RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Strangely, I was just remarking to Greeny (who rarely makes a contribution to the posts, although he has been a member as long as I have) a couple of days ago, that although there are 200 members, thousands of views, and thousands of posts, there are only around 20 regular contributors?

At the time I was thinking in terms of the number of tank hobbyists in the UK...are there really only around 20?

All I can say is that what this forum does, as does any other forum, is pool the talent of brilliant minds for the benefit of noobs like me. I honestly knew nothing about RC tanks until I bought an HL Tiger 18 months ago...the rest I picked up initially on RCU, and then I got an email telling me about this forum. Best thing I ever did was join up, even though it was in it's infancy back then.

There are good and bad forums. I ride motorcycles. Depending on what I currently own determines which forum I am on. The difference between them is quite extraordinary, as is the quality of the knowledge available.

This forum has some incredible talent at its' disposal, and the sheer volume of viewers on the threads proves this. There are a lot of people who happily look for solutions to problems and find them. That is what the forum is all about. Some people like to browse, and some just jump in. I happen to be one of the latter, but I totally understand the reticence of those who don't.

All I can say is that if you are new here, then ask a few questions, even if only by PM, and then get stuck in. Post up some pics of your handiwork if you like, we all like to see what other people have done.

I will help absolutely anyone, anytime, and I know that others have done the same for me, for which I am eternally grateful.

There is also the added bonus that the more active the membership, the more likely we are to have a get together so that I can shoot you all to bits, or provide travelling target practice, and that is something that I am really looking forward to. If I spot a clique there will be a bright yellow Chinese BB heading your way shortly!! : )

Rob G

hi oz ,no boats rocked and no need for body armour, i havent found the site clique, yes i know im a mod but i havent been to any of the meets yet, i find everyone here friendly, and may it stay this way
all the best, ice

Hello oz,
    Lots of good guys on here and you happen to be part of that group. 
                                    Larry

Reference "Give it time Bob, and a clique will form" if it was said by who I think it was, I was the Bob and it pre dates the first meet at Stoney Cove since that time I have seen several forums grow then fade. Please don’t let it happen to this one.

It is the nature of people to form groups, cliques, clicks or whatever you want to call them.
We should not worry too much so long as they don’t get EXCLUSIVE.
That is where the moderators need to pull people up, which hopefully they will. We also need to have this conversation every once in a while to remind everybody and the moderators why the other forums fade.

We also need more people to post things on the forums we need witty well written informative articles I cite as a brilliant example the chap that wrote about the problems of static electricity on circuit boards.
We need less of the BEVIS and BUTTHEAD mentality which is prevalent on other sites, unfortunately I have seen some evidence of that on this site.

We all have a wealth of modelling talent; we also have outside specialities which we could bring into the forum. We will only be as good as the quality of the posts if you need proof take a look at some of the German sites whilst researching speakers I found a several page item including performance graphs for replacement speakers. That’s what we need more of.
So come on get your heads above the parapet and contribute.

to be honest i certainly noticed a clique on another forum and that was the main reason for suggesting we start our own club trouble was it seemed the whole club was in this clique and any new guys  not wanting to subscribe to the clique was shovelled away into the pits of oblivion >:( >:(

beavis and butthead mentality not sure where your coming from on that 

OOOPPPSSSS got my dates wrong again Bob could have swore it was stony still it was a prophecy that came to pass.

OZ re your last post, I had to think for about 20 minutes before it registered what you had posted don't worry mate you don't have to apologise for anything especially my bad spelling after all I wouldn't be able to spell anything if I was never corrected.

For people who attended the Northern Softies indoors meet nibelungenwerk, was the guy that had the Panzer IV variants Hornice, Ostwind Jagdpanzer L70 and such based on Bandai chassis and the whopping big bridge

being a person who has made one or two stupid remarks in the past i think i know where nibel is coming from.
and too the guys who thought there was a click on our site thank you very much for your universal !!SILENCE!! it was really unappreciated, this has at least set me straight about what we do on here and how things are done.................all for one and one for all" eh!.

Oz.

I, for one, do not see a problem with this thread, In fact, if anything it helps demonstrate exactly the sort of open civil discussion that will help keep this site positive and healthy for years to come. If we see, or think we see an elephant in the room, we should certainly check it out. It's when the elephants get ignored that sooner or later one runs amok and a lot of damage can happen.

As for the site that came to mind in becoming very cliquee??, I thought a little more about it and feel the problem was simply that a few members (including several moderators) started using the public threads as a personal message system and side-tracked so many topics with irrelevant off-topic chatter that it became very annoying. If the Mods don't care...

One final point to clarify, titles (whatever they are) that ID the Mods make perfect sense. I just wonder about all the other ones.

Oh...and to Alison. Lovely to see you on site and at such a difficult time for you. Hope everything goes smoothly, and as it should for you all over the next little while and do keep popping in for a chat whenever you can!

'Nuff said. Time for a fresh cuppa.

To borrow a few of the themes here, and use them to frame my thoughts:

When I joined back in October I felt there was a "guys who went to Bovingdon and got to know each other" group 'thing' going on - not to say that it was anything intentional (or bad) on the part of those who went, but thats how it was preceived by somebody looking on from the outside. It was a little intimidating to start posting here when I was starting out, as back then this was more of a message board for the club, rather than a 'RCU type' site with the international following that we now enjoy (Yeah, I said it RCU! Come and get me! )

There's also the fact that some of the guys here post amazing looking models, that make my efforts look like a toy tank that had just had a quick respray (because that's basically what they are ). That can also be a little off-putting to new guys when they want to post their stuff, but don't feel like their models are worthy - or some "nit-picker" is going to pull their efforts apart! I think that point got covered in the other thread, and by the "provide constructive criticism only when asked" rule; and I'm happy to say I've not seen any "your tank looks like rubbish" type posts that occasionally crop up on "that other form".

As for the 'Bevis and Butt' head conversations , I think its a fair point that somebodies thread asking for help should not get hijacked and turned into a personal conversation/pun-fest. However, some of the funniest threads I have read elsewhere on line have involved forum members exchanging banter and forum in-jokes.
I'm not sure how to approach this one - Tony was the ring leader for a lot of threads like this in the moderators pages, and this is how he and I became friends - so for me is a catch 22 situation: If the mod's keep their banter to the mod's section, its 'a clique'; if the 'old hands' exchange puns in the regular forums we are guilty of thread 'hijacking'; if we ban all forms of banter, then the forum is in danger of becoming a dry and boring place where nerds count rivets and compare colour schemes...!?

There is a balance to be struck here, and after less than 9 months in operation I'm not sure we are going to find it anytime soon :-\
In the mean time we should keep having these threads so that we can determine the best course. I think this is what sets us apart from the other forums - we are willing to take a step back and ask "are we moving in the right direction?"

I hope this rubbish makes some degree of sense,
Mart

P.S. David: If you take away my "Global Exterminator" badge, all I have left to fall back on is my "25 meter swiming badge" and a cycling proficeincy certificate... Please don't do this to me!!

Another penny's worth,mabe a half a penny 

Is there a "click" here.?? If there is mabe I'm too damn old to see it.This forum started if I remember correctly to form a club and also I think Matt wanted to start a forum so he could mannage it and run it the way he felt it should be run.His rules have been geared toward the members main goal "injoy your hobby and have fun" and he has allowed a lot of lattitude when it comes to posting here.I think thats why most of us are here,I know thats why I'm here.Is it wrong for the existing members of the clubs to have more to say and inter-act with each other than they may have to say to for instance of someone like myself who is on the other side of the big pond and and not a member of their club.I would expect that for gosh sakes--That for sure don't bother or affect me,I would do the same in their case.

A couple of weeks ago now I found a train forum because thats what I'm working on now and thought well mabe I would go in and have a look around.It had a list of a lot of members and the majority of the posts were fairly out of date and it was not what I would call a busy forum by any means.So went in and looked around and thought well what the hell I would go in and join and make a couple of posts and see what happens.When signing up I got to one section where they wanted you to "ok" the fact that as a member you were going to be "rated" as to your performance on the forum---What in the world does this mean--???  Do they have certain standards you have to meet to be a privleged member there on a forum that was close to dead.Time to leave---I wasen't buying a house,not looking for a job as a master train builder,don't belong to the local yaught club,and not a member on wall street.Just wanted to build and talk about building my hobby--(and doing it my way)

I kind of lean the other way when it comes to posting.In the "general forum" the question being asked or A "comment " on a subject is kind of up for grabs as far as who "posted it" and most will know if they want to reply and post there.We have build areas here and in those areas for most of the members they want you to stick with the topic.For myself anyone can put what ever they choose in anything I post as long as it's not "mean in nature" .I also have a hell of a good sense of humor,and one can see there are lots of others here who have also.We now have areas for about anything to do with tanks and a place to find serious answers to any question one might have.

We also have an off topic section that is for just about anything you want to post if it is in good taste.
I have posted some far out things there that don't apeal to everyone,infact some that didn't apeal to hardly anyone.Thats what this area is for--------If someone buys a couple of goats and happen to have left a ladder leaning up against there house and one of these goats climbs the ladder and gets up on the roof------Post it---I want to see it--if you have pictures even better. Now is this going to apeal to other's,mabe not but it will get a look through from me.

The biggest killer of a forum is those who go into a post for the sole reason to say "that don't interest
me and should not have been posted"-- ::) ::) ::)

                    BIGMIG