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Forums - Modelling / Smallscale |
The construction forum is for the discussion of small scale AFV modelling. Usually this refers to 1-76th and 1-72nd scale AFVs. |
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| Subject: | Holy Crap! |  |
| Date: | Mar 10, 2003 |
| From: | Doug Chaltry | |
This response is just amazing, and completely unexpected! I seriously had no
idea that the site was so popular. Before I reply to any messages on an
individual basis, let me first post a copy of a message I just posted on
Missing Links. Hopefully it will give a little more information.
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Wow, I guess this must have really been a bombshell. I had no idea ...
I heard that there was a lot of discussion on this board about my
announcement, so I thought it best to come check it out. When did y'all get
rid of those annoying pop-up windows? From the looks of things, I think I've
been missing out on a lot of good discussions.
I apologise for the length of this message, and I hope that it is on-topic
enough for this board.
I want to thank everyone for the incredibly kind and generous things they
have been saying about my site. I honestly didn't realise how popular it
was. Several years ago I had a counter on the main page, but I took it off
after I found out that it used cookies, which I didn't like. Ever since then
I have no idea what sort of traffic the site received.
Based on the emails I have received, some phone calls, and the messages
here, I see that I need to give a little more explanation of the situation,
and answer some questions.
First of all, I think the message I posted on my home page may have been a
little one-sided with its explanation, that being my disappointment in the
lack of support from the model industry. While that certainly is one of the
reasons for my decision, it's not the only one. I think that I was feeling
particularly "unloved" at the time that I wrote that, which made it come out
the way it did. When I look at sites like Hyperscale, or Internet Modeler,
it seems that those guys never, ever have to purchase their own models, and
that started to make me a little jealous. But as I said, that is only one of
several reasons.
I also made the statement that: "...my entire involvement in the hobby will
be scaled back considerably." This is the root of the problem. It is an
indirect way of saying that my wife is VERY pissed at my huge model
collection, and the amount of time, and especially money, that I spend on
this hobby. If anyone has a solution to this very common situation that many
of us find ourselves in, I'd love to hear it. No, it's not to the point
where either the models go, or she goes (gee, I'm going to miss her
cooking), but it's understandably difficult to explain another package
arriving in the mail from Europe, when I already have 400 unbuilt models
sitting on the shelves.
Without going into boring detail, the problem is that since we moved last
fall, my wife hasn't been able to find a job (thank you, George), so money
is very tight. The website itself is fairly inexpensive; it only costs $15
per month. It's the constant model purchases that have to end. So, what's
the point of the website without reviewing new releases?
The obvious answer is to have viewers contribute their own reviews, but
we've been down this road before. The latest time estimate for me to get
high-speed internet access is at least a year (every time I call them, it
gets longer and longer).
In answer to a specific question someone had:
The size of the website as it now stands is about 200MB. I don't know what
the monthly throughput was, since the webhosting plan I bought was for
unlimited disk space and throughput. I think it is substantial, though,
since my old ISP, which offered its customers 10MB of disk space, shut down
my site halfway through the month for exceeding throughput limits. And that
was when the site was less than 10MB.
I have had a couple of offers from others to host the site for me, and I
will have to discuss this with them off-line. One of the things I was trying
to avoid was any implication of impropriety. I didn't want any official
"Site Sponsors", so that I could maintain my objectivity in reviews. I'm
sure you've all seen that I won't hesitate to be critical of poor kits, even
contributed ones. (Maybe that's why Hasegawa won't talk to me: they're upset
that I said they were in the Stone Age with their vinyl tracks :) Perhaps I
am unrealistic in thinking that there is a difference between having
official sponsors, versus simply reviewing donated kits.
Whatever I decide to do, rest assured that I have no intention of sitting on
this information forever. If it doesn't go back on-line in the near future,
I will definitely make it available on CD at no cost (except postage) for
those who want it. Much of this material is not mine, so I don't think it
would be right to make a profit from it. But let me do a little more
research before everyone floods me with CD requests, because the response to
my closing has been far greater than I ever expected. I need to talk to
Alexey and others before I make any more decisions. Apparently this first
one was a little hasty.
You never know. Maybe I'll show all these messages to my wife, and the site
might go right back to where it was.
-Doug
(By the way, why didn't anyone mention the photo I posted? I thought it was
hilarious. I guess maybe you have to be into birds to appreciate it :) |
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 | "On The Way!" is Gone - Doug Chaltry - Mar 9, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - - Mar 9, 2003 |
| . . . Very sad news.. - Matt Reeves - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . . . . Re: Very sad news.. - Christophe Jacquemont - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - David Clark - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - Christophe Jacquemont - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Sorry to hear it. - John-Michael Murray - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - Mark Knight - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - Joe Stauder - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - Andy Bannister - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - Filipe Ferreira - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Holy Crap! - Doug Chaltry - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . . . . Re: Holy Crap! - Paul Provan - Mar 11, 2003 |
| . . . . . . Re: Holy Crap! - Andrew Herbert - Mar 11, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - Alexey Blashchuk - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - Rick Bennett - Mar 10, 2003 |
| . . . Our personal thanks to "On The Way"! - Milan Vins - Mar 11, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - Matt Bittner - Mar 11, 2003 |
| . . . Re: "On The Way!" is Gone - paul provan - Mar 11, 2003 |
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