Would you be interested?

[Tim Kish]

Not to get this to far off topic but if IMPBA truly wants to grow it needs to get in touch with the companies that are making the RTR boats and offer to put a free six month membership to IMPBA put in every box they sell.

Tim K

 

[Bill Gibson]

When I got into this hobby in 1979, if it were not for the articles in flying models, R/c modeler, along with help from some local boaters in st. pete, I would not have ever gotten a boat in the water.....as time went by articles by john finch and many others were a great suorce of information to me...I would love to see a magazine come out with that kind of format! Sadly, I feel that our low numbers hender the possibility of such a magazine happening....which raises these questions....Have we priced ourselves, and out performed ourselves out of a hobby? how many average people with average incomes and skills like myself do we even have left in this hobby? I was having a phone conversation the other night with a very popular boater in the tampa bay area who also has a small business for model boats, and he made a couple of statements that I agreed with very much .....the first was that model boat racing is not a poor mans hobby anymore ..... the other was that if a new person wanted to get into racing with a new boat , they would probably spend close to a thousand dollars to be competitive!! Unless we can do something to entice more people into the hobby,that I dearly love but can barely afford anymore, bringing out a new magazine seems like a moot point.

 

[jim_johnson]

i absolutly agree with this being very expensive, wich is why i feel that everything sould be done to bring people in with there rtr. thats how you're going to grow. as far as the magazine, i would subscribe, however i'm not sure what the point would be. with the advent of the internet, ever existing companys are scaleing back catalog and magazine printing. i work in a comercial printer so this i know. if you contacted you're local hobbie shops and inquired of them stocking a few of these then you might get a large enough count to make it work. but if you dont get into the publics hands and keep it only to the people that curently race it would be no more than a 4-color glossy newsletter

just my thoughts

jim

 

[gooycheese]

I would buy a magazine Yes, but will this magazine have the quality of information that I can get on this forum? In one sitting at the PC I can get all the info I pretty much could need on every topic you could think of. I am really new to the racing scene and hope that changes real quick, but who wins wouldn't be the issue for me. I would like to know the setups ,configurations, up close pics, and insider tricks of the trade. I would also Like to see the new prototype designs and why they work. Honestly I don't see any magazine holding a candle to this forum, the members here are the best of the best and what they do (and if they don't do it they did at one time). In closing Yes I would give the magazine a try, But it has a Tall task to follow these forum GURU's here.

Thanks Everyone for being the BEST at this hobby !!!!

Paul

p.s. Sorry if I bug ya at times I am just looking for as much info as I can get

 

[ALLAN YUEN]

h34r: <_< How many of percent Favorate for different boats vote???

Nitro boats:__ %

Electric boats:__%

Gas boats:__%

Sail boats:__%

Classic (old) boats:__%

Unlimited Scale boats:__%

If somebody interesting "READ" on Magazine "RC Boats"

 

[redracer]

Yes most difinetly i would buy it Robert

 

[Scott Norris]

As John Finch said, R/C Boat Modeler at one time was a magazine of the type you are speaking. Back in the 80's I checked the stand at the hobby shop every day to see if the new issue had arrived. It evolved into what it is now. I would like to see RCBM devote a small part of their publication to the serious boat racing community to draw beginning boaters towards the racing part of the hobby so that they wouldn't run a boat a few times and say "Well that was fun for a few weeks" . I wouldn't subscribe to a Dedicated Magazine to boat racing, just as I love Muscle Cars but I don't subscribe to those Mags either. I love doing it but thumbing through a magazine about it doesn't get it for me.

Scott

 

[Mark Poole ModVP]

What about having more people contribute to the Roostertail? More tech articles from respected racers (some of them already write articles for it). Advertising in it is reasonable. Lots of good contact info in it.

Unless, you are talking about a magazine for profit by advertising and selected boat articles and marketing. Then you are going down the same path that others already have. Powerboat Magazine used to be the best boat race publication in the world. Now it is catering to rich boys with their 150 mph offshore boats. Racing coverage stinks. Needless to say I no longer subscribe.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

So far it's looking like 50/50.

 

[PAUL STIRTON]

Yes I would subscribe to it. You could have articles from around the world to let boaters in other countries know what is happening

 

[Watercadet]

I had a subscription to RCBM for 12 years, and canceled it when they went to the week semi- annual thing they do now. It had been suffering for years before that. I have a lap top now so I can keep on top the industry in an interactive forum (eg. IW= YOU GUYS!) from the "library" "throan" what ever you want to call the "head."

 

[Scott Schneider]

As one of the moderators of the MGB.com magazine & forum, it is a odd thing that those who need knowledge most put little effort out to get it. Unless your site gives all the info for free, is easy to find and comprehensive in content, you have no readers :huh:

If the source of info requires members to inquire by posting, they won't for fear of getting flamed by the know it all's.

In the 6 months sense MGB.COM has been back online with comprehensive content, it's membership has grown to 1400 + members with VERY LITTLE activity from the membership :angry:

Most just want the free info and are UNWILLING to give anything back, let alone pay for it .... SAD, Very sad.

 

[Don Ferrette]

I threw the towel in on RCBM a number of years ago when John (Finch) stopped writing regular articles & the "product reviews" started to become cookie cutter "good stuff" even if it was a known dog. That answer was generally found a few pages later with the same product and/or company in a nice big advertisement. It's the same ol' don't bite the hand that feeds & RCBM was/is no different. Too afraid to say anything bad about a product for fear of losing that almightly advertising dollar. Also by the time it hit the newsstands said product usually had already been on the market for a good number of months or more & if it was any good people already knew about it. At least on line like here on I/W if it's a piece of sxxt we'll tell you it's a piece of sxxt without the 6 month wait. As for the racing aspect the same applies, unless it was a huge full color spread of racing action with killer pics why would you wait months to read about it when you can get the results on line a couple days later. Everyone keeps talking about the "old days" when the mags were good but that was before the internet & times have changed, I just don't see it as a viable business venture for them. A publisher supported on line site devoted to strong racing coverage & unbiased tests & product reviews would be a better bet. B)

 

[bzubee]

Here is a good example of an ONLINE RC Magazine I think something like this would be more suited to most people and less costly. http://www.modelgasboats.com/ They have really done a nice job with this online magazine. I know from experience the publishing cost for or IMPBA newletter just got way too expensive to keep doing the way we were doing it. I also know we have a some die hard members that still like the hard copies and they now just pay a little extra for that service and recieve a hard copy of the newsletter. I think the online magazine is the way of the future.

I threw the towel in on RCBM a number of years ago when John (Finch) stopped writing regular articles & the "product reviews" started to become cookie cutter "good stuff" even if it was a known dog. That answer was generally found a few pages later with the same product and/or company in a nice big advertisement. It's the same ol' don't bite the hand that feeds & RCBM was/is no different. Too afraid to say anything bad about a product for fear of losing that almightly advertising dollar. Also by the time it hit the newsstands said product usually had already been on the market for a good number of months or more & if it was any good people already knew about it. At least on line like here on I/W if it's a piece of sxxt we'll tell you it's a piece of sxxt without the 6 month wait. As for the racing aspect the same applies, unless it was a huge full color spread of racing action with killer pics why would you wait months to read about it when you can get the results on line a couple days later. Everyone keeps talking about the "old days" when the mags were good but that was before the internet & times have changed, I just don't see it as a viable business venture for them. A publisher supported on line site devoted to strong racing coverage & unbiased tests & product reviews would be a better bet. B)

 

[mikel]

www.modelgasboats.com is an online magazine with a lot of great information.

I agree Brian. How about something simmilar in format as MGB but nitro\electric content? I like the articles on the MGB site, especially since you can print them for reference later.

If it came out as a paper based magazine I would subscribe to it (for some strange reason I still buy RCBM when it comes out h34r: ); but there may be more success with an online magazine.

-Mike