by jwb1323
I notice there's been comment on Trainorders and here about the Atlas forum taking a summer break. My own view has been expressed on my site, and I was chatting about this with my local hobby dealer, who lurks on the Atlas forum with some frequency.
I pointed out that if they have to shut the thing down because Atlas employees are taking vacations, this means that Atlas employees are spending MAJOR time babysitting that forum. My LHD agreed. This is one indication that big bucks are being spent on that forum by Atlas.
Second is just the question of software license, bandwidth, cost of server, and so forth. I suspect it isn't cheap. Otto may be able to give a ballpark estimate of what Railroad.net pays per month for its forums.
So: if I pay whatever -- $80,. $100, $150, now $250 for an Atlas HO loco, what percentage of that pays for the Atlas forums? If Atlas shut down its forums and passed on the cost to modelers (or simply used the savings to keep prices at their current level), would we benefit?
Add that to the comments made on Trainorders about the Atlas forum -- the amount of flaming that's tolerated, for instance, especially from the posters who are "more equal than others" -- I can't help wondering if Atlas is spending these big bucks to give model railroading a bad rep. Wouldn't it be more peaceful, and maybe even more cost-effective for modelers, if Atlas sorta forgot to bring the forums back in August?
I pointed out that if they have to shut the thing down because Atlas employees are taking vacations, this means that Atlas employees are spending MAJOR time babysitting that forum. My LHD agreed. This is one indication that big bucks are being spent on that forum by Atlas.
Second is just the question of software license, bandwidth, cost of server, and so forth. I suspect it isn't cheap. Otto may be able to give a ballpark estimate of what Railroad.net pays per month for its forums.
So: if I pay whatever -- $80,. $100, $150, now $250 for an Atlas HO loco, what percentage of that pays for the Atlas forums? If Atlas shut down its forums and passed on the cost to modelers (or simply used the savings to keep prices at their current level), would we benefit?
Add that to the comments made on Trainorders about the Atlas forum -- the amount of flaming that's tolerated, for instance, especially from the posters who are "more equal than others" -- I can't help wondering if Atlas is spending these big bucks to give model railroading a bad rep. Wouldn't it be more peaceful, and maybe even more cost-effective for modelers, if Atlas sorta forgot to bring the forums back in August?