Motivate me, yes. Resolve problems, absolutely! Given ideas, yes. I hope I help others.
Distracted from layout work, maybe occasionally a little. Not made me armchair! Yes, it’s social. It didn’t affect my interest in magazines.
I like to share progress, and want to present something nice enough for public view. At least decent. This motivates me to up the quality on the layout. And seeing the quality work of quite a number of members here raises the bar!
And I like that I can ask questions and get reliable answers. Dan
I’m going to say no, it does not, has not improved my modeling. That’s why I have not been on here much. It was OK when other things prevented me from doing much actual modeling - that has changed.
But, I don’t think at any point it hurt my modeling either. But then again I am not overly driven by what others do.
Back to all that things that are now making modeling possable.
Facebook start date 2004. My first foray into “bulletin boards” was car related and started around 1995. These forums are the first real social media. The other later developments are trivial by comparison and I ignore them all.
It is accurate to describe these bulletin boards now as forums because the interaction tends to be more immediate. Often it gets personal which is a shame in a way but very much the case in the old forum or marketplace. Visit any European city to see how ubiquitous the physical social meeting places are. The modern coffee shop sort of fills that role today but much less well than the piazza.
Originally participants on these media sites tended to post much less frequently, more like a bulletin board at school or a place of work. The forum or marketplace is a very, very old human phenomenon and these online forums serve a very similar purpose.
The number one benefit of these formats is information. I believe the internet began, its prime original purpose in fact, was to facilitate communication of useful information. The military and the scientific research Worlds were the original intended users.
The number one drawback is the lack of real human interaction. For example, nobody on this site could know what a funny guy I am. That’s funny ha ha, not funny strange just btw. I’m very popular with children and dogs. I have people in stitches at parties with my one liner quip style of conversation, and that’s before I start on the wine or whisky. But here I am l’enfant terrible. Highly amusing for me but perhaps an unfortunate waste of an opportunity for most everyone else it seems.
I use forums like this just to post information and, more often, to obtain information. I began way back in 1995 in a desperate search for information about repairing my Alfa Romeo. My very first thread saved me $2,000 in unnecessary repairs. I’ve been a fan ever since.
There are both moderated and unmoderated forums. The unmoderated ones will post immediately with no filters. The moderated ones have to be approved by the forum moderator(s) before they get posted. The moderator’s job is to enforce the state rules for the forum such as decorum as well as keeping the posts on topic. The moderators have a lot of leeway in exercising their judgement. I participated in one online forum for many years that was down to one moderator. He died suddenly last spring and now the forum is dead because there is no one around who has the authority to approve new posts.
The unmoderated forums tend to get very nasty in that they are a no holds barred environment. In addition, a lot of off topic posts made, often far outnumbering the on topic ones. One that I participate in frequently has a guy who several times a day will swamp post dozens upon dozens of off topic, often anti-Semitic posts. No one ever bothers to reply to his nonsense so I don’t know why he does it but it is a nuisance to have to scroll through all that. I’ll bet he is doing the same to other forums.
I do belong to a couple of Facebook groups that focus on weathering. Some great stuff is posted, and has both given me ideas and tips on how to make my weathering better. I am also a member of a board that focuses on prototype modeling. Some fantastic stuff there for people that are interested in more than “just good enough”.
Has social media done anything to help my modeling?
I’m going with absolutely no. If anything it is generally a distraction to my modeling. I am no longer on any other social media groups except one other model train forum.
People on some forums (not necessarily this one, but others) have become relentlessly picky to the nth degree, and while some manufacturer errors and omissions have come to light that were able to be fixed by the manufacturers, even for which manufacturers apologized, I do not generally believe that online forums are all that helpful.
Although I may find out more quickly about new model releases online, my dealers are on top of their game, and if there was no internet, I’d still be very well informed about what is coming and when.
In one particularly notable case, I happened to be at a manufacturer the day a brand new from the ground up diesel model came in, and I was able to pick out one that I really liked, bought it and took it home. I posted a favorable post with a few photos about how much I liked that particular model over on another (non-Model Railroading) forum. There were a couple minor errors made on the model that were easily remedied by the manufacturer who went the extra mile to provide free replacement (larger and correct) fuel tanks and free replacement truck bolsters to eliminate a height off the rail issue (their admitted mistake).
The venom directed toward myself and that manufacturer, and my being called a “paid shill” by some folks on that other forum (I have not worked for any manufacturer for 30 years now) literally took all the joy out of owning that particular model for me such that I subsequently sold it…sorta wish I had it back, as I had picked out an absolutely perfect one in every other respect except the easily fixed deficiencies…but whatever. Every time I see one of those units in my favorite Illinois Central Gulf paint scheme, I am rem
I forgot to mention in my previous reply, THIS is the only social media- interactive website I’m currently active on, no other discussion boards for RR or Facebook, twitter etc. (There is a model truck site too, but I haven’t been there for some time.)
One example of this forums influence on my modeling is: From all the recommendations it gets, I just bought a CMX rail cleaner, not something I’d spend that kind of money on if it hadn’t been so highly spoken of.
I have made a number of informed purchases this way. Informed HERE. Good info.
Would Ebay be considdered interactive? When I hit certain key combinations, people send me cool stuff!
I would consider it very little in that you can ask sellers questions related to the items they sell and the feedback that is left. Otherwise, I would consider it closer to a “silent” auction site. (However, still very much needed in many areas IMHO and not just for railroad items.)