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Author Topic: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum  (Read 84170 times)

GG

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Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« on: February 06, 2009, 09:38:23 pm »

I wrote about an idea to increase the "steam effect" in a model steam boat by adding glycol into the boiler feed water in the March 08 Issue of Model Boats.  The idea came from "fog juice" used in commercial fog machines as widely employed in entertainment and theatrical areas.
Someone posted a comment that I had claimed that glycol would act as a lubricant in the steam engine.  I hadn't and so rejoined the MB forum to post a rebuttal.  The claim was withdrawn after the claimant bothered to read the article but later they came back with several dubious (in my oppinion that is) reasons why you should never add glycol to a model steam plants feed water.  I took some time to compose a reply which was posted and....
Yes, you might have guessed it, when I log on to the MB website I can see my post BUT it does not seem to appear for anyone else.
Be warned, if you annoy the "Secret Censor" on this site then he will try to kid you that your comments are posted for all to see but they are not!

You guys ought to appreciate what a good site Mayhem is, I do.
Glynn Guest

http://www.modelboats.co.uk/forums/
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The long Build

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2009, 09:58:36 pm »

I can see no post's by you on that thread to confirm your coments..

 Thought there was only 1 mod on that site !!
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2009, 10:27:06 pm »

Don't be too quick to suspect foul play. Although not immediately apparent, the MB website has recently been rebuilt from scratch as the people who originally supported it no longer do so. Although it looks very similar it's not underneath and there are continuing bugs and glitches which have still to be resolved. Other people have experienced the same problem as Glynn so I don't think he is being necessarily got at.

Obviously the sooner it is sorted out the better.

Colin
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Proteus

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2009, 10:49:07 pm »

I may be able shed a bit of light on this, one member of the MB site spit (prolific poster) spit his dummy out at the new site and removed all his posts, and pictures , as he has to post on anything and everything it left the site looking stupid , i got on to the mod suggesting that they use the same system of posting (after a time its locked) but got no feed back..I stopped using it for that reason.


Proteus
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barryfoote

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2009, 09:31:34 am »

Compared to this, that site is rubbish......
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The long Build

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2009, 09:37:20 am »

Compared to this, that site is rubbish......


Never a better word said..(although I think Rubbish is a bit harsh)   All credit must go to Martin, his team , and of course all the contributors to this site. 

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FullLeatherJacket

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2009, 10:03:25 am »

Visiting the MB website is like entering a derelict church. You are conscious of what it was built to achieve, but there's nothing there worth seeing now.

Any moderator who annoys GG is doomed!  :o

FLJ
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GG

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2009, 11:49:44 am »

FLJ, you are wicked, I knew there must be a reason for liking you.
If I put myself up for membership of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, will you act as my refere?

The Long Build, I do not lie, anything posted by me is a result of prior thought, if not substantiated by recognised facts or personal experience I will make it clear its just an opinion.
I've just been on the MB website and my post is still missing YET the thread shows the last posting to be mine of the 5 Feb.

Long live Mayhem
Glynn Guest
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derekwarner

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2009, 01:32:14 pm »

Hi all...........I do not subscribe to the MB site ....but just getting back to the original [underlying] question or comment....by GG.... >>:-(

In our Paddleducks site we have explored the usage of differing boiler water qualities ...from our OZ Murray river sludge,  plain tap water, distilled water & to that BADDIE....de-ionized water & debated the same

The only consensis was not to use the latter [de-ionized water] as it has the electrolytic potential to literally draw the zinc from brass tubing micro structure & hence ultimately rendering a reduction of wall thickness by erosion & subsequent porosity - we also considered the elevated risk/effect of thinning at tube bends & the direction of flow etc

So my question is.....why would we want or need to introduce a contaminate [glycol...of any of the two X 2 families] which would created miscibility issues  <*< at the boiling point of water?......regards Derek

Sorry....one of our Moderators may move this to a new subject under 'steam'..+..'boiler water'
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Derek Warner

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Illawarra Live Steamers Co-op
Australia
www.ils.org.au

Colin Bishop

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2009, 02:16:12 pm »

Paul Freshney has contacted me as a Mayhem Moderator to express his concern about some of the comments on this topic. He informs me he has emailed Glynn to say that he knows of no secret censorship on the MB website to remove Glynn's post. He feel that the posts made are both derogatory to Model Boats and unjustified.

As I regularly write for the magazine it would be invidious for me to moderate this topic so I have referred Paul's comments to other members of the Moderating board for consideration.

Anyone visiting the MB site will be aware that it is still experiencing problems following the recent rewrite and there is a three page topic on the subject with moderator participation. I would therefore be more inclined to put Glynn's problem down to a software glitch rather than an attempt to censor one of the magazine's most popular contributors! Doesn't sound likely does it? I understand that the new management is currently considering the position of the website following the change of ownership so we may see some changes in the future.

On a more general note and in the light of other people jumping on the bandwagon it is not normally the practice of Mayhem to run down other websites and we don't like it on the few occasions that it has been done to us. Also, we take a pretty firm line on unjustified comments about model boat traders and FLJ quite rightly is red hot on picking up on what he feels are any unjustified aspersions cast upon his own business.... %)

Colin

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FullLeatherJacket

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2009, 03:06:53 pm »

I had no intention of casting aspersions in the direction of Model Boats magazine or the MB website as a whole. Indeed, if I thought ill of the publication then we wouldn't spend as much as we do placing adverts in it. (At least they get the right ads in the right issue  ok2).

My remarks were made solely with regard to the MB Forum; mea culpa for not making that clear. My sincere apologies to Paul F if I've upset him, but I didn't appreciate that he had any connection with the Forum. With the constant corporate changes involved at MB/Magicalia/My Hobby Store it's hard to keep up with which bit of the empire does what, and who is responsible for it.

As Tobyker remarked to me a while ago, what an extraordinary community we have on the Mayhem Forum. Maybe that's what's missing from the other one?

Suit yourselves.

FLJ
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2009, 03:41:32 pm »

FLJ, the MB forum is inevitably associated with the magazine and the comments on here impinge upon that which is why Paul is concerned although he has no direct managerial responsibility for either the website or its forum. That situation may change shortly which some might view as an improvement. The company changes you refer to have left the MB forum hanging in the air, neither fish nor fowl and insufficiently supported which is one of the reasons for the problems it is currently experiencing. This is also something that is being looked at. I think it is a case of "watch this space" and be patient for the moment.

Colin
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GG

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2009, 05:34:11 pm »

Dear All,
         My intention with the original post was to point out that I had experienced a form of censorship (for the second time actually) on the Model Boats web site.  To be honest something which lets you think you have posted a response to criticisms against you or your ideas, but PREVENTS ANYONE ELSE seeing them is, I feel, hard to agree with.  The reference to "secret censor" could apply to equally well to a person or some routine within the website program.

I also felt is best to create a record of my attempts to answer the criticisms on the MB website rather than let people think I was unable to do so.  Perhaps I should have posted my comments on adding glycol to boiler feedwater on this site?  No, that would have been too weird even for me to do.

I have nothing but the highest regard for the magazine Model Boats (well I would say that wouldn't I) but I also appreciate Marine Modelling.  Looking at other offerings from around the world and I feel we are lucky, no VERY lucky to have two monthly magazines of such quality in this country.  If I have given anybody any different ideas then I must unreservedly apologise.

Now, having hopefully done a better job than Clarckson, Ross, Brand and Thatcher, I will go to the MB website and see if I can post anything.
Glynn Guest
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GG

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2009, 05:44:58 pm »

Nope! I can still log on, think I've posted but no one else can see what I write!

I'd believe it was a technical glitch but others seem to be able to post

Glynn Guest
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The long Build

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #14 on: February 07, 2009, 05:59:25 pm »

Strange that the thread shows as 13 replies  but there are only 6 I could see..  and nothing showing since the 3rd , Wonder if some auto checking / approval has been turned on, saying that I can see my post on it..  very peculiar.
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #15 on: February 07, 2009, 06:12:10 pm »

Whatever the problem is, as Paul has already explained to Glynn, it won't be fixed over the weekend as there is nobody on duty on the MB website. As paid employees they keep office hours unlike Mayhem moderators who provide a 24 hour voluntary service for free.  :-)) Quite honestly, with all the other things going on over there I don't think fixing their Forum glitches has a very high priority just now!

Incidentally, we have had the occasional similar problem on Mayhem where individuals have been locked out of a specific topic for no apparent reason, it's happened to me a couple of times so who knows what goes on in the dark recesses of the software?

Colin
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The long Build

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #16 on: February 07, 2009, 06:20:43 pm »

Could be a new episode for the Twilight Zone here.. :}
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #17 on: February 07, 2009, 06:29:14 pm »

Yes, What lies Beneath?!   :o
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #18 on: February 07, 2009, 06:43:23 pm »

Topic renamed.  :-)
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"This is my firm opinion, but what do I know?!" -  Visit the Mayhem FaceBook Groups!  &  Giant Models

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #19 on: February 07, 2009, 07:25:33 pm »

I just had to reply to this question being a bit of a webmaster geek myself!

Many forums including the modelboats one operate on a database (usually MySQL to be exact!) and when a user submits a new post a new row is created in that database which includes the post itself, an ID number, the author of the post, the time it was submitted and the status of the post. ie. whether it is live, deleted, pending, archived or whatever else. The database is much like microsoft excel and has different columns with each variable.

It looks to me like your post has been created ok, but the moderators may have deleted it (therefore changed its status). If they have got some bugs in the system still then it's possible the database query's are not filtering out the deleted posts properly when it comes to showing you the "Latest Post" as it were.

The same thing can be said for just showing you the post and nobody else. On my website I have had a lot of trouble with people spamming it, and the only way to overcome this is to make full use of the post status column in the database. Everytime somebody submits something to the website now it wont show up straight away although it is still in the database for me to accept or deny the post accordingly. What I do plan on doing some time soon though is to make that post visible to that particular member only until it is confirmed by me, then of course it will be visible to everybody.

I hope this explain a little of the theory behind things! Nothing really gets deleted from databases, webmasters usually choose not to delete rows, just to hide them on the of chance that it may need to be restored at a later time.

Fireboat
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #20 on: February 07, 2009, 07:41:51 pm »

Thanks Fireboat, given that the MB Forum may not have an active webmaster at the moment that may explain a lot.

Colin
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barryfoote

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #21 on: February 07, 2009, 07:49:51 pm »

With all these problemas and a bad name to boot, is it not time that MB cancelled their forum as a bad idea??
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GG

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #22 on: February 07, 2009, 08:03:38 pm »

Fireboat,
           Thanks for the description of how a website works.  I might have believed that it is all an accident but one of the site members who can apparently post (the Fat Controller no less!) states that my posts have been deleted.  I guess he must know what he is talking about.

Footski,
        Please do not confuse the website with the magazine.  With some effort I'm sure the website can be turned around.  The magazine has survived decades and must represent a treasure trove of material for our hobby.  Surely this Country would welcome another good model boating website?

Glynn Guest
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #23 on: February 07, 2009, 08:27:35 pm »

But if there is no webmaster at the moment, and hasn't been for a while then who is doing it? looks like The Long Build has the right idea.

Spooky!  :o

Colin
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barryfoote

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Re: Re: Model Boats Magazine - Website & forum
« Reply #24 on: February 07, 2009, 09:58:47 pm »

Fireboat,
           Thanks for the description of how a website works.  I might have believed that it is all an accident but one of the site members who can apparently post (the Fat Controller no less!) states that my posts have been deleted.  I guess he must know what he is talking about.

Footski,
        Please do not confuse the website with the magazine.  With some effort I'm sure the website can be turned around.  The magazine has survived decades and must represent a treasure trove of material for our hobby.  Surely this Country would welcome another good model boating website?

Glynn Guest


Glynn,

I am a long standing fan of the magazine, but have always found the web site to be very poor and the forum just as bad so I stopped using it. It is a shame that the two cannot be good, but after all this time and with problems on the rise, I can see no future for the forum or the website.....That is just my opinion though and I do love the magazine..
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