always been a class act in their format and quality of content. You paid your money and you knew you would receive a quality product, but something has changed in my observations. Never before have I witnessed the frustration with MR on this forum as I have in the past few months. From the MR video plus to the pop ups everywhere to the multiple emails hyping every thing they have to sell. I feel that the “in your face” advertizing is not only annoying especially when you’re paying a premium price for the product but something I would expect from one of my $12 a year car magazines not MR.
Maybe I’m overreacting but I really find the changes annoying.
Thanks again to all who have replied with their own observations and suggestions.
At the current subscription rate the magazine works out to be $3.57 a month…That’s less then a Big Mac.
To each his own spending but,I plan on digitally subscribing to MR and Trains which is still less then a Big Mac combo and far healthier for your heart…
I respect and agree with your position. Things have changed (change is inevitable), but not all changes will result in improvement. As a fellow baby boomer, I can attest to the feelings of diminished value in what we buy. It seems that everything these days is directed at how fast or how cool (how many bells and whistles can be designed into a product - digital cameras are an excellent example) a product appears. Just watch a little TV - the images flash on the screen at rapid-fire speed, then comes my favorite disclaimer - images simulated and sequences shortened. We are being conditioned to accept that what we see and are told is how perfect a product actually is.
I don’t envy the staff at Model Railroader their task at making Video Plus work consistently well for all users. I have read with interest the forum threads here on the subject, and remember from my PC support days that not all PC applications can coexist happily. There is a nearly infinite number of operating system/browser/add-ons/internet access/media player combinations in use. I have no illusion of how well Video Plus or any other like product is going to work in this environment. I don’t need the irritation and frustration, and have decided I can live without it. For me, there is no substitute for MR magazine as a comprehensive information source (despite the ever-increasing price). It’s a price I’m willing to pay for what I receive every month. I take for granted the convenience and flexibility of having the information at my fingertips without having to boot-up and log-on.
I hope you continue to haunt the forums. Great advice and differing opinions are what make this the beneficial resource that it is. Your input is desired.
As others have already posted, there is no need to completely leave this MR forum if you don’t want to. The more the merrier I say. There are so many different points of view and levels of experience here and that generally translates into many different ways of doing things that if you ask a question you are bound to find at least one post that will meet your needs. On the flip side, you yourself may have an answer for another modeler who has a question. So at least pop in from time to time. [Y]
In the newspaper and magazine industry, these are the times that try men’s souls.
The advent of on-line everything has fundamentally changed magazines and newspapers forever. I can get all the news I need online now. I have no need for newsmagazines or newspapers. Likewise, I can get all the train news I need online, too. So, MR and pretty much every other magazine has to adapt to the brave new world of online content.
I’m old fashioned. I don’t really like online content. I want to read a magazine sitting in bed before I go to sleep, or on a lounge chair by a pool somewhere. But, I’m a dinosaur. MR can’t cater just to people like me, and I can understand that.
Like everyone else I respect your decision. But I’m not certain where the $70 comes from. I just looked and the current subscription rate is $77.95 for two years.
Concerning the e-mails, I believe that there is an option where you can check that you don’t want to receive them.
I noticed that with a leading scuba diving magazine I subscribed to years ago. After a while, I noticed most of the content fell into one of two categories: new product reviews and reviews of scuba diving vacation destinations. After about 3 yrs, I noticed they started cycling through some of the same destinations from a few years earlier. It was at that point I decided to pull the plug.
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I have only subscribed to MR for about 9 yrs. A few years back, it did seem the articles had gotten a bit stale, but in the last couple of years, I think the quality of the articles as well as the “how-to” stuff has gotten better. At least, there is something to grab my interest in each issue. I enjoyed the recent series on the staff’s quarry branch, particularly the one-page spread early on describing the prototype. I thought Pelle Soberg’s article on the asphalt terminal in the current issue was just brilliant (and I really appreciate that MR subscribers can download a free copy of the original article from 1994 he referenced!). I’m really looking forward to Pelle’s article on track weathering in the next issue.
Well after digesting all the great responses I received I think I just need to chill out and go with the world as it is today instead of being a cranky old fert.
I’m sure MR is looking at the subscriber base and realizing that they have a lot of, shall I say mature subscribers and there is a need to get the younger generations involved. What better way than using the internet and videos so those that live and breathe with their smart phones, tablets, notebooks and whatever have a way to be mobile and still become part of the MR family. Times change and so do the ways in which we receive information, I love sitting down in the morning with a cup of coffee and reading the paper, my adult kids not so much, they use the internet for their news and information.
So if it works in getting more people involved in the hobby I’m all for it.
As far as the price of MR magazine it was brought to my attention that the cost was inline with other comparable magazines which is quite true, I was comparing apples to oranges I do subscribe to about 15 magazines from auto, guns, classic cars and an assortment of other interest I have and you guys were right a quality magazine does cost more and I guess you get what you pay for and really my grips are not with the cost of the magazine it was just with the other issues of the internet and the pop ups and never ending emails which I was told I can unsubscribe to those. I’ll just live with it and enjoy the magazine. So with that I’ll send my subscription in for just the magazine and enjoy that and try and ignore all the other stuff surrounding it and go back to lurking on the forum and siphon off all the good stuff from that.
Thanks for all your great input it really was an eye opener.