Being that spring is approching with the spring equinox starting on March.20th in near two days this feels like a good way for spring to start, seeing the first forum you ever jouned get a new interface look. It feels fresh.
Wat do you all think?
I doubt this is the full effect. I say that because Kalmbach has not yet sent an announcement that it is up-and-runnning.
That said, I do like it.
-Kevin
Haven’t seen it; I never go there.
My bookmarks always go straight to the Forums General Discussion section and it still looks kind of broken.
I’m a paid subscriber; not a full access one. The new site at the top has the 5 different magazines and I can go on to each one, including their forums. I have not clicked on the ‘30 day free access’ since I don’t want it or need it.
If I can read all of those forums, I think it would be fine. Not sure what other content I would want. Also, I don’t want to spend all of my time here reading as I have a layout to work on and have fun with!
I can understand armchair modelers may want more, and that’s fine. Let’s see what else they plan to roll out and hopefully without an extra cost…
Neal
A new facelift…but still the same 'ol ugly wrinkles underneath…so far.
Tom
It still looks the same to me.
In my 15 years here, I think we have gone through three different versions of forum software adopted by Kalmbach. Each time, I though it wasn’t an improvement, just different. I can’t see that this one is any different. But maybe the improvement is simply behind the scenes and better for their current business policies and operations. I surely couldn’t begrudge them that novelty if it meets their needs; it’s a free site to us after all. The bells and whistles cost extra, and that is to be understood.
I currently subscribe to Classic Trains magazine and for the first time ever am an MR magazine subscriber. I don’t want the burden of having to read and be involved in the other subscriptions and their attendant accessory offerings. The forums are enough…thanks.
I’m getting used to the new footprint. In a few weeks it will feel like home, just like all the MQ’s our family lived in during my 30 year military career.
Maybe it’s just me…but this “new format” looks like a slightly cleaned up version of the old one. I was expecting new colors, features, eliminations of glitches, etc. But since this is a “free” forum, then I guess that I should just continue to contribute and work with what we have.
This is not the new format coming in stage 3. The headers to the different magazine sites are different, and some of the advertising is different (the ads that automatically pop up on the bottom 40% or so of an iPhone screen, after a time delay to catch the inadvertent click, one unfortunate result) but the revised ‘experience’ and the necessary bug fixes are ‘yet to be’ later in spring.
You are right Tom. I mean I still am not notified if someone replies to me on my thread or PM I cant tell and have to look thru for a reply. I mean do I have to askways add the quote of a reply to make sure I am replying so you can tell?
This is the only thread with this take. There are at least another 5 others that ask what happened to this or that.
OK I mispoke there are 7 8
Online cutback https://tinyurl.com/yzcazx6k
MRVP vs Trains.com https://tinyurl.com/yhjdw9vr
The New Trains.com https://tinyurl.com/yhbg8zzs
MR Revised Website Appearance https://tinyurl.com/ykywx2bz
Model Railroader on-line content cutback https://tinyurl.com/yzcazx6k
How do I find things in the new Website? https://tinyurl.com/yzoxymor
Magazine index is gone https://tinyurl.com/yzcazx6k
Photos https://tinyurl.com/ye3gexx5
If they play their cards just right, they could lose the lot of us.
If what I suspect is happening actually is happening, they’ll darn sure lose me.
I toddled over to the new Trains.com and scrolled down a bit, to “Video Series and Workshops.” What do I see there? Videos I can’t see on MRVP (plus one I can see, and a free intro video from Popp)!
There are four videos there right now - episodes two and three of Gerry Leone’s “Back on Track,” “The Hills’ Line” episode 11 (that’s the one on MRVP), and the aforementioned Popp intro video.
What’s telling is that Popp says in the intro video that if you subscribe you’ll have access to all magazine archives and “.…all videos, including exclusive series made specifically for members…” and some other stuff.
So I guess we know why MRVP content has gotten so thin lately - it’s being diverted to Trains.com. I guess those of us with unexpired MRVP subscriptions are just out of luck.
I hope I’m wrong, and that Kalmbach will honor our subscriptions to MRVP by posting the videos we really already paid for there, but I’ll bet I’m right.
Cone on, Kalmbach, how about one of you people come on the forums and explain exactly how these subscriptions play together?
I tried my MRVP login to see those and I was told I am limited out.
I totally agree with your sentiments. I can log into my account but I cannot see when my MRVP subscription ends. A total Fubar.
Wow wait, what? If this is going to remain that way, I’m canceling my MRVP subscription.
I don’t even see a way to get to MRVP any more. ALL the videos are locked - and if I click on any it says my limit of 8 articles has been reached. What, from watching the alst 2 Cody’s Office episodes and the last Off the Rails and the first Back on Track through the MRVP link before it went away along with the top header from the forums?
–Randy
I bookmarked MRVP directly years ago. Try this:
Model Railroader Video Plus (trains.com) (it’s https://mrv.trains.com)
OOPS! After posting I saw that Henry already posted that. Ignore me.
My current cost of MRVP cames out to $3.99 per month. My subscription expires 10/23/2022. That gives me 19 months left, or $75.81 worth of subscription.
Trains.com is $6.50 / month, I believe. So if Kalmbach were to offer me 11 2/3 months’ subscription to Trains.com, the equivalent price, I might consider that as a fair-ish exchange.
Mark, I totally agree! I paid Kalmbach a bunch of money last year to renew my subscriptions and I have no idea whether or not those payments will carry over into the new Trains.com site. If they don’t, then I expect a refund for the unused portion of my old subscription.
Please Kalmbach, send me a letter explaining exactly where I stand!
Dave
I haven’t posted in awhile but this rollout is a disaster on 2 fronts: first, Kalmbach has been completely opaque as to what is going on (in marketing this is called Messaging, it’s not that complicated). They need to send emails, add sticky posts to forums, and have front and center links on all home pages telling us all “if you have X subscription, this is what happens. If you have digital archive, this is what happens,if you have x, y, and z, this is what happens”, and so on.
Second, the site is not even remotely ready for beta testing–it’s barely ready for a staging server. Not just the obvious like no search function for digital archive, broken links, and messed up headers. Things like is no hyphenation for text in narrow columns. And the pandemic is no excuse for this-- the only times I have been in the same room as the developers I work with is when we happen to be in the same city and meet for drinks.
With the exception of the forum, people are paying for this content. And right now at least some of it isn’t worth anything (an archive you can’t search? Useless).
Wow, they were all over the place - my subscription for MRVP (and only MRVP, no archive, etc) is $2.25/mo.
–Randy