Sunday, 8 June 2014

On the way to the forum - Saturday Ramble

I've always avoided forums like the plague. No one particular reason, just not for me. I'd always imagined that it was a home for trolls and people getting upset about what some one else said. However one or two people have, over quite a while sent me links to certain forums. The problem here of course is that you can't see the stuff unless you can sign in. I caved in.

The NGRMonline seemed like  the natural home and was where most of the afore mentioned links were taking me so I bit my knuckle and signed up. What happened? Well it was like walking into a strange new pub only to find that all your mates were already in there. Sort of warm in an incontinence way.
Does it get the thumbs up? Erm, well, maybe, sort of, possibly. I've started a couple of threads and got a fair response,answered a couple of queries that I though I had a suggestion for and been welcomed in, so all good there. But you know what? It feels too closed, too clubby. I'll give  it a while and see, but I have a funny feeling that my original opinions was right; it's not really me.
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4 comments:

  1. Paul B.8 June 2014 at 10:54

    Despite being a member of aformentioned forum I can understand where you're coming from here. Sometimes there's a little too much thread drift and a few too many in-jokes. But, it is generally friendly and, here's the important bit, its a MODELLING forum rather than a drop in centre for box-openers, whingers and opinionated a********* (plenty of other forums for that...).
    I've joined five different model railway forums over the years. three of which I'll never visit again, of the other two, one I log into very rarely and NGRM I visit every day, even if I'm not doing any n.g. modelling.

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  2. Chris OD8 June 2014 at 13:30

    I'm with you on joining clubs Chris, athough I was an active member of a Buddhist group for 20 years until an incident a couple of years ago led me to cease my dalliance.

    However, I log on to NGRM every day, often several times, as I find it informative, engaging and generally light-hearted. I've been quite active of late with threads I've started but to continue the pub metaphor, I can always go and sit at a corner table and listen the the conversation without having to engage if I so wish. I do hope you persevere as your comments will always be welcome. But, I hope it's not to the detriment of this blog, which I also check every day.

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  3. Iain Robinson8 June 2014 at 17:09

    NGRM does seem like a friendly and informative forum. I have been sitting at the table in the corner for some time now :-). A while ago, I joined one forum and had a few threads going, but I gradually realised I was painting myself into a corner and it just wasn't me. It tended to descend into badinage, in-jokes and piss taking after a while and became tiresome, just like all the real clubs I have joined. Plus the general feeling was that it was moderated by UKIP central office. But then I'm not a very sociable person at the best of times. :-)

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  4. Mark9 June 2014 at 10:34

    I only joined NGRM a few weeks ago for the same reason; links I couldn't read without joining. So far I've probably participated less than you (one short thread on some 3D printing stuff and a couple of replies) but I have been reading quite a bit with interest , including "Edge - the question mark". Personally I've never really been a forum person either while I like writing my blog and reading others. As Paul says though, there seems to be an awful lot of actual modelling going on in that forum, so hopefully I'll get some inspiration even if I don't contribute lots to the conversation.

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