1000 articles!
Today, iModeler hit a significant milestone - our 1000th headline article. For the record, the millennium entry was Neil Foster's Tamiya Meteor prototype 1/48. Neil discovered iModeler in February; three months later, he has a solid modeling blog featuring 20 articles, and counting. Congratulations and thank you Neil, we all hope to see more from you soon!
1000 articles. This number invites reflection, so let's put it into some perspective. Between the years 1996-2008 I had been the editor of IPMS Stockholm Magazine, one of the pioneering modeling sites of the web. For the time, our website was tremendously successful and we were mighty proud of it. The fruit of the twelve years of our monthly publishing efforts were the over 450 modeling articles that can still be googled today. The value that we achieved in these 12 years of tedious and time-consuming editorial work was repeated at iModeler in... a little more than three months. In another three, it was doubled.
1000 articles after six months of operation is more than we could have imagined. When starting something entirely new like iModeler, there's really no way of knowing how the response would be; you need to take the plunge and hope for the best. As our first goal, we were hoping to get 1-2 submissions every day. It was exceeded almost immediately after our official launch in November. In the second month of operation, our record single day brought 34 new articles. And, as they say, we never looked back.
1000 articles is a number that would make any major modeling website proud. Even Hyperscale that we all know and love publishes about 600 headline items per year. Yeah, one could argue that other sites provide some quality editorial content while iModeler relies solely on crowdsourcing; that other feature sponsored product news while we don't. I'm not worried: I think you'll agree that iModeler is already one of the most inspiring modeling sites to visit daily, maybe even several times a day. With this level of engagement, I'm confident that there's no limit to what kind of quality content the future may bring - whenever our members decide it's fun and interesting for them to share.
1000 articles were created during our first six months of community building. During that time, an average iModeler member has created 3 articles, uploaded 30 images and wrote 16 comments. Almost 10,000 images were uploaded to our library.
So what's next? 1000 articles is a tremendous knowledge base and we're planning to bring forward its full potential in the forthcoming updates: organizing the lot by subject, making it searchable and fun to explore in its entirety.
Thank you Neil. Thank you all! Way to go iModeler!
Read also: Editor's Story: How iModeler Came to Be
I'm not at all surprised by the response to your site, Martin. It's such a nice respite from having to rely on an off-site photo-loading service and thus cutting out the "middle man", allowing your members to police themselves when posting articles and/or photos without having to wait for "permission".
I find I'm spending more and more time at iModeler than any other modeling site. Keep up the good work and thank you.
Truth be told, since I have discovered imodeler, I hardly even look at Hyperscale anymore. Whats more, I have never posted anything on Hyperscale because I cannot figure how (yeah, I'm kind of a techno-dunce). Keep up the good work and keep imodeler going!
Martin,
I'm glad for you and everyone involved in the iModeler team. You guys should certainly be proud of what you have achieved in such short time. But I guess what makes you feel even better is knowing how popular and loved the site is by all its members. I've personally knew about it through a friend from the most popular Chilean modelling forum site (even though I've moved to Australia four an a half years ago, I still have the connection with all of my buddies from my country) and I was hooked right away. The fact that everyone can share their work and personal opinion in an easy, clean and nice interface makes the whole iModeler experience a thrill!...Plus in about two weeks after I signed up I was shocked and surprised by the news of winning the monthly contest of April! So what can I say, but to thank you and iModeller, for allowed me to show my work, been able to make such good friends, and share my beloved hobby.
Thank you mate!
jorge.
Martin... Congrats to you and the iModeler team. I have really enjoyed this site because it is so easy to use. I appreciate seeing the work of modelers from all over the world and learning from them as well. There is a lot of imagination and talent on display every day and it is very very inspiring. This site is one of the greatest promoters of our hobby.
I was hooked on this site from my first visit and now no longer use ARC at all ,I am also a techno-dunce and was put of trying to submit my stuff because it was so difficult to do, but this site is childs play ,also I enjoy the banter between users allowing little friendships to develop between like minded guys. So thanks to Martin and the team for all your hard work.
N.
Thanks for all the kind comments. Much appreciated.
Well done Martin. Here's to the next 1000! I love imodeler because of the great welcolm you get and the positive feedback from all the members. Very inspiring.
Martin,
Thanks for creating the site in the first place. To me a lot of us in the older generations of modelers can't grasp the techno-age, or in my case don't want to, so these ease of posting on your site will continue to attract us.
I get no sense of competion from my fellow posters & that is also a welcome respite to entering contests a model shows. The closes I get to that here in the States is when I attend an automotive NNL. These are show your models only shows where they primary functions are show your models & meet & visit with your peers.
Thanks again for your efforts & the fact that your seem to look at every post.