Super Bad News – Brace Yourselves! No More Forums Coming?
In checking my sole thread from a number of years ago at Kalmbach’s Astronomy Magazine, it was discovered those forums no longer exist! Posting is a thing of the past and past posts are all gone! (When did that happen?)
http://www.astronomy.com/forums
Is Kalmbach’s TRAINS Magazine’s forums next? Perhaps I should reevaluate how much time is spent posting here.
Never expect anything you value on the net to be permanent. Expect the things you never wanted to see again to last forever.
That would be truly tragic. Can you even begin to imagine the loss of information.
What do we do? Publish a book Vol 1 to 2089?
Get everything on a disk?
Yes I have seen this happen before. These forums do not directly generate revenue despite the advertisements, any revenue they generate do not cover costs. Additionally with public facing forums like this it is publicly embarrassing to the company when forum members argue heatedly. So the fastest and cheapest solution is to just abandon them or charge a fee for entry. Noticed that Kalmbach includes the enhanced content areas only for suscribers, they might just add an additional fee and move the discussion forums there vs discontinuance. Or they can continue with this outlet as a public service but also at a financial loss. There is no telling if they will maintain or continue but I can tell you from past experience if they decide to pull the plug you will be lucky if there is prior notice.
When did it happen? Perhaps around July 8, 2014.
Could it be that it disappeared because it had few members and those only made posts every couple of years?
Well, what Kalmbach giveth, Kalmbach can taketh away, so it behooves everyone to behave themselves here.
Thankfully, most do.
Well all thats needed is an EHH wannabe, cut out the low or non revenue stuff and we are doomed.
Hopefully this does not happen. I’m thinking there would be quite a howl of protest from the faithful, but as I’ve noticed in life, people do not vote the way they talk at the coffee shop. I would be willing to pay an annual fee to be a “Forum Member” if it came down to that.
I do not believe that Kalmbach ever intended to operate the forum as public service. Why would anyone do that? They provide it with the intention of generating revenue in whatever way it can. One of the ways is to promote their magazine by broadening its subject matter in this public discussion. However, it may be quite difficult to quantify the contribution to the bottom line by the forums to the extent that they help sell magazines. And there certainly is the possibility of a decision to close this down because of the mistaken belief that it contributes nothing to the revenue stream.
Interestingly enough, when you follow one of those 2011 links to look at the ‘community’, you eventually get to the ‘reasons to register’ page, and this message:
"Register to become a member of Astronomy.com FOR FREE and get access to these great online features: …
Share your thoughts on the latest science stories."
This is separate from the preceding item “post comments on blogs” … so what else could it describe on astronomy.com but the [now-vanished] forum section?
With that as a common theme, I can see a bunch of possible reasons why the whole schmear might ‘have to go away’ suddenly and with crApple-like silence for the reasons-why. They only begin with the sort of user-comportment thing Mr. Sweeney was criticizing over on the Hunter medical thread. Copyright infringement or hot-link violation for papers? Religious zealots producing polemical diatribes? The evolving choice of interpreting post text as something mods weren’t supposed to edit - only to delete? Dueling curmudgeonry escalating ever more from B[e] to O at double-digit magnitude?
K.P. might even remember what, if anything, was controversial at the last time he posted.
I for one would like to know precisely what situation arose, what official cause for termination Kalmbach found, and why the reasons aren’t provided to us … so that none of our forums slip into ther same fate.
That’s pretty much my take. Either that, or they made our worst day (behavior-wise) look good…
Suppose you had to make an either-or decision. Your choice is that you can remain a subscriber to the magazine or have access to this forum. Which would you choose?
I know the folks at Trains work hard to deliver a quality product, and I respect that. Nevertheless, I’m not at all sure which I would choose.
Easy decision for me if it comes to that, I am a “Trains” subscriber and “Classic Trains” as well, so if the price of admission to the Forum is a Kalmbach subscription I’m already there. I may just go for “Classic Toy Trains” as well but haven’t made up my mind on that one yet, although I do enjoy the mag and usually purchase it at my local hobby shop.
Occam’s Razor says, in essence, if there are a lot of theories about how or why something happened, the simplest one is most li
I think the Railroad/Model Railroad Forums will be around for a while. While many of the discussions reflect what is in the magazines, they and others that go further afield show the interests of the community and can influence future magazine content. The give quicker and more broad range feedback than letters, thus are a valuable tool for the editors if the care to use them.
and This as well:Posted by Firelock76 on Sunday, May 21, 2017 6:53 PM
“…Easy decision for me if it comes to that, I am a “Trains” subscriber and “Classic Trains” as well, so if the price of admission to the Forum is a Kalmbach subscription I’m already there. I may just go for “Classic Toy Trains” as well but haven’t made up my mind on that one yet, although I do enjoy the mag and usually purchase it at my local hobby shop…”
Have to agree with both of these positions!
Hopefully. in K.P. Harrier’s sounding the alarm, it might be a long term (mis-?) reading of the 'tea leaves"(?)
But as BaltACD SAID “…Never expect anything you value on the net to be permanent. Expect the things you never wanted to see again to last forever…”
After all, this Forum is a Free Service of a ‘For Profit enterprise’, and its’ admission henges in-part on Subscriptions. Kalmbach can give, and Kalmbach can take away… [:-^] [2c]
Exponding a bit on what Dschmitt said, I’d hope the editors look in on the various Forums from time to time for the reasons Mr. Schmitt gave. I know on the “Classic Toys Trains” Forum they do, sometimes to make sure everyone plays nice, and sometimes for the ideas and feedback. I’m sure it’s not easy, I mean if you spend all day chained to a computer do you want to be in front of one in the evening when most of the Forum action’s happening? Roger Carp and Bob Keller on “CTT” are to be commended for their interest. I wish the “Trains” staff would do the same. Maybe they do, but just don’t care to join in.
And thanks for the compliment Sam!
It does seem, on occasion, that something we discuss on the Forum turns up not much later in the magazine…
Florida!
A phenomenon being noted is more and more Florida addresses at this website. Astronomy Magazine I believe has a Florida address. Will TRAINS Magazine soon forsake Waukesha in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin for Florida? Possibly for cheaper Cuban labor? Can you imagine someone answering the phone, “TRAINS Magazine … We love Fidel!” Seriously, it has to be wondered if the whole Kalmbach outfit was sold to a bigger conglomerate in Florida. Why else would a relatively new Waukesha building that houses Kalmbach move offices to Florida?
A new conglomerate owner may see getting rid of forums as a way of profiting. And, saving money is the name of the game.
It sure would be enlightening if a TRAINS staffer in the know wrote some input here on all this.