OT But What Happened to This Site ???

[Tom S]

Dude. Cool down. No one is persecuting you.

Doc has presented a logical argument of a change that he thinks could benefit this forum and the content on it. People who care are reading and posting opinions about it. Don't take the low road - if you want to present a counter-argument it's a lot more persuasive if you use logic besides 'it's my thread!' and 'learn to use a computer!'. Throwing mud just ends up with everyone getting dirty.

[Joel]

From the locked thread:

I'm not asking for the threads to be deleted, just locked. But I believe it should be locked and then stickied. It's still fully accessible, and can still be easily found and rooted through

This ^

Please Brian, don't take any of this personally.

[bborr01]

Dude. Cool down. No one is persecuting you.

Doc has presented a logical argument of a change that he thinks could benefit this forum and the content on it. People who care are reading and posting opinions about it. Don't take the low road - if you want to present a counter-argument it's a lot more persuasive if you use logic besides 'it's my thread!' and 'learn to use a computer!'. Throwing mud just ends up with everyone getting dirty.

Doc is saying that he searched for information on his antique equipment and the SMT thread didn't show up. Seriously? Should I just let a comment like that slide. Why would anyone think they are going to find posts about rebuilding antique machines in a thread about making tools. We've been over this subject before. I've learned a lot from what has been posted in the SMT thread and I'm sure that many others have too.

This isn't Doc's site.

[J Tiers]

In before the lock................

I agree with the lock and sticky idea. It's not like we want to bury it, just get more separate posts, each with a decent searchable title.

The thread was a cool idea long ago, but it has become a place where posts go to be forgotten. That is NOT the fault of the original poster, who had a good idea. It was just "too good" of an idea, and took off.

The basic problem is that it is not "about one subject", so it becomes hard to search. Or even to know there is something to search for.

I posted in it originally, and got sent a copy of the "book" that came from it back then. Now, I won't post there, and won't even look at it as a general rule.

Unfortunately, the Shop made tools is ONLY searchable when you search content.... and then you get 3.5 billion hits, most of which are NOT what you want, jut a random post that maybe copied a post that had your search term.

And, since the forum will not search for words of three or less letters, then HSS, gib, and many other common terms and abbreviations are totally unsearchable. So search is not great when you have to search "within posts".

[bborr01]

There are a few sub forums on this site other than general that I don't frequent but I'm sure not asking anyone to eliminate those sub forums just because I don't visit them. I'm not trying to be confrontational but after a few times around on this subject it gets a little old.

A solution begging for a problem.

[Doc Nickel]

I've said my piece. You're arguing purely from ego and obstinacy. Little would be gained from repeating either position.

Doc.

[SVS]

Doc is saying that he searched for information on his antique equipment and the SMT thread didn't show up.

That IS NOT what Doc said.

IMHO you are the one exhibiting “ownership” and completely missing a well reasoned argument.

Personally, when an old thread (jokes and stories for example) pops to the front page I will click on it. Stickied threads tend NOT to catch my eye.

[bborr01]

I understand the why but having a classifieds section would have really helped this place out over the years.

I think the classifieds is one of the things that makes PM so popular. I don't know how they are able to advertise and still have classifieds but they do it. Must be they call the shots instead of letting advertisers tell them how to run their sites.

[bborr01]

-The primary problem with Facebook is that such groups are unsearchable and unindexible. I can't count the number of times I've Googled some machining-related question, and the first dozen results are all from Practical Machinist- often going back a decade or more. Something that was posted to Facebook just a couple of weeks ago, is virtually unfindable, even by members of that group. And for anyone not on Facebook, that data basically doesn't exist.

Facebook is not there to index an correlate useful information- it exists to index and correlate you and the data you produce- what you look at, how long you look at it, who you interact with, how long you interact with them, etc. in order to better serve you ads and influence your opinions.

Putting all your data and content on Facebook- which helps no one but Facebook- is quite simply stupid.

Doc.

I think I'm starting to see the problem here. Some peoples pride won't allow them to actually ask a question. They're afraid that someone will think "wow, I thought everyone knew that". So they want to be a Tiffiepedia and google or search everything. I like to be able to search for things but am not afraid to ask a question. The only stupid question is the one that is never asked.

[SVS]

To my knowledge, PM had classifieds from the “beginning” and eventually added advertisements and sponsored forums in a reluctant way.

Site owner probably used machinery for sale/wanted as much as anyone. (Tactfully and in a non-shilling way IMO)

[bborr01]

-Er, why? I don't recall anyone expressing that there's a minimum quality level to posting.

Posting... well, pretty much anything related to home-shop machining is, point in fact, the very reason for a forum like this!

It's not a place where you can ONLY post and discuss full machine rebuilds or major projects like an entire from-scratch engine. It's clearly a place where you can post and discuss nearly anything home-shop related. Right at the moment, there's a thread on curing RTV, a discussion on a Honda throttle body, how to reverse a small single-phase motor and a question about speed-reading.

A board like this literally lives- and thrives- on content. That is, stuff that you and all the other regulars post. Sometimes it's one of Brian's amazing engines, sometimes it's somebody like the late, lamented Sir John showing us a freshly-welded-and-turned motor shaft, sometimes it's just somebody asking about using 5C collets.

What matters is that there's something to read every day. The more things to read there are, the more often people come back to check it.

But here, the bulk of new content gets buried in one of three impenetrably-long and unsearchable threads- those fellows have made a sort of sub-forum off the main forum. Except it's less organized, harder to read, can't be searched, and contains many "builds" that are spread out over dozens of unindexed pages.



-Oh, horse****. Sometimes the most interesting stuff is little things the author didn't himself think interesting. For example, a few weeks ago, I posted this video, which was largely just practice on both shooting and editing a video. But in it, I show using some 5C collets- one fellow who saw it had no idea that hex collets existed, and was very glad to know that, and another had no idea that three-blade cut-to-length collet-stop extrusion existed, and immediately ordered a handful.

There's no "deserve" here. We have no minimum level of quality required to post, and there's no panel of judges that rate such posts and delete those that don't qualify. Did it occur in a machine shop? Then it qualifies.



-SO?!? I have dozens of folders full of photos of finished products. I love pictures of useful shop fixtures, ways to store tools, clever uses of ordinary tools. After posting my first reply to this thread, I poked around in that "tools" thread- I have a slow connection, so I only looked at a random dozen or so pages, and every page had at least one tool worth it's own thread.

Brag away!



-No such thing. Yes, there's good projects, great ones and exceptional ones. There's also a few boring ones- so? I can't count the times I've posted- here, on PM or on my own board- some trivial thing, only to find someone greatly interested. Just because it's simple an uninteresting to you, doesn't mean it's simple and uninteresting to others.



-In my opinion, no. Those are more like 'blogs'- you're essentially reading about one guy's exploits, but with commentary. Some of those haveI indeed gotten absurdly long, though- what a poster on one of my webcomic boards does is start a new "blog thread" each year. It's the same thing, it's one person's doings, with other posters providing commentary. They tend to get up to between 40 and 50 pages, but are then closed and a new one started.

If you insist on having such a thing, that's the way it needs to be handled.

The other general threads, like the "Thread of Awesome", are just chit-chat. They're certainly huge and unwieldy, but they're also not the primary content of the site.

Doc.

I'm on an RV forum where they lock threads after one year of INACTIVITY and I can see that. But I can't see closing active threads.

[J Tiers]

OK.....

The real problem with the "Shop made tools" thread, is that the it should have been made a SUBFORUM. That should have been done as soon as it became obvious that it was going to be popular.

As a subforum it would be a lively place, and would fulfill all the requirements that ANYONE has so far put forth. It would be labeled, searchable by thread title, and findable, it would attract the new folks like NCF, who found it interesting enough to induce him to join. It would satisfy all of us who consider the existing SMtools thread to be a problem and not possible to find anything in.

As a subforum, it would attract viewers, members, new posts, etc. It would be an asset to the site.

BUT, IT WILL NEVER BE A SUBFORUM.

This forum is gonna die away, it is just destined to do so. The main reason for that is because VP hates it, and refuses to make the slightest change to it to allow it to evolve to fit the needs and wants of those who post here. I guess we should all get used to that idea, and begin to prepare for that day.

I will be looking for a different machining forum starting pretty soon. One that will be around longer and can evolve to adapt to new things.

[mikegt4]

I would like to be more active on this forum but for the last 6 months or so I can't log on. I fill in the info but nothing happens. I use to stay logged on but for some reason it stopped working. I have no problem on my phone but can barely see with such a small screen. Abviously the problem lies in my home computer but being digitally challenged I don't know how to fix it. Also the page numbers at the bottom of the page don't work but the ones at the top do.

[nickel-city-fab]

This isn't Doc's site.

It ain't yours either. Just sayin.

Personally *I* can find whatever I need just fine via google.
I use google to search thru HSM, and it gets what I need.

Example: in google search bar I type in "Whatever I'm looking for" site:https://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net
and google returns hundreds of pages full of "Whatever I'm looking for", from here. The key word is the "site" operator in the search string. USUALLY the in-house search function is crap, no matter which forum it is on, no matter what bbs software it is.

Now, I don't expect people using their phones to do that.

[Arcane]

It ain't yours either. Just sayin.

Personally *I* can find whatever I need just fine via google.
I use google to search thru HSM, and it gets what I need.

Example: in google search bar I type in "Whatever I'm looking for" site:https://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net
and google returns hundreds of pages full of "Whatever I'm looking for", from here. The key word is the "site" operator in the search string. USUALLY the in-house search function is crap, no matter which forum it is on, no matter what bbs software it is.

Now, I don't expect people using their phones to do that.

Instructions for doing that Google search should be a stickie.