Full Version: Progress report on RR magazine index.
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
I just read a new post on the Model Railroad Hobbyist message board giving a progress report on the index. It is under the thread titled "Discontinued Magazine Index". It will be at the bottom of the last page currently, and it looks like they are making good progress at restoring and updating the index into a more modern and useful format.
Thanks for the info, Russ. It's good to see progress being made on this project.

Tom
Russ Bellinis Wrote:I just read a new post on the Model Railroad Hobbyist message board giving a progress report on the index. It is under the thread titled "Discontinued Magazine Index". It will be at the bottom of the last page currently, and it looks like they are making good progress at restoring and updating the index into a more modern and useful format.

I've been following the same thread over at MRH. If I was to summarize status, it would be like this:

1) Original index program and data has *not* been handed over from Kalmbach to NMRA
2) Joe has *not* announced that he has actually gotten a team together working on making a new index from scratch
3) A bunch of amateurs(*) are trying to code a new program from scratch, in three or four different and non-compatible initiatives.

(*) I call them amateurs since they are
a) getting surprised that putting words with a ' (like O'Reilly) in a text string can make sql hickup if you don't make substitutions in input
b) having just drawn their first ER diagram, not understanding that it sometimes is smarter with a type field than a new table
c) thinking that a default AND in a search pattern is a huge improvement over a default OR, instead of just having two text boxes in the GUI ("Find articles containing ANY of these words"/"Find articles containing ALL of these words")

Sadly, in my judgment, we are not very likely to see anything *usable* from any of these people anytime soon.

But I would be *extremely* delighted to be proved wrong. I miss that index.

Stein
Stein,I'm sure MR will release a CD index for a cost. :o

I hope I am wrong but,look how MR seems to be thinning down the magazine in favor of high cost "special issues".

The above isn't meant as another MR rip but,as a observation base on facts..
Brakie Wrote:Stein,I'm sure MR will release a CD index for a cost. :o

I hope I am wrong but,look how MR seems to be thinning down the magazine in favor of high cost "special issues".

Ironically, I wished you were *right*, since that would have made the index available. I don't mind paying for stuff that is useful for me.

But sadly, from what I have heard about how the program worked, I don't think you are right. Doesn't seem to be any cost-efficient way of harvesting and transforming the data from the old program into something marketable.

Time will tell. In this case, I would be quite delighted to be proved wrong by events, whether an index will return as a paid service from MR, a free service from NMRA or from some third party initiative.

Smile,
Stein
Brakie Wrote: ... look how MR seems to be thinning down the magazine in favor of high cost "special issues".

I, too, have noticed the slimming down of Model Railroader. But if that is the way it is going to be, with more web content and less "printed-on-paper" content, I wish they would re-issue the older style binders (like those from back in the early seventies) because A) the slimmer issues in the current 4 5/8" wide binders waste shelf space and B) I could use some of those older-style 3 1/2" binders for both the rest of my seventies and early eighties yearly issues as well as for the slimmed-down current years' issues. [Plus, I might even put my slowly growing collection of Forties decade, Fifties decade and Sixties decade issues into binders so the are more accessible for research than in "magazine-sized pizza boxes" that only hold a half-year each! I keep watching for those rare Thirties issues!]

I sent them an email to the RPO Column, but I doubt anything will come of it. They are not anywhere near as responsive to their readers as they once were back in the Linn Westcott/Russ Larsen days!
...or PAUL Larson days, to go back further. Those older, early MR's were pretty slim and yet they had such great content. Just looking at September '58 this morning. Great issue with a card operation article by Ed Ravenscroft and a Scratchbuilding article by Jack Work, plus a nice G&D picture in the photos section, just to name a few.

I've actually been checking out MR's from my local library and have been noticing a few subtle changes away from the 'plunk-n-play' RTR movement the industry seems to be spearheading, to a more thoughtful and time-consuming hobby where folks actually build something that takes longer than a couple hours or a quick drive to the LHS. Some of the newer generation of modelers writing for the magazine are beginning to show their experience and put together some quality work (like Cody Grivno's powerhouse kitbash or David Popp's river scene). For a while it all seemed a bit amateurish...now some excellent work is being shown from the MR staff as well as the contributors. That's to be commended, IMO. Also the 'operators' segments by Sperandeo are drawing on the wisdom of a man who has 'been there and done that' for a while and knows what he's talking about.

As for the index, I've been occasionally following the thread over at MRH as well. I expressed my support for this effort (and sadly my lack of tech skill to help) but perhaps some folks over here who have the computer chops should lend a hand. Stein, with your help, it could even be called an 'international effort'! :o

Galen
ocalicreek Wrote:I expressed my support for this effort (and sadly my lack of tech skill to help) but perhaps some folks over here who have the computer chops should lend a hand. Stein, with your help, it could even be called an 'international effort'! :o

Sorry, not interested. I am not willing to donate a sufficient number of hours (say 10 hours a week for the next ten weeks or so) to a project I have little faith in.

Smile,
Stein
ocalicreek Wrote:I've actually been checking out MR's from my local library and have been noticing a few subtle changes away from the 'plunk-n-play' RTR movement the industry seems to be spearheading, to a more thoughtful and time-consuming hobby where folks actually build something that takes longer than a couple hours or a quick drive to the LHS.

:hey: The "mechanics of money":
Advertisers can't sell as much RTR as when the economy was booming, and there's more kit building, and scratch building, to replace what's too expensive now.
The "pendulum" reached, and tried to exceed, the "I want it all, I want it now, and I want it perfect " point, and has now begun its swing back to "if I want it, I guess I'll have to build it myself".......If the subtle changes away from 'plunk-n-play' are any indicator, MR is beginning to once again recognize just who their target audience is, and are adjusting to maintain sales of magazines/ subscriptions.
When they reach the point of humility where they recognize that it's the people in-the-hobby who drive what's needed, and not the egos of the magazine staff, and their 'buddies', MR just might become, once again, worth buying and keeping.

Hope remains, that at some point not too far down the line, Hobby Shops will be able to sell more detail parts, and, therefore, keep them in stock. 2285_
ocalicreek Wrote:As for the index, I've been occasionally following the thread over at MRH as well. I expressed my support for this effort (and sadly my lack of tech skill to help) but perhaps some folks over here who have the computer chops should lend a hand. Stein, with your help, it could even be called an 'international effort'! :o Galen

Now would be the time for any one capable of deciphering and translating the old index, into something current, and potentially 'future", to step up and help make it so. If I could do that, I wouldn't still be on dial-up! :oops:
P5se Camelback Wrote:
Brakie Wrote: ... look how MR seems to be thinning down the magazine in favor of high cost "special issues".

I, too, have noticed the slimming down of Model Railroader. But if that is the way it is going to be, with more web content and less "printed-on-paper" content, I wish they would re-issue the older style binders (like those from back in the early seventies) because A) the slimmer issues in the current 4 5/8" wide binders waste shelf space and B) I could use some of those older-style 3 1/2" binders for both the rest of my seventies and early eighties yearly issues as well as for the slimmed-down current years' issues. [Plus, I might even put my slowly growing collection of Forties decade, Fifties decade and Sixties decade issues into binders so the are more accessible for research than in "magazine-sized pizza boxes" that only hold a half-year each! I keep watching for those rare Thirties issues!]

I sent them an email to the RPO Column, but I doubt anything will come of it. They are not anywhere near as responsive to their readers as they once were back in the Linn Westcott/Russ Larsen days!

I don't use their binders for any magazines. Theses are available from Staples on line. If shipped to a local Staples store for pick up shipping is free. Each package contains enough to do 1 year of issues, and all you need to get to use them is a standard 3 ring binder.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.staples.com/Rubbermaid-Plastic-Edge-Magazine-Holders-12-Pack/product_261644">http://www.staples.com/Rubbermaid-Plast ... uct_261644</a><!-- m -->
Russ Bellinis Wrote: I don't use their binders for any magazines. Theses are available from Staples on line. If shipped to a local Staples store for pick up shipping is free. Each package contains enough to do 1 year of issues, and all you need to get to use them is a standard 3 ring binder.
http://www.staples.com/Rubbermaid-Plasti...uct_261644

Hmmm! And how large is the three ring binder to hold a whole year? Or do you do it in two half-years?
I use whatever size I need. I was using the MR binders when I subscribed to MR. I haven't subscribed since the mid 1990's when It dawned on me that they don't give adequate coverage to my modeling interests to justify the cost of a subscription. I check the magazines at the local hobby shop stand, and buy those that have articles of interest. Some years that meant as few as 2 issues, some years I bought as many as 6. The hospital where my wife works closed down a department and was tossing out all of the three ring binders that they used for charting. If you have ever seen charts kept on patients in a hospital, the binders are at least as large as the MR binders. I also have acquired various sizes of three ring binders over the years from other sources, so I have binders sized to fit what ever I need.