First of all, thank you Dave for taking the duty to run this excellent Forum. And also for giving us the opportunity to express our wishes regarding its future. So here are a few of my comments/wishes.
While we are at heart a WW1 aircraft forum, are you happy to see the inclusion of armour and vehicles too?
This was the forum for WW1 Aviation from the onset. I do not see the point to expand the topic to land or sea. There is "Time to relax" section at the end of the forum, where builds, models etc. not related to WW1 aircraft can be presented. Many of us, me included, do so.
We have many boards here spanning a wide range of subjects. But are there more specialist topics or boards you would like to see?
I am not for too specialised subdivision of forum threads. What we have is already detailed enough. Even more...
What would you both like to see more or less of? And are there forum boards or topics that you feel we could drop?
... in my opinion the split of modelling section into ordinary, resin and scratch builds is not necessary. I would prefer to have build logs for all types of material/techniques in one place and obviously a separate section for completed models, again without a subdivision into materials or techniques.
And here, I have one wish, regarding the thread title layout. It is not easy to find all specific builds related to the same aircraft model. It is all due to the quite free, non-uniform title layouts in the threads. Could we not introduce the common, even obligatory layout, for instance - aircraft name, kit producer, scale? It would very much facilitate scrolling and searching.
Would you like more competitions? More tutorials? Photo features?
Competitions, group builds are all fun. They could return, even on a regular basis. It is always an opportunity to participate even more in our hobby or to stimulate the choice of the subject for the next project.
We used to have a Featured Modeller section. Would you like that revived? Or a featured model of the month?
That was a great section, we could know each other better even without meeting in real. I understand Des's worries when the forum became wide open to not registered people. But instead of just removing the contents he could have simply asked each of the featured modellers if they wished to have their content removed or if they agreed - to have the files still available. Me, personally, I did not write anything in my file, that I would be ashamed of to expose to wider public. Yes, I would like to see that section back.
So, these are a few of my thoughts and proposals. And I surely wonder, what the others think about those issues.
