curious, do you have maybe more information about that ? I'm always looking for special runs and I'm interested in this hopper. thank you for your help...
With the thread over the UP vs/ Lionel & Athearn suit, plus the numerous post lockings and member suspensions, it does seem suspicious.....unless Atlas already had the plans for a software upgrade in place (or wanted to resort to it to put a stop to the Monday morning lockdowns). Perhaps the Powers That Be are trying to get a firmer handle on things- who knows? That's just my opinion......that & 50 cents will get you a copy of your local newspaper At any rate, until Paul, Rob & company get their ducks back in a row (or even long after), the welcome mat is out here. I recognize quite a few folks here from the Atlas forum, and all y'all (Texas for youse guys) are welcome to stay.
That's funny. Only, the guy who had the done and the guy has the special road name are not the same person. Plus, when you are polite, like the people behind that project, you actually take the time to email and/or call Paul and Cory about it to make sure that it is ok. But, that is a novel theory and one that gave me a chuckle when I read it. So far I have seen an awful lot of conjecture and conspiracy theories, but no one has taken what they wrote [Atlas] at face value. They will be back in August, and in the meantime, I am sure everyone can stay busy on alternate forums and elsewhere (train room, perhaps?). I am hoping that Atlas staff grew tired of monitoring the forum and decided an extended break would be ideal - so they can upgrade the forum software (which I heard was being looked at, mind you its just gossip from the water cooler) and of course work on an N scale GP38-2. Jacob, your three are set safely aside for you. Check your email when you get a chance!
The part that annoys me is that Atlas did not tell their customers about the shut down. I feel like I need to be informed as I could have had several postings in which I was seeking information about their product or just trains in general. I also think that Atlas (Paul mainly) gets tired of playing "dad" as he tries to keep many of you (not pointing fingers, but if the shoe fits...) on line because all the crying and whining about a particular thing in this hobby. Act like a grown and mature adult!
WPZephyrFan reporting in! My last trip into the Atlas Forum was Friday night and everything was working. I didn't find out about the site being closed until Chuck told me when I was in his shop. I guess having the Forum closed almost all summer is a good thing... at least I'll spend more time working on my models than online poking about! Hopefully, we'll see a few more Atlas members here. (Verne? Where are ya, buddy?)
- Sam and Paul F, what parts of NY,CT (respectively) do you guys hail from? Always looking to expand TB's eastcoast contingent. - Inkaneer, I can hardly await your new concept! - All newcomers, just to let you guys know, TB has a YellowPage section where you may post for sale items. No problems on this forum! Welcome all! Russ
I'm thinking along the same lines. I noticed that Paul was getting a bit edgy with some of his replies over the past couple of weeks (before the shutdown). Maybe he just reached the end of his rope and used the pending upgrade and regular shutdown to give him (and the Atlas staff) a long break for the summer. And I think it will be longer than two months. The message did say they would be back sometime in August. What do you want to bet it will be August 31st? It will also be interesting to see if that forum will recover after being away for so long. Three months can be a long time, giving everyone a chance to find a new forum home and get comfortable there...
2-3 months seems like a long time to update the software for the forums. I use the same software that Atlas uses and it takes me about 1/2 hour to update. Although, they are about 2.3 versions behind from the newest software, so that may be a factor in this. Hopefully they'll be back soon... In the meantime, welcome to all the "Atlas Refugee's"
You can take this to the bank, folks: It's not about software, it's about the forum spinning out of control (HO especially). And as I said, I would't expect it back, unless they eliminate the annoymous nature of the board. And, BTW, I have nothing but praise for Atlas' product and their people!!!
Being in the IT field myself I know there is no way any upgrade of software would take that long no matter how complicated. The kind of "Crap" you have experienced on other forums won't happen here and we welcome all of you to what I feel is the best Railfan and Modeler forum on the internet.
Atlas shut down the forums in early September 2001 because things got out of control. There were warnings, more specific than Paul's about the UP threads, and the message when you clicked on "Forums" did say that the forums were shut down due to problems with failure to observe the rules and gave no date for resumption. That time, the forums resumed, in a new format, around October 25, 2001. By October 31, almost every regular poster from the old forum wss back. We will just have to see what happens. I will call Paul Graf on Monday and see what he says.
I suspect the Atlas shutdown is permanent. I wasn't participating there in its final weeks, but the content was becoming less than 50% modeling and more and more polling, unrelated subjects, etc. Moreso on the HO forum. I run the same software they do on a server of my own and it can easily be upgraded and debugged in a day. They usually shutdown for two weeks. I suspect the two month shutdown is to serve two purposes: 1) By saying it is upgrades and vacations, people go elsewhere and get comfortable there. If the Atlas forum doesn't come back, after two months, it becomes more of a "ho hum" issue. 2) By advertising it as "temporary", Atlas doesn't get (they hope) a black eye by saying they are shutting down permanently. There were a lot of subjects going on which a lawyer might suggest could get Atlas into trouble. Plus the day to day hassles and overhead of providing a service that doesn't "directly" add to the income statement may have been too much to continue to justify. Just conjecture. I liked Paul, Rob, Cory, etc.
Sorry for the long sig in my posts...it was created years ago (member #62). I edited it out in my profile, but it didn't take. I just tried again, and I don't think it was successful. I'm trying to reduce it to just my name. I apologize.
Jerry; If this were to be the case then Atlas would then be knowingly making a false statement that the forum is closed "until sometime in August". Lenny
You are a better man than I! I have been trying to get this Windows stuff working properly for over 8 years now!!! Bring back the Commodore 64's!! Russ
Jerry after your departure from the forum there were several posts commenting on it. Paul Graf posted a message and said that he contacted you and you told him that you were taking a break from the forum and might be back. He gave no indications that the forum would be closed down and that was only about two weeks before they pulled the plug. Whatever it was that caused the demise of the forum it had to be something immediate and sudden. Otherwise I would expect them to post an announcement as they have done in the past.
