It looks as though the end of an era is upon us. RC Boat Modeler has been rolled into RC Car Action..... We've seen the changes: from the how to articles produced in the past that gave us ideas; to the move to the RTR craze that is going on today, and now it put itself out to pasture. Very few ads for boats in this magazine, and the articles are few and shallow(er). A susbscription I'll be happy to let go! Marc et al; thank you for creating a space for us to share and get information we need. We're a dying breed, so lets promote ourselves as best we can, and maybe MGB.com can capitalize where a printed magazine fell off. There will be more manufacturers and distributors looking for a place to advertise, clubs will need to find ways to promote races, etc. I think a select group would be welcome here on this site, and I could see more Nitro and electric guys needing new a place to come as well. Excellent opportunity from an unfortunate circumstance.

Now to get the MGB readers to PAY for the information that was once collected monthly from every issue of RCBM sold.
? Would you ? .... What would such a resource be worth to those in the hobby ? ... priceless or worthless :?

The readership has no clue how much time and effort go's into what Marc has provided here at MGB. The web has become and will remain a read and dash kind of world with most looking for the freebie offering little too nothing for the privilege.

Yes, an on-line magazine such as MGB has a great future providing the useful kind of information the readers are looking for, but that cannot just fall upon the advertisers in paying for it all.
The solution is not an easy one in such difficult economic times, So rather than just being a reader .... be a CONTRIBUTOR ! with useful information worth publishing or ???

We are all adults here (For the most part) so we will conclude you have a clue what ones time and efforts are worth.

Regards,
Scott

May the efforts of all those who contributed to RCBM threw the years not be forgotten :drinks:

I agree 100% that it`s sad to see RCBM go...I also think that MGB has the potential of growing much further, but as Scott said, it takes dollars to move forward and at this point in time, we are just not gathering enough to move to the next level. We tried memberships in the past and it almost killed the site. Even though the memberships were only $20/yr, and included SEVERAL discount coupons all worth $20+ each, for some reason people simply did not want to contribute. My hopes were to move away from having to do raffles all the time as fundraisers, and rather be able to offer FREE raffles occasionally and allow us to compensate editors for their contributions and be able to fund our reviews. At this point the advertisers and the raffles are all that keep the site alive and allow us to pay the bills. Many probably don`t realize this but every time we do a review it cost us money and a considerable amount at that. Not to mention all the free time we donate in doing so. It is difficult to find people willing to chip in with quality reviews and articles when there is basically no compensation in the end. For this, I personally thank the editors of MGB for the work they put in.

I have been thinking about possibly setting up a community chest for readers to donate. I would like to know if this would be worth it or a hopeless cause. What do you guys think? I know I had set one up a few years ago and it was on the site for about 2 years and we only received 1 or 2 donations, so I don`t know if we should try this again or not.

I don`t know if I should be saying this on here, but I guess it`s good that people know, so here goes...

MGB has been online since 2002 and I personally took it over in 2005. It was run at my personal expense as a hobby until 2007. In 2007 I incorporated it as a business and have been running it as such since. So far it broke even in 2007 and all other years before and after 2007 were red, with my personal funds backing it. I continue to hope that it can get better, but I feel that without SOME reader contributions it just might not happen. I am not giving up hope, but I am now being realistic about it and realize that the boating community just might not be willing to support an online mag in the same way that they would a print version. Why? I don`t know. On the other hand, some of the forums out there can raise thousands in the snap of a finger? We just do not get that support for some reason. We can`t keep making it better without some help financially, whether it be through more advertising or memberships or donations, whatever. With over 4200 members this site could be awesome with only a small donation from everyone!

I personally would be happy to pay a subscription to an online mag. If I knew that there was going to be a guaranteed review of 2 - 3 boat related topics, ie hull, engines, hardware, radios or technology each month, I would love it. even branching out to see what is going on in other countries and getting reports/contributions from different regions around the world ie America, Australia, Europe & Asia of such things like new hulls, major race results etc. I understand this would be very difficult to organise, but I feel it would be well worth while. I currently browse 4 - 5 boating websites (JRCBD, RCU, Modelgasboats, Initialwaters etc) and filter through countless threads on their forums to find what's new in the world of model boating.

I'd love for someone to step up to the challenge & make it work. If they do I hope it is backed by all us model boaters.

just my $0.02

I would gladly contribute to the magazine. I don't know how much ic costs to run the magazine for a year, but if everyone would contribute $5.00, that would be $21,000.00. $5.00 is a cheap investmant to have such a great resource when you need information.

JMHO

What if you kept a general membership free and then charged a membership fee to those who want to view the articles/reviews? If you charge everyone, then alot of members would probably walk away but if you split up the membership free & paying membership then people have a choice in what they want to get from this site and what it has to offer. I personally would pay a membership fee to have access to the technical articles this site produces. If you can offer services that nobody else is offering then I see it only right to charge for it. I was involved with a sportbike forum in arizona and that's what they ended up doing. Seemed to work out well for them.

Billy

I have found a ton of info in this forum section alone.With constantly new subjects being discussed, I would not have a problem with paying a fee for information like this.Where do I send my subscription to.

We do not have subscriptions per say. I have setup a donation button on the site though, so it is up to users to decide if they want to donate or not.

marc wrote:
Yea, that's what I'm saying. Create a paying membership class. Those who are serious about the hobby or those who find a value in this site will pony up for it. Those who pay for a membership would then get access to certain portions of the website that a free membership wouldn't. The ones not willing to pay for that extra access are likely ones who rarely visit the site anyways.

:dash: hi i'm new to the site. i'm a little P/Oed because i just wrote a very long response to this post and somehow it vanished when i clicked the submit button. what the !@#$? anyway, there's no way i'm writing all that again. so long story short, i think modelgasboats is THE BEST SITE for gas modelers. i've only been checking it out for about a month or so but this is truely an invaluable resource for any and all gas boaters. i see that rc boat modeler went under and i'd hate to see mgb go under too. i would have to say that it will be my duty to donate if it means keeping the site alive.