tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723635728039107400.post4255251935145636712..comments2024-02-19T16:50:09.920-08:00Comments on CP Rail Manitoba & Minnesota Subdivision: Atlas Discontinues its Model Railroad ForumsJDL56http://www.blogger.com/profile/02372225959736999719noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723635728039107400.post-53930274663410049632012-04-26T21:31:49.196-07:002012-04-26T21:31:49.196-07:00Agree completely with #1, I'm a member of seve...Agree completely with #1, I'm a member of several fly fishing and model railway forums and there's always people who think freedom of speech literally means just that.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11992535289106333751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723635728039107400.post-67791128250387706012012-04-26T07:05:58.849-07:002012-04-26T07:05:58.849-07:00Shocking to hear this news. But to give another pe...Shocking to hear this news. But to give another perspective on this, not really. Let me explain. I was always amazed and impressed that Atlas offered the forums and let the company be directly open to the customers. There is good and bad in that from the company perspective. They opened themselves up to direct criticism of their products while providing an open forum to an entire community. Risky, but brave. I was (am?) a member of the forums for many years. Learned a lot of things from the postings of other members. But I have not visited them in well over 2 years. I got really tired of two things.<br />1) there was an ever increasing tone of what I can only describe as elitist snobbishness from the so-called protoype experts... those that were not happy with any product or anybody else's work unless it was absolutely 100% accurate to the tiniest detail. Often it seemed those doing the loudest complaining did not even make models.<br />2) Partly related to my point (1) there seemed to be less and less "fun" from the forum members. Less pictures of people's work, and more negative critique of that work when it was posted), less of an acceptance of model trains as a hobby, and not a full time profession for most people. There was a lot more real anger at times from many of the forum regulars.<br />I got so discouraged by those two things that I stopped visiting the forums. And although I have moved houses in the last year which necessitated a slow-down on the trains for me, the increased negativity on Atlas' forum also contributed to my own attitude about model trains and the slow down for me. The good aspect of the forum for me dsiappeared, so I walked away. <br /><br />Still it will be sad to not have Atlas forums there.Kevin Nelsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03271568481845242128noreply@blogger.com