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Yes, the forum has changed. But, as much as we rebel against it, life always seems to do that. Out families change, our churches change, our communities change. It happens. People we love get older and move on from this life, or just move away from ours. The forum is not immune. People who were active ten years ago are no longer active, but we have a bunch of new people. The ownership of this forum has changed at least three times and each time that change had a ripple effect on the tenor, tone and general flavor of the forum. Virtually all of the mods and admins that were here when I first arrived are no longer mods and most of them are no longer active on the forum. And again, with each change in moderation there was a corresponding, even if minor, change in the forum. I well remember when Jim Flis was here every day and had something like 10,000 posts (he still does, but it's not increasing every day like it once did). For me, the most noticeable change, aside from the people, is that I seem to remember that there used to be a *lot* more build threads. Although there could easily be some that i currently miss because I don't read *all* of the forums every day, and I admit to being just as guilty as everyone else since my general busyness (and several relocations) has kept me from building much of anything in quite a while. Hopefully, I see a path where some building may occur once again in the near future (I actually have a workshop in our new house - Yay!)

So yes, things are definitely different. And, the fuddy-duddy that I am becoming might even agree that things were better in "the good old days." But, in the end, everything changes. The forum, being a sort of "living being" grows and changes just like the rest of us. The real question, and each of us can only answer for ourselves, is whether, in it's current form, the forum is *worthwhile.*

The second question, is the same question that we must each ask ourselves as members of a family, church, or community.

"What am I doing to make it better?"
 
I joined in 2011, so I have been here for a few years and I too have seen both constructive conversations and destructive conversations. I can help but think some of the older crowd, with years of experience (Like Crazy Jim) are instrumental to us all. But at the same time its is easy to get frustrated at the guy who just joined and asks questions that have tons of answers already on the forum if they only used the search feature. There are sometimes, more than one way to accomplish a certain task of a build and that's ok. I have always felt grateful for the comments help and ideas voiced on this Forum. I still feel I am a "newbie" to High Power Rocketry; But I really enjoy this Forum....Thank you ALL. I say KEEP Up the group effort, Understand this entire Forum is for Rocketry - NOT EVERY Topic on your mind, learn to be respectful and remember this hobby is only as safe as "Those Of Us, In It"
 
Glasspack said:
Understand this entire Forum is for Rocketry - NOT EVERY Topic on your mind,
Click to expand...
Except for the Watering Hole:
The Watering Hole
An area where general discussions can take place, that don't necessarily fit well into other categories. This can relate to rocketry, general chat, or any other topic not prohibited by TRF rules and guidelines.

And the "What I did INSTEAD of Rocketry today" thread.
 
Peartree said:
). For me, the most noticeable change, aside from the people, is that I seem to remember that there used to be a *lot* more build threads
Click to expand...

Some contribution to that may be that there's usually already a thread for a vast majority of the kits out there. Nowadays we get threads for folks' unique scratch builds or certification projects, or folks doing a build thread for the first time as an avenue for advice.
(You hear that folks that bought the new estes kits? Let's see some builds!)

Since I'm mainly a kit modifier and don't build scratch designs, I have a hard time deciding a rocket is worth a build thread. Most of the time I'll just post occasional updates on the Today thread

Things like putting a 38mm mount in an AT G-force, or putting basswood skins on a Star Orbiter just don't seem like beneficial threads. Hah, and I don't have the attention to minor details to do a proper thread on the Master Series Mercury Atlas under my couch.

Maybe I'll do one for the Astron Explorer, I don't see a detailed write-up of that around. May do one for making a scale-matched Patriot missile family to match my L1 rocket as I convert it to dual deployment.
 
A few years ago, I was trying to learn everything I could about rocketry. I wanted L1, then eventually L2, and finally L3. Lots of questions. And along the way, I would try to help those who were a little farther behind me. i read practically every thread, replied often, and amassed a ton of posts.

Now, my interests have narrowed, and I no longer spend much time reading threads that don't exactly relate to my rocketry goals. I am more likely to respond to stuff n the Watering Hole now than actual rocketry threads. Crazy, I know.
 
jlabrasca said:
Learning NOT to click on this button also helps

View attachment 407016
Click to expand...
The ‘ignore user’ ability has saved me a lot of aggravation and made it easier to stay on topic. Even this thread has that ‘show ignored content’ button which I have to resist clicking. If I’m ignoring someone, I’ve learned it’s in my best interest to keep it that way.


Tony
 
Actually now that I think about it, my first time on the internet was with a Laser 286 computer running MSDOS OS, a 5. something baud modem, and Compuserve software with the Mosaic browser bundled in.
I downloaded a picture of a B-2 stealth bomber, took over an hour.
And I thought "Hey this is so cool!":D
 
kuririn said:
Actually now that I think about it, my first time on the internet was with a Laser 286 computer running MSDOS OS, a 5. something baud modem, and Compuserve software with the Mosaic browser bundled in.
I downloaded a picture of a B-2 stealth bomber, took over an hour.
And I thought "Hey this is so cool!":D
Click to expand...

Yeah and the whole system was probably $2000
 
Peartree said:
For me, the most noticeable change, aside from the people, is that I seem to remember that there used to be a *lot* more build threads.
Click to expand...

Terms and Rules said:
6.2. By posting content on the Websites, you also grant, and warrant that you have the authority to grant, the Company a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive worldwide right and license to display, reproduce, adapt, modify, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, make available to the public, use, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to any and all content that you post on the Websites. If you do not wish to grant ROCKETRYFORUM.COM these rights, do not submit content to the Website.
Click to expand...
 
cwbullet said:
What is RMR?
Click to expand...
In the olden days, really before browsers became a thing, there were a variety of protocols that ran over the Internet. One of them (NNTP) was designed to allow aggravation of posts from all over the internet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_newsgroup

There were many, many groups organized by topic, one of which was 'rec', which of course stood for recreational. So R.M.R. was rec.models.rockets. Really the forerunner of forums like this one. The entire place was (mostly) completely unmoderated, and became a place for the dissemination of illegal info, pedo images, and other bad stuff. (Not RMR, but other areas on usenet.) It eventually was pretty much killed off by many ISPs in an effort to avoid liability (IIRC). But I spent a lot of time on RMR and became used to certain posters who became notorious, one of whom was Jerry Irvine. (At least I'm pretty sure it was RMR, it could have been AOL. Heck, I go back to the days of 1200 baud Hayes modems.)

You would literally watch an image download one line at a time, or after things got really fancy, a low-res interlaced version which progressively got better as more lines were download.

Not really the good old days.


Tony
 
CoyoteNumber2 said:
6.2. By posting content on the Websites, you also grant, and warrant that you have the authority to grant, the Company a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive worldwide right and license to display, reproduce, adapt, modify, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, make available to the public, use, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to any and all content that you post on the Websites. If you do not wish to grant ROCKETRYFORUM.COM these rights, do not submit content to the Website.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Can you explain your position a little more?
I always thought a build thread was a way to share work with others for their enlightenment or education.
 
Nytrunner said:
Can you explain your position a little more?
I always thought a build thread was a way to share work with others for their enlightenment or education.
Click to expand...

I'm offering a possible explanation as to why Peartree has noticed a decline in build threads.

Some people may not want to bother creating that kind of content if it becomes property of the company that owns the forum - even if enlightening or educational.
 
It's like every other forum or social media. There are a just a few, that typically cannot accept you have an opinion that doesn't agree with their own.
I've seen these same folks go over to the "Unofficial" forum and spew profanity-laced responses to another's opinion.
My wife always says " God must love stupid people because he made a lot of them"
 
CoyoteNumber2 said:
I'm offering a possible explanation as to why Peartree has noticed a decline in build threads.

Some people may not want to bother creating that kind of content if it becomes property of the company that owns the forum - even if enlightening or educational.
Click to expand...
I actually think this trend started years ago with one single thread. The "What did you do rocket wise today?" in one fell swoop killed posting of build threads, at least at the frequency before this thread was started. People all of a sudden could be lazy and make a post or two every month to satisfy their need to share projects. The sad part is that 90% of the posts on that thread are unread and their project is not seen by anyone. In addition, sporadic and random posts do not constitute a build thread or any learning that could be shared with the rest of the forum members.
 
kuririn said:
I've seen that when someone acts like an a** they get slapped down by the community forthright. As it should be.
Click to expand...

Did you self-censor by typing "a**" or did someone do it for you?

800px-Wild_Ass_of_Sokotra.jpg


edit: I am NOT calling anyone an a$$ -- just wondering if there is a list of prohibited words that get moderated and if this one should necessarily be on it.
 
We all live in a digital world these days. It's very easy to say something and be taken in another way because we don't hear the emphasis put on words we type. Or the look on the face that those words come from. I've noticed it everywhere, not just in the digital world. If someone you are speaking to is looking another way, they seam to take it a different way than you meant it, and too quickly. It's the path of progress and one of the tall hurtles society must over come.
As much as we all think our opinion matters, or should matter, and think everyone should agree...It will rarely gather the masses.
Due to the digital age, our opinion has just exploded across the world, instead of a casual meeting on the street and idle chit chat.
That influences more opinions and goes off track quickly and goes wild.
While progress moves at the speed of light, the human emotion has the difficult time of trying to keep up.
We all just need to take things on the lighter side of things, and think how people will take what we type before we click the button "Post".
I've caught myself when I've been in a bad mood due to one thing or another, and realized I was doing the wrong thing and just didn't post.
Constructive criticism is completely different than just plain criticism.
And in the digital world where you don't look people in the face when you speak, it's very easy to do and self control is the only answer.
This is only my point of view in a very generalized manner from my own observations and reflects to no particular post or person.
 

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