Craig Fuller here, owner of Firecrown.
First off, I want to apologize for how long it took to bring the forums back live. We attempted to migrate the existing forums to a new version of the old software and realized after doing so that was a disaster; instead, we moved to a far more modern platform that is in the cloud.
This platform is far more stable and we are invested in making it a rich and engaging experience.
Please share your ideas on what we can do to grow the community.
Glad to see the forums are back, Craig! And kudos to you and the Firecrown team on the investments in railroad journalism and media. Merry Christmas!
Lots of work ahead. Nick has a long list of improvements we plan to make to the experience⌠I plan to be a regular here, so feel free to reach out and lets talk trains!
I echo the sentiments about being happy to see the forums come back alive. I imagined that the old forum software was in such bad shape that it was creating havoc bringing them back to life.
Iâm excited to hear that there is a long list of improvements for Nick to work on. Iâm liking the new look and feel as well as new features which I need to learn. I canât wait to see those improvements go live.
As far as the purpose of the topic on how to build the community, the first hurdle has been cleared. You got them back online. The second thing is that Iâm seeing alot of familiar names. Thatâs is a good thing as the forums have a history of knowledge and talent. To keep it growing, keep improving and get the word out. Members will most assuredly post engaging topics which will draw people in. There is a pool of modelers and enthusiasts out there that are pulling for you to succeed. They will step up. Having both you and Nick posting here is important. We like the engagement. We like to hear about inner workings. We like sneak peeks into what is happening. You donât have to spill the beans but pulling back the curtain just a little builds excitement.
I was excited when you purchased these titles as I knew then that the magazines and online content would live on. I could see the writing on the wall with the previous owners. Your purchase will most certainly breathe new life into the publications and online content. They now have a future. I had re-upped to MR for three years about two weeks before the sale was announced. I wasnât concerned about the money in the least bit as I knew you wouldnât buy it to shut it down. I had faith then and have it now that bright days are ahead. I canât wait to see what develops. I may as well give a shout out to your staff while Iâm at it. In talking with a couple of them at Train Fest they are clearly excited about the future, with one commenting they are looking forward to MRâs 100th anniversary 10 years from now.
I donât know how much of this was actually useful, but thanks for having a platform for me to post it.
Jeff
Jeff - really appreciate the comments. It has been a journey.
The biggest challenge we faced is that the old forums were built on a platform that isnât even around anymore. It was very clunky, as you can imagineâŚ
I was worried that the community may not return since the forums were down for so long; Our goal is to make up ground by investing in new features, virtual meetups, and content
Craig, I want to thank you for the professional approach as well as the commitment you have brought to the acquired assets. It is always better to take the time to do something right than to have to redo the work.
Model trains are a hobby to me but I have a great passion for it, as well as to helping newcomers to the hobby. With that said, here is my hought on how to grow this Forum.
The forum suffers from a lack of regular posters. Why is that? The main difference between this Forum and the four other Forums that I regularly participate in is clear. This forum does not natively host photographs. Any picture requires a link to another site we must use to host the picture. No other Toy Train Forum requires this. It is frankly a nuisance, so many of us post elsewhere. All the modelers I communicate with on other Forums feel the same as I do. I do not see the growth of this Forum that you and Firecrown want as long as links to other hosting sites are required for pictures. Thanks for listening.
Tom
Tom, I just made a post to the photo fun topic and uploaded three photos directly from my iPhone. I think this new software handles photos differently than the old (ancient) software.
Jeff
Craig - thank you for your efforts. 
That is great, I had not seen the instructions for directly posting pictures. I will give it a try.
Add a video if youâd like as wellâŚ
finally the 21st century (:
A suggestion or two:
Well, I just went back to the old forum, hit the âbackâ button, then clicked the âVisit the Forumsâ button, which brought me here. So I think the first has been met.
A feature that has been implemented (and it works!) is that once you have posted in a thread â either a new one, or as a continuation of one of the old ones â you will automagically be returned to the ânext unread postâ for you in that thread.
The new software also gets rid of the âpagesâ that were chronically in the wrong order in the old package. I was at first terrified that some of these threads are nearly 8000 posts long (for example the two âquizâ threads) but there is a stable and responsive scroll bar that neatly brings you to the âendâ where, thereafter, youâll start with the first unread post, or scroll ffom it. That achieves the functionality I saw in the the RyPN platform.
This forum is built on a completely platform. It shouldnât be plagued with the legacy issues at all.
Bob, since I âreadâ (as I thought it said) âŚautomagicallyâŚ(Bob made a typo) and almost wrote you to take a jab. Re-read and the âjabâ is on me. How silly to think you would make a mistake. BTW: My son informs Houstonâs HAD to leave. endmrw1215242211
I guess I was referring to the âbuttonsâ at the bottom of the News Wire page, called âCommunityâ etc. Those connections take you to the âOldâ forum pages, on which a few have still been able to post.
Weâve kept those live through the transition to ensure that everything worked before turning the old forums off.
Our plan is to do that by mid January.
Another thought is to separate the Model Railroader from the Trains from the Classic TrainsâŚ
Just a thoughtâŚ
