discussion How to do this and that....Any thoughts?

[flyjoe180]

I think this is a great forum, full of useful information which has helped me with my endeavours to get back into modelling. Members here are willing to help and answer questions, and also to offer information without being asked. Personally I find the sections logical. If I want to find something that I cannot locate under the section I thought it may be under, I make use of the search function at the top right, which usually leads me to what I need and eliminates the need to ask the question again. But there are a few really great threads which may be useful as stickies, such as the 'Back to Basics' thread, which is already a sticky http://www.scale-models.co.uk/tutorials/2298-back-basics.html. The basic information needs to be easy to find as most who seek its help will be new to the forum.

 

[John]

Ian and myself have been talking about this, it's felt it should be laid out like this

A forum called "How to..?" then in that forum individual posts from users, these posts should be formatted in a tutorial type post, preferably all info in the first post, it's encouraged that people don't reply to these posts but you can use the thanks button, but if for example the title is How to make a door and someone else apart from the original poster has another way to make a door then they can post in the same thread, that was all posts about how to make a door are in the same place.

 

[John]

Any thoughts?

 

[Ian M]

Gone a bit quiet in here....

You got my vote John.

Ian M

 

[Guest]

Yes I have thought about this a lot Ian & John. I was just worried about being a pesimist which is not normally my trade. Cannot even spell it.

Problem that I see is if a question is posed then there will be a variety of answers & more questions will flow from that and the article builds up.

It does mean that somebody has to edit this down to put into a how to do it section. It will not be any good just taking the answers as the questions are needed to make sense in most cases. In other words each article is a story in itself.

Who will do that ? If not done properly then then you are better looking at the original article. Also say you have 500 how do you do this. Are members going to wade through that without a search or it being sectioned.

If it is where a lot of us have an idea we wish to share then this is already catered for.

Perhaps for instance paints. Instead of all articles lumped under paints subsections under paints. Type of paints. Preparation. Fillers. Masking. Masking windows. Varnish, even Klear (wow what a section). There are a number of other Headings which could be sectioned which makes it easier for looking back at. Good number of times I have read an article & later wished to remind myself but could not find the article.

Just some thoughts as I think it more difficult than first meets the eye. One thing, which I have mentioned but worries me, is not to stop themes which have gone before being brought up again as new ideas often surface.

Laurie

 

[Guest]

I think it's a good idea & one that would help everyone.

I don't think we need lots & lots of subsections. Each thread will be it's own subsection & if people are too lazy to search or scroll through a few pages, that's their hard cheese!

To prevent the threads from clogging up, a simple message at the top should suffice. Something like " This thread is for reference only, can users please refrain from posting comments here" Then any questions can be answered either by PM or in a new general thread. Forum members are smart enough to do this & any comments that slip through in the early stages could be removed by the moderators?

Quite simple IMHO

Cheers

Patrick

 

[spanner570]

To all,

As it was me that started this thread and having since read it through, I have come to the conclusion that I made an elementary error in the title.......

It should have read "How to make this and that"......that one word ommission 'Make' puts a totally different light on the whole thing and as consequence I have really balls up the whole discussion and I apologies for doing so.....

I never wanted the thread to be an open house for loads of 'How to's'. My idea for the thread stems from being flatteringly asked how I made certain things for my dioramas and it occured to me that I had seen loads of one off things from other modellers, but could not remember for the life of me which thread.

Hence my suggestion for a sticky.

I'm truly sorry if this post might cause annoyance in certain quarters, but I've been watching in growing alarm as the discussion has gone way beyond what I invisaged......It's completely my fault for not wording the title correctly in the first place.

Ron

 

[Guest]

I don't understand what you mean Ron. You're idea is perfectly valid & I for one got the gist that it's about making stuff, and not other things such as painting or filling which would be, quite rightly, covered in other parts of the forum.

Perhaps the only difference to what you envisaged is that it would work more effectively as a separate section, rather than a thread like 'back to basics'.

I hope this happens, there's so much we can put in it!

Cheers

Patrick

 

[spanner570]

Patrick, it was when references to painting and filling came into the discussion that I realised something was amiss.

So I just presumed that my opening post had been misinterpreted due to a possible error in my wording......

John, your idea is spot on and thanks for taking the time to consider my suggestion.

Ron

 

[Guest]

Ron, i think your thread question (even if it was misinterpreted initially) has sparked a good debate and got some good ideas from members regarding the forum now and possibly the future .

As i said in my last post, logically there's really only two ways to do this sort of thing ... "questions and answers" - or - "database"...

Both easy to set up by initiating a forum or subforum, the reply function could even be switched off for this particular (sub)forum if it gets too messy with replies, thus all threads would be a single post only (make it bit of a pain to go through endless single post threads to search for specifics in this case though)

Seems we have a database to form then eh

 

[Guest]

Apologies to you Ron as I think I was partially responsible for going off at a tangent.

Never the less as Colin as mentioned there is some good things to consider in the responses.

Also got to give thanks to John & Ian for their interest in considering & altering the forum to accommodate our wants.

Laurie

 

[spanner570]

No apologies neccessary from anyone, Laurie. Such a thing never entered my mind......

It was a good, friendly discussion, and yes, plenty to chew over as a result.

I have already thanked John in an earlier post, but I'll do it again......Thanks John for considering my suggestion.

Also, a mention for Tony (yakface) one of our Super moderators who quietly monitor the general goings on here, for his contribution too.

Ron

 

[Ian M]

Your welcome.

 

[Ian M]

The How Too... forum is now posted, it is in the modelling section.

Hope you all use it for that which it is intended

Ian M