Hey, has anyone else been having problems getting into the RCGroups forum the last two days?
What's going on?




Happy Flying

They're down... that's all I know. I'm having "withdrawal" issues lol .

I'm having major withdrawals, too.

There's a bunch of us getting our forum fix here today! [8D]

if RC group keeps this up, then this might be their demise

Their going down for the count

No idea what it is - but based on the length of time they'vew been down (and it was SLLLLLOOOOWWW on Friday) there must be some hardware problems on their servers. I'm sure they'll be back, but I suppose it was an excuse to pop over here and see what's going on.....I've been eager to post a pic of my new Stevens Aero Lil' SQuiRT in its thread there and see what was new at the WRAMs show this weekend.......

me too I'm having serious withdrawal! I keep checking every 6 hours if they are back on. We are going to need to start a new category forum here of are own forums here for now. I sure do miss the classified! the classifieds here in RC universe are more commercial and high priced.

Don't you find it ironic that we are discussing our allegiance to another (competitor's?) forum while logged on to this RC Universe forum? I hadn't come across RCU until this weekend...I only had to go searching for another place to discuss RC when the rcgroups site went down. Perhaps they forgot to pay their electric bill?

RCUniverse has way too many ads...I feel like you have to look and look for the real content.

this is mainly a gasser / glow forum, the same way RCGroups is mainly an electric forum.

If they keep this up, I might start a Stell a Thread here .

Bernard, post your lil' squirt.

I dont think Universe would really care! they are getting the Hits that people would die for! Good business for them in my opinion.

Interesting, But than again RCG will always be Sloooooooww, because it takes a lot of money to keep a BIG site running fast. I should know I own a few myself.

Typically we have an ad at the top of the page and one at the bottom. Same as rcg. However we do randomly rotate our own inhouse content in "ad" spots which bring reviews to your awareness in our online [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine]magazine [/link] and in the same spot rotated randomly might be new product intros which you may be interested in or related items from our classifieds.

I agree that any new site you stumble upon is confusing until you learn where thing are. Anything that is apart from the familiar always has a learning curve but if you look past the ad on the top and bottom you will see the general posting format of our forum and most others are typically 90% identical.

Also unlike off the shelf software we have spent enormous amount of time and investment to build custom coded features for you and all modelers that exist no place else to help enrich your experience here. Here is a partial list in no particular order which hopefully some of you may find useful:

[ul][*] Classified & Auction software written by us for RC from the ground up[*] Choose your custom categories within the classifieds & auctions "MyCategories"[*] Choose your MyForums to view ONLY the forums and new posts YOUR interested in.[*] Free [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/toolbar]RCU Toolbar[/link] for IE browsers. Search RCU forums, market, magazine, site, google [*] Classified/Auction wishlist - tag keywords and get notified when matching items are listed[*] [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/product_guide/rcubook-home.cfm]RCU Blue book[/link] - check pricing on new/used rc products [*] Classified Watch list to watch items[*] First class reviews in the [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine]RCU Magazine[/link][*] Custom coded from ground up RC [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/events.cfm]Calendar Event [/link] Listings[*] Custom coded [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/gallery/]photo gallery [/link] fully categorized[*] Custom coded [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/vgallery/]video gallery[/link][*] Exclusive manufacturer ratings. Rate companies or view ratings [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/man-lookup.cfm]here[/link][*] [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/community/locatorsearch.cfm?infotype=venue]RC Venue locator[/link]. Find flying fields, instructors, racetracks, etc[*] Exclusive [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/product_guide/]product guide [/link] where you can compare products, read user reviews, rate products, check compatibility and more
[/ul]

I like RCGroups just simply because it so much easier and faster to use.(Im a little lazy sometimes)
Theres not so much stuff that I dont care about, like there is here on RC Universe.

RCGroups better come back up!!!
Im sure most of the members would donate a few bucks to keep it going...

We have tools and filters to show only what you want. Because RCU is so big we built these amazing tools that take just minutes to set once and than you see only the forums, posts, ads that you choose and nothing else.

Select your "Universe" as electric and everything on the site will be excluded except electric content. Select your mycategories once in the market and you will see only the classified categories you want and none of the others. Select your forums just once using the [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/subscribe.asp]MyForums [/link] tool and you will ONLY see the forums and new posts from your selected forums. these exclusive tools actually let you surf faster than you can on RCG and let you be even "lazier" as you put it

Try them. You can set them all up in 3 minutes and "set it and forget it.

1) Click settings top right and then click the Myforums/subscriptions link and choose your forums

2) Go to the marketplace and click Mycategories and choose only the categories you want to see

3) Click MyAccount atop any page and set your "Universe" to electric or do it from the drop down on the main homepage and instantly RCU becomes "electric" no matter where you go on it.

RC Groups is back up!

Marc,

Is it possible to set the numbers of postsshown per page as an option? I looked but could find it.

Attention, Attention, Attention!!!
RCGroups is back up!!!

We may now return home!!

Yeah, our RC is back!

It is? Not down my way it isn't It tells me to come back in a few minutes.........that was about 2.5 hours ago. I s'pose that is only 150 of them....and still counting

I must say though, this place seems fine, if not for the ads everywhere, but you gotta eat (including Marc), so I won't complain too loud.

Why am I a RCgroups user? I googled that place first a couple of years ago when I got back into RC and have gotten into the habit of just going there, but obv. there is some cool stuff here too, so I'll be checking out both now. I notice this place is not really that "E" oriented compared to there though.

And I noticed you guys seem to be "friendlier" than I remember, where as the mods over there seem to be getting more and more Pssd off and it has lost some of it's shine lately.
I have noticed that a few "long termers" slowly disapearing due to over zealous moderating, and that stupid warning system that only treats adults like children. One guy got a warning due to "not adding to the discussion" EH? He is a bit of a "tic" but I found it absurd in that instance. I don't know if you have that system here, but if you do, do yoursleves a big favour and really think about how it is applied...

Thanks for letting me get my fix of virtual RC in the meantime!

Cheers
Paul from Aus.

P.S Maintenance my eye!! ~ 5 days of maintenance, that's one big tune up

RCU has an option to turn off all ads here btw.

It does require an upgrade of your account.

Free = Ads to pay bills

$19.95 upgrade to power membership = NO ADS

For $20 you can toggle all ads off and get many other credits and benefits here at RCU with an upgraded membership. We provide this option but in all honesty members like the ads because they show relevant and timely product information. Of all the members we have here less than 50 have opted out of seeing ads!

Again we provide options to members so they can choose and customize.


For upgrade info click here http://www.rcuniverse.com/signup/reg-upgrade.cfm

Also be sure to click MyAccount if you are an electric only enthusiast and set your "UNIVERSE" to electrics so everything on RCU is electric oriented. This will remove all the other areas you are not interested in automatically.

No worries marc, I have just been checking out all the options, and there are plenty! Thanks for the quick reply.

Just to clarify my previous statement that it's still offline (at the time of writing), the search is off, but as others have mentioned, the site is back up.



Do you have a slope section, or is it with the gliders? I couldn't find one.

Cheers
Paul

Paul,

Yes. We have the Sailplanes, gliders and slope forum. Link is below but can be found in the airplane section. I could make a quick jump link like we have for other things and put it at the bottom of the Electric Universe Section if you think that would be convenient?

Alternately you could click the Settings button and then the MyForums option and select that as one of your forums of interest. The MyForums exclusive feature here is one of the most powerful functions/features that is not on ANY other forum. We invested alot to implement this functionality. We had to because RCU is so large and diverse. It will show you only posts and forums that you want on the main pages plus show only new posts from your selected forums. It also lets you search only your selected forums. This way an electric guy need not wade through car, glow, gas, boat threads and posts. No other site has it and this MyForum feature is very important, powerful and easy to setup and use. Takes just 2 minutes to pick and choose your forums

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/RC_G...mid_112/tt.htm

Hmmmm...interesting.

What makes you think this would be a money issue? Owning a very similar type of site and knowing where RCG hosts, what that host charges for bandwidth and servers ($200/month typically per server and 2000GB transfer) and doing some simple math based on the number of advertisers there (about 100) and their published ad rates I can 100% assure you money is not the culprit or in short supply. They host at The Planet (http://www.theplanet.com/control/pro/index.html). We host a video server there so I'm familiar with them. For us it is super cheap bandwidth and non mission critical if video goes down for awhile.

Our flagship servers at RCU (mission critical - forums, market, etc) are all hosted at rackspace which costs about 35x more for bandwidth ($3.50/GB vs 10 cents/GB) and hardware than rcg's host provider. We pay alot more here because the hardware, network and support to us are worth it to ensure speed and uptime.

We also have 3 full timers. Both owners here at RCU work full time to constantly improve and oversee operations 24/7. While I've met Jim Bourke several times and he is a very nice guy RCG is also a side business. His full time attention and employment is with Knife Edge software working on RealFlight G3. There is certainly nothing wrong with that. However for us here at RCU our site is our sole focus, gets our undivided attention 24-7 and we have all the pressure to work night and day on it to support both our families so we are workaholics. I'm posting this at 7AM and have been online since 6am. I'll be on until midnight at least. As a modeler and programmer I could not do so much if I did not enjoy it so I am very lucky in this regard and count my blessings daily.

marc

I for one can say that any of you are welcome here at any time! The more the merrier.

As far as usability, I think if you gave yourself a little time to get used to the slightly different look, you'd find that the feel is VERY similar to that of RCGroups.com.

Marc,

I can't believe you have taken the time to respond to each and every one of the comments on this thread. Well done! It seems like RCU has a real dedication to the RC world...err, Universe, and I appreciate that. I have to admit that I've grown accustomed to rcgroups, but I will likely spend some time here too, now that I know it exists.

I agree with the other posters about the ease of use. RCU probably does have a great deal of customizability, but some of us like to just keep it simple.

Keep up the great work. I'll try to stop in from time to time and see how you're doing. Best wishes and keep counting those blessings!