All --
Two things:
1. The proposed S scale e-zine website. I am opposed to this idea. Reason is
that only about half of us do e-mail. The entire S scale fraternity deserves a
publication, not just us "techies."
2. 1:64 Modeling Guide. The reasons 1:64MG is tanking are not simply the
health and the other businesses of Brother Bendever. It is because of a series
of judgment lapses on the part of Dr. Ben. Firstly, he changed the name of his
well-respected magazine from "S/Sn3" to "1:64," and promptly lost most of his
Sn3 subscribers. He had lost sight of the value of the name he bought. Then
he made it known that he intended to sweep in vehicles, boats, and airplanes,
figuring that he'd get a lot more readers. But he forgot that the S scaler is
committed (as the pig is regarding breakfast) -- Our entire layout must be
1:64 scale, whereas the vehicle modeler is merely involved (like the chicken re
breakfast) because he doesn't need to do all his modeling in the same scale.
So he lost more railroaders. Then he told all his readers that he doesn't know
much about model railroading. Whether true or not, this is not the way to
generate confidence. Finally,
he told his readers that they needed to support him or he would fail. When
you actually print this sort of statement, it generally becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy.
Ben is not article-shy, at least from me. He is sitting on several as-yet
uncommitted articles. Based on his now publicized effort to shed the magazine,
I have asked for my unpublished articles to be returned.
Personally, I like Ben, and I had made it one of my missions to help him
succeed, despite the fact that he and I had different ideas on what should be
said and done. I had advised him regarding every one of the episodes recounted
above, but he had gone his own way anyway. Sometimes I thought he asked me
just so he could figure out what the exact opposite ought to be.
So why have I told you all of this "inside info?" Well, it's because there's a
lot more to this story than the seemingly simple explanation that S scalers
can't support a magazine. Maybe we can and maybe we can't, but Ben's mag is
not an appropriate test case. Now that he's folding, anyone interested in
taking up the challenge needs to know why he failed.
Dick Karnes
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