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M Graff
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Is there really a point to continue making updates here?

Or should I stay with my blog only?

My thread here has just a couple of thousands of views, where's my other threads on other forums has 10-20 times that.

With discussions and comments in accordance with the number of views.

Is it maybe so that the small US/Canadian subsection on this forum just hasn't enough interest?

I don't know, what do you think?

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If you think number of followers is a measure of whether it is worth the extra time to paste a copy of what you have done elsewhere, then you have answered your question already.

I don’t follow your threads elsewhere, so the total number of followers would decrease by at least one.

The greatest number of views my blog has generated in a single day is about 150. The lowest is zero. But that’s not why I blog.

YMMV.

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It is entirely up to you!

Ask yourself why do you post?

If it is for your own satisfaction, carry on.

If it is to teach or spread the word, carry on.

If it is to say "look at me", maybe not.

 

If you have a very restricted field of interest, you are never going to attract many followers as there simply aren't that many other people who are sufficiently interested in the same or similar thing.

The further away from the "mainstream" you go, the less others are interested. As someone who models the equivalent of German pre-group as one of my themes, there is limited interest in my stuff - even on German forums.

Whereas if I modelled mid sixties 00 British, there would be tons of interest. 

I was once planning a model set about 25 years or so in the future and explained the concept to a good friend and colleague - he listened well and explained that I would be on my own because railway modellers are a conservative bunch.

I took from that they actually lack imagination!

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Rather than questioning whether there are sufficient numbers of others reading your content it could be turned around to ask whether you have read others' content when there has been a fundamentally similar discussion?

 

 

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5 hours ago, M Graff said:

Is there really a point to continue making updates here?

Or should I stay with my blog only?

My thread here has just a couple of thousands of views, where's my other threads on other forums has 10-20 times that.

With discussions and comments in accordance with the number of views.

Is it maybe so that the small US/Canadian subsection on this forum just hasn't enough interest?

I don't know, what do you think?

 

As others have noted, it is up to you whether you feel the effort to post here is worthwhile.

 

But the flip side is that this subforum, like any forum, is only as good as those that participate instead of just reading.  If people want this area to be better, then they need to participate and help to create content that will attract further views.

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Good to see some input.

Yes I read and like a lot on the forum.

The thread from Allegheny I must have missed though.

And no, I am not only in it for the likes, that's what Facebook is for.

Discussions, questions and exchange of information on the other hand is my great reward.

 

 

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Like with all genres of modelling I imagine most folk will click on something they like or are interested in. I like some US railroad operations, but have to say that my interest is very much on lesser operations with maybe a Geep or two working smaillish trains and switching locations.  By Geeps I really mean four axle locos like GP7 GP9, U23B and B23-7 as well as smaller Alcos. 

 

Whilst I am impressed by lashups of six motored locos hauling immense trains, they actually don't do anything for me in terms of modelling, and the only six axled US loco I have is an Alco RSC2.     

 

I am quite sure there are others who feel the opposite

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Here, quietly. Being one of the resident Americans I try to help answer where I can, but given the current environment and my responsibilities, time is a killer...

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You rarely ask any questions or start a discussion.  Most of your postings are pictures of your work, so there is less to comment on or discuss.

Edited by dave1905
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19 hours ago, dave1905 said:

You rarely ask any questions or start a discussion.  Most of your postings are pictures of your work, so there is less to comment on or discuss.

I'm confused.

So if I share updates on my build, there's no base for discussion?

I share quite a lot of various build techniques and the results of those (especially on the blog).

I may be silly, but I kind of thought that others were interested in that, and might have an interest to discuss these?

 

 

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I'm of UK origin, but based in (almost) rural California. I generally tend to only read the forums, rather than the blogs.  I suppose the wide range of subjects means that something interestingly unusual (UK or USA) pops up quite frequently in the forums. 

 

I should also add I'm biased against the more modern image layouts with diesels plus long modern freight cars.  All those layouts and their traffic seem too similar to each other to be interesting to me.

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

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I'm another that follows the main forum rather than blogs. I will go so far as to say that blogs occupy less than 0.1% of my RMWeb viewing.

Some will say that's my loss - but that's the way it is.

 

Are blogs categorised?

Can I find blogs with a USA/Canadian bias by searching?

 

(Goes off to try and doesn't have any success)

 

Or do I just look in the USA section on the main forum - because it's easier to find?

I tried a bit of blog many years ago, but there was minimal interest.

Instead I posted the model pics under the relevant topic at the time and it generated far more discussion - even to the point of me suggesting a new category to Andy Y and it's now going strong - "Modifying and Detailing RTR"

 

 

When you also say that your threads on other forums have had more views than here - are you compared that to other UK - or non-UK based forums?

 

RMWeb on the whole is UK-centric

 

Edited by newbryford
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I have set up an activity monitor for threads, posts and indeed blogs I follow, and saved it as a shortcut in my browser. It has a lot to recommend it: keeps me focused on just a few things, but loading it is a pain as it relies on the software’s indexing functions, which frankly seem to have difficulty keeping up!

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On 18/05/2020 at 16:51, M Graff said:

So if I share updates on my build, there's no base for discussion?

I share quite a lot of various build techniques and the results of those (especially on the blog).

I may be silly, but I kind of thought that others were interested in that, and might have an interest to discuss these?

There is a big difference between only posting your own work in your own thread, and being very actively engaged with other people’s threads.

 

If you want to feel more involved, get more involved!
Like parenting, social participation doesn’t come with an invite: you just show up and take part.

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23 hours ago, newbryford said:

I'm another that follows the main forum rather than blogs. I will go so far as to say that blogs occupy less than 0.1% of my RMWeb viewing.

My RMweb blog viewing runs at precisely 0.000% exactly.

I only follow two other on line blogs at all - Mike Cougill's Proto48 blog, and Lance Mindheim's, and these days even that is rare.

As John (Allegheny)'s thread showed, there has been a downturn in US Outline modelling, at least in the UK, for a variety of reasons, and participation in this Section has declined somewhat in line with that. 

Re discussion of techniques - does posting about "how I did xyz" actually stimulate discussion? It's easy enough to read about a technique, and think to oneself that it might be useful, but isn't it only really if someone has a question about the technique that further discussion carries on.?

 

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9 hours ago, dave1905 said:

I didn't even know there were blogs on rmweb. Its not real apparent in any of the headings for the drop down menus.

From the home page:

196B6ADA-6DD7-41FE-AC12-C086C3FB4429.jpeg.9a07a6ebfe7c855901472d411c81a919.jpeg

Menu from anywhere:

D5170806-B564-48CF-B01D-E92180C00EE9.jpeg.5fa0b7065e5a5afb513a4521e505d8e3.jpeg

 

Not sure how that matches your statement, Dave: they have the same prominence as everything else.

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I read posts, if they are of interest, but odd times venture outside of what I normally view. The restriction for most people is the time that you can spend just browsing and not realise it hence the limiting to what interests

 

In my view I would say continue posting as people do read your posts, but the posts which seem to attract the most views on RMweb are ones where the OP is well know in the modelling field or has many friends, sometimes the same thing. The most informative posts often start as has been said often start with a question and they garner replies both people offering advice and people with the same or similar issues.

 

The Blogs get views because they have a story to tell and they are informative, which is the same as popular posts.

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Quote

 

So if I share updates on my build, there's no base for discussion?

I share quite a lot of various build techniques and the results of those (especially on the blog).

I may be silly, but I kind of thought that others were interested in that, and might have an interest to discuss these?

 

 

Since you asked the question, I looked at your other threads on a couple other forums.

The majority of the comments on every thread fall into generally three types:

  1.   Your posts
  2.   "Good job" posts that are one entry.
  3.   Single question posts where someone asks a question and you provide an answer.

There really isn't that much, if any, "discussion" where multiple people are involved in a conversation about a single topic over multiple posts.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I didn't really see "discussion" on any of your threads on any of the forums you post on.

 

Since you post on several forums you are also "diluting" your responses.  For example, you have a thread on the MRH forum.  I frequent that a couple times a day and post on it regularly.  On the other hand, I check here 3 or 4 times a week and generally only post a response here if its something unique.  there are several other people who post on multiple forums and I generally only comment on ONE thread on one forum, even though there may be multiple iterations of the OP's post on many forums.  It becomes too hard to keep up with the discussion on multiple forums.  Chances are, if I was going to make a comment, I would make it on the MRH site, since I go there more often.

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14 minutes ago, dave1905 said:

not sure how my view matches yours.

 

We can't answer that as you haven't actually attached an image, just a link to where it is on your system which isn't a help.

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2 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

We can't answer that as you haven't actually attached an image, just a link to where it is on your system which isn't a help.

 

The answer is that in order to find the Blogs you have to drill down one menu.   Since its not obvious that they are there and not having a pressing reason to "Browse", I never came across them.

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Why do you need a “reason to press browse”? Isn’t that what natural curiosity/a desire to explore is all about?

 

Oh well. You can take a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.

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I never browse blogs, its a real pain to find which blogs area about which subject and its not my scene.   However there are a lot of US modelling techniques which should be used by UK types and UK techniques which US modellers could have a good laugh about, or flatly disbelieve.

If the OP has any special ideas he wishes to share then a post on a forum is a good way to disseminate info.  Unfortunately many US modellers have basements available for modelling which are larger than the footprint of my entire house, and locos which can actually climb hills so maybe the carry  over isn't too relevant.   As regards Blogs no one would follow me if I started one so I'll leave it to others.

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5 hours ago, Lantavian said:

 

Oooh. Do tell us what they are :-)

Yeah, I thought that!!! :yes:

 

I think a lot of Basement Empire owners don't understand how anything smaller can have satisfying operating potential. There's an article in the latest MRH about 'Light Ops' sessions - it goes on for page after page, and lost me after a while. If that's what Light Ops are, I dread to think how difficult Heavy Ops must be. 

It is said that Americans take having fun very seriously. MRH articles often confirm that, to my mind.

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