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Alan
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| Joined: | 4 Dec 2021 |
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Saturday 4th March 2023, England. Freerails is under *new management*.
Immediate changes:
1. No editing nor deleting member posts by moderators, if there's an issue we'll discuss it. Obviously doesn't apply to spam, racism, NSFW and other evil.
2. Copyright material may be posted under fair use provided the owner/origin is credited. DMCA applies if there's a takedown request.
3. Members may offer, request, sell, and buy, goods and services on the site. It's your responsibility to manage the risk of online transactions, not ours.
4. Management is open for suggestions and feedback. This is mitigated by the effort to migrate to a new modern platform. Maybe wait until we have software that can do something.
5. Visitors have new permissions enabling them to view the profile page of a member. This allows easy access to a member's topics and posts. The rabbit hole of a modeller's collection has never been easier. I'm working on enabling the gallery which is guaranteed warren of fascination.
6. Please acknowledge 2foot6 on his promotion to global moderator. Peter joins Reg in supporting John the super moderator in their duty keeping the forum on track. The crew have new permissions as representatives of the community to decide by discussion the validity of all content.
This marks the democratisation of the forum canon. The moderation of the forum's body of work is transferred from the administrator to the hands of the community. This is a sea change in how freerails is operated. Member content is sacred and belongs first to the member, second to the community, and an admin has no veto.
Admin Alan & Super Moderator oztrainz
Last edited on 5 Mar 2023 11:35 am by Alan
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Bob D
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This is great news!!! Thanks for resurrecting the site!
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BobD
O-SCALE BPRC
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Steve P
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| Joined: | 20 Apr 2018 |
| Location: | Colorado USA |
| Posts: | 182 |
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Hello,
I left this forum several years ago because I got tired of gratuitous editing of my posts.
I'm not doing as much train work these days (back into ham radio with a vengeance) but this Spring I'll walk around and create a summary of where things proceeded after I left.
best of luck,Steve
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Steve
Beaver Lode Railway
https://evvette.net/trains/
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Bernd
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| Joined: | 18 Jul 2012 |
| Location: | New York USA |
| Posts: | 921 |
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I see the message is getting out about the revived forum. Great news.
Bernd
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Tom Harbin
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| Joined: | 1 Sep 2018 |
| Location: | Arizona USA |
| Posts: | 307 |
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I'm also glad the site is back. I stopped posting mainly because I hit a low point in my MRR hobby but also I didn't try to stay active supporting others because too often the content of my post ended up different from what I had intended.
I'll try to post something soon although my MRR hobby is sitting unused and unloved while I've been reviving my saltwater aquariums hobby.
I was still reading the site often though and really missed it when it disappeared.
Welcome back and thanks to all of you that made, and are making, it happen.
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Alan
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| Joined: | 4 Dec 2021 |
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Can someone please explain what is going on here?
I'm hearing all these stories about members' original content being edited or deleted without their involvement nor permission.
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corv8
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| Joined: | 13 Nov 2018 |
| Location: | Vienna, Austria |
| Posts: | 794 |
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Alan wrote: Can someone please explain what is going on here?
I'm hearing all these stories about members' original content being edited or deleted without their involvement nor permission.
I suggest to discuss this by PM and not in an open thread. There surely is potential for bad feelings.
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Gerold
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fallen
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| Joined: | 3 Apr 2013 |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 218 |
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Great to have the forum back, many thanks for the efforts to resurrect it, very much appreciated.
Frank
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Kitbash0n30
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"guaranteed warren of fascination" sounds like something which should be on an advertising poster and surrounded by 1880s era clip art. 
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See y'all later, Forrest.
Screw the rivets, I'm building for atmosphere
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Kitbash0n30
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Though no definable reason could be pinned on the thing, I'm glad my intuition, gut feeling, nagged me to NOT dump the bookmarks while this forum was vanished for a time.
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See y'all later, Forrest.
Screw the rivets, I'm building for atmosphere
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Alan
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| Joined: | 4 Dec 2021 |
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Thanks for the feedback guys
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Salada
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| Joined: | 4 Nov 2013 |
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My thanks to Alan & John (Oz) for your efforts in rescuing/re-launching FR, historically one of the best, most instructive model RR sites.For various reasons I have been absent from FR for some years so I have no idea what has been going on but I see certain respected names from the past have already 'resurfaced'.
Fortuitously I looked up the FR address last night & was intrigued to see "under new management" so my curiosity was aroused (unfortunately only my curiosity).
Best Wishes, Salada
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Alan
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| Joined: | 4 Dec 2021 |
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Welcome back everyone. I was motivated to save Freeerails to preserve its unique body of work. I've since discovered the community is equally as unique. Thank you for making yourselves known by posting and other ways mailing me, and making me feel welcome. Thank you for the trust.
I put the site back online on Saturday 25th February 2023. Sunday 26th was the first day of the new era. It was hectic and confusing working with unknown software, barely understood content, and a community of serious minded folk who didn't know me from Adam. The migration to a new host was broken. The former custodians collapsed. It was completely unknown in what shape this old girl would resurrect.
Thank you to the moderators who stepped forward to take the reigns of representation for the collegiate. You made it much easier to get abreast of the situation. I now have a much better grasp of what to do and I want to involve everybody in the process we are engaged.
Yesterday I commissioned a website technical development team to plan and provide costs for the conversion of the database to Simple Machines Forum (SMF). I prioritised the move to a safe codebase over fixing the broken code from the last move. The objective is to establish data integrity which may be further compromised by short-term fixes. You'll notice the broken queries when you try to update some of the database, I am intentionally leaving them broken to preserve the codebase as close to UltraBB prior to the next conversion. Fixes today will require more work tomorrow.
Once we are safely ensconced on SMF things will move quickly forward to what we recognise from the modern software on our phones, tablets, and desktops. It is important the essential structure of the forum remains unchanged because a forum is the best vehicle for presentation and discussion. Likely enhancements will be to the way site data is consumed as the new software automatically interfaces with social networking like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et al. For example, when a modeller in the forum uploads a series of images with descriptions, Freerails will automatically create a Facebook album, upload to Instagram, and Tweet the new content. It is then optional and down to preference how you view and interact with Freerails content.
It's a given we must vacate our deprecated platform before it ceases to function because of a forced PHP update. I'll keep you informed of progress. Please do get engaged with feedback.
I appreciate change is hazardous and the mention of social networks causes some of us to break out in boils. For those reasons change will be limited to augmentation of forum function rather than a wholesale redesign. Each change can be interrogated by the community for its utility. The purpose is to grant accessibility to Freerails from large networks where we are otherwise hidden, very much in the same way as SSL (https) implementation opened up the site for Google Search.
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Bernd
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| Joined: | 18 Jul 2012 |
| Location: | New York USA |
| Posts: | 921 |
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Sounds like a good plan Alan. On another forum they installed updated software and there were some growing pains and there are still some glitches, but it's tolerable. So I've come back to stay for the duration on Freerails.
As far as feeding other platforms I think that it's a great idea to bring in some new modelers. I only have one complaint about the modelers that want something and they want it now. They have no patients in scratch building or other long term commitments for a model. I am on FaceBook, but use it more for surfing to see what some are doing that don't post on forums. Here's something to contemplate when it comes to picture posting. In the two other forums I'm on the biggest complaint I've seen is posting pictures. There are a number of ways to do that, plus many use their cell phones to post pictures. Many have no idea about how that picture gets to the forum for others to see. They do not have the time, fortitude, or know how on preparing a picture to post on the forum. All my pictures are hosted on my website. I link all my pictures from there. I very rarely upload a picture to the forum gallery. Two reason's I do that is somebody else using the picture without proper credit to the photographer and the possibility of a forum crash or software update and losing all the pictures. I've seen that happen on two forums, one being the British "rmweb.co.uk". They also are now using adds. Many have left that site as have I. I believe many go to FaceBook because they don't have to do any photo editing. Just take the pic and upload it.
All my pictures are run through PhotoScape X Pro. I size all my picture to be 1024 pixels wide. This usually is good for a forum's 1080-pixel width.
Also I'm still contemplating on being a moderator if you are looking for some one in the US. Perhaps by the time the new software is up and running I'll have a definite answer for you.
Regards,
Bernd
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Alan
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Noted, thanks Bernd. Please post a link to your site for the curious.
The last admin wrestled with the issue of optimising picture sizing and descriptions for display in the forum. While he had much success with improving the presentation of Freerails he fell foul of the tricky matter of editing user submissions. I same as most moderators have edited submissions to correct a display problem. Much of the problem is this antiquated code that hosts Freerails. These issues are long gone in modern software so we'll see the problem of maintaining publishing standards and untrained users disappear.
Indeed there is a problem of persistence of data. Several large photo repositories have vanished. People have lost collections when sites have failed. I'll take a good look at persistence on the new system. I'd like to see a public cloud vault save the images for posterity.
The breadth and depth on the subject of models is a mirror of participants in the market. Those who want to buy a working model and those who want to build it. Followers and influencers alike we all had an introductory experience. Freerails wants to expedite the development of modelling and consequently has a multitude of different audiences.
The different platforms reflect preferences of their users. No platform should exclude another because of personal preferences or situations. Hence the rise of the Application Programming Interface (API) developed by the platforms to incorporate data from other platforms. These API are so strong they are automated. You've seen how to link different networks using a share button. The website software where we are going has all of these functions in a way we can control.
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slateworks
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Hello Alan. I am one who became totally disenchanted with the previous regime and left in a bit of a sulk but at 81 years old, I'm afraid I belong to the group who have limited patience and a total lack of knowledge or understanding of how this modern era of IT works. I can't even get a mobile phone to work properly!
I am, however, delighted that FR has been reborn in, what to me looks like a more enlightened spirit and can only complement and thank you and your team for making this happen. I wish I could contribute more to the practicalities but I don't have the knowledge or the get up and go to do so and at best can only contribute with modelling posts.
From what has been said and seen recently, I have no doubt FR will prosper once again and provide the entertainment, camaraderie and educational platform that it has done for many years and will remain a stalwart of railroad modelling information.
My and Updah Creek's thanks again for all your and your teams' efforts.Last edited on 18 Mar 2023 06:36 pm by slateworks
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Doug
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Alan
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| Joined: | 4 Dec 2021 |
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@slateworks in terms of modelling I'm way out of my depth here. I'm not entirely at sea, as a youngster my father introduced me to modelling. He built and painted whole armies for my brother and I. Airfix boats, planes and tanks, lovingly coloured and detailed. We had a large battlefield board in the garage with hills and villages and bridges. And with comprehensive rules of engagement we invented ourselves a game. Later we built balsa wood planes that flew and boats we could drive on the village pond. I had miniature steam engines fuelled by methylated spirits. And race cars powered by solid fuel rockets. Thinking about it now is opening memories.
If I dare say so, we don't want a modeller working on the technical platform of a website. I know just how complex and nuanced my chosen area of expertise is. It's not all dry logic and machines. In the dark digital universe of binary mechanics we use metaphors to define the objects we invent to deliver us our objectives. In the world of modelling the model sits proud on the tabletop. In the world of information systems the machine is the product of imagination that resides only in one's head. Until of course it delivers a system people are interested to use. But still then it is largely unseen. Building information systems is like watching the wake from the prow of your ship when nobody can see the ship. There's a fascinating psychology to information systems, they either work or they don't and they're incredibly difficult to predict, otherwise everyone would be creating a new Amazon or eBay every other week.
In my past life I did build a website that became very large in terms of visitor numbers. I once calculated if you lived in a village of 1,000 inhabitants then at least one person knew me from my site. So I have a uniquely useless specialism, I know how to develop and maintain online communities on very large properties. It's absolutely useless because if you have one of these sites you don't need me. On the other hand once you've done it you retire. It's serendipity how I came to be here with a great deal of encouragement from the past management, and I'm starting to think he knew what he was doing all along. It could be fate.
As far as writing a hello here's my resume I'm your new admin we didn't have a marriage went direct to honeymoon. If you saw that curriculum vitae you'd find a guy who after building a big site had retired to teach SCUBA on the beach. Then there was a diving accident where he went too deep to bring somebody back which unfortunately damaged my bones. It's called avascular necrosis. I've more surgery to go but I'll warn you ahead of time because I will be off-planet from the drugs. I'm stuck to desk work for now until forevermore. Luckily I have this passion for communities I can fill my days with. The technical knowhow you get for free.
So that's my hello message and it's given only because all of you are so wonderfully personable. I've seen the topic where members are posting photos of themselves and their families. Everyone here is on first name terms. I'm amazed at how mature, sensible, and differentiated you are leading your lives. The quality of work on display is priceless. To be quite frank I'm lucky you are having me. If you're still reading then remember the adage to write drunk and edit sober. I have spoken.
EDIT: @slateworks you triggered me buddy
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corv8
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| Joined: | 13 Nov 2018 |
| Location: | Vienna, Austria |
| Posts: | 794 |
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Alan, thanks for telling about your background. This is almost like having a face to a person we know only from written words.
I am very curious about the changes you predict - and also a little worried as I have avoided facebook + twitter until now. Old distrustful guys, you understand.
I checked about the accident you had, sounds nasty, I hope your treatment will work ok!
Re the risk of losing pictures (for the individual member) - I have all and everything ( 6GB RR pictures) stored on three hard drives so even if flickr, imgur and all others go down I dont lose anything. I would never trust a cloud or anything else on some server who-knows-where. Although I of course remember the Photobucked disaster that made many great threads almost worthless overnight.
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Gerold
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slateworks
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Alan, as Gerold says, good luck with your treatment whenever that may arise and I'm more than happy to have "triggered" you!
That's one of the benefits of a forum such as this in that we all have different interests and skills of varying strengths and for me, if with my limited assets I can nudge someone more hesitant than me into an "I can do that" frame of mind, it's all been worthwhile.
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Doug
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Kitbash0n30
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Alan wrote: @slateworks in terms of modelling I'm way out of my depth here. I'm not entirely at sea, as a youngster my father introduced me to modelling. He built and painted whole armies for my brother and I. Airfix boats, planes and tanks, lovingly coloured and detailed. We had a large battlefield board in the garage with hills and villages and bridges. And with comprehensive rules of engagement we invented ourselves a game. Later we built balsa wood planes that flew and boats we could drive on the village pond. I had miniature steam engines fuelled by methylated spirits. And race cars powered by solid fuel rockets. Thinking about it now is opening memories. Okay, not exactly the same genre of modeling, but enough to expect that you get the general concept. 
For me, it was Dad who introduced me to plastic model building; to stick and tissue aircraft models; and to historical board games style wargaming.
And I who eventually introduced him to model railroading and to miniatures gaming.
Just for fun, a couple 1/72 and 1/76 scale models done up for miniatures gaming, something like 25 years ago. A Hasegawa Churchill 1 & a Matchbox SdKfz 11 & a Fujimi M36.
I got out of miniatures gaming as health declined and as a result gave away and/or sold all the minis.
https://flic.kr/p/2ki4g22
https://flic.kr/p/2ki4g2Y (a couple of the guys have aftermarket heads. Hmm, 'aftermarket heads', I like that phrase) EDIT: try this link, https://www.flickr.com/photos/93483263@N03/50732487478/
https://flic.kr/p/2ki8vYY
A lot of fun hours have been had in my lifetime doing the making and playing miniatures games of varying scales and genres.
Railway modeling and operating is much similar to that in various ways.
Oh, and since balsa wood & boats on ponds were mentioned, https://flic.kr/s/aHskzXRFGp
Last edited on 20 Mar 2023 02:01 am by Kitbash0n30
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See y'all later, Forrest.
Screw the rivets, I'm building for atmosphere
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