Ok folks, if you haven't visited, signed up and checked out the New KitMaker Forums , it's time to get into gear.

Jim has indicated the intention to have all of the new forums up and running, and these old forums archived, by the end of the year. (Jim's note: Ahh... way sooner than that for AM. End of the year to be finished with ALL of the sites and Armorama is last up so that might be December-ish, or maybe November. Will have to see.)

I know that such a significant change to something that is part of our daily routine can create some anxiety and angst, but in this case it is definitely a change for the better. The bottom line is, this current site is based on software that is outdated and obsolete, and the bugs we are starting to see will get worse.

I am certainly no IT expert, and I have managed to sign on and start posting and adding new threads, and the ability to add images to your posts is dead easy compared to the third party hosting or gallery methods we have had to use here.

In the interim, we will lose some of the features we have enjoyed here (such as Group Build Ribbons), but the first step is to get the new site up and running and these pages archived.

If you have any concerns or questions, please ask them here and if I can't address them, I will drag in others who can.

I really hope that we can get every one of the members here moved across and continue to see the AutoModeler family grow, and the site thrive in its new home.

Cheers, D

D, is the end of year hard and fast? Garage Queens 2020 ends on Dec 31, not sure it worth changing over, just to end a little later.

mark, I haven't been given a set date for the archiving of the AutoModeler site, I'm not even sure that Jim has come to that point yet.

I agree with you though, it's not worth copying the whole thread across to the new site at this point. My thoughts are that we just let it run until this site is archived, or December 31, whichever is sooner.

We can start GQ21 on the new site come January 1.

Cheers, D

Fellow list members,

As D posted the new site for AutoModeler is now active. We're still able use the old site as always, as Jim has now listed it as the Old Forums and the New site as the New Forums. D and I have been transferring as many of the current posts in Cars & the Garage forums over to the new site and cross posting so that both sites are current and correct.

What we really need is for all of you to log into the new site, sign up, and spend some time looking around. It's different but it's an improvement over the old site, does a lot more, and actually will make our lives better in the long run.

Posting pictures has always been an issue here. The new site is a true joy to post pictures on. You now can still post from your 3rd party host by just copying the direct link , you can copy and paste from your computer or the web, or using the picture function locate the picture on your pc then uploading it. I've used all the various methods and they work great. The pictures are smaller, but you can click on one and it opens up to full page. What's more, any consecutive group of pictures that you click on opens up a full screen slide show. It's a great feature.

Honestly, I'm still learning and trying to come to terms with a lot of the new functions, slowly but surely I'm getting there. And as D said, if we can't help you, there's a lot of guys here that can.

So please take the time to log into the new site, bookmark the Car site, sign up, and start using it.

Joel

Well Joel, there are some nice features, I like being able to post pics from my own drive and not have to upload to a 3rd party. The unread post feature is nice, and I'm trying to abuse the like function. I do miss my waving Emoticon, and losing campaign is almost a deal breaker.

Jim said that he was looking into creating a new badge system but at the moment he has other problems to sort out, so wouldn't worry about it too much bit I do know that the campaign ribbons is something that is a concern for people who like collecting them.

LOL, I'm already signed up, trusted user and Licensed user badges to boot. But I'm taking the squeaky wheel approach, keep mentioning what I love abot the old site and eventually it'll get added to the new site.

Yep, a bit like a Ford!

Cheers, D

My Chevy squeaks, my Ford doesn't.

What do we do with builds, that we know will not be finished, this year? Can they be moved or do we start a new topic, in the new forum?

Jesper I would just create a new topic and then link back to the old one. The links may need to be updated at some point after the archive as they won't be .php files anymore but rather .html versions. Other than that people should be able to refer back to the original topic as much as they'd like.

I would guess with the beta site up and running for the content side of this that it will be only a week or two before AM is archived. I need to make some forum code changes first though so we don't run into some of the issues we did on the Model Shipwrights archive.

Cheers,
Jim

All signed up and ready to go

Jesper, as Jim said, you will need to start a new topic in the new forums, then it is up to you if you want to copy the content from this site across to have a "full" thread, or alternatively just place a link, in the opening post of the new thread, back to this forum.

For my shorter threads I am copying the contents across. For some of my longer threads (such as the BMW507 dual build and Gearing Class Trio on MSW) I have also copied all of the content across, but with some other longer threads like my Tri-5 Chevy builds I will just post a link and take up where I left off.

Cheers, D

Ok folks, the new AutoModeler site has moved out of the Beta testing stage and is now LIVE!!

CHECK IT OUT HERE

We can still post on the regular threads here for a while, but there will be no further new site content such as news and features.

Most of the regulars here have made the move already, but if you have any ongoing threads that you want to copy across to the new forum, rather than just take up where you left off here, now is the time!

Let's all get on board and continue the great work we have been doing here for the last couple of years!

Cheers, D

Wow, that looks great!

We haven't had a new post here on the original AutoModeler for almost 10 days now, looks like everybody is making the transition to our new home.

Each time I visit the new forum and then return to here I am reminded how "clunky" this old platform is. I'm sure that there will be some bugs to iron out at the new site, but no change so significant ever happens perfectly. There are plenty of admin staff around to assist if we strike anything we can't figure out.

Cheers, D

Yes, but I have to quickly respond to 112 more posts to reach 5000 and make MCPO of the USN.

111 now!

one down 110 to go!