Hi all,
I just wanted to let you know real quick some of what we've been doing in the forums portion of the site, and some planned upgrades.
FORUMS:
1. A few months ago during a fit of "housecleaning" some forums fit the bust, er, bit the dust, for lack of activity or identified need. The Housatonic forum was merged back into New England Railfan. I merged the PATH and NYCT forums, and also New Jersey Transit with New Jersey Transit Light Rail. I also merged the VRE, MARC, and DC Transit forums into one MD-DC-VA area forum. Earlier this year, I changed the scope of the Tri-Rail forum to encompass all of Florida.
2. Today, upon news of the P&W acquisition by Genesee and Wyoming, I began to add forums for Class II's. There really aren't that many Class II's to speak of. We'll see how they work, but generally, I expect them to stay.
3. Which brings me to Short Lines aka Class III. There are some separate forums within that category; I'll be looking at them in coming months to see if anything is worth adding. I did add a forum for G&W's short line operations; their Class II operations will remain in separate forums. And the category also gained the CM&Q, which had been under Class II but is really a Class III. I'll probably add a forum for the Iowa Pacific family.
UPGRADES:
We're looking into making the forum more user-friendly as well.
1. Mobile phone apps. Later this year we'll be looking at apps such as Tapatalk to make this a more portable experience.
2. The main page overlay (WordPress?) with railroad "news" will either be revived, repurposed, or scuttled. It's never used right now. When there's news, it's usually posted in the forums.
3. We'd also like to be able to solicit member contributions concerning trip reports, opinion pieces, photo essays, etc. We will probably not host photos; there are enough hosting sites out there where I don't see a need.
As always, thanks for your membership, your contributions, even your "lurking".
Jeff Smith
Site Admin
I just wanted to let you know real quick some of what we've been doing in the forums portion of the site, and some planned upgrades.
FORUMS:
1. A few months ago during a fit of "housecleaning" some forums fit the bust, er, bit the dust, for lack of activity or identified need. The Housatonic forum was merged back into New England Railfan. I merged the PATH and NYCT forums, and also New Jersey Transit with New Jersey Transit Light Rail. I also merged the VRE, MARC, and DC Transit forums into one MD-DC-VA area forum. Earlier this year, I changed the scope of the Tri-Rail forum to encompass all of Florida.
2. Today, upon news of the P&W acquisition by Genesee and Wyoming, I began to add forums for Class II's. There really aren't that many Class II's to speak of. We'll see how they work, but generally, I expect them to stay.
3. Which brings me to Short Lines aka Class III. There are some separate forums within that category; I'll be looking at them in coming months to see if anything is worth adding. I did add a forum for G&W's short line operations; their Class II operations will remain in separate forums. And the category also gained the CM&Q, which had been under Class II but is really a Class III. I'll probably add a forum for the Iowa Pacific family.
UPGRADES:
We're looking into making the forum more user-friendly as well.
1. Mobile phone apps. Later this year we'll be looking at apps such as Tapatalk to make this a more portable experience.
2. The main page overlay (WordPress?) with railroad "news" will either be revived, repurposed, or scuttled. It's never used right now. When there's news, it's usually posted in the forums.
3. We'd also like to be able to solicit member contributions concerning trip reports, opinion pieces, photo essays, etc. We will probably not host photos; there are enough hosting sites out there where I don't see a need.
As always, thanks for your membership, your contributions, even your "lurking".
Jeff Smith
Site Admin
Next stop, Willoughby
~el Jefe :: RAILROAD.NET Site Administrator/Co-Owner; Carman at Naugatuck Railroad
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~el Jefe :: RAILROAD.NET Site Administrator/Co-Owner; Carman at Naugatuck Railroad
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