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New Section
- Thread starter SomeGuy
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@Jwest7788 @Alexander
My thought is perhaps to rename the CNC section to "General" and put a new area in there called "Tools and Garage"
My thought is perhaps to rename the CNC section to "General" and put a new area in there called "Tools and Garage"
Speaking as a guy who created and managed forums before, I'd suggest leaving CNC alone. It's a full fledged area that warrants subsections for various aspects of CNC.
But I like the idea of a new General Category with a sub category called Tools & Shop. But not garage. A garage or basement or even a shed can be a shop but not all shops are garages.
Might be an opportunity to reorganize a few other sub categories too.
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deleted_user
Super User
ahem.. are you forgetting something else? 
ahem.. are you forgetting something else?
Driveway? Kitchen? Bedroom? Family Room? Next Door? Brother's Place?
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SomeGuy
Hobbyist
Sure, Shop & Tools sounds good. Heck, just put it next to the Off Topic forum in "Not Metal Related", fits fine there. Just opens up some other discussion we can have around shop infrastructure or tools or other things that are part of our hobby.
I agree CNC should stay as is.
deleted_user
Super User
ah, no.Driveway? Kitchen? Bedroom? Family Room? Next Door? Brother's Place?
I was thinking directory database, and renovation of the sourcing metals section to include sourcing of other common metal working items and services such as lathe bed grinding, hobbyist friendly water jet cutting etc
IMO there would be greater demand for this than adding more off topic sections with their own specific titles.. no offense intended to @SomeGuy
SomeGuy
Hobbyist
I'm so offended looool
The sourcing metals section is a little odd, I'd agree with that.
Wish I could use my bedroom for metalworking. At least it’s where a lot of the planning is done. Not just metalworking planning, any sort of conniving.Driveway? Kitchen? Bedroom? Family Room? Next Door? Brother's Place?
The sourcing metals thread seems strange because this forum started out targeting Calgary hobbyists, and the thread shared sources for metal in and around Calgary.
The forum title when I joined was "Calgary & Canadian Hobby Metal Workers & Machinists". The "& Canadian" was probably an added change as well, but that was before my time.
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I see. Ya, those are excellent ideas. But I don't think they are anywhere near as easy to do as adding a new thread section. Ask me how I know!
Much as I'd like to see new databases and resources for the forum I'm not gunna push for them as much as I might for a comparatively simple new thread section!
That said, I do hope bigger ideas like that can happen someday, so here is plus one for the concept.
@Janger - In terms of actually implimenting ideas like the ones @TorontoBuilder suggests, it might be easier to do with some other forum software than what we use. But porting to a new forum system is a nightmare of its own (prolly losing most of the posting history) and I wouldn't vote for that.
In my mind, it might be easier to do it with a website of our own (we already have the domain and presumably we have a hosting package that supports our forum software). If so, someone would have to be the webmaster to create and maintain the databases. Heads up - That will not be me!
All that said, this is a great opportunity to say that I REALLY appreciate those who created, manage, and maintain this forum for us VERY VERY MUCH. I'm sure I speak for every one in that regard. But it's discussions like this one that give me the opportunity to express my appreciation because I can express it from the point of view of someone who knows more than a thing or two about what is involved.
OK, I'll shut up.
Since you guys are discussing options, how about a gunsmithing section? Many members here do some of it to some degree and the machining end of things is really interesting. I would like to be able to ask freely some questions but have hesitated because I noted that it has not been introduced, so assumed it was a no go area. I know there are other sights (see what I did there? ), but this one is just so darn friendly. I might ask my stupid questions here whereas I might not on some other sites.
But at the end of the day, the admins need to feel comfortable with the topics.
), but this one is just so darn friendly. I might ask my stupid questions here whereas I might not on some other sites.But at the end of the day, the admins need to feel comfortable with the topics.
deleted_user
Super User
well the thread could have more subsections added in the near term for different types of services and suppliers so we can start adding and consolidating info
SomeGuy
Hobbyist
XenForo is pretty much what every major forum is using these days. I'd be shocked if it doesn't have the ability to rename/shuffle/move entire sections around. I haven't done forum admin since the vBulletin days though, so maybe XenForo isn't as fully featured.
(My day job is software development)
boilerhouse
Ultra Member
I was going to hold off on this until a decision was made on the other couple category suggestions but I think i will now chime in.
I belonged to a smallish forum (sort of like this one in size) with a couple thousand members, and maybe a couple hundred active members We typically had about 100 new posts per day. Intially the forum had 7 fairly general categories that seemed to work really well. New admin's opened the site for suggestions and seems everyone was quick to suggest an additional section or area for discussion. Soon we had almost 50 sub categories, some were bizarrely specific. For example we had a plumbing section, and incredibly, an advanced plumbing section - whatever the hell that is! I was the only one opposed to topic expansion. It was like the clubhouse moved to an apartment building, with tiny groups gathered in their own rooms. New queries began to elicit few responses. New members stopped joining because the place seemed dead. Old members drifted away for the same reason. The admin's blamed facebook groups for poaching members, but that was BS - IMO. The forum is still considered live, but is now like a ghost town. The most recent post to it was almost two months ago. I will agree that a forum like Practical Machinist has some 30 different categories, but according to one of the moderators, that forum receives a million unique views per day. Anyway, my two bits, as a cautionary tale.
I belonged to a smallish forum (sort of like this one in size) with a couple thousand members, and maybe a couple hundred active members We typically had about 100 new posts per day. Intially the forum had 7 fairly general categories that seemed to work really well. New admin's opened the site for suggestions and seems everyone was quick to suggest an additional section or area for discussion. Soon we had almost 50 sub categories, some were bizarrely specific. For example we had a plumbing section, and incredibly, an advanced plumbing section - whatever the hell that is! I was the only one opposed to topic expansion. It was like the clubhouse moved to an apartment building, with tiny groups gathered in their own rooms. New queries began to elicit few responses. New members stopped joining because the place seemed dead. Old members drifted away for the same reason. The admin's blamed facebook groups for poaching members, but that was BS - IMO. The forum is still considered live, but is now like a ghost town. The most recent post to it was almost two months ago. I will agree that a forum like Practical Machinist has some 30 different categories, but according to one of the moderators, that forum receives a million unique views per day. Anyway, my two bits, as a cautionary tale.
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