Modeler Site 10th anniversary!

[ModelerSite]

Ten years of uninterrupted work, Yes!! This April we’re celebrating our 10th anniversary staying online publishing month after month good modeling articles.
This may not seem very significant, if you think about the concept of putting a web site online and, as webmaster, sitting patiently waiting for visitors to arrive and fill the pages with their contributions. It doesn’t seem so difficult, does it?. But… this is not the way Modelersite work.

Month after month during 10 years, we’ve been looking for articles from talented modelers, or we ourselves have written them. We’ve also corrected them if necessary, translated from English to Spanish and vice versa, built the pages for the Internet publication with full dedication arranging the images to the text. We’ve worked on the graphic art, administrating the web site, trying to overcome all technical hurdles we had…a hard work…lots of daily hours!

This is what’s visible, but there’s a background work, answering the readers emails asking for help, making consults looking forward to getting information about some article or just needing pictures or manuals of a kit; we’ve always done our best to satisfy modelers needs though this didn’t go with statistics we could show to our current or potential sponsors.

When I sat down in front of my keyboard to write this editorial, and after typing the first sentence, I made a pause and started to remember the ten years effort, of perseverance, knowing people all over the world, of receiving and giving help, of having a great group of contributors that joined Modelersite so that we could last longer online, I read some old editorials……and actually I felt deeply moved.

I wonder if it would have been easier to build a different type of website, let’s say not following the idea of an online magazine and the answer was: Yes, it would have been easier, of course.

I started using Internet back in 1994 due to my job and it was then, when I placed my first online order, it was a Tamiya Caterham. In 1995 I knew HobbyLink Japan and discovered the potential of purchasing kits from the Internet. Thus, I had access to discontinued or singular kits which I could not get locally or by advertisements published in paper magazines. In 1998, I entered eBay becoming and active member in different forums.
It would have felt more relaxed and it would have been more profitable if I had created a web site to sell kits, showing my models as main attraction, it would have meant much less effort receiving a higher economic reward and probably less criticism. But my dream was to see an online magazine working!

For the reader who has arrived here with the story, I leave several links of old editorials since it’s not worth repeating again what was said, but taking a new look, I realized that they really capture all our history.

http://www.modelersite.com/Abr2002/E.../Editorial.htm
http://www.modelersite.com/Abr2003/e.../Editorial.htm
http://www.modelersite.com/Abr2004/E.../Editorial.htm
http://www.modelersite.com/Abr2005/E.../Editorial.htm
http://www.modelersite.com/Abr2007/E.../Editorial.htm
http://www.modelersite.com/Abr2009/E.../Editorial.htm

The support offered by our friend, Mr. Scott. T. Hards, HLJ President, meant a change of thinking about the Internet. Though long conversations have been held with Scott, I am surprised every day at his wide view on modeling. I remember very clearly that one of his first requests as a sponsor was not focused on "more advertising for our products." Instead, he clearly stated that Modeler Site should have "high quality articles, step by step developments, sci-fi characters…"

It was certainly astonishing to find out that the president of a sales company would want better articles for modelers instead of more advertising. So, it shouldn’t be surprising at all to have HobbyLink Japan as the first "big one" to support a project like Modeler Site. At this stage the words of one of my teenage teachers come to my mind. He used to say "a leader always has merits for taking such a lead and it is only necessary to analyze his decisions to realize the fact". Thus, we have good reasons to believe why HLJ is a leader in the activity.

It's my hope in this tenth anniversary that we've done our bit on the Internet modeling world. I feel we did, and if we succeeded in giving happiness just to one reader, everything was worth it.
I also hope that modelers go on helping and contributing with us, make more friends and God gives us wisdom to correct the mistakes we've made, and do things better over the next ten years.

I can't finish this editorial without sending all our gratefulness to Mr. Scott. T. Hards HobbyLink Japan President, and all their staff for their invaluable support and advice. It's also time to be grateful to all those readers, contributors who have enriched us with their contribution along all this time. Thank you with all my heart!!.