Since Wings900 and DAC have banned me... I'll take up residency here...

[AvGeek]

PS. I myself worked on a few forum sites and I have seen many sites close down for this reason.

[AvGeek]

We're working on some facebook integration, its coming at least for profile and login. What other social items would you like to see fleet?
Youtube.. What will the videos be of?

Flight Director is a stellar resource, we may need to recruit him to this team! lol

Currently anyone on the internet can use the database for research without being a registered member. And this thing about allowing members from similar sites to register here only to use this database (signatures included) isn't really working, not even for marketing purposes. We need people to participate here with discussions and have a sense of community on this site.

I use the database, but what now? How is that alone going to keep me or anyone else coming back on a regular basis? I've posted like a true ''spammer'' in almost every sub forum to no avail.

[AvGeek]

As an observer I find it interesting that people come to DIMA to complain about DAC and W900, but don't stay here and make significant contributions HERE.
Dima is so much better. All it needs is more people to post.

You guys can contribute so much. Don't just use DIMA to complain about the Wings 900 sites. Please join the other collectors here to make a positive contribution here.

Or do you like the drama of DAC and W900?
I find some of the posts and internal politics there disturbing.
The moderation there is non-existent or either ineffective or condoning of their loudest members actions, so why stay there?

I can understand that one looks in there now and then to see what is reported there that is not yet mentioned here. But nothing stops you from starting a similar discussion here.

Prosper through participation.... at Dima. :-)

AMEN! Thank you for pointing this out.

[Stockholm_flyer]

So if by normal you mean logos that still cease to function, a database that is horribly out of date and other functions that are still broken, then that isn't news... thats the new norm over there. Remember Mas Media said when they kicked me out that they would fix the broken profiles and then work to fix the other items. Have they? yeah, didn't think so.

Pretty much. That's why it's such a shame to think that things are back to what is now normal.

[eugenevh]

I see two fronts.

The first front - "The Home front":
For those who can't post OR who do not want to support those sites, they can help to make DIMA better by just getting involved more here. What DIMA needs is knowledgeable people and good discussions (there can be different views, but in a civilized manner).

I don't see myself as too knowledgeable about the models. In fact, to borrow a saying from another collector I once read (and adjust a bit to fit my criteria) "If you slap a SAA badge on something which looks like an airplane, then I will probably buy it." I also don't currently have the space to display any of my models, so I can't post images of my growing collection, but I see others do and it is wonderful to see it.
I keep on collecting in the hope of one day displaying my ahem 'toys' for all the world to see.

The second front - "The Foreign Front"
For those who do participate on the other forums, they can at the minimum, add the DIMA "Collection Graphic / Forum Signature" to their profiles signatures. They can also now and then punt DIMA as a good place for storing collections. Then, if people come here to create their collection database, and they happen to see a vibrant forum going on the "Home front", then they might just feel the urge to stay here and help to build Dima. We all found Dima in similar ways, so it is possible.

What DIMA is lacking is more interaction on the home front. There are already a couple of good people here, but we need to get more people more involved here.

So if you see something you want to discuss, then start a thread. It might seem a bit slow at first with few responses, but that is the only way to get the snowball effect going. People will join and sooner rather than later we will have a vibrant community. (I do secretly hope that it will not become like the other sites and that people will act differently here. I might be deluding myself though on how people interact on Internet forums. I do hope moderation here will stop that behaviour before it gets out of hand).

But this is just my view. I am sure a lot of collectors here can come up with brilliant ideas to grow Dima.

The database here IS great. The administration of Dima IS top notch.

It is now up to us as the collectorate to build further on the solid foundation.

[Flight Director]

Couldn't have said it better... so I can't post over there, so how do we get the users here?

[eugenevh]

As an observer I find it interesting that people come to DIMA to complain about DAC and W900, but don't stay here and make significant contributions HERE.
Dima is so much better. All it needs is more people to post.

You guys can contribute so much. Don't just use DIMA to complain about the Wings 900 sites. Please join the other collectors here to make a positive contribution here.

Or do you like the drama of DAC and W900?
I find some of the posts and internal politics there disturbing.
The moderation there is non-existent or either ineffective or condoning of their loudest members actions, so why stay there?

I can understand that one looks in there now and then to see what is reported there that is not yet mentioned here. But nothing stops you from starting a similar discussion here.

Prosper through participation.... at Dima. :-)

[Flight Director]

I'm back! And i bring what might be news. I don't know how many of you have followed the development over at W900 lately, but right now everything seems to be back to normal. Everything is calm, but that might just be because there is less activity these days.

And i personally haven't seen anything from MAS Media lately. Looks like they've skipped town, so to speak.

So if by normal you mean logos that still cease to function, a database that is horribly out of date and other functions that are still broken, then that isn't news... thats the new norm over there. Remember Mas Media said when they kicked me out that they would fix the broken profiles and then work to fix the other items. Have they? yeah, didn't think so.

[Stockholm_flyer]

I'm back! And i bring what might be news. I don't know how many of you have followed the development over at W900 lately, but right now everything seems to be back to normal. Everything is calm, but that might just be because there is less activity these days.

And i personally haven't seen anything from MAS Media lately. Looks like they've skipped town, so to speak.

[MaxDelta]

I'm thinking about starting a thread on Wings900 with all these links to other websites complaining. I haven't been on there in a while so even though I'll probably be banned I guess it's not the worst thing . W900 has just gotten progressively worse as time goes on

[fleetlordatvar]

Wow, even more sites that MasMedia owns are complaining:

" Lately, with problems like pop ups and slow load speeds, sometimes I walk away. Place is going down hill I think to myself but I've been coming here so long it's habit now. I wish the ownership gave a hoot."

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?s=a1eb7cd55afbcb47f238d8711da3f70d&t=421520

Sounds like MasMedia hasn't made nice nice with anyone...

No surprise, as it wasn't likely they would target a specific site.

[Flight Director]

Wow, even more sites that MasMedia owns are complaining:

" Lately, with problems like pop ups and slow load speeds, sometimes I walk away. Place is going down hill I think to myself but I've been coming here so long it's habit now. I wish the ownership gave a hoot."

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?s=a1eb7cd55afbcb47f238d8711da3f70d&t=421520

Sounds like MasMedia hasn't made nice nice with anyone...

[Flight Director]

Maybe someone should tell the W900 and DAC users that their comrades at other forums that MasMedia runs are having issues as well: http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showt...t=21080&page=7

Seems to be a common theme among the sites that MasMedia owns.. Of course, then there is this one that they successfully killed: http://www.lgbworld.com/ not activity in a year...

[truss20]

Ya know what the problem is? no one will face up to them and tell them they once again are blowing smoke up everyone's a$$... If you do, you'll get banned. Yet they fix one thing and then carry on their merrily way pretending like they care - and still haven't fixed anything. I just don't get why the user population there still has any faith or trust in them...

It looks as though they REALLY haven't fixed anything - I've been unable to get either the Wings900 or DAC website up and running today (Aussie time)...better stay with DiMA from now on!

[Flight Director]

Ya know what the problem is? no one will face up to them and tell them they once again are blowing smoke up everyone's a$$... If you do, you'll get banned. Yet they fix one thing and then carry on their merrily way pretending like they care - and still haven't fixed anything. I just don't get why the user population there still has any faith or trust in them...