Forum Use

[Colin R]

Hi Guys I don't know if anyone has had a look recently, but I am surprised at just how many Guess's we have looking on this forum, I am not complaining as it looks good that we have so many more visitors, but I was just wondering if we could ask our guess's to just say hi and sign in, you never know it could be your next door neighbour who is a secret model railway fan and you did not know about it.

I know some people don't want to sign in and they just want to have a look, that's fine by me as well, but I was wondering how many people live near each other that could if they wanted to set up a small area model railway group, there must be a few guys on here who live in either Dublin or Cork as examples that could start the ball rolling especially once the Covid crisis is over.

Colin   

[murphaph]

It'd be cool if we could see a map of members (rough) locations based on their profile location.

[DJ Dangerous]

8 minutes ago, murphaph said:

It'd be cool if we could see a map of members (rough) locations based on their profile location.

That'd be very interesting - maybe with some anonymity built-in. A flag on the global map for each member without disclosing their username. Surely that has to be possible?

I lurked for years before signing up. I'm nearly sure that the forum had a different name back then.

Also, even if you're not logged in and search for certain things online, the forum is returned in the top results.

Plus, there are members who've left for whatever reason over the years, and may not want it known that they still use the forum as a resource.

[ShaneC]

A good amount of them is probably web crawlers that emulate real users - the automated checking of new/updated pages by various search engines etc. in order to generate search results . Since a forum has so much content / pages you can often get multiple services each crawling multiple pages at once.

Then there's the real people who just find a single post in search results that solves whatever they were searching for and then leave straight away.

Edited April 10, 2021 by ShaneC

[Ironroad]

2 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

That'd be very interesting - maybe with some anonymity built-in. A flag on the global map for each member without disclosing their username. Surely that has to be possible?

A flag on the Canaries, now how anonymous is that?

[Colin R]

We could use the nearest Town/City for our own location, mind would be London.

 

 

[Westcorkrailway]

I like the idea of pin the tail on the donkey, but its a map

[RobertRoche]

There is the option of stating your location on your profile. I guess that people that want to state their location can do it there. It is a compromise between showing where all members are and complete anonymity.

As an aside, the 4 section headers on the profile page have said converted since the last time the forum back end was updated @Warbonnet

[DJ Dangerous]

2 hours ago, Ironroad said:

A flag on the Canaries, now how anonymous is that?

If there's only one flag, though, you're literally looking for one in two million.

I like those odds!

[Colin R]

1 hour ago, DJ Dangerous said:

If there's only one flag, though, you're literally looking for one in two million.

I like those odds!

 

Thats better odds than winner the euro lottery

[NorthWallDocker]

One could possibly determine the "dwell time" for the IRM web boards from Google Analytics -- and more probably from the IRM web board's "dashboard" for administrators.  Usually, there's a calculated graph that shows the number of viewers per time period (a day, a month) that fit within durations.  You can figure out who's reading, who stumbled accidentally and looked for a few moments, and "false hits."

I'm near Chicago, so I'd be curious to learn of any modellers of Irish railways who are anywhere in the Midwestern U.S., or anywhere in Canada or the U.S.  I've seen references to someone else in Lemont, Illinois, and then maybe Ohio and Massachusetts and Alberta Province.   

[Ironroad]

I'm in Marietta GA  (Atlanta)

[murphaph]

6 hours ago, Ironroad said:

I'm in Marietta GA  (Atlanta)

Funny. I watched a YouTube video shot in and around Cordele, GA yesterday. Seems like a cool place to see some long trains.

[patrick]

I'm in Madison Ohio, 40 miles East of Cleveland. CSX's former New York Central double track New York Chicago main line and Norfolk Southern's single track ex Nickel Plate Chicago Buffalo line both run through town. Both very busy railroads.

[Ironroad]

9 hours ago, murphaph said:

Funny. I watched a YouTube video shot in and around Cordele, GA yesterday. Seems like a cool place to see some long trains.

Yes it is, but you do not want to get stopped at the level crossing just off Marietta Square, freight trains with 100 bogie wagons are typical.

[Mayner]

I suppose I am the most distant from Ireland in Hamilton, New Zealand another rail center with approx. 30 freight trains daily the junction between The Auckland-Wellington North Island Main Trunk Line & the East Coast Main Trunk to Tauranga and Kawerau.

We live in Claudelands a 1920s suburb on the opposite side of the Waikato River to the CBD

Trains are a bit shorter than the States at 30-40 bogie wagons and several level crossings in the suburbs/industrial areas.

 

[connollystn]

I like the anonymity of logging on here without people knowing who I am or where I live [in a dump]. I use this forum to see what the latest news is on model releases and other items of interest and I'm sure that the people who log on here as guess's [or guests] use it for similar purposes. Railway modelling for me is a personal thing and enjoy running a mix of locomotives and wagons from different eras. From what I read on this forum a lot modelers have to operate consists of trains as they would have run in real life when, in my view, it's about escapism. I'm only too delighted to see that lots of people are using this forum as a resource for furthering their interest in this magnificent hobby.

[jhb171achill]

Well, there's Georgia, Ohio and Chicago above.

A school friend of mine (fifty years ago!) lives in Tennessee, but he's more of a live steam man. He has a beautiful British Railways "Brittannia", 5 ins gauge, live steam. Approaching retirement now, he's starting in H0, so he may well turn up here at some stage....... He, in turn, is in touch with another mutual school colleague who lives in Texas, but he's not a railway enthusiast!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who sometimes jumps to assume that more of us are based in Ireland than we actually are...

[Colin R]

I appreciate that not everyone wishes to tell the world where they live and that is fine, sometimes people (and not everyone) like to get together over a beer or join together to build a layout or exchange ideas on how to build something or just exchange information about an item, this can be fun as well.

As far as i am concerned it does not matter what your background is, we can all learn off each other and get inspired to do things better next time.

I have built some right dogs over the years (some folk say I still do) but when I do show off my work I am the biggest critic ever going, I press the self destruct button by telling people of the faults I notice, some people have even like some of it more than me and have paid good money for it (I don't know why to be honest).

All I can say is once the pandemic is over it will be great to get over to Ireland and see the world of modelling that takes place in Ireland, but like JHB has said I will not be too surprised if the number of Irish modellers is not that great.

 

Colin R 

[the Bandon tank]

I am guilty of that.

[Galteemore]

This forum is a fantastic resource and clearing house for all those with an interest in Irish railways - and some of us choose to make that interest tangible by modelling stuff. Others don’t and that’s fine - my own modelling has been intermittent over the years.
 

I left NI in 1989, and returned to both north and south intermittently in the years following, but haven’t lived in Ireland now for some 15 years. My current location has no Irish modellers nearby that I know of.

The Gauge 0 Guild Forum has been a huge help in developing my technical skills. What this forum offers is a group of people who ‘get’ Irish railways, and who can critique my work from a culturally informed perspective. 

Your comments and support are a constant encouragement on my workbench thread- so thanks to all wherever you are ! Posting stuff on here keeps me accountable and stops me slacking off too much....

Edited April 13, 2021 by Galteemore

[Westcorkrailway]

Sher dya know what, somone 5 kilometers away may As well be 500km away in this pandemic anyway! 

[Lambeg man]

49 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

This forum is a fantastic resource and clearing house for all those with an interest in Irish railways - and some of us choose to make that interest tangible by modelling stuff. Others don’t and that’s fine - my own modelling has been intermittent over the years.

Totally agree with your comment Galteemore. I spent a few years visiting this site before signing up as a member. I enjoy the exchange of information more often about Irish railways in general, rather specifically the modelling content, though that in itself can be some times inspirational. This site is something of an excellent 'clearing house' on all manner of Irish railway topics, not just models.

As to giving locations where members live, I have found over the years that on rare occasions sometimes actually meeting 'pen friends' can be a slight disappointment.

One other thing is that in 20 or so "visits" to the site, only once might I actually "log in". Other members doing likewise may account for the high number of "guests".

Edited April 13, 2021 by Lambeg man

[murphaph]

Indeed there could and should be no compulsion to divulge ones physical location, but it would be cool for members to see who else is in their area if they do decide to divulge it.

When I joined the S4 society I was surprised to get a list of "people near me". Two chaps in Berlin.

I have found and visited a very nice gentleman and talented modeller (who is a non-posting member here) on a German language forum for British and Irish prototype railfans and modellers. He only lives about 30 minutes drive from me. When the pandemic is over I'm sure we'll see more of each other.

I'm in Brieselang, near Berlin. The Berlin-Hamburg mainline passes through here but it's not all that interesting. Mostly regional passenger multiple units, some regional push pulls, ICE trains and a bit of freight (mostly containers, the odd heavy coal train with double heading locos). Almost all electric. Very rare to see a diesel.

[DJ Dangerous]

It would need to be opt-in rather than opt-out, and that would satisfy everybody.

It would be very very cool. I'm particularly interested in how many flags pop up around Europe.

[BosKonay]

As a general summary, the community has 1509 registered members, and we register an average of 20 new members per month. 

We have 150k posts on almost 9,000 topics and over 5000 personal conversations and 71,229 times see have clicked 'like' on a post  PM's are much more active than the public fora, with over 2000 replies a day happening in private conversations. 

We average 175 members online / checking the site each day, only 22% of you using computers (everyone else is on mobile or a tablet) and for every member visiting, we have 15 guests browsing (unregistered or un-logged in) meaning the website serves up over 250,000 pages of content a month. 

I've also now added an 'opt-in' community map, based on the location field of your profile, you can click 'My Location' and have the system locate you based on your IP, or enter the nearest Town or Region. https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/communitymap/

[murphaph]

Perfect!! That's really nice.

[DJ Dangerous]

That's awesome. I've opted in, but my poor little marker looks so lonely!

[murphaph]

Be proud of your outpost in the middle of the Atlantic!

[Galteemore]

Yes, I must say it’s unusual to see Irish people getting so excited about flags! 

[connollystn]

I've just added my location to the map so, from now on, I'm going to be extremely careful what I say on here as I don't want anyone knocking on my door......

[Westcorkrailway]

1 hour ago, connollystn said:

I've just added my location to the map so, from now on, I'm going to be extremely careful what I say on here as I don't want anyone knocking on my door......

Keep yer 071s locked up safe!!!

[DJ Dangerous]

On the topic of forum use, is there any way of changing "Latest Posts" to "Latest Threads" or something similar?

If all five of the most recent posts are in the same thread, we miss out on which threads have most recently been updated.

If instead of showing the five most recent posts, it showed the most recent post in each of the five most recent threads, that would stop things getting lost.

[Westcorkrailway]

1 hour ago, DJ Dangerous said:

On the topic of forum use, is there any way of changing "Latest Posts" to "Latest Threads" or something similar?

If all five of the most recent posts are in the same thread, we miss out on which threads have most recently been updated.

If instead of showing the five most recent posts, it showed the most recent post in each of the five most recent threads, that would stop things getting lost.

I would be inlined to agree.somtimed a thread has taken up the whole latest posts section for 2-3 days while workbenches and such are being updated and missed. Might be something for another future update 

[Broithe]

2 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

On the topic of forum use, is there any way of changing "Latest Posts" to "Latest Threads" or something similar?

If all five of the most recent posts are in the same thread, we miss out on which threads have most recently been updated.

If instead of showing the five most recent posts, it showed the most recent post in each of the five most recent threads, that would stop things getting lost.

My other forum does that - "New Posts" shows a list of threads added to since you last looked - clicking on a topic in that will take you to the first unread post in each thread- handy.

Well, it used to - it has, for some unfathomable reason, started taking you straight to the latest post, so there is a risk of missing stuff, if you don't 'look up' to see if there's anything earlier that you hadn't seen.

We also have "Recent Activity" - this shows each post, like, profile change, etc, in time order. It also shows, for a while, deleted posts, which can be entertaining - these are usually spam and unintended duplications - five insertions of the same post is the current record, if anybody wants  to try to beat it...