Sponsor links were only part of the mission of the board. ‘Honest reviews and picture builds sustain the board sponsors while historical articles (now in archive ) and criticism either pro or con required a fine balancing act of webmaster/moderator judgement of sponsor goals, the expansion of the hobby and survival of the board.
Lot of daily work.
Was not that way years back for the following reasons : 1. We were younger in age so balancing many activities way easier. 2 . Fewer board sponsors and hobbyists to contend with.
Since Steve has not followed up upon Felix’s departure announcement questions fly. Will Steve maintain the board in its entirety, evolve it into another SMML, recruit new blood to take over and move forward.
If there is a web fee expiration we may find out then unfortunately.
What next for Steelnavy?
I for one come here everyday since 1996-97. With the demise of SMML and before Modelwarship this was and is the place to come for help and knowledge. Many of historical debates have taken place here that shaped our thinking and the hobby overall. In the old days we were orphans building box scale models with molded on 20mm guns. Now we have ship models being produced in 3D print and offered in 1/200 scale in detail we only used to dream about . Today a reality thanks to this board. We are no longer orphans or the neglected who had to rummage through model kit boxes to find the one or two ship model kits a hobby store would carry.
We have had great hobby shapers post and even an active admiral one time . This board was always free to post your thoughts and questions . Call it the Twitter or X of the hobby . Would be sad to see all the effort and history from this board disappear into the night.
Felix/ Steve there are no words or string of words that would be strong enough in the English language to convey our gratitude to you both for your efforts to maintain the board these many years . We forget the people who brought us our hobby and to its new heights and for that we must be forgiven .
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