Help bring traffic to B&O, C&O forums?

[Passenger Extra]

Otto--- you have just run afoul of the intense loyalty to the B&O among Baltimore area members. Many love the B&O, were ambivalent toward the C&O ( which was Virginia based), tolerated the Chessie System, and can't stand CSX! ( or the PRR)

Please allow me the indulgence of reading the replies from the deeply loyal B&O members here with a certain degree of smugness.

As one who grew up in a B&O family, there is indeed an intense feeling of loyalty and dedication to the memory of the B&O not only among the folks from Baltimore, but those who knew and kept it alive over the years that I have not seen with any other group of railroad people save perhaps the Santa Fe.

The sense of history, tradition, and belonging remains surprisingly strong to this day.

[CBRy]

To Mr. Vondrak;

I happen to be a moderator at another web site (one about computers,
no less!) that converted to a different (and incompatible) format a while
back just like yours here.

What we did was display the old postings as 'archives' which makes
everything readable by posters, but they can't post to the old site. If
anyone wants to comment, they must reintroduce the topic and con-
tinue the discussion on the new format site. The rewrite of the old site
content was/is the same situation as what you ae dealing with here.
Our Site Admin just dealt with it a little differently.

Maybe you guys can do something like that. Provide a link to the old
content and threads for viewing only and lock it so no posting can be
done. At least people can go and research the information there and
comment on it here, thus generating renewed interest in your site.

Just a thought.

[Alco83]

A few years late here , but indeed, having a little background experience in this sort of thing myself (and operating/maintaining three websites) even including the old format as an archive would be better than nothing. As Wade was saying there was far too much invaluable information at the old RR.net (where I coincidentally enough began perusing Internet rail-related forums) to see it all lost, especially for history's sake.

Heck, since I know this website is for-profit, you all could even make the archive section a "premium" feature that members must pay to see although I wouldn't personally recommend doing this.

[Otto Vondrak]

Thanks for your suggestions- we had considered reviving the archived old site, and have had experienced database programmers attempt on our behalf, only to come to the same conclusion we came to years ago- the original format of RAILROAD.NET would take many years to convert, even in an archive-read-only format. It is regrettable, for there was a lot of valuable information in the old site. Some of it may be accessible by searching www.archive.org for old site content.

I have approached the B&O and C&O historical societies in an effort to cooperate with them, and hopefully drive traffic to their sites, and in return, encourage their members to use our site- but so far have had no response.

-otto-