12 Replies

Thank you for sharing that. I’ve always thought it was kind of interesting to watch the membership grow. It doesn’t affect my enjoyment any more or less, but I find it kind of interesting. I rarely ever look at them, to be honest, because they are just kind of interesting and not very important. They do, of course, inform new visitors about what the site is for and what they may find within it. Once you know you can just ignore it.

One thing I would say is that the participants are a whole lot more civil to each other than LJ.
I do not mind dishing it out, but have yet to find an instant where I found the need.
I like this.

I think so far so good.
I would like to see more “this is how I did it” kind of projects so we can benefit more.
I am glad some people are answering question about their projects.

I am sure as the user base grow we will see some difference of opinion; hopefully civil.

This is like a refined, polite version of LJ’s, where we’re all here to share our mutual enjoyment of woodworking, not politics, religion, or the weather. Also nice not to open up the site every day to find 15 more “What ______ should I buy?” posts.

This is proving to be a very welcoming and woodworking focused site. Even though we are still small, we are respectful of and encouraging toward each other.

I think that it’s always nice to see how we are growing and reaching the milestones, however it’s not the most important part of this website.

As it was said above, welcoming and respectful people with passion for woodworking is the heart of this website!

I enjoy this site, I wish there was a little more posting going on, sometimes it feels like the posts stay around too long due to lack of movement on the other posts.. I just think we need to be more “chatty”.
Having said that, I do have some different opinions to some of the posts on this thread…..I do agree that this is a kinder gentler version of the other site, and maybe I took this thread wrong but I did not find the OP to be kinder and gentler, rather somewhat harsh and accusitory. Forgive me Maniario, but what is wrong with “What_____should I buy posts” even what do you think about this TS? Isn’t that what sites like this are for? We have many posters at varying levels of abilities with shops at different levels of completion. That question is very relavant to them. If someone posts a question about an advanced form of joinery…is that more more relavant to them than which TS should I buy to some one that knows very little about TS’s. I have seen many comments like that, not just on here, but other sites too. It is not too difficult to skip over those Posts to what you want to read. I do not mean to be condesending or inflaming, but I have thought this a long time……we all started at the beginning some time,
I think we should be considerate of “newer” people. I had an older neighbor that “mentored” me…..and believe me I needed some mentoring! I strongly advocate passing it forward.
This is just all ONLY my opinion, forgive me if I have offended you.
Mike

That’s not a problem. I’ll offer advice if asked. I asked a lot when I was setting up and was thankful for the help. What’s terrifying to me about the other site is seeing threads with 40,000 plus comments. I can’t imagine clicking on one of those.

I also build valve (tube) amps. The site I use most limits comments to 1000. After that the OP can restart a new thread with the same title, but even a thousand, I’d be reluctant to start down that road.

Mike, it’s not the fact that someone new asks for advice about a TS (or about anything for that matter), I’ve posted many topics on the “other” site where I’ve asked questions. We’re all beginners at some aspect of woodworking and can use the advice and help of others. However, most days when I log on to the “other” site, a large % of topics are “What ____should I buy/what _____ should I use” etc. Having been a member of the “other” site for going on 7 years, I’ve seen the same question about often the same tool answered many, many, many times. When I see someone post a “what _____ should I buy” question it is usually because they haven’t put any effort into researching what has already been answered, sometimes thousands of times already. Not always the case, but I think true for most of the time.

Manitario,
I guess it is all in how we view this site….is it a search site, for information only, or is it a site for discussion and making friends. Its hard to make friends with a search engine.
Wolf and rabbit,
I’m with you on the huge count thing…it is not for me, but someone must like it, the counts are going up all the time. If those posters like it then I can just skip over it. I just think I rather have one huge one to skip over than 30 1,000 ones. To each his own.
Mike

Fair point but valve amps are slightly esoteric. It was mostly designed for those “Handplanes of your dreams” threads that tend to get stupidly long.

If you wanted to know how to balance four KT88’s the threads rarely went past ten. It’s physics, innit? A forum needs a good catalogue. You need to list the things you want to read in a clear and clever way.

To be honest, this forum format, attractive as it is, is not good at differentiation. I never know what “forum” the comments I’m reading are in.

Do I care? Well not so much right now, but as the site grows…

everyone uses forums, social media sites, and the internet (as a whole) in their own way and the site has been set up, in my opinion, so that there are a variety of ways to access and share information.
As for numbers? Some people like to know — and so they are provided.