The discussion partly involved the discrepant ratio of Walthers Modulars pilasters to wall panels. In the thread a first time poster asked if I had any pilasters left, and if so he was willing to purchase them from me. I sent him a PM listing everything that I had. Since then I have heard nada, nothing, total silence!
To say the least I am a little disappointed by the newbie’s attitude.
So, as a theraputic exercise for my fellow forum members, I ask you to share your fellow exasperating good will experiences. Hopefully the moderators will recognize this as a simple exercise in getting rid of a little winter cabin fever. Or not.
Dave
This won’t accomplish a good gosh darn thing except to make us feel good after having gotten our frustrations off of our collective chests.[swg][(-D][2c][:o)]
Dave, I will offer a little more sympathy than Ulrich did. [(-D]
I share your frustration. I often think about starting a thread on forum decorum.
Members start threads about a problem or issue but don’t give sufficient information about the problem. Then, they are asked for more information and don’t respond or only give partial answers. The worst part is the lack of follow up. Did they solve the problem? How? Did readers replies help?
Dave, I just visited that January thread. That was the guy’s one and only post, never to be heard from again.
Speaking of partial Modulars kits, I have a whole bunch of window frames and windows but no walls or pilasters. Let’s start a website and combine our partial kits so we can market full kits. [(-D]
Well, as a relative newbie I would like to extend a heartfelt “Thank You!” to all of you that have offered advice etc. on this forum. Input from experienced modellers on forums like this one are an invaluable resource to newbies like me.
Yes, it’s an interesting phenomenon when someone starts a thread and disappears. I’d like to make a suggestion for what to call this…Dieseling. You older guys will remember when you’d switch the ignition off on a car and it would just keep chugging along feebly until it ground to a halt. Time for a tuneup. That’s just one of the annoying threads, but it seems common. All we can do is imagine the OP got hit by a meteor or something.
We don’t have the option to “like” a post here, so, here it goes: I “like” this post, and I also appreciate all the help, advice, suggestions and yes, wisecracks that I’ve gotten here over the years. This is a place where the rotten apples don’t have much effect.
I agree with one of the earlier posters who speculated that our first time poster might not even be aware of the Private Message capability. I myself am well aware of it but was not aware for an embarassingly long time that I had some PMs that I had failed to notice.
The other possibility, if I recall this thread correctly, is that one poster provided helpful hints for alternatives to the Modular pilasters and it might be that our first time poster decided to explore that option instead.
Since we are on the topic, I myself have too few pilasters/columns to match the number of wall and base packages I own. At a train show recently I was thrilled to discover two packages of pilasters at an OK price. Only when I examined them more closely – long after leaving the show of course - did I discover that the prior owner had used the pilaster/column packaging to stuff all the nearly useless odds and ends from his various Walthers Modular projects. I say prior owner because the seller was an NMRA division and the stuff was from an estate sale of a member long since deceased and who probably intended no wrongdoing, he just stuffed loose parts in a handy container.
I would also like to mention that not just the person for whom the advice is intended benefit. Many times I have done a thread search before posting a question and have found my answer from an older thread.
There are a lot of great people here, and willing to take the time to help others. So yes I also must say, its very common for some new people to ask for help and never say “Hey thanks for help I apprieciate that, it solved my issue”. Now that I’m not considered a newbie anymore. But when I first joined this site asking all the newbie questions. Every single time anybody took time to explain things for me, I was always gratious and thanked individuals by their name.
Could it be the youger kids perhaps? I’m sorry but the texitng generation is NOT known for their “online manners”. That probably explains some of it.
Just to clarify, the offending first time poster asked me specifically if I had any pilasters left over. I dutifully responded.
I do suspect that the poster did not know how to set their profile so they could receive PMs, but I posted in the thread that I would send him a PM listing what I had. That puts the ball in his park. He should have investigated further or simply posted a question on how PMs are done. Perhaps I should have explained what a PM is and how to receive them. My bad for not being thorough.
Thanks for your concern but I think you might not have placed enough emphasis on the smilies attached to my last sentence. Yes, I was a little frustrated by the rudeness of the poster, but knowing full well that there wasn’t anything I could do about the situation I decided to add in a little humour.
Yes indeedy…I have notice when one takes the time to redo a overflowing spaghetti bowl plan into a decent layout the OP gets a tad upset.
What gives me a good chuckle is when the OP asked plainly if a N Scale SD70MAC can go around a 18" curve and the HO modelers start with their most excellent but, wrong scale advice.
I was a newbie on the MR Forums not that long ago- back when we still had a space program (ahem). I think that responding to someone’s PM is just plain old common courtesy. Nothing gets me more at work than sending an e-mail to another employee and then hearing…crickets. If I was the receipient, I would reply as soon as a I could- and I do. But, here on the Forums, it is just a cross-section of the public sidewalk, so to speak. There are all kinds, not all of them “kind”!
I am willing to cut people slack on how fast they respond back, after all we don’t know what is going on in their lives. I was guilty of disappearing after starting a couple of threads and people were wondering if I dropped off the face of the earth.
What had happened was my son had a situation that landed him in the ICU at Childrens Hospital for six weeks. We didn’t leave the ICU much. When he got out of the ICU and onto a ward things relaxed a bit and one night I after he fell asleep I logged onto the forum. (every ward has a couple of computer stations for the parents to use) I saw a bit of dismay by some and proceeded to explain my situation and apologized to those involved.
A lot of people travel for work and can be sparatic participants at best. Over the years I have seen lots of people show up down the road explaining their tardiness. Some have become good contributors over the years.
If this is the first forum someone has ever participated in, they might just be feeling a little intimidated as well. I know I was.