A letter from Don and Mikey

[ezdays]

AN ANNUAL LETTER FROM MIKEY (ngauger) AND DON (ezdays)

Do you remember December of 2000??? How we were all relieved that the Y2K Virus never happened , and how, we were looking forward to the “real” turn of the Century, 2001??? How some of us that were wondering if, in reality that Arthur C. Clark’s novel and movie 2001 a Space Odyssey would ever come about? Well, a few of us were milling around other railroad boards, there were not many to choose from back then, when some of us got e-mails that three investors were starting a new board called, “The Gauge”… A board dedicated to the Modeler themselves, something that would never “grow too large.” One where each member would “know” other members and they even gave us a chat room that we could “talk” in real time to each other. Mikey, (ngauger) joined Catt and a few others within a few days after the December 17, 2000 opening date. It took Don (ezdays) some three years before he became interested enough in model railroading to find us, but he did and that’s what counts.

The Board would last as long as the “three investors” thought it would be good to keep it running; you see, they were funding it entirely out of their own pockets!!! No ads!! No Membership fees!! The thought of closure prompted us to ask if we could donate to help keep things running… soon we had become a family of about 100 steady members and had acquired the nickname, “Big Blue,” because of the board colors. Big Blue, or The Gauge, lasted in that family state for years, until the investors decided to sell it off to someone who fortunately, continued to allow us to do our thing without intervention. It didn’t take much though, to find out through search engines that he actually had the goal of “expanding” our board, along with his others, just to boost their resale value. Within months, we were high on the search lists, and as a result, hundreds of new members came onboard, too many too fast and so we lost our family feel… Then it happened, the ads started to appear. We pleaded that with ads, some of the “deep set modelers” would wander off. Unfortunately, our predictions were accurate; we started losing quality modelers and staff due to the ads!! Some of the ads were even from competing sites; others were not so family friendly. One day we noticed after a change in software that our beloved Blue Board was white… We were told that the amount of coding to get everything to look right would be too expensive, and then as another cost saving action, we were combined with a few other modeling forums including our friends at Cardmodelers.com. They were great people, but it caused a lot of conflict with everyone, and once again, all the groups lost some good friends to other forums.

Well, you know the rest of the story; a new company bought what was once The Gauge; their claim to fame was that they owned hundreds of boards and would do great things for us. It didn’t take long to figure out that it was a business decision that had nothing to do with hobbies and we had people who knew nothing about us, telling us what we could and couldn’t do. It was a chaotic time, then, when the ads began appearing IN the posts and threads, that was the final straw. By this time, we had well over thirty thousand members, and we were confused as to who was who. What was once The Gauge had grown “too large” and the ad issue was too big to ignore. We were receiving complaints from “our family” of moderators and members alike. Some left and vowed never to return so we (Don and Mikey) talked about going back to our basics and reviving our beloved Big Blue. Mikey knew Path from his hosting another board that he runs and asked him if he could help us out, thankfully he did… In November 2008 we decided on our plan of action: It had to be a vehicle to regain our identity, it had to have picture posting ability, it had to have a chat room and it had to be B L U E!!!!!! In addition, it should stay relatively small and family-like once again. We decided against using the Gauge name to avoid conflict but wanted to keep the association, so we do have “the-gauge” in our domain name. On Dec 17th, 2008, we opened our doors to coincide with that of the original Gauge. As we got set up and things were working, we invited through our personal emails, a few people to “Come see what’s cooking”… It was an instant success; the comments for everything, including the colors we chose, were good ones.

We began an e-mail campaign, almost identical to the e-mail campaign of 2000 that started the original board, except that we didn’t use, or advocated using, any other board’s communication systems to “Troll” for members. We also were sure that we knew someone before we sent them an email. We are very proud of this. In addition, we are proud of the fact that we told about 200 people about the new board and wound up with 150 signed up within 2 days. We even had our old staff back, including a few who had left us years earlier. Mostly, from what has been told to us, people registered here to get away from the ads and how that and other boards were being managed, plus Big Blue just felt like they were being called to a family reunion. We were home again at last… we had gone full circle with a quality group of people with a common goal.

That brings us to now, the original Gauge would be ten years old if it still existed. Big Blue is now two years old and is going as strong as the old one. We have over 600 registered members, but remain like a small family; we have new friends and have lost a few older ones along the way. A few that are gone forever and cannot come back shall be always in our hearts. There are some that return occasionally, and we’re pleased to see them when they do, even though they’ve joined other families. Yes, old friends are always welcome. As we look back on these past ten years, we see where we’ve done a lot as a family. We’ve had “the Box” find its way on many layouts, two Gauge cars made the rounds and plenty of layouts got their starts before our eyes. Much advice has been sought and much has been given and we’ve seen some great things come out of our challenges and photo threads. Thousands of pictures have been shared and we’ve even had meetings of Gauge and Big Blue members, some organized, some just casual. One must note that we still hold true to the original concept, no dues, no ads. We are still supported totally by what we, as owners, put in, plus what we get in donations from time to time. We intend to keep it that way and we never plan selling out to anyone like what has happened in the past. We’ve worked hard to get back what we all thought was lost. We’re pleased and proud of our achievements along the way and really look forward to celebrating them. That’s why we are planning a yearlong celebration starting on December 17, 2010. We'll have many surprises along the way, so stay tuned. We’re glad to have you, and we wish we could meet each one of you personally to thank you for being here and sharing your experiences, your expert advice and above all, you as a person. We are looking forward to a great year of modeling and of just being with you, our friends and family…

Mikey (ngauger) and Don (ezdays)
Owners and administrators of the Big Blue Train Forums