ssautter

Forums are in decline because surfers, posters, and bloggers are keen to the idea that our intellectual property is no longer safe with you.

Yes, facebook is a culprit too.

I can recall a specific contest, through the Thunder Tiger / Tiger America facebook fanpage, in which the winner of the contest used a publicly postedpicturefrom one of your forums, and won the photo contest with the intellectual properties of another.

Thunder Tiger now watermarks all of their posted photos....so do I....and so should you!


The AMAalso reported their first rise in membership, in approximately ten years, approximately when you started this thread: http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/A...y-May-2012.pdf

I'm still a member of the AMA, and the AMYA, because I still find value in the periodical snail mailings and the liability insurance.

However, I uncerimoniously dumped ROAR, the national division of IFMAR, after a year because I paid 25 USD....for nothing more than a plain-paper membership card and a renewall notice. No value.


The question of where people are spending their time online now, may be better restated: where are people spending their time offline?

Flying, racing, and maintenance are a large part of any modeling hobby which simply cannot be done online.

The aging population has removed its proverbial training wheels and decided that flying ismore fun than buying.


And, if your looking for a direct answer: the best trend I can remind you if is the shift towards ready-to-fly, ready-to-sail, and ready-to-run models.

When a model is pre-built there is much less of a need to seek consultation for the operation of model.

Unfortunately,there is also a certainamount of planned obsolescence built into the model.


It's interesting that you mentioned facebook, because model manufacturers are now holding more online contests through the social networking site.

Personally, I loathe this promotional technique - yes it's nothing more than another form of advertising - because my time-management strategy would have the HR and PR specialists of these companiesreading resumes and hiring employees, as opposed to blowing capital and giving handouts!


So, my answer to your question really boils down to a simple cost-benefit analysis.

If modelling forums, RCU included, have me flamed, trolled, infracted, while your advertisers are paying you to solicit me, then situationbecomes a lose-lose situation.

And that - ahem - is why all "free" forums are experiencing a decline in traffic.