I think it's appropriate that both the on-topic and the introspective off-topic discussion are on the same thread.
First of all, on-topic, my copy of FRMR arrived within 24 hours or ordering, and although I've only skim-read it so far, I think it fills a gap in the market and is complimentary to it's predecessor, rather than in competition with it . Like MRJ it's both inspirational and aspirational, but shows that you don't need a workshop full of machine tools to achieve stunning results; cereal packets and fag ash will do - which really brings MRJ and Bob Barlow full circle with scenery and structures on the ESLR joint venture with Ricey back in the early 80s.
OT, I'm both surprised and, I suppose, not surprised that tin hats are on; soldering irons at dawn and all that. Unfortunately there's often a kind of friction between engineering and impressionistic sides of the hobby, but here on WT there's a perfect cauldron where both paths meet and I don't get why it causes so much angst when instead it could be used to advantage by inspiring each other.
Of course we can all be a bit partisan at times which can lead to some good-humoured ribbing; blue vs green, steam vs D&E, GWR vs LNER, S132 vs GIMRA, 0F vs S7...but how did we get from there to the cries of elitism (or inverse elitism)?
Yes my own modelling is in S7 (though the chance to build some would be a fine thing), but most of the stuff I post on here, apart from the SBB, are 0F commissions, and besides which, my own S7 exploits are definitely on the arty impressionistic side of things. I'm not an engineer by a very long shot, and there are many disgustingly talented 0F modellers whose engineering eclipses my efforts by the order of several magnitudes.
Surely modelling is modelling is modelling, whether it's N, 2mm, TT, 3mm, 00, EM, P4/S4, S, 0F, S7, 10mm, 1/32, S132, G3 and everything in between. As long as we enjoy what we do, and, hopefully, with posts and photos, others take enjoyment from seeing what we do, that's all there is to it?
Who cares about the semantics of a mm difference in track gauge? If the challenge of prototypical rail/wheel standards takes your fancy then go for it, if it doesn't then don't - just don't get your knickers in a twist either way for those who do or those who don't.
For me WT is like the digital version of FRMR and MRJ all rolled into one; there's the high-end, mad as a box of frogs machine tool stuff in all scales with creation Peter Carl Fabergé would have drooled over, and then there's the 'here's wot I dun with a cereal packet, some plastikard and a slap of paint' which exudes all the atmosphere of a Cuneo, all existing side by side, with most of us somewhere on the spectrum between the two. Why denigrate one when we can appreciate all?
What has WT done for me? It's made me appreciate and become slightly nostalgic for the corporate blue era I grew up with and hated with a vengeance at the time, and Phill's garden railway has played a big part in that unravelling.
Internet forums are not a constant, and won't stand still. Unless you start off and continue with a closed group there's always going to be change (and even in a closed group it's not guaranteed) - it's the nature of the beast. WT has changed, just as RMW changed before it, and WT will continue to change.
Final thought; weren't the thread labels introduced because although Cynric provided us with a lovely forum with all these partitioned sections, it became a bit of a free-for-all with threads started in all manner of inappropriate places, so they simply bring a little bit of sanity to the mêlée?