08-28-2013, 12:39 PM
Here is a little more of my thinking on how to do this. As I've said, and it sounds like the preference of the moderators here, this would not be an activity specifically associated with this forum (or any other). On the other hand, the point is to post photos of the cars on each other's layouts, as well as to get in touch with each other to arrange the shipments.
A second issue is the personal information of the participants. Naturally, to ship the cars, other participants will need to know the addresses and full names of the people to whom they send the cars. There are always going to be risks connected with this, so participants will need to understand that they assume the risks of giving this information out, even on a limited basis. However, we will need to limit this information on a need-to-know basis. Unless you're actively sending or receiving a car, you don't need to know that a guy with the forum ID of bigboy4014 is actually Sam K. Smith of St Louis, Missouri. You don't need to know his e-mail or his physical address.
So here is how I think this can be handled. I will set up a blog on BlogSpot giving guidelines for the program, contact info for me and other coordinators, and a list of participants in this fashion.
For instance, it would go
jwb Big Blue
Mike Kieran Big Blue
Ralph Big Blue
Chet The Whistle Post
and so forth. To contact an individual for the first time, you would go to the forum where they're listed and PM them on that forum. At that point, they could release any necessary information to exchange a car. Then when the car arrived, they could post photos of the visit on the particular forum they preferred. The forum might allow a thread for this, or the individuals could post something like "PRR 123456 Visiting my ABC Railroad from jwb's Layout".
Individuals would need to understand that they had an obligation to keep full names (where applicable), e-mail addresses, and postal addresses of the other participants confidential. All contacts other than setting up actual exchanges would be via PMs on the respective forums.
I would like to keep this whole thing as organizationally flat as possible, so it isn't about individuals. I'll be happy to set up the blog where the guidelines and participants' names, news, sample waybills, and so forth, can be posted, but I'd very much like to be sure one or two other guys can also get access to make changes to the blog and sub for me whenever needed. The point of this should be the fellowship of a good bunch of guys, not something where one person is indispensable.
A second issue is the personal information of the participants. Naturally, to ship the cars, other participants will need to know the addresses and full names of the people to whom they send the cars. There are always going to be risks connected with this, so participants will need to understand that they assume the risks of giving this information out, even on a limited basis. However, we will need to limit this information on a need-to-know basis. Unless you're actively sending or receiving a car, you don't need to know that a guy with the forum ID of bigboy4014 is actually Sam K. Smith of St Louis, Missouri. You don't need to know his e-mail or his physical address.
So here is how I think this can be handled. I will set up a blog on BlogSpot giving guidelines for the program, contact info for me and other coordinators, and a list of participants in this fashion.
For instance, it would go
jwb Big Blue
Mike Kieran Big Blue
Ralph Big Blue
Chet The Whistle Post
and so forth. To contact an individual for the first time, you would go to the forum where they're listed and PM them on that forum. At that point, they could release any necessary information to exchange a car. Then when the car arrived, they could post photos of the visit on the particular forum they preferred. The forum might allow a thread for this, or the individuals could post something like "PRR 123456 Visiting my ABC Railroad from jwb's Layout".
Individuals would need to understand that they had an obligation to keep full names (where applicable), e-mail addresses, and postal addresses of the other participants confidential. All contacts other than setting up actual exchanges would be via PMs on the respective forums.
I would like to keep this whole thing as organizationally flat as possible, so it isn't about individuals. I'll be happy to set up the blog where the guidelines and participants' names, news, sample waybills, and so forth, can be posted, but I'd very much like to be sure one or two other guys can also get access to make changes to the blog and sub for me whenever needed. The point of this should be the fellowship of a good bunch of guys, not something where one person is indispensable.