I just found and read this tonight. Sad to see this go. 
I didn’t use the forums that much myself. I was mostly a reader and not a poster.
Statement on the Forum Closure | IPMS/USA Home Page
2 Likes
Agree, was bummed to see it go.
1 Like
Yeah, pretty sad. The traffic there was light and just a few guys propped up the forums. But it was the IPMS forum for crying out loud.
2 Likes
When I first read about this, I was shocked. Then I learned they were shifting things over to Facebook, and I thought, okay, that makes more sense.
But the more I think about it, there is something different about a forum. Facebook is great for what’s happening today, but forums become a searchable archive of builds, techniques, questions, and answers that can still be useful years later.
And this is IPMS/USA, our national organization for the hobby. It’s too bad they couldn’t figure out a way to make the forums more successful and turn them into a stronger resource for the modeling community.
So I understand the decision, but I do think something worthwhile is being lost in the process.
3 Likes
A forum has to be hosted and maintained. That’s a cost in time and money. Traffic probably didn’t warrant keeping the IPMS forum open. Facebook is a questionable alternative, because as a webpage/application, it’s poorly designed. But it does provide a location that requires no hosting or development skills. We of the MFCA use a Facebook group as our forum, for that reason.
It’s funny, too, that most of the users are older, as younger people moved to other social media platforms.
2 Likes
As we were getting ready to replatform the FSM Forum, Aaron and I did a lot soul searching regarding keeping it our not. We did consider spooling up a Discord (I use that for my gaming groups and am a member on a couple of other ones). The truth is, Forums are suited for the kind of chatting we do in ways that other social media platforms aren’t. (Yes, I know it’s weird to think of the Forum as social media, but it is–just one of the oldest.)
In general, there is a move away from many of the larger soc-med platforms for a number of reasons, privacy and safety not the least among them. I remember a couple of years ago, going to a local club meeting and told them what my son told me: “Facebook is for the olds.” There were flashes of anger around the room. Hoo boy! [coughs and tugs on collar]
While I’m interested in demographics, I’m more interested in suitability. IG, FB, TT, etc., are good for quick blasts of info, but they aren’t gooey. A Forum is gooey. People stick. They get pulled in. And that’s a good thing for the hobby. They do, as Brad points out, require maintenance. That means money and people to keep them running. Therefore, it comes down to how you look at the Forum you’re hosting and what you want it to do for you.
At FSM, we have looked at the Forum as one of the biggest repositories of scale modeling knowledge on the web. It is a benefit for the hobby for us to keep it running. But, to be honest, it is a resource sink, so we do things to try to mitigate that factor, mostly through ad sales. As you’ve probably noticed, I’m going to do more outreach on the Forum for subscriptions. It’s one of those things I’ve dabbled with over the years, but never put much effort behind. Why? Because the Forum isn’t suited for generating conversions that way (remember my mention of suitability earlier). Still, I’d like more Forum members to be subscribers, not only because it helps keep the magazine going, but it also keeps the Forum viable.
Obviously, IPMS/USA couldn’t bridge the resource/benefit gap, and that’s a tough thing to see, but it’s also understandable from a business perspective. Orgs have limited funds and need to figure out how best to spend those dollars for the betterment of it and its members. As someone who has had to navigate storms in a changeable industry, I sympathize with John and the IPMS crew and hope they’re able to see the org through as they chart this course.
6 Likes
I have watched the FB groups supplant the forum formats with, shall we say less than enthusiasm. As noted, FB is not the long term collection of archived discussions and information a forum can be. It intentionally buries content in the stream of buzz-feed, and little of it is informative in a long term sense. Dare I mention “most relevant” sorting - most relevant to who? I am very pleased to see the FSM forum continue, and yes, I do subscribe; hopefully more people will do so, the magazine is a great source of information and entertainment.
2 Likes
“A Forum is gooey. People stick.”
I think you nailed it with that description. I’ve become much more active here recently, and that’s exactly what I’ve noticed. A conversation doesn’t just flash by and disappear. People come back to it, someone adds something new, and sometimes a thread that started years ago suddenly becomes useful again.
Years ago I was a FineScale Modeler magazine subscriber. I’m not anymore, but I frequent the website and use the information there, and this forum has become an excellent resource for me. The repository of knowledge alone has tremendous value. I’ve searched for answers to modeling questions and ended up reading conversations here from years ago that contained exactly the information I needed.
I’m very glad you and Aaron decided the forum was worth keeping. And if supporting it meant subscribing again, I absolutely would.
Another issue with the IPMS going away is product reviews. There are a lot of product reviews, and those reviews were initially hot linked via the forums.
Are the FB mods going to continue that practice?