Bill,
Appreciate yor comments, and your efforts to keep this monster on the leash to a reasonable extent...
Personally, I'd state clearly to whoever asked how much of any of my models I "built" and how much came pretty well ready to tack together. If that affects Appearance Points, fine, so be it.
I enjoy building too much to "go with the flow" as some others suggest. Sure I've had an ARF or two. Generally, the fact that a profitable business depends on a certain level of quality is evident. If the models are sagging slugs, they'll never get a return customer for that or any other ARF/ARC they might offer... As a result, my ARFs and several others I've seen are almost always straight and light. Straighter and lighter than their likely buyers could build, at an early point in their career in our hobby/sport.
Of course, we hear of the shortfalls in "packaging" the available ARF/ARC offerings. Part of that is from others who like to build, and would NOT have done it the way the 'mass'-producer chose; part is because the pieces criticized are NOT up the the job for the long term. ...And, new guys who HAVEN'T built models will never know; they'll figure the failures were their fault. Many will quit at that point - why persist in something they can't handle?
If any AMA Dist IX people are in here, Doc isn't the only one who needs to communicate about how members in his District feel. Don't "vote?" - then don't gripe about who gets elected. PARTICIPATE!
On the other side, as I write this, 27 people have opted in the poll. The "votes" are too few to consider a valid image of how even the relatively few of us here in this forum feel. In this thread, a few people who feel strongly about their opinions have posted MANY times. The post count is less important than the number of different guys posting. Compared to several other threads, this one has a good number of different writers taking part.
And guys like Doc - I hope - also consider that the most vehement for or against anything are the ones, quite often, who dominate the issue if they can. A few shriekers may be hard on the ears, but their actual number in comparison to the "population" represented should be kept in mind. I didn't see any real shriekers in this discussion, but, yes, some strong opinions...
Rules is rules, as one of us posted. Long enduring rules can be changed, but their endurance adds some gravity to their existence. That should be kept in mind. Indirectly, it argues that many, many subject to the rule find nothing wrong with it, or nothing so dire that it must be changed. For those who kinda like the tradition - BOM in this thread, f'rinstance - things can be advanced further, faster with more likelihood of support, by using reasonable, convincing ideas. Regrettably, I hear a bit more shouting that, "It's broke! Throw it away! Right now if you're not a stupid, over-aged jerk!"
Stable rules have value. A guy coming back into CLPA, for example, after 20 or 30 years doing other things, finds a basically familiar thing still there... finds what he enjoyed last time around and wants some more of, now. Changing rules whenever anyone shouts loud enough, that we have to do it his way, isn't good for hanging onto the basics that attract the many retreads rejoining us. The shouting, alone, can put them off...
Sure, keep looking for ways to improve, enhance and make better any of our rules - but, please, let's go about it in the ways laid down to get it done. Stampedes trample more than they protect. And, if a vote occurs at the level that can change rules, and it is obviously fair, and representative of a majority the whole population involved, let's accept that. For the time being, at least. If it isn't what we wanted, we can still try to persuade others of our ideas. If they ARE winners, they'll win, eventually. Or, we can pack up our stuff and go elsewhere if we can't abide what the majority is happy with.
Topic: BOM Proposal (Read 13020 times)