RMweb and forums

[Galteemore]

[irishthump]

26 minutes ago, BosKonay said:

With Rm down, it reinforces the value of 'local' content.

What's the deal with RMWeb being down? Did I miss something?

[Galteemore]

22 minutes ago, irishthump said:

What's the deal with RMWeb being down? Did I miss something?

Their provider is, according to other sources, apparently working off a ‘disaster recovery’ scenario. This is all you get for now when you attempt access.

Edited March 25, 2022 by Galteemore

[Mike 84C]

I was wondering if it was just me!

[Northroader]

If I’m honest, the service has been terrible since the last software change a couple of weeks before Christmas. I fancy it must have been a deal with free software but flooded out with adverts. Anyhow, never mind about that, here we are with a reliable, quick, uncluttered site. Take a bow, Mr. Boskanay. Now, where’s me little enjins?

[BosKonay]

Ironically this forum runs on the same cloud provider. 

[StevieB]

You must be doing something right compared to the guys from RMweb. In particular, they seemed to have zero idea about customer service and couldn’t deal with criticism.

Stephen

[Mayner]

9 hours ago, StevieB said:

You must be doing something right compared to the guys from RMweb. In particular, they seemed to have zero idea about customer service and couldn’t deal with criticism.

Stephen

RMweb and this forum were established and operate on two completely different business models. 

RMweb is controlled by Warner Publications and like the majority of social media sites its existence is dependent on selling 3rd party on line advertising content.https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/news

This forum is add free established on Stephen's initiative as a forum to promote Irish Railway modelling and is controlled by Irish Railway Models

[DJ Dangerous]

16 hours ago, BosKonay said:

With Rm down, it reinforces the value of 'local' content.

Might be an idea to split this thread before it goes too far off the rails...

On the topic of advertising, it doesn't bother me at all when using the PC, but drives me insane when using the mobile due to the percentage of screen space taken.

[jhb171achill]

12 hours ago, BosKonay said:

Ironically this forum runs on the same cloud provider. 

BosKonay, THEY run on the cloud. You run on the silver lining!

Yes, RMWeb is completely unusable due to constant pop-ups.

[Georgeconna]

RMWEB is something I don't miss along with the Grumpy lad running it. Gone downhill since the Ads came in and only pop in once in a while.

 

[Broithe]

2 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

On the topic of advertising, it doesn't bother me at all when using the PC, but drives me insane when using the mobile due to the percentage of screen space taken.

Ah, I wondered what was causing it...

 

[Warbonnet]

19 minutes ago, Georgeconna said:

RMWEB is something I don't miss along with the Grumpy lad running it. Gone downhill since the Ads came in and only pop in once in a while.

 

In fairness you’d get grumpy if your bosses inflicted nonsense advertising onto the platform you manage and expect you to deal with the moans, and having to deal with some of the space cadets posting baseless shite that happens on forums. Modding is a thankless task. In person he’s a smashing guy, bit like the owner of this forum. He has also been a massive help in getting the IRM/Accurascale gospel out there, particularly in those early days.

Thankfully on here there is no need to bombard you with same, just the odd bit of shameless IRM promoting by myself. End of the day the forum here is thanks to @BosKonay, and there would be no IRM either without him!

Cheers

 

Fran

[jhb171achill]

As far as IRM are concerned, the more bombardment the better!

[WRENNEIRE]

1 hour ago, Warbonnet said:

In fairness you’d get grumpy if your bosses inflicted nonsense advertising onto the platform you manage and expect you to deal with the moans, and having to deal with some of the space cadets posting baseless shite that happens on forums. Modding is a thankless task. In person he’s a smashing guy, bit like the owner of this forum. He has also been a massive help in getting the IRM/Accurascale gospel out there, particularly in those early days.

Thankfully on here there is no need to bombard you with same, just the odd bit of shameless IRM promoting by myself. End of the day the forum here is thanks to @BosKonay, and there would be no IRM either without him!

Cheers

 

Fran

Bleedin crawler,,,,,,,

[Darius43]

I think RMWeb is being migrated to a new host.   Could take some time…

Fortunately for me I am over here as well as over there and it’s much, much nicer over here.

Cheers

Darius

[Northroader]

Migrated to Photobucket?

[Colin R]

Its times like this that I can see another modelling website being set up, but then you also have faceache as well to contend with, the sad thing is that while it is a pain to have adverts it does stop the mods/owners asking for money to keep the site open. I am not sure which I would want, the thing is of course that Irish model railways is such a small operation compared to some state side web groups such as the NMRA, but then that is what I like it is small and compact and friendly       

[Sean]

facebook killed off the majority of good internet forums, so its still good to have at least one stay active

[jhb171achill]

The thing about IRM is that it has evolved into a broader thing than just modellers. My first interest is railway history, with modelling a close second, and I find plenty of general Irish railway interest here.

I would simply say to the mods, well done, thank you & keep it up.

 

Edited March 28, 2022 by jhb171achill

[Warbonnet]

3 hours ago, Sean said:

facebook killed off the majority of good internet forums, so its still good to have at least one stay active

The major drawback of Facebook groups are that it's very hard to search for previous content, or find anything that's not current. So, if you wanted to find that modelling tip you saw a few months previous, hard luck or be prepared to do a lot of scrolling and hoping. Forums are better at indexing that stuff and having it more searchable. This is why we try to insist keeping things on topic, as it makes it easier to find later on for members.

And not many groups (or indeed forums) gave birth to a model railway manufacturer!

Cheers!

Fran 

[Northroader]

Well, RMweb is back up and running on a new migration (!?) although it seems a Vale of tears before it got there. Still some things needing to be tweaked, and a whole wodge of everyone’s pictures from the last twelve months sunk with all hands.

[jhb171achill]

28 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Well, RMweb is back up and running on a new migration (!?) although it seems a Vale of tears before it got there. Still some things needing to be tweaked, and a whole wodge of everyone’s pictures from the last twelve months sunk with all hands.

Is it still swamped in pop-ups?

 

[Colin R]

On 28/3/2022 at 12:18 PM, jhb171achill said:

The thing about IRM is that it has evolved into a broader thing than just modellers. My first interest is railway history, with modelling a close second, and I find plenty of general Irish railway interest here.

I would simply say to the mods, well done, thank you & keep it up.

 

Hi JHB I am with you on this, as I too find railway history interesting along with the models I see on here, compared to the usual UK based GWR or LNER layouts this is just so much better, some UK modellers take things far to seriously sometimes.

This reminds me of a story I told about a fictitious 3ft gauge Irish railway project up in those hills of Donegal, it linked both the Donegal and Swilly railways as well as a few other places not served by any railway at any time, at the end I did say this was pure fiction, but I still had one or two people taken in and one person was convinced that he had actually been on the railway in question and had seen Paddy McGinty's goat to boot.

Terry Wogan has a lot to answer for .        

 

[Northroader]

There are still some popups appearing, but not so many as before, thank goodness. There’s still a lot of weeding out needed, so it could be some time before it settles, I fancy.

[jhb171achill]

11 minutes ago, Northroader said:

There are still some popups appearing, but not so many as before, thank goodness. There’s still a lot of weeding out needed, so it could be some time before it settles, I fancy.

I’d be more interested in IRM here! 

[Northroader]

Oh dear! 

 

Edit:checking the Facebook page it just a quick shutdown for “data maintenance”. I thought for one horrible minute. ...

Edited April 5, 2022 by Northroader

[David Holman]

Haven't used RMWeb for a long time, so disappointing to hear things not going well at the moment. However, size matters, as the saying goes and the larger the forum, the more managing it requires, especially if it becomes prone to more extreme views. 

 IRM is so friendly and helpful, I rarely go anywhere else, unless a wider Google type search is needed. That said, when I do go off piste, looking for something obscure, it is often not long before I find myself taken back to IRM, looking at something I have posted myself, including maps of my fictitious projects, which is a bit worrying.

This forum will do me nicely, so many thanks to all those involved!

 

[Noel]

Its a shame alright, used to enjoy RMweb, despite its natural BR outline focus, however it was a phenomenal resource on modelling technologies, different building approaches, everything from lining, painting, building to electronics, custom track tech, and scenics with many thousands of contributors due population demographics across the sea. However since the introduction of membership fees and all those pop up adverts its nigh impossible to use so regretfully I just don't bother anymore. As a content contributor I refuse to also pay for ad free use. Its free enterprise their choice as is mine to 'click' less and contribute even less. Unfortunately Its become like one of those tacky red top tabloid news papers in the UK with ads all over the place. Not sure how well that will go down with most of their contributors who are from a social conservative demographic.

IRM forum web forum by contrast is clean, fluid and has grown significantly with top class model contributors now on here, so less need to tip over to rmWeb to check how to do this or that, or where to get some obscure modelling item. Facebook groups have become a great resource also, but lack the structure and search ability for retrieval of specific past content. In other special interest sphere's I've seen large new forae in the past after a period of growth destroy themselves when they attempt to monetise content and got it wrong, one had 20,000 active members but was wiped out by itself in just 12months as members just walked, it has not existed since 2014. Aside from that FaceBook has taken traffic from BB forums of all types. YBW with its half million members, nearly went up in smoke over brexit civil war between contributors when they re-platformed a few yeas ago and it went a bit wrong with advertising balance. We are fortunate perhaps not to have too many competing Irish companies looking to access the same online space. IRM and Murphy Models are both so well established and MM seem to have become almost like Tesla don't even need to advertise nor market new products. We live in a golden age right now, nothing lasts forever so, let's just make hay while the sun shines and enjoy these days of bounty for Irish Railway Modelling.

Some really great content on here with its focus is naturally on the Irish railway scene, also some amazing historical contributors such as Ernie's archive. Jonathan's superb photos have been the right way up for the past 4 years, so its onwards and upwards for IRM forum. Perhaps as IRM/Accurascale now has a significant brand presence in the UK there is now room for an IRMweb, or Accuweb over there?  Long may this last, thanks to the IRM company for hosting this excellent BB.

[irishthump]

I don't contribute on RMWeb, as most have you have probably noticed my own modelling is sporadic. I have so many different interests connected to modelling and painting that I tend to hop from one to another regularly. But I check in here almost daily, even though I might not post. RMWeb is a fantastic resource and I would'nt like to see it go.

I'll be honest I don't find the pop up ads all that much of a hassle. Of course I'd rather not have them but a single click gets rid of them, and as has been said it's a necessary evil on a large platform like RMWeb.

[Irishswissernie]

My long-time mate Dave Ford who I made many railway expeditions with and exhibited layouts with from the start of the 1980's until 'Anno Domini' caught up with us, has a photographic Archive (DaveF) on RMWEB similar to mine on Flickr. We both started uploading on RMWEB prior to 2009 but I switched to Flickr around about 2012 after the demise of fotopic. Dave's RMWEB stats are quite impressive, over 8700 posts, 21272 replies and probably 20000 + photos uploaded. No Irish though.

He is now faced with re-uploading images from June 2021 because of their problems. 

Although I have over 20,000 UK images on Flickr, I gave up on uploading to RMWEB as it became too time-consuming plus images were 'snipped' and occasionally appeared elsewhere on the Net. The lack of exposure on RM hasn't affected the popularity of the Flickr Archive with hits now approaching 50 Million and 1500+ followers.

The adverts get on my wick but then so do the ones on the TV which I invariably mute!

[Patrick Davey]

28 minutes ago, Irishswissernie said:

The lack of exposure on RM hasn't affected the popularity of the Flickr Archive with hits now approaching 50 Million and 1500+ followers.

Ernie I'd say a lot of those hits are mine!!!  We owe you a lot for sharing so many exceptional images 

[Lambeg man]

11 hours ago, Patrick Davey said:

Ernie I'd say a lot of those hits are mine!!!  We owe you a lot for sharing so many exceptional images 

And me! Many, many thanks to you Ernie. Your efforts are appreciated by a lot of people.

 

11 hours ago, Irishswissernie said:

The adverts get on my wick but then so do the ones on the TV which I invariably mute!

And I thought I was alone!!!