Rearranging this Forum

[charlie6017]

Is there a way that this forum can be un-Conrailed and these roads have their own respective forums again?

Please?

Charlie

[glennk419]

Is there a way that this forum can be un-Conrailed and these roads have their own respective forums again?

Please?

Charlie

I think there have been numerous requests for that which have gone unheeded. Too bad since the collective traffic seems to be off considerably from what the individual forums experienced.

[David]

I spoke to Jeff Smith about this topic several months ago. He was in favor of rearranging this forum but he would do it at a later date. I would want the L&HR and L&NE forums back as one forum which I moderated when Railroad.net was created. The remaining railroads should be independent which would improve their identity. I will contact Jeff again soon if he does not respond to this thread. Thank you.


I thought I would move this comment to a new thread since it is better viewed here then on the "Welcome to the Anthracite Railroads Forum!" If anyone has an opinion about this, please post it here. I think Jeff will view it better here too. The comments on this forum are sometimes lost when we move from railroad to railroad with information.

[CAR_FLOATER]

David - that's the best thing I've heard come out of this website since before the Administration before last took over and started playing "Forum Nazi" with everything and everyone. However, I think this current Administration has done too much to drive most people away to places like Railfan.net by now. Thus, I think it's too little, too late, but I am glad to hear that they are at least thinking about trying to fix the mess that has been created by lumping eveyrthing together.

RAH

[David]

David - that's the best thing I've heard come out of this website since before the Administration before last took over and started playing "Forum Nazi" with everything and everyone. However, I think this current Administration has done too much to drive most people away to places like Railfan.net by now. Thus, I think it's too little, too late, but I am glad to hear that they are at least thinking about trying to fix the mess that has been created by lumping eveyrthing together.

RAH

Thank you for your comment. I would like to see some more input on this important matter.

[charlie6017]

Hey David........I am with you and Ralph in wishing for this forum to become "un-merged", but I believe
Ralph nailed it perfectly with every word he said. I also have lost a lot of interest in this site, and I have
been here since before John Stewart owned the site.

Charlie

[JhnZ33]

There were many things that turned me off when things changed, not just the "Conrailing" of the fallen flags. The ads within the photos were the nail in the coffin with me, but now even worse there are the pop-ups, really annoying.

[CAR_FLOATER]

Thanks, Charlie, and agreed, John....Those pop-ups (while good for the buiness of the "owners") cheapen the site and make me want to stay away....On another note, I find (found?) the information on RR.net to be of a different "calliber" on occaison, and (used to be) uncluttered with a lot of "newbie" speak - I came here to lean and get the straight news on certain topics (of course, you need to know how to weed thru the B.S.)....That, and the "trolls" were very well policed here. The posts themselves tended to be of a more, how shall I put it, "scholarly" type, and just plain different (better?) from the chat on RF.net. However, that is no longer the case, and it's been that way for a long time. I feel that the current Administration/Owners have a lot to fix before they regain my "faith" i nthe forum.
Come to think of it, this topic is the only reason I'm here right now......

RAH

[David]

Well--I can see what is going on here in this forum--There used to be many many responses here but lately (let's say in the last year) it has dropped off quite a bit. Hopefully more people with importance will respond and continue to respond about our situation here (wink, wink, nudge nudge, saaaay no more).

[colorado]

I don't post anywhere very much but I do view some boards fairly often. That being said, I used to stop by here more often before the changes, something like 3 times a week. If I stop through here once a month anymore it is a lot.

I haven't noticed the adds and popups so much (Probably shows how rarely I ever stop here any more) but the merging of threads was a turn off, some member's posting demeanor also was a turn off. Main thing to me was the justification of merging forums (too many forums) but there still seems to be an overabundance of forums even after all the "merging". I get the feel that the interest here is more on trolleys and subways and mass transit, amtrack etc which is something I am not interested in, the Lehigh Valley and a few other forums on Railfan . net more suit my interest. Activity has fallen off the chart around here so even less motiation to even lurk here, thus the once a month or less visit I do here anymore.

I am more happy looking at railfan.net and stop to see if anything is intersting here on rare occasions.

[mikeexplorer]

Agreed, the merging of the fallen flags section is a mess.

[jrevans]

Agreed, the merging of the fallen flags section is a mess.

I too agree. While I like all of the individual railroads that are represented in the combined forum, the merger diluted the content and caused many to stop contributing.

[David]

Do the other four moderators of this forum have a comment about this?

[Franklin Gowen]

Do the other four moderators of this forum have a comment about this?

I've been following this discussion closely, but thus far keeping my own counsel. Here are my thoughts...

I think that the un-Conrail-ing of this forum is a beneficial goal. That's not mere adrenaline-fuelled foamer-speak, to be snickered at and disdained -- this place has become so moribund since August 2010 that nearly any change might constitute a net improvement. I think that the best change of all would be to restore each anthracite railroad to its own dedicated forum. I would welcome the restoration of a forum solely for the Reading Company, as well as one for each of the other proud railroads that were unwillingly tossed into this blender. If such an event were to happen, I'd volunteer to continue moderating a Rdg. Co. forum

Despite my initial public optimism about the anthracite forum re-org two years ago, I felt privately skeptical that it was a positive move. Unfortunately, those doubts were validated (and then some) by future trends. Even before all of these eggs were scrambled, it was already somewhat difficult at times to keep conversation flowing. We co-moderators know that. That's to be expected concerning ANY "fallen flag" who nobody that's now under the age of about 45-ish could fully experience in person prior to 4/1/1976.

BUT -- throwing all anthracite railroads together into the gravel-crusher erected unnecessary barriers against ease of use. Visitors found other web forums to be of greater convenience, and acted accordingly.

Regardless of the intentions of those parties who effected this change to the individual anthracite RR forums here, the result was clearly a negative one.

While I've done my part since then to be a good co-moderator by approving posts made by new members and giving spammers' posts the ol' heave-ho, it's been a major, major challenge since then for me to actually enjoy this kitbashed Anthracite Railroads forum in any way. The previous site administration's experiment simply didn't work. No doubt the people who used to post in the Rdg. Co. forum felt much the same way; most of them "voted with their feet" and left. David's thread on this particular subject is something akin to life preservers being thrown to drowning sailors. I should know; I'm one of them.

It's time to save something worthwhile from that experiment before it becomes even more of a dried-out husk. Let's split this forum up into the component forums it used to be, carefully divide up and relocate all of the previous posts according to railroad, and then rebuild as far as we can. Is that an ironclad guarantee for astounding success? No. However, we all know what this forum's existing form is going to continue to give us. I'd much rather take a chance on turning back the clock, guys.

I find (found?) the information on RR.net to be of a different "calliber" on occaison, and (used to be) uncluttered with a lot of "newbie" speak - I came here to lean and get the straight news on certain topics (of course, you need to know how to weed thru the B.S.)....That, and the "trolls" were very well policed here. The posts themselves tended to be of a more, how shall I put it, "scholarly" type, and just plain different (better?) from the chat on RF.net. However, that is no longer the case, and it's been that way for a long time. I feel that the current Administration/Owners have a lot to fix before they regain my "faith" i nthe forum.
Come to think of it, this topic is the only reason I'm here right now......

I know exactly what you mean. In the former Reading Company forum, that was a quality which was very enjoyable as well as informative. I tried very hard to encourage it by my own example. In general, more timely and stronger forum moderation can restore some of that lost shine that you referred to, Car_Floater, but not all of it. Swiftly smacking down trolls spammers and jerks, playing "cruise-ship activities director" for the noobs and hauling out the wobbly old employe timetables for the difficult requests IS important, but is not the entire answer.

For our little slice here of the whole website, I think that once again having railroad-specific anthracite forums is the heart of the solution. I'd be pleased to entertain any ideas about what all of us can do, together, to help make this happen. I have no idea if the present site administration is really, truly going to accede to David's initial proposal - the initial reaction is encouraging - but I think it's important that we give this a shot and support his request. Hopefully we can accelerate the planned timetable for this would-be project.

Agreed, the merging of the fallen flags section is a mess.

I too agree. While I like all of the individual railroads that are represented in the combined forum, the merger diluted the content and caused many to stop contributing.

Hello, Jim; it's been a long time. You scored a bulls-eye there; in a nutshell -- perfect summary.

[David]

Thanks for the great comments, Franklin. All we need is for some one higher up to check out this thread and see that the natives of this forum are unhappy, restless and need some form of correction so that we are able to bring back the many railfans that used to respond to the independent forums of yesteryear. As I stated earlier, I did bring this subject up for review to Jeff and he said that he is planning to do something. I hope he is still on track with that. DCH