Real Model Railroaders do not use MyFace

Real Model Railroaders do not use MyFace

In my worklife, I am a librarian. We all have to do something to support the basements in which we dwell. And one of our current projects at MCL is called "Learning 2.0". In this project we are learning how to use the Web 2.0 tools, things like flickr, rss feeds, wikis, etc. And the more we do this, the more I am enjoying it, at least this week. One of the questions we had to answer as part of the learning exercise is #3 below, and I blogged about model railroaders and social networks. I have edited it a bit -- replaced train nuts with train fans for instance -- but this is pretty much as written.

3. Explore a social network site for a topic you're interested in and blog about your reactions. Can you see ways the library could connect to users of the site?

My topic: Model railroading. Model railroaders are still in the dark ages when it comes to social networking. The dark ages were back when people posted questions or comments to various bulletin boards and people responded. These phenomena are prone to exaggeration and bullying, so I nave the impression that a relative few model railroaders are active on the lists, but there is good stuff to be found. Some of them turn out to be real experts or real authors, and you get good ideas from them.
Is this really social? It seems to be interest driven, and some of the social interaction is less than positive. Once I see a thread has gone on for a long time, it has usually degraded into name calling and dead horse kicking.

Then there are the good guys (this is mostly a male hobby). Some of them have their onw websites or blogs. It is useful to check them out, because some of these people get tired of answering the same questions carefully, only to have their comments disregarded or disrespected. Here is one of my favorites: Byron Henderson: http://mrsvc.blogspot.com/, and when you get there check out his entry on Death of Discourse.

Find a Friend (MySpace): We weren't able to find a " model railroader " on MySpace.com

A Social Networking and Model Railroader search on Google turns up little of real significance. Some guy is promoting his “secrets of model railroading” book; a number of bloggers admire the model railroad slums website at http://dinowalrus.com/gallery/model-rr/
Isn't this cool? But this guy is an artist!

It seems to me that model railroaders and train fans in general are more attuned to the boards, with all their deficiencies, because of their topic driven content. The trolls and flamers who dwell there are more content to snipe at participants, knowing that nobody would ever seek out their myspace facebook.

However, model railroaders and train fans do seem to enjoy posting videos, as you’ll see if you look up trains at youtube or one of the video sharing sites.

Model railroaders are not particularly social. Should I say “anti-social”? No, because some of my friends are model railroaders. Call me codger!