Why So Poorly Advertised ??

Certainly would have been nice to know about this BEFORE it was underway.  Not Chris's fault obviously, but seriously- why no notice from the NMRA?  Maybe I missed another post, but I do check pretty often.

Thanks for the post Chris, at least I can catch one or two today.

Craig

And why so soon?

The national convention wasn't until the summer.  Events take time to plan and promote.

Last-minute pickup?

Hi guys - My understanding is that Gordy Robinson and his crew pulled this together very quickly to provide some content for all of us who are currently shut-in. Since so many train shows/conventions/meets have been cancelled, why not try to do something virtually?

Heh - maybe consider this a "soft open" for something bigger and more widely advertised in the future? In the meantime, like all Facebook live streams ALL of the content is/will be available for later viewing. I know that's what I'll be doing to catch up on all the Australia content I missed when I dozed off!

If you're able to watch it live and/or later on, hope you enjoy the shows!

Chris

Facebook membership required?

Looks like you’re required to have a facebook membership in order to get in?

Facebook required?

Well, that's never going to happen.

Facebook is not scary

I am a user of Facebook and I don’t understand why so many Model Railroaders won’t use it. Sign up, but do not accept any friends. Sign up for groups that you only want to see. What is so tough and scary about that? 
 

TomO

What's so difficult to understand?

Some of us actually think about on-line security.

Facebook is the Borg of the Internet.

What security issue

Be real about security. If you already have anti-virus you are as safe on FB as your are online any other time. If you really don’t think Google and your credit card company hasn’t figured out already who you are, your likes and dislikes you are wrong.

Not trying to argue with you barr_ceo but IMO you are over reacting but that is fine. The differences we have is what makes the world go round. Happy modeling and hopefully we can agree on that.

Tom

Would love to have seen Randy Hamill's clinic............

But it will be a cold day in the nether regions that I will trust Facebook ever again. 

Chris, one of the BEST on-line accessible items I've watched on-line in a long time was your layout tour.  I wish Randy would do something similar.  You guys are both outstanding railroad modelers, and I love learning more about the New Haven and both of your efforts of selective compression to fit your modeled areas into your basement. 

Your video was so good that it had me spend appx. 2 hours on Google Earth and Historic Aerials researching the route.  It was a nice diversion from my normal interests, which center around the Spokane WA area and southeast. 

The effort you put in was much appreciated, and something I could partake of when the mood moved me. 

Regards,

GNNPNUT

Facebook Won’t Eat You

Good lord people!

“Facebook is not going to eat your kids or run over your puppy”

Just create a Facebook account so you can view the NMRA feed.  Once it’s over just delete the Facebook account.

I you don’t want to use your main email account for registration, just create a Google or another free email account for this purpose.  
 

Joe

It has nothing to do with virii...

There ARE other security concerns.... and Facebook has a TERRIBLE history of keeping their user's information secure... and lying about it.

I trust Zuckerberg about as far as I could throw an SD-90.

Nope not virii

...but some of the people who have purchased data from Facebook. And the people that they have then sold it along to.

. . .

Must first be a Facebook Registered member.

Then you must  "Join Group " to view content. There is no such  " Follow Group " until you have JOINED.

Now sit there and wait to be ' let in '.. You are on a " PENDING " list waiting for moderator to accept you. Few moments later you receive message, so you must be familiar with Facebook to see it. Now refresh your screen and you should be able to view the content.

My older PC, has trouble with Facebook and even more trouble with live stream.

Facebook is not scary, just annoying to use.

Marc

Pass on FB - even for trains

There's no "Follow Group", only "Join Group" which then proceeds to a login in / create account.  I was on FB many many years ago.  Probably still have an account actually as the admins are never going to delete someone of their own accord. Grew very tired of the convoluted way of navigating the site. To look at something one had to first go here, then go there, then "friend" this and "forward" that yadda yadda blah blah.  I realize that an ad campaign of a couple years back stated that they (FB that is) realized that the site had gotten away from it's original intent and were getting back to the basics, but, No thanks.  Even my 26 and 23 y.o sons rarely use it as they prefer other avenues available to them. 

I concur with barr_ceo on security.  At times it can be difficult to sort the good from the bad and ugly.  Earlier this week I rec'd an e-mail notifying me of a password change request for my FB account.  Please click here if change was not requested.   Uh...no request on this end.  And most certainly "click here" is NOT gonna' happen.  Not a mindless minion thank you very much. 

Thanks for the heads up Chris, but, Been there, done that. Don't need it, don't want it. Content without it. 

Chris

Chris, thanks very much for posting this.  Hopefully the discussion will return to the topic at hand and we can take the FB concerns to their own thread.

Looks like our own Thomas Gasior is up just before you at 11am Central.  Unless my wife's honey-do list declares otherwise, I'll be tuning in for both from my workbench.  Otherwise, I'll follow up later.  Looking forward to it!

Thanks Chris

IAISfan makes a valid point.

Thanks Chris for letting us know about the live feed.

Joe

"attendance" is pretty good

Watched a couple last night - The viewers hovered around 400.    Typical attendance in one of the in-person ballroom clinics is 50 to 100.

Difference here - everyone has a seat right next to the clinician -

This was also free and no-one had to travel

Given the NMRA Facebook group has more members than the actual NMRA the recorded clinics have the potential of being seen by many more people.

Gordy deserves a big pat on the back for organizing this.

Oh - and for the layout tours - I wasn't shuffled through a layout with a busload of other people.

I suppose an in-person convention could be fun for those that have the time to attend. But this type of thing probably fulfills the NMRA mission of promoting model railroading much better.

gs 

Somewhat poorly advertised, but that is the FB algorithm for you

It was somewhat poorly advertised, but I love the fact they are doing this as an experiment. I just watched Rob Clark's presentation and Tom's Splitrock layout tour. Video quality could be set higher next time, but for a first time experiment with 250+ people watching from over the world it's for sure a nice thing to see. In the chat there was a decent amount of 'who-is-who' in the North America model railroad scene attending too.

And yes, FB is "evil" so I outsmart them and their associates as much as I can with my Facebook jail/container in Firefox and Ad Block Plus (ABP).

Very cool...

It's a great way to do clinics.  Glad somebody stepped up and put it all together. This and the OpSig online meetings are both things I hope to see continue even after the panic. 

Thanks to all the organizers and presenters! 

Randy

You tube

I watched Tom and Rob on FB live and have seen some of Tom’s videos on You Tube. As a non member of the NMRA I do appreciate being able to join their FB site and the efforts on that site and Chris Adams FB site in advertising the Virtual Convention. Best as others have said is, I am watching this while working at the workbench. 
 

Tom

Security and the internet

EXIF not needed

Just like they have FR programs that can figure out who someone is just using facial photos and doing cross comparisons.    They have programs that do the same thing for places etc. Unless you are cooped up in your basement all the time without a camera. (COVID-19 will not last forever?)   The software plays a simple matching game. 

Maybe it could be the house across the street seen from an open window in your house.  etc.  it just runs and searches tell it gets what it thinks is/are matches,  

It found the picture of the house across the street from you,  it will match it to one in google maps and turn the google map camera around,  It knows your house address, more than likely what car your drive,  it pulls up the tax records, deeds, credit history and spending habits etc. etc.   

By the way do not forget to turn of your person tracking devices,  You own a cell phone and you are worried about personal security... Do not drive a new car,  in fact do not drive a car at all.  License plate trackers all over the place. Do not go to the supermarket etc. etc.  it just keeps adding up.  Make sure people around you are not using any type of cell phone or recording device...

https://www.cnet.com/news/at-ces-facial-recognition-creeps-into-everything/

and you are scared of Facebook...

It's not our authorities I worry about...

The issue with Facebook is the ease with which it has allowed our adversaries to "game" our system.  Between their sale of our data to Cambridge Analytica and others, to profiting off the sale of targeted advertising that is squarely wrong and or inflammatory, it has put itself in a very poor trust position as the predominate organizer of our online social world.  They have really screwed-the-pooch if you don't mind the colorful vernacular.  I look forward to a replacement platform.  In the meantime I try to avoid it. 

Hence I didn't learn about the virtual convention until it was more than half-over.   Awesome content effort from the NMRA, but they need to get the word out better.   

They know all about you