Volume 49 Issue 8 - May 2022

[Graeme Dunbar]

More broadly, regarding the May issue, I liked the breadth of articles.

Brian's analysis of membership was interesting. (Now I know why he was asking when I joined!) I will be interesting to see what happens to membership now exhibitions are starting up again. It was good to see 009 from the perspective of overseas members, and also that small or micro layouts seem to be popular I liked the "Automatic Ryan" and while the News may not be the best place for it, I'd like to know more about the technical details, that is, being a member of the Electronics SIG. Finally, back to the Branchlines debate, having the list showed at least one group I did not know existed. I guess if I looked on the web page I would have done so, but then I guess that shows the value of having it in the News in much that same way that I'd look in it for Society officers contact details.

[Stuart Taylor]

Again, thank you to everyone who participated in the discussion. The thread will probably wither, not least because the June issue has gone to the printers and I've already had the editor's copies back. Everyone else will have to wait another week or two to get their hands on a copy.

I intend to carry on with the current format and see if there is more feedback. Maybe, after a few months, it might be worth surveying the membership on the future of 009 News. It is, after all, a relatively cheap thing to do but creating a good survey is an artform as I have seen plenty of surveys where the questions are not clear or biased  :D

We can also see here that the numbers contributing to this discussion is less than 1% of the membership so hardly indiciative of the wider membership view but I am happy that the general view is that it was time for a change and the support you all give me.

Perhaps the biggest question of how frequently we produce the magazine and how thick it is will be driven by cost. We are having to absorb increased costs and Peter has looked elsewhere to see if other printers are cheaper but the outcome of that was that the minimal savings did not sufficiently offset the effort of moving printers but I don't think any of us can predict how much costs are going to change over the coming year.

For me, it is back to July's issue, which is two thirds complete, and then onto August's. I'm trying to get ahead of the game so I can take a 2 week holiday without coming back to a mad rush to finish the issue!

Thank you everyone

Stuart

[BrianE]

As a (possible) final word I will do my usual trick of throwing in a few statistics for your consideration:

As of this moment we have 2162 members; 12% of them do not have email that I know of. They all therefore rely on the News for all their information re the Society.

Of those 12%, 95% pay their subs by 'traditional' means ie Cheque or Standing Order. And for 75% of them I do not know their age despite my efforts. They are certainly from the older age range and many of them are no longer active modellers - I know from various communications.

I would tentatively suggest that you wait a good ten years before making too many fundamental changes to the News.

[Stephen Rainsbury]

It would appear that it is best to put details on the 009 Railway Modellers Facebook, as there are more 009 society members
on there, than on here.
The question is why ?

Stan.

Could it be because

• It is easier to post photographs?
• A trip to FB normally includes several other groups, maybe even other interests. Coming here requires an extra "trip"?
• FB (for me) is just a single click on my phone. Coming here requires me to either set up a shortcut or naviagte through a web browser
• Some of the people in that group are not currently 009 society members?

,

[clayliner]

Or maybe because you can set up access to FB yourself, whereas you need to 'apply' for access credentials to join the Society forum?

David.

[Stuart Taylor]

It would appear that it is best to put details on the 009 Railway Modellers Facebook, as there are more 009 society members
on there, than on here.
The question is why ?

Stan.

Could it be because

• It is easier to post photographs?
• A trip to FB normally includes several other groups, maybe even other interests. Coming here requires an extra "trip"?
• FB (for me) is just a single click on my phone. Coming here requires me to either set up a shortcut or naviagte through a web browser
• Some of the people in that group are not currently 009 society members?

,

Yes to all of these. The forum is good for discussions and dissemination of information but it is more cumbersom to use than Facebook. I find that the forum really requires a tablet or laptop to be comfortable to use whereas Facebook is optimised for the phone. Neither are bad, but they end up serving different purposes.

Stuart

[cp.409067]

[/quote]

Yes to all of these. The forum is good for discussions and dissemination of information but it is more cumbersom to use than Facebook. I find that the forum really requires a tablet or laptop to be comfortable to use whereas Facebook is optimised for the phone. Neither are bad, but they end up serving different purposes.

Stuart
[/quote]

*

Whilst it is no surprise to me, the above makes me aware that I may be some sort of semi-dinosaur.

I am on the one hand "of a certain age", and on the other "on line" (rather than exclusively dependent on printed matter for information).

But, so as to speak, on the third hand I am at this moment neither using a 'phone nor tablet or laptop.

I sit (on a very comfortable chair) at my desk, with a keyboard before me, and read off a screen. My post luncheon cup of coffee is now empty at my elbow.

In this somewhat relaxed state I am composing what I write and will be reading it through, and possibly editing it, before hitting the "Post" button.

*****

Perhaps Brian Ellsmore has the statistics to inform us what percentage of the membership conduct themselves in a similar or other manner.


CP

[Peter Boulter]

Another semi dinosaur here.  I sit comfortably in my chair with a real full size keyboard and facing a nice 24" monitor.

I have great admiration for anyone who can do forums, Facebook or e-mail on a phone with a virtual keyboard.

[duttonbay]

and another semi-dinosaur here, sitting in my comfortable office chair reading the forum on my 27" monitor and replying using a full-sized keyboard. 

[Frank]

As possibly a dinosaur of a different species, I would like to say that I do not do Facebook. I used to, but then I deleted my account.  So anything placed exclusively on FB will pass me by.

Frank

[Robin Webster]

As we are on the subject, I am more of the dinosaur type. I was once on FB back in the 2007, but it was not for me. 6 months later I closed the account. I navigate the world on my two tablets and a handy.
My account was closed by WhatsApp back in 2021 because I did not agree to their new terms, since then they reactivated my account, but by then I had moved on to Signal and Threema.

[Peter Boulter]

Speaking of dinosaurs. I remember that back the early prehistoric days of e-mail you could only e-mail someone if they were a member of the same service provider as you, RFC822 effectively put an end to that.
But it would seem that with the proliferation of social media sites we're going back those old days again with people not being able to communicate with each other because they're on different social media platforms.

[B.Meldon]

I use the Facebook groups, this forum as well as NGRM-on-line.
I access these via a laptop most of the time.
However, I also still like and want printed magazines.
Every 009 News, right from the start up to the end of 2021 fits in one draw in filling cabinet, so storage is not really an issue. I have only just had to start a second draw this year.
You can easily post photos on this forum but you are limited to 4 per post, maximum total size of 300KB and maximum individual size of 300KB. I just reduce the size of the photo to 1280x960 and then save it as a JPG with 25% compression. That fits in well with the size allowances.
However, not everyone can easily do this.