The place is a ghost town - what happened?

Granted, I'm not the most active member, but...what's going on?
People done with model building? Other forums? Other hobbies?

PS: Can I get rid of the super annoying ads?

The galleries are alive and well, which is fine by me.

No time to build. Young son and new house take up most of my time. Sold a bunch of kits off and really thinned out the stash, keeping only the kits I really couldn't bear to part with. Kept all my gear, compressor, airbrush etc. I'll be back, just don't know when exactly. Still buying a few new kits if they tickle my fancy, but again, only the special ones that catch my eye..

My situations echoes Steve's almost exactly; except I did not sell any kits though I should! I realised recently I went three years without completing a single kit due to major house renovations, increased commitments at work and new son. Have started trying to find a few hours a week which has worked for the last few months, but still difficult.

So, no building means no posting unfortunately. Still check in almost daily though.

So, no building means no posting unfortunately. Still check in almost daily though.

Yes, I still visit the site myself on a daily basis..

My situations echoes Steve's almost exactly; except I did not sell any kits though I should! I realised recently I went three years without completing a single kit due to major house renovations, increased commitments at work and new son. Have started trying to find a few hours a week which has worked for the last few months, but still difficult.

So, no building means no posting unfortunately. Still check in almost daily though.

Very same thing here.

I think most of the activity moved to Facebook, though Model Car Forums is still pretty active. I actually prefer this format to Facebook, because it is strictly modeling whereas anything goes on Facebook. However, Facebook does have more international reach.

I think it's so much less hassle for people to post pics and builds on Facebook. It's an easier way to get more gratification. It's not good though because this is where beginners like me come for inspiration and tips. I've been building models for only a few years now and seen a huge change in this and the SPC site. It's a shame. Maybe when I build more I'll have to start posting to help out!

We need to get more modellers posting and more young folk into the hobby. I'm afraid our club will be lucky to gain any new members as the older ones Peter out.

I think most of the activity moved to Facebook, though Model Car Forums is still pretty active. I actually prefer this format to Facebook, because it is strictly modeling whereas anything goes on Facebook. However, Facebook does have more international reach.
I think this is big reason. I see plenty of activity in various FB groups. And I am only aware of few.
Sure there are many more. Don't like FB format either. It's scattered all over FB and you have to be
a member of each and every one group to be able to follow. It was much easier, imho, to have everythin
in one or two places. But I guess in the times when social media rulez, everything goes there. f1m.com
looks to be suffering same way. Builders move over to social media platforms more and more :(

For me personally I use model car magazine forums a lot now which seems to be pretty active. They also have their own uploading so it's a lot easier to post picture there and create a thread. The search function here on auto is hit and miss for me.

I still visit here frequently though. Im not much of a social media guy and would prefer not to post on facebook. I like forum formats myself.

Yes also I post more on fb. Mostly because is quicker and easier, but still come into my favourite forum (this one) cause many great modellers post here still.

Time is always the enemy. I have Opel Manta 400, Celica TA64 GpB, RS1800 still to build amongst 15 kits at least in my stash.
Lancia S4 and Quattro will be more compulsory buys but at least I will have them.
The only thing that annoys me is the price of decal shts and tune up accessores. By the time you buy painting materials there is a bit of money in 1 kit nowadays, but the quality and subjects are very good.
Belkits and Aoshima rally kits are excellent and hopefully sales will support more of them.
I wish uploading and posting was easier.

Facebook? I despise any social networking sites and never been on any. So that's a no from me.

I'm not a model builder myself, but as an active member I see that the model section is by far the most active subforum on all of AF.

I'm also anti social media. People keep telling me I need to join Facebook to sell the rest of my parts and my answer is always no thanks.

Also, to get rid of the ads I installed ad block.

PS: Can I get rid of the super annoying ads?

Hello Alex, great to see you.

To get rid of the ads, go to the bottom left of your screen and you should see a pull-down in the blue bar, set it to Premium and the ads should disappear.

Side note. Alex I still visit your site italian horses. Will you be updating it with new builds in the near future?

Hello Alex, great to see you.

To get rid of the ads, go to the bottom left of your screen and you should see a pull-down in the blue bar, set it to Premium and the ads should disappear.

Hey Ray, what's up bud? All good with you?
Thanks for the tip re: ads - was driving me nuts.

Side note. Alex I still visit your site italian horses. Will you be updating it with new builds in the near future?

Well, I would, if I had anything to post on it. I have not been able to build for years due to an injury to my hand. So the site mostly acts as an archive at the moment.

First all, it is nice to heard the voice of old friends.

AF years ago was a confortable nice ambient where meet fellow modelers and share passion: like most said FB stolen this activity. I have to say that is difficult also on FB to try to rend a "WIP", much easy to be in touch with fellows but the format is tricky to give continuity to a build,even on groups, steps goes fragmented and messed, or lost after a few.

The fun, Alex, is the timing of your post: in my opinion AF went almost died in the few last years and starts to show a bit of life by last year.

On my side I have my own responsibility: in past 6-7 years I built almost only airplanes and shared dioramas, won ton of great prizes to fill the trash bin, and back to my loved car's models with some new skill: from last year my AF contribution is focused on the Fulvias thread. So big job>1 only thread.

Nice to see this thread, hopefully it would give a contribution to AF back in shape. I'm pretty sure Forums would back.

Winter down here in NZ, wish I could build more but the cold weather is torture for spraypainting and can't spray inside.

We all need to live on a tropical island with no wind and nice hot sun all year round...haha

Alex - you could always just create a FB page for your modeling stuff, and not post any personal details. I did. That way you can follow other modelers, manufacturers, groups, etc.

A couple more comments: 1) I echo that it is easier to post photos on model cars mag forum (and Facebook) than here, and 2) forum vs. Facebook - forums are much easier for discussing topics than Facebook. I'd vote for modeling activity moving back to forums that would have easy methods for posting pics!

Alex - you could always just create a FB page for your modeling stuff, and not post any personal details. I did. That way you can follow other modelers, manufacturers, groups, etc.

A couple more comments: 1) I echo that it is easier to post photos on model cars mag forum (and Facebook) than here, and 2) forum vs. Facebook - forums are much easier for discussing topics than Facebook. I'd vote for modeling activity moving back to forums that would have easy methods for posting pics!

Hey Bernard, what's up? Go Caps!
I already have a site for my modeling stuff. I never had and will never have any presence on any social media platforms. Personal choice.

And I honestly don't understand the difficulty of posting pictures on the forums? Every picture hosting site/cloud/whatever can handle it.

2 kids now under 5. I built a nice setup for building models, but with my business growing and 2 kids, it's been hard to get time. I wish I had more time to build. Facebook modeling has been growing. Facebook groups have been killing off forums in multiple industries. My professional industry, performance auto forums, modeling, etc.

I generally post only to 2 facebook groups. One of the problems I've faced is that 3rd party photo sites are now strictly pay to use. I'd like to still post on here and F1M but sites like Photobucket and Imageshack make it impossible to share the pictures anymore.

There is a very good Model Factory Hiro group on Facebook that has some absolutely stunning work and is very active.

But home ownership and work take up a lot of my time. Working 50+hours/week leaves little time to relax and work on a kit.

I can name you 5 image sites off the top of my head that do not charge a penny for hosting and allow unlimited linking.
Flickr
Imgur
Google
500px
Dropbox

I browse AF every two days, like in good old days, but I don't post here and don't start new threads too. But I should to. Because I've started plenty of kits and some of them are finished.
AF and AutoInScale.com are my favorites and I plan to commit more time to them.

and I will restart soon with my threads.
I am just temporary busy sailing my A class catamaran and posting around the world my Porsche gt3r ... brb very soon :)

I regret I haven't had the time to do modelling for years now, but I still drop by to check on other's projects. Work takes a lot out of me and with the house renovations, building the garage, restoring my old truck and keeping the vehicles going I don't have the energy and quiet time to get back to the modeling table. Having almost 25 animals to care for also takes up a lot of my evenings. I follow some modelling groups on Facebook but I don't contribute in anyway and its not the same as this this forum. I do miss some of my friends from here, good to see Gionc is still alive and kicking. Once one of the spare rooms is completed I hope to set up shop again.

Hi Alex, and the rest of the guys from old days...I am lazy bastard I must say, I still build, not so much as before but to get the pictures and to write something more then few words is killing me. Any how like the rest of you guys I still check AF, got some modeling friends also on instagram, that is very easy to filter to what you like (not like fb).
I will try to get something on here with next build I start, just as a personal goal for this year :)
Glad to see some old names pop out even in thread without pictures :)

I think Sasa hit the nail on the head - we are just too lazy (myself included) to take pictures, type descriptions, and generally build.
I think I'll make it a personal goal for this year as well ,to get off my butt and actually build something.
AF in its heyday was THE place to come for car model building, I want to see it return to its glory. Maybe even do AFMOTY 2018? What say you?
Crack those boxes open, get the old brushes out - your paints are getting dry. :)

Long time I haven't seen so much older members here. It's nice to see you guys again.
Like same of you, I'm lazy to post even on my web pages and here too. :-)
I build when I have time but that isn't much lately and after eye surgery I have trouble with tired eyes.

But it's nice too see you again here. :-)

I think Sasa hit the nail on the head - we are just too lazy (myself included) to take pictures, type descriptions, and generally build.
I think I'll make it a personal goal for this year as well ,to get off my butt and actually build something.
AF in its heyday was THE place to come for car model building, I want to see it return to its glory. Maybe even do AFMOTY 2018? What say you?
Crack those boxes open, get the old brushes out - your paints are getting dry. :)

Hey Alex!
I'd say the Photobucket debarkle has alot to answer for with the forums. Once they wiped Billions of images from forums all over the world, all the forums dropped in participation. Which forced others to social media where its quick & easy. One forum that bucked the trend was Model Cars where they allowed people to upload to their website, no 3rd party hosting. Which is great, & there are some great builders over there, sadly its mostly American orientated & JDM, Euro builds don't get as much attention as the US stuff. Its a great idea to upload images to this website but I doubt if AF would do that considering the modelling sub forum is the most active.
Personally I've been building quite alot in the last few years, I guess I fall into the too lazy to upload & post (which I need to change!), I've also recently joined Instagram which I've found is really great for modeling, there's heaps of younger guys (I'm only 34, but there's plenty under 30) & there doing some really cool builds reflecting current trends etc.
I too remember fondly the glory days of this forum, the 60th Ferrari Build was amazing & the Porsche Cayman Interseries still remain highlights! As to the future of this forum, I guess its in our hands. A similar forum tried a group build to gather more interest, more posts etc, with prizes up for grabs. Think there were only around 15-20 people participating & only a few finished on time, still no prizes awarded, it just kinda died off.
I like the idea of AFMOTY18, or maybe just a thread of 'your 2018 builds'...
Ash

Ash, I bet you are right! Photobucket did mess up a lot of things.
I heard that they have released the pictures, though. What a cluster..uk.

I'm really giving moty 2018 a serious thought, now that I actually have a model in the works! Stay tuned.

Hi Alex, and hi to the old good members.

Laziness on the top, but also family issues reduced my free time in the last decade. Few weeks ago I restarted modelling and I’ll do my best to share something here on AF.

Thank you Alex for the 5 options to Photobucket…!

Bye for now - Robi :smile:

Robi, man, good to hear from you. Definitely post those builds! Your stuff is always an inspiration.

I confess to not posting much on this forum, mostly due to lazyness.

Am a more active member of the forum Ash refers too. I have no interest in social media so don't bother to look at what is posted on them.

I think there are still a lot of modellers out there but as others have said, Photobucket caused all sorts of problems.

It takes me all year to produce 3/4 models due to other factors - work , home, family - therefore posting my work is sporadic.

Hopefully, forums will continue as they are a great source of inspiration.

Philip

Robi, man, good to hear from you. Definitely post those builds! Your stuff is always an inspiration.

Oh Alex… you're way too, too kind. I didn't complete anything in… more than a decade…?

Oh Alex… you're way too, too kind. I didn't complete anything in… more than a decade…?

I'm in the same boat my friend!

Hey Alex,
same problem here just too lazy to post my builds, have switched my old photobucket pics
to imagur and its much easier. think i'll get off the computer and go take some photos.

Paul

Hey Alex,
same problem here just too lazy to post my builds, have switched my old photobucket pics
to imagur and its much easier. think i'll get off the computer and go take some photos.

Paul

Paul, you do that man, love to see your recent builds.

Well, I'm guilty of laziness too. And yes, PB's colossal F'up really turned a lot of people away from forums. Even though I dont use social media for social media I have joined up with FB and have been posting in a bunch of modeling forums. I find it great, especially if you're working on a project and have an issue, you're almost guaranteed an immediate response from someone, somewhere in the world. I think the "LIKE" feature helps a lot as well. Many times I'll look at someones post in a forum and go, "yeah, I like it" but dont have much else to say or add so I dont leave a comment. On FB I can just hit the "LIKE" button and the builder can see that I and others like their work without having to type it out. Yes, maybe a bit lazy but at the same time, 40 replies of "looks good" doesnt help people get better or learn either. I for one like criticisms, constructive of course. I learn more from someone saying " looks good, but had you have done this or that, it would look better". When I joined FB to post in modeling forums I was worried about getting a lot of "mean people" slamming people's work cause it didnt measure up to their standards, but I've honestly not seen that yet in the year or so since I've starting using FB more than forums. This was the first online forum I joined, and still my favourite, and I"d love to see it revitalized. I learned a ton off the amazing builders who use to post, and some that still do, but would like to see the traffic increase for sure. One thing I loved about this forum was that there seems to be a wide range of interests here, more so than some of the other forums which I find seem to be more centralized in scope. Here's hoping this can thread can help bring more people back.

Alex, I don't know if you can put this toothpaste back in the tube....but good to know that you're building again.:iceslolan

I got a real job! :uhoh:

Seriously- I spent most of the last year as a captain on a small turboprop airliner. Was interesting, and occasionally fun- but it's the kind of gig that consumes your time and bandwidth even when you're not flying. I'm back now to doing contract and charter flying and loving it, and I should have more time to build too.

I guess I am going to have to figure out an image hosting option....

Alex, I don't know if you can put this toothpaste back in the tube....but good to know that you're building again.:iceslolan

Brian, that’s an interesting saying, I don’t even know what to say. Maybe a reboot?

I got a real job! :uhoh:

Seriously- I spent most of the last year as a captain on a small turboprop airliner. Was interesting, and occasionally fun- but it's the kind of gig that consumes your time and bandwidth even when you're not flying. I'm back now to doing contract and charter flying and loving it, and I should have more time to build too.

I guess I am going to have to figure out an image hosting option....

Andy, I posted several options few replies back. I personally have been using Flickr for a while now, so far so good and it has good mobile app to manage photos if needed.

I got a real job!
...and I should have more time to build too.

Really happy for you ...and the second one is a good news, as well :)

Laziness from the builder is one thing, but only getting 2-3 replays on a gallery post is the other side. Building nearly one year a unique model and only three reactions at the end sucks.
I don't think a new Afmoty will change anything.
Time have changed.

Laziness from the builder is one thing, but only getting 2-3 replays on a gallery post is the other side. Building nearly one year a unique model and only three reactions at the end sucks.
I don't think a new Afmoty will change anything.
Time have changed.

Well, I think it goes both ways really. You need to post your feedback to others' builds if you want see feedback on yours. Not to point at you directly, but in general. No matter if you spend a year building or throw it together in few days. And I don't agree that getting 2-3 replies sucks - any feedback is great.

I don't want to sound negative, but even if Afmoty doesn't change anything at least we gave it a go and had good time building kits in the process. Doing nothing at all certainly doesn't change anything.

Hi. I still build not that anyone cares. I just post on Facebook.

Hi. I still build not that anyone cares. I just post on Facebook.

Gotta post it here too man!

Hi. I still build not that anyone cares. I just post on Facebook.

I think this is the main issue. Everyone just used Facebook which then is a nightmare for people looking for build guides etc...

There is gotta be a reason why people use Facebook. Is it easier to post pictures, easier to get feedback? I always thought forums were much better communication platform, where threads are organized by topic and easily found. But maybe not anymore.

There is gotta be a reason why people use Facebook. Is it easier to post pictures, easier to get feedback? I always thought forums were much better communication platform, where threads are organized by topic and easily found. But maybe not anymore.

It's instant. You can upload from your phone via the Facebook app directly to someone's thread or to your own post. The app makes it even faster. On a Facebook page, you can just scroll down and see the subject and picture thumbnails for each post. It would be like having the opening post and pictures for each thread show up without having to click on the actual thread link. There is a "translate" button under each non-native text post.

Uploading to the forum is not that difficult, but it's even easier on Facebook. There are a lot of photo hosting websites and people are always having issue with them. Clicking the facebook app, click "post", then hit the photo icon and it brings up the gallery on your phone and you select the pictures you like, type your description and hit post. That's it.

The biggest downside to Facebook groups is the search ability. It is much easier to search forum history.

Edit: Also, you can join multiple specific groups, like "Scale Racecars", "Scale Motorcycles", "Military Modeling", or whatever you want and you will see multiple posts from various groups come across your feed. It's like having the posts from all your favorite forums scroll across your desktop as they get posted.

Sounds convenient, but I'm so anti-facebook it doesn't matter.

For all the convenience of posting things to facebook, I am not a fan of it for sharing models. I belong to several of the above referenced groups and sometimes I see somebody share something which I really want to try but when I go back to look at it again it's gone and there's no way to search and find it again. At least on the various forums, I could always go back and have another look.

I'm still floating around and check in 4 or 5 times a month.

As with most. . . time and "life" is the biggest factor. . .

Aaaaaaand there it goes again. . .

I had intended to post a reasonable explanation and ran out of gas.......

Let me just say "It's not you...it's me" . . . :banghead:

Still love seeing and appreciate the talent of builders here . . . :thumbsup:

I think the question isn't why people uses FB, or why socials are or aren't "better". Question is why fellows doesn't uses AF like years ago.

I think the question isn't why people uses FB, or why socials are or aren't "better". Question is why fellows doesn't uses AF like years ago.

I think the answer is because now there is an alternative that seems quicker, can be accessed on the phone (smartphones are very convenient to check things) and more "mobile".

Plus, I think the generation of builders from 10 years ago moved on a bit and have different responsibilities in their lives, and new generation just not that much into scale models. Change of the guard.

I really enjoy the builders on the forum - some very impressive work here. I don't care for the forum itself. Too many ads and pop-ups - very annoying.

I really enjoy the builders on the forum - some very impressive work here. I don't care for the forum itself. Too many ads and pop-ups - very annoying.

Don't know which browser you are using, but uBlock Origin and Adblock Plus are in the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox add-ons pages. You may feel that blocking a sites revenue stream is not the right thing to d, but I do use them when required. I disable these for sites I want to support, but when the ads and pop-ups get too intrusive, I use these to cure the issue. I run both at the same time. Cures the ad pre-roll on a certain video site too.

I think this is the main issue. Everyone just used Facebook which then is a nightmare for people looking for build guides etc...

It's dumb as hell. I was talking to a fellow Nissan Club forum member on Jalopnik and he said most have jumped ship to FB from there as well. I get the instantaneous posting and response, but what good does it do for everyone else? How-to's just end up getting lost in the ether, whereas a quick google search will pull up ones from nearly any forum. Very short-sighted IMO.