Jeff et al; I’m looking at the third largest of the forums (fora?), “Ships” and seeing page after page of topics and page after page of response, all great. Would it make any sense to subdivide the Ships forum into “Pre Steam” (3000 BCE to perhaps 1840 CE) and “Modern” (1840 to Present)? As interested as I am in our entire maritime history in scale, I’m not particularly interested in PT’s or DE’s or the QE2 and I’ll bet a lot of members aren’t interested in the proper bending of Bentinck Shrouds. It seems to me that might be more convenient. Any thoughts?
Best,
Ron[?]
Not a bad idea in theory, but…if I do it here, think about the headaches it will cause elsewere…
I want a 1/72 post WW2 Nato jet forum…
I want a 1/35 pre-war German armor forum…
In the aircraft and armor forums alone, the splits would become unmanageable. And you know that if I do it for one, I have to do it for everyone.
I’ll mention it at the upcoming staff meeting and see how it flies, but I’m not making any promises…after all, I have a boss to answer to as well! 
Jeff
Jeff,
I may be a bit behind the times (okay, I am a bit behind the times), but when did you become an associate editor at FSM? In any case, congrats on the position.
Regarding splitting the forums into smaller pieces, I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think the subject lines are usually descriptive enough for folks to skip over topics theyr’e not interested in.
More to the point, for those of us who are interested in a number of different subject, categorization that is too fine just leads to a heck of a lot of clicking. I think the way the forums are now strikes a good balance between having too many categories and too few.
On the other hand, if you do further break up the forums, I want a category for box scale aircraft kits based on molds from the 1950s with shark mouth decals. [:D]
Regards,
Very Funny…
I moved westward about 3 weeks ago from Jersey, and I’ve been here for two weeks now, so you need to come up from the basement workshop once in awhile my old friend!
J
I suppose I should. [:)]
In any event, aside from your other qualifications, I really enjoyed reading what you wrote at Modelwarships.com, and your posts here have been exceptionally helpful and interesting. I look forward to seeing the impact you’ll have at FSM.
Regards,
Jeff,
Belated congratulations! (You passed God’s country in your move west, luckily there is only a small lake between you and it now. . .)
Dividing the forums, while needed in some cases and justified, would be the double edged sword, as Drew points out. The first fall out would be folks wanting “their” forum included.
Outrageous ones such as “1/144 scale foreign airliners used prior to 1954 without PE.”
Or my favorite: “1/48th scale USCG Helicopters used on Polar Ice Breakers 1950-Present.”
Perhaps we could have a contest to determine the funniest??
Don
Jeff et al,
I disagree with the suggestion about dividing. I think we would miss out on “crossover” items such as tools, techniques, etc. that are a benefit to all regardless of area of interest.
Al Blevins
We have some changes to the web site and forum happening in the next few months, to improve navigation and functionality, nothing that will be dramatic (I know, we’re creatures of habit), so lets leave things as-is for now and perhaps we’ll touch upon this at a later date.
Jeff
Jeff. Scale Auto has all sorts of different divisions when it comes to automobiles. Andy keeps pretty busy over there.
PS you going to the 2005 Nats in Atlanta this year?
I like all floaty thingies, and although I primary build sailing ships, and heaven forbid, with my wife’s protest, am building a battleship, enjoy reading posts about LSTs, PTs UBoats, Clipper Ships, and Dingeys. So I like the present format.
If I want to read up on a particular subject here, say about the Bismark, then I just use the search engine.
Scott
Robert,
I’ll be at the Nationals this year…it’ll be easy to pick me out…I’ll be the one that 's NOT Paul Boyer!
Jeff
Jeff,
See ya there! I’ll be hangin’ with Jon and Ted. [tup]