I've been in a number of groups over the years, 2006 seems to ring a bell and many group sites have up and disappeared, what happened to RRL?
In a few words, and I'm far from the best to answer fully, it was discontinued by its host.
Many from that site were already here, and others like myself, eventually found both a new home here, and old many friends. Others might have more specific details to offer. In the meantime, Welcome Home!
RR-Line's old "Snitz" software didn't age well; there were a lot of software break-ins and vandalism that kept RR-Line's owner busier than he liked. So he (AFAIK) paid someone to port the data to a newer platform. The result put a heavy load on RR-Line's host machine and the owner was paying a lot for a commercial internet connection. But it was OK till all the AI greedheads started crawling through two decades of content and pictures over and over. That bogged the system badly. The owner responded by allowing only logged-in users to view content. But that only partly solved his problem: the new RR-Line was still rather slow, and the commercial internet link was still expensive. Some RR-Line users offered to buy the data from him but when he had an opportunity to end the commercial link contract early, he broke off the discussion and took RR-Line down.
I worked with the underlying database (MySQL) for years; I believe the port from Snitz wasn't well done. Had we been able to rework the database schema for better efficiency, I think it would have worked well on a virtual machine rented from a cloud provider.
Lots of memories lost; Some who've passed I'd met in person, others I just admired their work on the screen. I got most of my own data off before the shutdown, but I've since found I missed a few threads.
James' summary is concise and accurate. I can't fault the guy who was donating a lot of time and money to keeping Railroad-Line running. It is unfortunate, though, that he decided he wouldn't sell the data to others to re-establish the site under alternative ownership. A couple of us worked hard to put together an alternative approach.
dave
RR-L was home to many, some have "teleported" here and others decided that it was time to take a different direction.
So much modeling gone to wherever it goes to die!!!
It was sad to see all those threads and knowledge disappear!! :( :-X
Jerry
We also lost a few friends who just stopped posting anywhere. RRL had some the very best of modelers who shared their work and techniques
TomO
Thanks folks for taking the time to bringing me upto speed, it's really a shame to loose so many memories with great builds and modellers and I don't know about you but my memory isn't the best but I always knew where I subscribed to and saved certain builds, oh well life goes on.
It was a sad day when the RRL closed its doors and yes there were some extraordinary modelers some of which chose not to come over here. One in particular comes to mind and I'm thankful I had the forethought and downloaded about 150 photos from his build thread that I still reference from time to time for inspiration. I am however very grateful for the warm welcome here and familiar friends who chose to come over so we call all share our modeling adventures.
I come in there often , while not daily, just to see what folks are up to. Most of my memories are from some of that time. There are so many memories... like the first craftsman shows featuring many of the folks and their work. There a few of us long-timers around. Rick would be one. One of the first folks, who welcomed me in when I arrived, Mike Chambers, was the guy who managed to keep all of us cats in line and the kept the characteristic quality of the place. I could go on about it but it would probably boor you. ;-D
I was a long-time member of the RR-L. I was also a member of the "Free Rails" forum. We almost saved that forum. John Garaty (sp?) from Australia along with me and a couple of others tried to save the forum from the same fate. Unfortunately, it never came about and then John passed away earlier this year IIRC. Loved the diversity of subjects on both forums.
Bernd