The main issues seem to be, 1) before ME and MEW were split, there were many articles for beginners. Now they are in MEW, but that has a more limited circulation and the articles have limied appeal for many people. Would it be best to combine them again? 2) The metric / imperial question. Whilst the UK is supposed to be metric, and most of the world is, ME sticks to the old measurements, threads etc. Great for us , well, for me anyway, but does this make it hard for the youngsters. And even for the non-UK readers? 3). What about the younger generation.. ME still has many (mostly) articles about steam trains and engines, and yet it is only the oldest of us who can remember seeing them in service. The youngsters have other interests, (tanks, cars, robotics etc,) and steam is to them old fashioned. Even their fathers have little or no knowledge about them apart from seeing some at rallies etc. Should ME have some articles that appeal to the younger generation? Looking back at old ME's, they used to have a wide variety of topics. Electrics , electronics and radio: motorcycles, cars, domestic appliances, and many others, all either "cutting edge" or to provide items and infromation on them, that were not easily available to the ordinary person. Is it now just repeating the old stuff and not looking forward? Alan Stepney http://www.alanstepney.info Model Engineering & steam engine information pages MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.