IPMS / USA News: The IPMS Forums

Chapter Contacts,

From Dennis T. at the IPMS USA forum

I'm pleased to announce that, effective today, the model building discussion forums of the IPMS/USA are open to non-IPMS/USA members. No longer closed to non-IPMS/USA members, we welcome modelers to our forums and hope to share our passion for model building with everyone.

We hope that opening the modeling forums will encourage non-members to join and give IPMS/USA members a chance to share their knowledge, experience and passion for our hobby with others.

Along with making the model building forums public, a new "Ask the IPMS" forum has been set up and John Ratzenberger will be hosting it. It is meant to be the public face of the IPMS/USA and will contain useful information for members and non-members alike.

The "From the Forum Administrator" forum will also be opened for comments. IPMS/USA members can now interact with me directly to discuss and debate forum policies. Feel free to post relevant questions about the discussion forums there also.

Finally, the former Open Discussion forum has been transformed into the new Bull Pen forum. This forum, open only to IPMS/USA members, will be a lightly-moderated forum set aside for members to discuss whatever moves them. It has its own set of rules to follow and no cross-posting or quoting from threads found within this forum will be permitted. What happens in the Bull Pen, stays in the Bull Pen. For those members who'd rather not even see this forum, I can modify their accounts to make that wish possible.

The goal of these changes is to make the IPMS/USA discussion forums more accessible to more modelers. It is hoped that their contribution to this site will transform it into something of value to IPMS/USA members and non-members alike.

Now that we have opened the doors, please remember that the modeling forums are for talk about models and model building. Any comments or criticism related to the IPMS/USA must be posted in the IPMS/USA Business section. I've instructed the moderators to be on the watch for this sort of thing and to move these threads to an appropriate IPMS/USA Business thread as quickly as possible. The person posting such items in the public threads will be warned.

By and large, the model building forums have been helpful and friendly places. Now more than ever, we want that to continue.

Dennis