Is it just me?

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

That finds some threads incomprehensible

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

I know some thereads go OT, but now we are getting threads that start off topic!

Not quite an oxymoron, but 'Jim' started a thread today on 'Classic bike'. Does this have any connection with MEW? If it an article in ME then it would be better to have said so. Not all users of this website get both mags.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd replies make no sense to me, they just add to the confusion.

I will bookmark the thread and maybe it will get to the beef eventually.

Ian

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

I get frustrated with thread titles that say nothing about what the thread is about. You have to click it before discovering it’s of no interest.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Well someone did start a thread a few weeks ago about having a section for off topic posts. Sometimes they can be quite interesting though admittedly anything to do with bikes is not going to qualify.

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

It gets worse – I wrote a reply after post 2 asking what article it was about and my post got deleted. In other replies, it does mention the article content about a Dennis Jones, but no mention of what issue.

At the moment I am seeing ME and MEW about 8 weeks after publish date, here in Canada, so I am at a loss to understand cryptic posts about articles I won't see for a long time.

I take offense at having a legitimate, short, direct and polite enquiry deleted without any explanation, and no usable info put in its' place. Nasty moderation if you ask me.

JD

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Bazyle on 03/03/2013 00:37:34:

Well someone did start a thread a few weeks ago about having a section for off topic posts. Sometimes they can be quite interesting though admittedly anything to do with bikes is not going to qualify.

Not going to qualify ???????????????

Why people model them. What makes loco's for instance, so special ?

We allow IC engines, what's in bikes. Dave Fenner once said that when he was editor the issues of MEW with bikes and cars on the cover outsold the other issues.

What a short sighted post.

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by John Stevenson on 03/03/2013 00:57:09

What a short sighted post.

John

Thats an uncharacteristcally caustic comment from you! Its my own fault because I my opening remark was meant to be a bit sarcastic. My point was that the OP posted a somewhat obscure topic title, and the first few following posts did nothing to clarify, even the magazine author brought no clarification.

Ian

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Ian, I am not aware that the editor of the magazine has contributed to the either thread.

To put you out of your missery "Classic Bike" is a separate publication which obviously made mention of JS so that is why the question on the other thread was asked.

I'm also with JS that bikes do have a place in ME, we have had several covers of those loverly 1/2 scale engines which make a nice change from Locos. I've even got a Harley inspired Hoglet on the go, if thats not Model Engineering then what is?

Edited By JasonB on 03/03/2013 08:50:07

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Jason

The editor DID contribute, in fact he was the first to do so, unfortunately not in a positive manner.

Bikes, mopeds, unicycles etc, whether full size or models, I dont care they are all valid on this forum as long as there is some engineering content.

Ian

[jim’Participant @jim11037]

I would have thought a home built motorcycle engine would have been of interest to any model engineer

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by jim' on 03/03/2013 09:23:57:

I would have thought a home built motorcycle engine would have been of interest to any model engineer

Jim

Quite so!

How on earth were ordinary mortals supposed to know that was what the thread was about though?

Ian

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Can I repeat the request to have a 'general' topic?

Perhaps for discussion that's marginal to model engineering/workshop issues like reminiscences and 'how I saved a fortune by fixing my own dishwasher' stories, rather than completely random stuff like discussion of football or politics..?

Neil

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Ian Phillips on 03/03/2013 08:37:07:

Posted by John Stevenson on 03/03/2013 00:57:09

What a short sighted post.

John

Thats an uncharacteristcally caustic comment from you! Its my own fault because I my opening remark was meant to be a bit sacastic.

Ian

Ian,

My remark wasn't aimed at you but at the comment by Bazyle on " Not going to qualify" and the 'Why"

Sorry if you thought it was caustic, it wasn't meant to be.

It was meant to be scathing, I must be having a bad day………….

[michael coleParticipant @michaelcole91146]

I do not mind OT threads but i do want the title to be informative.Titles like "Is it just me" are hopeless. A lot o MEW readers are not steam modelers but reparir and build bikes and cars.

Mike

[Sandy MortonParticipant @sandymorton10620]

My 200 hiring cycles paid for all my tools and kept me from going hungry for 40 years! I do remember some articles about building replicas of very old bikes and now that I've retired I'll need to try and find them to give me something to build.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Calm down guys. Obviously my post was was in a humorous mode to express my own lack of interest in mortocycles. I don't excpect to have to spell things out in words of one syllable. Come on you know you are more intelligent than that.
It's a bit like the CNC debate. Perfectly legitimate part of modern ME but doesn't mean every one has to be interested in it and should be allowed to occasionally mention that without being hung drawn and quartered.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Quite.

1 OT is often where the"meat" of a thread is (for me)..but how would I find it again ( ever? )

2 maybe a "JOKE WARNING" smiley needs agreeing to…preceeding post maybe.. to save raised blood pressured prior to the humourous intent sinking in..

But seriously I have no problem with any topic ( within realms of decency and to some extent law )..but clear titles and staying on topic help….

I for one don't often read "XZY 3 inch Gauge wimwom bracket" titled treads but one about "soldering ss to ali "..which said bracket might require would gain my intrest…..

rdgs

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Jason – a bit off topic, but please check your PMs … sit down before reading!!

Rgds

Bill

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by jim' on 03/03/2013 09:23:57:

I would have thought a home built motorcycle engine would have been of interest to any model engineer

+1. Or does he have to make it half scale to qualify? Maybe it was a 250cc half-scale model of a 500cc "real" bike?

And what about all the home-designed Stirling engines, flame-eaters, IC engines etc. They are not models of bigger engines. They are engines in their own right, not models. Should we say they don't qualify?

I have both old bikes and models in my workshop, being worked on with all the same tools and machines. That qualifies as Model Engineer's Workshop content to me. Some tool or dodge I work out for fixing an old bike will be used next time same thing is needed for a Stirling engine.

Happy to discuss bike stuff with anyone anytime, anywhere.

Be happy.

 

Edited By Hopper on 08/03/2013 02:57:17

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

I've mentioned before on another thread that the term ' Model Engineer ' as meaning maker of little models was little known when the magazines were first published .

The original title was ' Model Engineer and Electrician ' and I'm quite sure that ' Model ' here referred to ' Ideal ' or ' Perfect ' or a ' Good practices of ' .

Percival Marshal was an intelligent and well educated man however – its quite possible that he recognised the double meaning of ' Model ' and saw that it conveyed his intended meaning either way .

I have always preferred the ' Good practices of ' interpretation and this allows almost anything Mechanical , Electrical or just of general technical interest to appear in magazines and on Forums .

Michael Williams .

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

personaly … model ENGINEERING…

model engin === somthing a model engineer does /makes / etc.

model engineer === someone who makes /does model engins

With appologies to G&S

" I am the very model of a modern Major-General Engineral,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings threads of England, and I quote the fights historical."

 

reproduced here for fun

 

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;a
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news, (bothered for a rhyme)
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous;
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,
I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!b
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore, (bothered for a rhyme)c
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.

 

Edited By jason udall on 08/03/2013 10:53:30

[Alan JacksonParticipant @alanjackson47790]

Good stuff Jason if you keep this up you could turn us engineers into poets who machine to reason and ryhme.

Alan

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Just remembered that on another forum there is a subsection that only appears when you have been active for some years & thousand posts so only for the regular and dedicated contributors. It is a useful place for the real friends of the forum other than moderators to discuss problem posts, people who have joined with a hidden or business agenda, or just to moan about newbies who can't be bothered to use google, the forum search, or even use a sensible thread title.
Maybe this foum has such a space, but I don't know yet.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Bazyle…could be …maybe only 89 th degree only?

Might explain much…

[SpringbokParticipant @springbok]

Well Baz I have better things to do with my life that sit in front of a computer waiting to send my 1 thou posting, I only reply so that I can help someone. I love reading about models in general, There was a number of years ago a chap called Mr Spenlove-Spenlove who did a short series in building a Victorian cycle. cars, motorbikes, hot air, you name it bring it all back to our ME mag's.

Bob.

[Author]

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