1. How many of you like to look at the work of others? I certainly do. 2. How many of you see something you would like to do yourself and get the idea from a picture posted at RailImages? I certainly do. 3. How many of you see that very same thing and contact the person who posted to ask about techniques and ideas? I certainly do. 4. How many of you spend $25-$50 in a restaurant, bar, ball game, casino (or more) in one evening and if food or drink, it leaves your system in several hours, at most? I certainly do. 5. How many of you would like to get a year's entertainment, ideas and techniques that could last a lifetime for the same $25-$50? I certainly do? 6. How may of you like a site that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year? I certainly do. If you agree with me on the six answers to the questions above, there is no earthly reason NOT to contribute $25-$50 or whatever you feel it is worth to Railimages.
Note our new $2 per month subscription feature for those that would like to "subscribe" for that amount. Perhaps that would be easier for some folks. Charlie
Not me.... People can post pictures of their railroads to their own webpages for free with just about any ISP in the world, and just throw a link into trainboard for people to see it. I think making it a mandatory subscription will kill railimages stone dead, or certainly limit it significantly. There are a lot of us who struggle to get money to keep our hobby going, let alone an outlay to look at pictures of our hobby. As a donation, perhaps it would be more likely to succeed. Just a thought.
Ahhh, there's the rub. I think you will get more willing patrons once the word STABILITY can be associated with TrainBoard. Being a technical consultant, I truly do understand the challenges faced with a site like this with an unusual amount of bandwidth served. But at some point there should be enough statistics gathered that it quits being a suprise to these folks....the outages, bandwidth shutdowns, server moves, and ISP whimpering has to stop if you guys want to truly get the dollars floating in. Just my two cents. (along with a PayPal with a few more "cents".)
That's part of the growing process I think. Cetainly we hit some bumps in the road a few months ago. We have not had anything down for over a month now I believe and if we had the finances, we would certainly be able to provide better services. We never dreamed that these sites would grow at this rate and that has made for a few growing pains. We always knew we would have to move but obviously we did not know we would encounter so many technical issues when that time arrived. Charlie
By the way Doug, THANK YOU for your donation. You are another very generous person. I'll drop you an e-mail in the morning with more information.... Charlie
After giving up the once a week resturant meals for everything from Jerry's kids to toe nail fungus research, I have thrown in the towel and taken it all back to enjoy life with my wife. I enjoy going through Railimages from time to time, but I'm not to impressed with the umpteen thousand barely focused, no depth of field pictures of trains running through plywood world. So in a word, No, I wouldn't pay a fee to use it or view it. I do have some pictures of some work progress on my layout on it as a means of getting them onto another web page, (see http://www.railimages.com/gallery/kenmeade)
Ken, I agree, if you don't see value in it then you shouldn't contribute, that's not rocket science to figure out. That's kinda why I made my post...if you're gonna try to guilt somebody into contributing, make sure you (or they) have your ducks in a row. (wether it be high availability, quality of content, or whatever) I don't think that's what Trainboard was doing, as I don't think the poster is associated with Trainboard, and that's certainly not why I contributed again. But nonetheless a site supported by contributions is just that and if people don't want to contribute, for whatever reason, it's their perogative. Personally I do find value and I think the quality will increase steadily over time, but that's just my opinion.
Well said Doug!!!!!!! I you find RailImages something you want to see kept going then chip in a few bucks to help keep it alive. If you don't care or can't afford it then don't. What Charlie is setting up is a simple way to contribute funds to help keep the site going is all. My DHVM site uses another service which today allows me to post images from it to other sites. This is not the norm these days. RailImages also allows this without you needing to have your own web site. So, I keep the DHVM Web Site specific to D&H images and I use RailImages for everything else train related. Thanks Charlie!
Its nice to have the option to pay or not, you never know when hard times can hit home. I've never had a problem with pay pal (fingers crossed). But I hate montly pay plans. A lump sum is the way I like to go. Its a rocky road for internet companies, forums and the like. But if you don't donate than for sure you may loose the site. I hope all goes good and railimages and trainboard are around for a long time. Oh and talk about ups and downs. I had an old account at railimages and during the revamp I lost it and all the pics I had stored. But I did have copies on my system. It has happened three other times that I lost pictures on the net. Yahoo, netscape and one other place. Make sure any pictures you post a backed up. It also creates a linking mess but Oh Welll, you can't fix everything.
Charlie.... Just reading the initial post implied that it was being considered.... Kinda like a registration process or whatever. It certainly doesnt mentioned that it would be solicited donations (which are just fine compared to unsolicited donations or mandatory fee's!!). Personally, I've been to rail images once, and the lack of structure put me right off it. Thats a personal opinion only, and being an IT Proffesional I'm pretty anal about that, even though I know how hard it is, especially for volunteers. I have no doubt there are a great number of people who think its great and spend as much time there as they do here on trainboard (or even longer). If I was one of them, I'm sure tipping you guys a few quid would be very appropriate!
Which Rail Images we have changed software in the oast 12 months. also you may not visit the site but are you saying you have never looked at a photo posted on here? The main reason rail images was started was to enable embers to post pics here as many members were not familiar in FTP to upload pics to their webspace.
Not blowing my own horn but I just dropped a couple coins in the bucket as Rail Images provides a wealth of ideas for Old Timers and just as importantly; the Beginners. I'd hate to see that the site vanished due to a lack of financial support whether it be voluntary or adverising support. And ah.. pardon my photography as that is a work in progress as well.... Brian
Sure wish I could do something to help financially as well, but here goes some humble pie ... Married 28 years and never been on a vacation. Have more folks calling and ppl at the bank and grocery standing there asking you to give. Bought Christmas for our granddaughter but haven't the first dime for gifts for the wife, son, or daughter. Humiliatingly, we had 13 dollars left over from last week. I have a GP9, an S3 & one reefer, track for an oval yet no place to put it atm. ( my ownership of model railroading goods ) Wowsers, all the sudden, after typing all that out, I feel even more depressed than I was. There's my reality, folks. Just want you to know how much I appreciate "free". Free for me, yet I know it's by others contributions that I'm able to view for free. To all of you who take up MY slack ... thank you. I mean that sincerely.
PRR1957 I know EXACTLY where you are coming from, I really do. I have recently pulled out of my local NMRA sig so I can save the money to spend on my own stuff. If I could just get those nasties to stop ringing Cheers
Brian, I assume you mailed your donation as none were received through PayPal yesterday. We really appreicate these donations as the bills are high! Charlie
I have to admit that I donae to the railimages. AlfredMayo is my account. I want to donate more so I can be the featured layout on the first page not on the fourth page as it is on now. So as I get extra money I will donate it to Railimages. I do not mind doing that ****. Its coll. As for a mandatory fee I would so hate it, but I have so many pictures on my account that I would hate to lose them so I would be stuck there. The thing I really like about railimages better than other accounts is it is much easier than others. Other peoples web pages are whack because all I see is their advertisement pop ups as I hit the site and then hit pictures. Webshots is one that I know of. Railimages is easier than others too. Railimages is better. check my layout here www.railimages.com/gallery/AlfredMayo [ 30. December 2004, 09:17: Message edited by: E-8 ]
