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Saito2

When folks leave forums

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If my parents did not teach me what i learned at an early age i would had been useless to my community.

it's like when does a brain or heart surgeon get his first crack at real patients,

or perhaps when i was learning plumbing, when was my uncle going to let me loose on soldering copper pipe.

shootn' targets at six with a pellet/BB's  and 22 LR.

my children were using an air nailer at seven years old.

did not cut loose my youngest onto a Skilsaw until he could lift it with one hand and hold it straight out for 30 seconds, he was thirteen.

i'd say the table saw and chain saw are the most dangerous.

when do we get a chance?

 

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6 hours ago, ACCEL said:

did not cut loose my youngest onto a Skilsaw until he could lift it with one hand and hold it straight out for 30 seconds, he was thirteen.

I think I’d struggle with that myself :) it does have a 5Amph  battery though in my defence... 

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As you guys know I’m a newbie here,

Reading through OP post, he has directly helped me with something, and I’m very grateful for. As someone new to the forum, I can imagine what happens to some here and may happen to me...

You can all see I’ve posted on here a bit, maybe it’s verbal diarrhoea and I post something before thinking about it fully. The more and more I search for help and spend time here the more I’m aware of the ‘old guard’ here and seeing myself look like a total doofus in front of the pros and long time tinkerers, I’m not too worried and how am I going to learn some finer details that translate across all models?

I am conscious that my wafflings might be getting in the way when other people need help with something, so I’ll post less as time goes on not to get in the way.

I would genuinely like to thank the people that have taken their time to help me out, a week before lockdown I went down with something, 2 days later I could hardly breath and get the ambulance out, I made extra A&E visits in the coming months, no one could help me as they were only interested when you had to be admitted.

I found the Tamiya kits I collected in loft and actually started them. I reverted back to a time before my teens, a safe place where I had some control of what was going on, I could concentrate while tinkering and forget about the pain going on throughout my body. I’m still suffering certain things and this is why I’m up at 3am looking through stuff writing this posts here.

I’m aware of certain posts or polls that are not visible to me concerning new members and can see perhaps the annoyance of having a load of new members turn up and are probably seen as ‘fair weather’ rc enthusiasts, chatting away blocking up the forum with extra posts. I do get it.

As I’m coming close to the end of my test bed GF01, I will have a template to make up a second one with all the extra parts I’ve collected and beginning to refine what I didn't understand first time round, looks like diffs, restricting movement in diffs, clearing the gumph off to let them move freely, shimming – all this stuff.

Anyway, thank you all 👍👍

 

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I will say that's the beauty of this particular forum... its pretty inviting. It doesn't matter if a new enthusiast (or returning, older enthusiast) comes around asking questions. Its not an annoyance to anyone here and most try to be helpful. Even if questions get repeated over the years, it doesn't matter. It keeps the forum and the discussion alive. Nothing used to irritate me more than seeing some smart-aleck reply to a question on a forum telling the person to "use the search function". Forums aren't just static repositories of knowledge. Often times when questions get re-asked, newer or fresher knowledge might come to pass because of it and that's good. I also like the old guard isn't cliquish here. Too many other forums have a group of 20-30 long term members that form a circle that is too hard to break into for a newcomer. It intimidating and the place becomes an echo-chamber. 

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28 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

Nothing used to irritate me more than seeing some smart-aleck reply to a question on a forum telling the person to "use the search function". Forums aren't just static repositories of knowledge. Often times when questions get re-asked, newer or fresher knowledge might come to pass because of it and that's good.

Couldn't agree more. I've been on a lot of other forums that the usual reply to a question is either use the search function, or some clown would post up a "Let me Google that for you" link of the same question. 

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6 hours ago, Saito2 said:

I will say that's the beauty of this particular forum... its pretty inviting. It doesn't matter if a new enthusiast (or returning, older enthusiast) comes around asking questions. Its not an annoyance to anyone here and most try to be helpful. Even if questions get repeated over the years, it doesn't matter. It keeps the forum and the discussion alive. Nothing used to irritate me more than seeing some smart-aleck reply to a question on a forum telling the person to "use the search function". Forums aren't just static repositories of knowledge. Often times when questions get re-asked, newer or fresher knowledge might come to pass because of it and that's good. I also like the old guard isn't cliquish here. Too many other forums have a group of 20-30 long term members that form a circle that is too hard to break into for a newcomer. It intimidating and the place becomes an echo-chamber. 

couldn't of said it better myself!

questions? is it not how we all have learned?

watch, listen, read and ask questions.

Then trail and error and that's ok, it's how i have learned..................................

besides the ones that respond with their knowledge are giving their time and i thank them.

To those about to Rock I Salute You!

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@Saito2 interesting that you posed this question when i have noticed a major slowdown on the forum.

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On 7/29/2020 at 9:55 AM, Saito2 said:

Often times when questions get re-asked, newer or fresher knowledge might come to pass because of it and that's good.

Absolutley,  and where a bulk of the questions are about the electrical side, that's changed a great deal over a decade! (Even lipos are now being superseded by LiHv)

I think everyone has flurries of activity, and then a pause when life gets in the way of fun, that's just, well , life.

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I think that Scale Builders Guild may have drawn in a lot of people from who where on other forums too. Especially as Crawlers are so popular. 

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Came back today to check on how thing's were going. As for me, I just seemed to disappear one day. A lot of reasons why, in no particular order:

- Satisfied with my current collection. I have most of the cars I wanted as a kid, sans a few that are out of reach in my opinion because of $$$

- Prices aren't what they used to be for busted up and beaten examples of 80's buggies. Every person selling junk thinks they have a treasure. 

- Started delving into HO trains. Honestly it was kind of inevitable. I've always wanted to build a small town, can use my hobby skills immensely, tons of electrical work I can do, build and expand over time, can do it inside when the weather is terrible. 

- I'm in a midst of a full-blown transition since I'm transgender (yeah...um....I never mentioned it on this site but maybe a few times). Money for family and transition sometimes takes precedent. 

- Was laid off permanently back in March and still job searching. 

- Interest just waned. Ebb and flow I guess. Still lots of RC projects I'd like to do one day. Hey, I did finally fix and run my vintage Hotshot last weekend :) 

 

So there you have it, I'm still here and I didn't ded. Hope y'all are doing well. 

Much love and Cheers!

Blake

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On 7/29/2020 at 1:55 AM, Saito2 said:

I will say that's the beauty of this particular forum... its pretty inviting. It doesn't matter if a new enthusiast (or returning, older enthusiast) comes around asking questions. Its not an annoyance to anyone here and most try to be helpful. Even if questions get repeated over the years, it doesn't matter. It keeps the forum and the discussion alive. Nothing used to irritate me more than seeing some smart-aleck reply to a question on a forum telling the person to "use the search function". Forums aren't just static repositories of knowledge. Often times when questions get re-asked, newer or fresher knowledge might come to pass because of it and that's good. I also like the old guard isn't cliquish here. Too many other forums have a group of 20-30 long term members that form a circle that is too hard to break into for a newcomer. It intimidating and the place becomes an echo-chamber. 

That's definitely what brought me back here, and why I probably won't bother going back to any other hobby forums. A lot of the others have that cliquey feeling, especially if you approach the subject from some angle other than the accepted "normal" way that everyone else does. Much more of an "anything goes" feel here.

This is just a good friendly spot, like a good local bar, except we're spread out all over the world and we talk about the greatest toys in the known universe. And it's kinda funny: I've been on here for 13 years (!!!), and yet, I still sometimes feel like a noob, just because I know that a lot of still-regulars predate me. But I guess a tiny bit of impostor syndrome is healthy; it keeps one from feeling like a know-it-all.

And I agree: I don't mind re-answering the same questions. I do sometimes suggest that people search for an answer, but usually it's because I'm in a hurry but want to help, or just don't feel like typing the same thing out all over again. But I try to be kind about it. I hope I succeed...

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I’ve come and gone a few times. I once stayed away for a bit because I didn’t care for one member who would post on everything and would alway try to point out minor inaccuracies of people’s replies.  Eventually he went away. 

Another time I took a break from RC while going through a divorce.  My entire RC collection became a marital asset that I couldn’t touch until the property portion of our estates was settled.  It was weird going in my garage to see a partially built Hilux with years worth of dust on it. 

Recently I’ve noticed that I have nothing much to add to the discussion. I don’t have very many new tamiyas and some of the cars people talk a lot about I have no clue on.  Tamiya club has lived on so long that the focus has shifted from vintage to the current vehicles. 

 

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8 hours ago, Shodog said:

Tamiya club has lived on so long that the focus has shifted from vintage to the current vehicles. 

I wonder if it needed that to grow/survive...My wife always ask me how we all can continue to talk about the same RC cars for years despite Tamiya's large catalog. If we concentrated on the first 100, she might have somewhat of a point. Aside from new members coming in to rediscover everything, eventually new topics on a finite number of cars would grow thin. I pointed out the re-releases of course bring in new members plus the new products that continue to further discussion.

I also wonder if the old/new phenomenon with 1:1 cars is present here too. My 1971 Nova seemed like an old car in 1985 but my 1990 5.0 Mustang didn't seem as old in 2004. Part of the that is probably technology leveling off at various points combined with individual perception of time. A foxbody is still a "latemodel" to me but is probably ancient to a current 16 year old. The High Light is 14 years old at this point but is still a "new" Tamiya to me. In 1999, a Bruiser seemed pretty old.

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I've been on this forum for several years now and only today found the "unread content" button at the top right! Who knew!!! ;) 

I'm not on any form of social media (I'm not very social, which is completely different to not being sociable I'd like to add) and have only ever been on 3 1:1 car forums, 1 other tamiya forum and a Lego minifig one. :huh: Compared to the car forums, TamiyaClub is like suddenly meeting up with a bunch of old friends you've not seen in ages. It is so friendly, inclusive, non-elitist - I genuinely think it's one of the best forums out there. Even the Lego one was a bit cliquey, (and clicky - get it!?) which was the last thing I'd expected.

If you weren't of either the "bodge it for as little cash as possible and forget the safety aspect" crowd or the "just buy the most expensive parts or we won't talk to you" lot then you just got ignored on the car forums. I asked several posts on just how to fix something and got no replies, did a build thread on changing my stereo and got laughed at for my choice of components and ignored for any mods I did because I didn't necessarily follow the latest styling trends.  They actually made me quite self conscious and put me off joining any forums again, and were a big part of me refusing to join any social network. 

Here though I think there's a huge mix of interests, likes and dislikes, budgets and wide range of different types of car, truck, buggy that has something for everyone - indeed, that's a big part of the hobby as a whole - it caters for so many! There is equal respect for those who find clever ways to fix something that broke for free as those who design buggies from scratch and I think that's wonderful!!

I enjoy having a daily read of what's new (will be helped a lot by my new finding mentioned above!) and what people are up to and have been very fortunate to get to know some really good people along the way. But as @Saito2 said, I've noticed a few disappear and that's made me sad. I'm sure life has just got in the way or interests have taken them elsewhere, but it does always make me wonder if they are ok and hope they are well.

But, just to say, thanks to everyone on here who makes this such a therapeutic and welcoming place to be - you all mean a lot to me :) 

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I like how people who are on forums are well informed about the situation in our world, hobby and similar interests.

 

talking to people in real life aint half as filled with informations as here.

I guess we come from different social layers, and that does not make a difference. Some of us better situated some arent. But we do share the mutual interests. 
 

Such a friendly community as here I have not met yet. 
 

if I for myself leave from here it is either due to real life circumstances or due to lack of activity in this hobby. 

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Oddly enough this conversation came up at the weekend.  I was at a vintage race meet where I was talking to a guy I've been racing with all year, we got onto the subject of Tamiyaclub and it turns out he is @KEVIN THE GERBIL on here, but he hasn't posted in years due to losing access to his account and having to create a new one.  Oddly enough, that's a thing I've heard a few times from past members - also see it on here where people come back with a different name or number because the account got locked out.

Although I know some former members who are no longer in the hobby, there are others who are definitely still involved - I know some were at the Revival a month ago.  They just don't want to come on here any more.

I think there are now other forums better focused on vintage racing, the scale builders and scale crawlers forums take a lot of the custom builders away, and as other manufacturers get on the scene there's less incentive to stay on a forum with a brand in the name.  I think in the early 00s when all this got going, it was the excitement of ebay and rediscovering childhood toys that got a big following across the whole of the Tamiya / vintage scene, but RC has branched off massively over the last two decades - vintage racing, scalers, rock crawlers, drifters, monster trucks - a lot of people are finding their niche and moving to niche forums.  Or, maybe, just realising they prefer the Facebook workflow.  I mean, some people must like it, right..?

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From what I can see of other forums, It's Facebook that has stolen people away from them. I mean, it's a lot of work to post fresh build threads. Take pics, upload them to a 3rd party hosting site, then type out all the text and add the photo links in. I can see why people find Facebook/Instagram more convenient, but It's a real shame that specific forums are dyeing. I was looking to get into rwd drifting last year, but there a NO forums for information/builds etc, and every single club that is listed on BRCA's website (in the UK) are ONLY on Facebook. I refuse to use it so can't find out any info. That why I like, and appreciate Tamiyaclub so much. I'm also a member of Scalebuildersguild, as I also build scale trucks. Would happily post them on here, but unfortunately, there's nowt Tamiya on them! Also a member of Rccrawler.com, and although that's still an active forum, there is nowhere near the amount of activity on there compared with just a few years ago. 

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50 minutes ago, toyolien said:

From what I can see of other forums, It's Facebook that has stolen people away from them. I mean, it's a lot of work to post fresh build threads. Take pics, upload them to a 3rd party hosting site, then type out all the text and add the photo links in. I can see why people find Facebook/Instagram more convenient, but It's a real shame that specific forums are dyeing. I was looking to get into rwd drifting last year, but there a NO forums for information/builds etc, and every single club that is listed on BRCA's website (in the UK) are ONLY on Facebook. I refuse to use it so can't find out any info. That why I like, and appreciate Tamiyaclub so much. I'm also a member of Scalebuildersguild, as I also build scale trucks. Would happily post them on here, but unfortunately, there's nowt Tamiya on them! Also a member of Rccrawler.com, and although that's still an active forum, there is nowhere near the amount of activity on there compared with just a few years ago. 

Agree, FB kills forums. 

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...on the day @Saito2 posted this, I was playing Onimusha 2.  

It was the start of the lockdown in US.  I wanted to see if my PlayStation 2 was still operational. Yes, but the 800 resolution was horrible.  

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Then Neflixed a couple of months straight, starting with Kipo. (FYI, it is age-appropriate for me...)  

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In the fall, I bought a "professional watercolor" set.  

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(It had a picture of a bear. With a bow tie and a balloon!  I don't think it was "professional."  Walmart refunded the money.)

So I went back to watercolor pencils.  But I forgot to test each color. (Brown came out yellow.  I made a Lemon Woman!)

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It took hours to nurse her back from jaundice...

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Actual paper is a bit scary.  It's easy to erase and fix stuff if it was digitally done.  

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In August 2020, got a new drawing program. I was using a $30 program. The cheap program worked fine for years. But it didn't work well on Windows 10.  So I had to spend $60 and get Clip Studio Paint. It's a lot more complicated but it works well.  

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Some sketches were done on ipad before going to sleep. 

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I kinda stopped drawing from the Spring.  

In March I built a computer (micro-ATX).

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After that, I fell into the rabbit hole of audiobooks all through the summer.  

Many children's stuff. (again, age-appropriate for me)

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Mostly Star Wars stuff. I don't think I'm a big Star Wars fan. But I end up going for them.  

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Few grown up stuff that I borrowed by accident. This was actually alright. 

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Educational and static kits in between. 

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While I was focused on other things, @Finnsllc said hi several times. (Hi, @Finnsllc!)  But I was still in a 2 year cycle of "other things" (my last full-build was M05 in the fall of 2019).  Then few months ago, @Jonathon Gillham said hi. (Hi, Jonathon!)  That coincided with the timing of XV-01 being sold again!  I couldn't resist. And it's been about 2 years, so I started to get back to RC again. 

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But building them has been pushed back, because Mrs. wanted me to replace some floorboards. 

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Couldn't quite finish it because they don't sell nails!  I need 1 inch brad nails.  Nobody sells them because everybody uses nail guns.  Nothing in Home Depot,  Lowes, nor in a local lumber yard.  I finally found 1 inch brad-heads on Amazon, but no teeth on the neck to hold the timber together.  I'm not even 50 years old.  But apparently, I'm a dinosaur who uses a hammer!  How is this possible?  Nobody makes these?

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Anyway..

That's how one folk stayed away from TC for a while...  I think I discovered Tamiya club in the year 2002 or 2003? I joined in 2004. I started to ask questions from 2017.  I never stayed far away from TC.  But I do get drawn into other things occasionally.  

 

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Beautiful sketches @Juggular 👍🏻  Quite the artist. I had no idea that was possible on an iPad. 

As for the nail situation, you could also use Sheradised Panel Pins, they grip well and don't rust. Also rather than drive the nail straight in vertically, angle them slightly towards the centre of the board, known as 'Dovetail' nailing as this helps stop the board pulling the nails back up if it cups over time.

Glad you have been keeping yourself busy mate.

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@Juggular, if I could draw faces as well as you do, I doubt you'd ever see me on here again.  I'd spend all my living hours staring into the faces of my own creations.  Arguably I do that already when I'm writing novels, but if I had the talent to turn them into graphic novels or comic strips I'd start doing it tomorrow.

I also love how digital makes it easy to repair mistakes.  I'd watch those sped-up Youtube vids of people starting with a sketch, then adding colour and detail.  After the basic sketch I be all like, no, it's perfect, leave it, leave it, you'll ruin it!

I take it you use a graphics tablet for the digital art?  I had a cheap one over a decade ago that was surprisingly good (for a novice like me), but I got rid of it during my last house move because I wasn't using it.  Last year I looked at buying another and couldn't believe how expensive even the cheap ones were, considering they were a fraction of the size and way less featured than my old ones.

I have heard of a mod that converts an Android tablet into a graphics tablet with the photo printed on the screen - that sounds like nirvana for me.  My mousing skills are great for games and Windows interaction but I just can't get the flow right for drawing.

My wife has been using an app on her iPad for doing vector art for T-shirts and mugs for her craft store, it feels slightly less featured than Inkscape (which I use a lot) but the workflow is so fluid you can sketch out a quality design in minutes without needing any of the advanced stuff in Inkscape.

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4 hours ago, Juggular said:

So I went back to watercolor pencils.

One word: Amazing!

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16 hours ago, Re-Bugged said:

Sheradised Panel Pins

At my age, I'm ashamed to say that I have never heard of that word.  I think they say 'galvanized' on this side of the pond.  But that opened up some new category of things to look at!  So, thank you, that new phrase is like light at the end of the tunnel.    

14 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

I take it you use a graphics tablet for the digital art?

Yes, this thing. (Thank you for your kind words! You may say them once, you may forget. But such words have lingering effect to the listener, and I do appreciate it. That goes for everybody who encourages anybody. You guys have good karma coming back to you. May the Force be strong with you.)

I bought the smallest one for $90 then. Later I got the medium sized one for $170 which was a substantial investment for me.    

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I hesitated like 10 years before I pulled the trigger.  I wish I had gotten it sooner.  But what got me actually started was this thought; "Wait a minute, don't people draw on paper? Why am I waiting to get the tablet?"  Once I realized that, I started to sketch on lined notes with a ball point pen. 

I wanted to draw something like this.  

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I started out like this...

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Since I couldn't sketch well at the beginning, I tried to trace or sketch 5 a day for 2 years. (In reality, I ended up doing 3 a day.)  2015, 2016 was before I started to be active in Tamiya Club.  So these kept me from jumping into TC, I guess.   

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I don't know what happened to the comic book characters I wanted to draw.  Somehow only faces came out. Strange, that. (or, I just got older, building-jumping super heroines got less interesting...)  What comes out are different from what I think they'd be. I suppose authors experience the same with fictional characters they create. (wouldn't it be fun if you built M07 but Konghead popped out?)  

 

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