View Poll Results: Do you want to see Metalwork Forums moved from Woodwork Forums to it's own web site.

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  • YES

    61 50.00%
  • NO

    43 35.25%
  • DON'T CARE

    18 14.75%
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  1. #1
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    Default ANNOUNCEMENT/POLL - metalworkforums.com

    I have registered metalworkforums.com and .com.au (not on line yet) with the view to moving the metalwork forums to their very own site the way Renovate forums was moved some 8 years ago.

    Below are a few bits of useful/useless info:

    • All current forums would be moved to the new site along with all threads and posts.
    • This will give Metalwork the opportunity to expand beyond what it is now.
    • Possibility of adding new forums as may be needed to grow and expand the site.
    • Your own marketplace site for Buy, Sell, Swap, etc
    • The new site would basically be exactly the same as it is now just not a part of Woodwork Forums.
    • All current members of woodwork forums will have the same access to the new site as they now have to Woodwork Forums and once logged in to both sites should be able to move seamlessly between the two.
    • All new members to the Metalwork Forums will be members of that site only unless they register for both.


    That's about all I can think of for now. Any and all suggestions or comments can be put in this thread.

    Please take part in the Poll so I can see what the general feeling of doing this is like.

    Cheers - Neil
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  3. #2
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    All of the points above mentioned seemed great. It sounds like a good idea. Are there any negatives in doing so?

    Something that came to mind was that with the increased local and international exposure - if that's the term - would result in more members which is good in terms of us learning more things from more people. The negative side of that being the level of spamming may increase. I am making the assumption that a stand alone "metal work forum" will be easier to find on a Google search or similar.

    At the moment when comparing our metalwork forum with similar metalwork forums around the net our looks pretty darn good.

    As far as suggestions, how about a sticky guiding those posters who need to ask a question. Questions will be far better answered if the poster can include all of the pertinent details about the process or technique they are having problems with.
    Otherwise people answering the question need to drag each bit of information from the OP which is time consuming.A poster will receive quicker and better answers if all possible pertinent details are posted first up up.

    People are more inclined to reply with an answer if they know they don't have to post again and again to get needed details to provide a viable answer.

    A suitable sticky could be placed on the heading of each forum guiding those with a question - say for instance on welding - to list the welder brand, the model, the electrode ,the polarity used, the electrode type and size, the metal type ,the position etc.


    cheers
    Grahame

  4. #3
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    All of the points above mentioned seemed great. It sounds like a good idea. Are there any negatives in doing so?
    The only negatives, if you can call them that are:
    • The cost of setting it up
    • Having to log into WWF and Metalwork Forums if you want to use both.
    • There may be more but I can't really think of any off hand.


    Something that came to mind was that with the increased local and international exposure - if that's the term - would result in more members which is good in terms of us learning more things from more people.
    That's pretty much what I'm looking for and it should be of benefit to all.

    The negative side of that being the level of spamming may increase.
    Spamming shouldn't increase as it's pretty hard for spammers to actually register now. The vigilance of members reporting spam should make it really easy to jump on most spammers pretty quickly if they do happen to get in.


    I am making the assumption that a stand alone "metal work forum" will be easier to find on a Google search or similar.
    Should help with search engines of all kinds. It's a little harder to find on Woodwork Forums especially if using a mobile device and although it's pretty well represented in Google it should rank much higher as a stand alone forum on it's own website.

    At the moment when comparing our metalwork forum with similar metalwork forums around the net our looks pretty darn good.
    In all honesty I have never looked at other metalwork forums but it doesn't surprise me that we look pretty good when compared with others as this is what we have strived for on the entire site. As a woodworking forum we rank extremely high against most others. I often hear from international members of ours and other forums that "WWF and it's members are the best they have ever come across."



    As far as suggestions, how about a sticky guiding those posters who need to ask a question. Questions will be far better answered if the poster can include all of the pertinent details about the process or technique they are having problems with.
    Otherwise people answering the question need to drag each bit of information from the OP which is time consuming.A poster will receive quicker and better answers if all possible pertinent details are posted first up up.

    People are more inclined to reply with an answer if they know they don't have to post again and again to get needed details to provide a viable answer.

    A suitable sticky could be placed on the heading of each forum guiding those with a question - say for instance on welding - to list the welder brand, the model, the electrode ,the polarity used, the electrode type and size, the metal type, the position etc.
    I understand what you say here. I have often had to try and drag information out of people via half a dozen questions, posts, emails, etc, before being able to respond with the best answer to a question.

    Having a stand alone forum should allow for scope to expand the forums way beyond what is possible to do on WWF and will give members the freedom to choose what they want the forums to contain. Renovate Forum was something like 12 individual forums when it was put onto its own site it now contains 53 public forums.

    In theory nothing but good can come from having it's own site. It may take a while to build up but in the end it could end up being a really great resource for metalworkers across all fields of metalwork, be they hobbyists, enthusiasts or professionals.

    Hope this answers a few questions.

    Cheers - Neil
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  5. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by ubeaut View Post
    The only negatives, if you can call them that are:
    • ...
    • There may be more but I can't really think of any off hand.

    Two that occur to me are
    • Because MWF is camouflaged within WWF, we don't seem to have attracted some of the types that you see on other forums - while recognising that some find it otherwise, this is, on the whole, a friendly forum and making it more prominent may attract a larger proportion of those who join these forums to argue and self promote, making it less attractive to those who joined to escape that. I remember one forum I was on where everyone breathed a sigh of relief when a particular member was banned for a period as it meant those of us that were not up to his standards could post without fear of having our efforts ridiculed in open forum.
    • I like the idea of the two being 'co-sited' as I do the occasional thing with wood and being able to find others within the general forum who specialise in things I am not up to speed on is nice. Having woodies drop in occasionally is nice too. One of the first favours I did for another forum member was for a woodie who wanted a MT to MT alignment piece.


    Would a page with an automatic link to redirect achieve the same thing? at least then we have everyone in the same place. (The first issue will come down to moderation and greater vigilance I'm afraid)
    Michael

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    Quote Originally Posted by ubeaut View Post

    That's pretty much what I'm looking for and it should be of benefit to all.


    I am not too sure on that one.. Becoming popular can bring it's own problems as we Aussies get crowded out and start to lose our core member as we just become the same as most other international metal working forums..

    At the moment I find this forum is a bit obscure and it is better that it is as we can discuss more local things and help out our fellow Aussies... If we were to try to get more publicity and become more popular and were successful in doing so then we would lose a lot of the comradary we have here...

    I would prefer things to stay as they are... I know this is not what you want to hear, but if I want to go international, then I go to one of the already very popular US based forums like HSM or PM..
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  7. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by .RC. View Post
    I am not too sure on that one.. Becoming popular can bring it's own problems as we Aussies get crowded out and start to lose our core member as we just become the same as most other international metal working forums..
    I'm inclined to agree with this but OTOH I can see some good coming out of it and the main one could be attracting more capable and novice Aussie metal workers to these forums. It is interesting to hear the reactions to prospective members to these forums. Of two very capable Aussie metal workers I recommended these forums to, one told me he took a quick look but could not find any metalwork so he gave up while the other said "too much wood mate". Being it's own site would help with issues like this.

    I agree the mods do a good job of keeping the lid on things and opening things up to attract more (potentially difficult) members will put a greater load on them.

    One of the losers are most likely to be the woody members who occasionally stumble across useful metal related posts but might not be prepared to go visit the metal working site. Also the occasional woody does ask metal related questions but new members may not realise they can do this. My impression that it's less likely the other other way around. Good cross linkages will help.

    From a personal point of view I would just keep two browser windows open showing the New Posts from each forum for easy scanning. I usually have around 8 browser windows running anyway so one more is not going to make a lot of difference.

    So on balance I would say yes.

  8. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobL View Post
    One of the losers are most likely to be the woody members who occasionally stumble across useful metal related posts but might not be prepared to go visit the metal working site. Also the occasional woody does ask metal related questions but new members may not realise they can do this. My impression that it's less likely the other other way around. Good cross linkages will help.
    I would fit into that category. My usual routine is to check New Posts at various times during the day, and have a look at, or respond to whatever appeals to me. There have been a number of times when I have started a thread in MW to get some info - that's not so much a big deal, but I'd be disinclined to check New Posts on two forums.
    Regards, FenceFurniture

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    One marvellous thing that this Forum does (as it stands now) is that a question usually gets answered within a couple of hours, and mostly less, because it seems that there are people on, in real time. I am a member of the American Practical Machinist Forum but I hardly go into it due to the fact that a question can be unaddressed for days(and longer) and that a lot of the posts are from professional blokes needing help to produce parts where the talk is too technical for my "woody brain".
    I am always interested in the chatter on the Metalwork SubForum nearly as much as the woody side of things. I shouldn't stand in the way of progress so if we have to open another browser....then so be it.
    As RC has said there is a lot of commerardery and mate ship within the Forum and that should flow on to the "stand alone" Metalwork Forum
    Can I also say here too that my life would be for the poorer if I didn't go Foruming everyday.
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  10. #9
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    This is only my personal opinion/perspective ...
    I now very rarely (never) go to the Renovate forums anymore ... this has been a progressive thing over time since they split, as I think I just ultimately couldn't be bothered and don't have the time to check/follow multiple sites. I reckon the same will eventually happen if the metal forums are split, however as my current focus is probably more metalwork focused, I reckon I will come here less and less.
    Cheers.

    Vernon.
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  11. #10
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    I tend to agree with a lot of the posts above. I think we will loose the "community" feel we have on the forum if it becomes to international and the member base grows greatly that way. However I am not sure this would happen. We have a few great international forumites already and I don't see why the metal work forum would get flooded with newbies when the woodwork forum hasn't had that happen it self?

    For me I usually log in and go to new posts and flip through metal & wood equally to what posts I am either interested in or have something I can add. If this ability was maintained I don't see an issue with splitting the sites.

    I do think the metalwork section could be given a facelift/ i.e it's own color scheme and be expanded in subforums, marketplace etc. without an issue.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vernonv View Post
    This is only my personal opinion/perspective ...
    I now very rarely (never) go to the Renovate forums anymore ... this has been a progressive thing over time since they split, as I think I just ultimately couldn't be bothered and don't have the time to check/follow multiple sites. I reckon the same will eventually happen if the metal forums are split, however as my current focus is probably more metalwork focused, I reckon I will come here less and less.
    +1 Although I am not sure which one would disappear first, the woodworking or the metalworking, perhaps both
    Neil
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  13. #12
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    I guess one benefit of two separate forums is two PM inboxes = more space!
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  14. #13
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    Good to finally get some input.

    In response to a couple or few things:

    Quote Originally Posted by BobL
    One of the losers are most likely to be the woody members who occasionally stumble across useful metal related posts but might not be prepared to go visit the metal working site. Also the occasional woody does ask metal related questions but new members may not realise they can do this. My impression that it's less likely the other other way around. Good cross linkages will help.

    • Metalwork will have it's own site, open to all.
    • The old Metalwork Forums on WWF will be closed for posting but still on WWF as the Reno forum was/is.
    • All new posts on the new site will immediately show in the WWF Metalwork sections as RSS feed.
    • RSS feed should show in the Active Stream and New posts on both WWF and on the new site. As they would if posted on WWF.
    • RSS feeds will contain a link, eg: (Read and reply to the full thread at MetalworkForums.com....) which will instantly take you directly to that post.


    Quote Originally Posted by Vernonv
    I now very rarely (never) go to the Renovate forums anymore ...
    Me neither matter of fact I hardly ever went there before they split off from WWF..

    Quote Originally Posted by Vernonv
    this has been a progressive thing over time since they split, as I think I just ultimately couldn't be bothered and don't have the time to check/follow multiple sites.
    Nothing wrong with that if your interests lie elsewhere you look elsewhere. I went to Reno if I was looking for something in particular and because as Administrator I had to go there from time to time. I am exactly the same with Metalwork Forums. Funny thing is, right as I am typing this there are 179 people in the 8 forums of Reno section on WWF which has been closed for ever and no longer gets the RSS feeds.

    Quote Originally Posted by Vernonv
    I reckon the same will eventually happen if the metal forums are split, however as my current focus is probably more metalwork focused, I reckon I will come here less and less.

    • I'm sure that may happen and that's a gamble that we take when doing something like this.
    • I'm also sure that many in the Metalwork Forum don't go outside of the Metalwork Forum now and I reckon there are some that don't even know there is a woodwork section attached to their Metalwork Forum, even thought the header says "WOODWORK FORUMS".
    • People are more likely to look for metalwork info in a Metalwork Forum rather than on a woodworking site and probably give it more credence.
    • If you have an interest in something woodwork related you will probably come back to WWF for help, etc. For metalwork (your current focus) you got to Metalwork Forums. Plenty of WWF members visit and participate in numerous forums across the world to find the information they want.


    Quote Originally Posted by .RC.
    Becoming popular can bring it's own problems as we Aussies get crowded out and start to lose our core member as we just become the same as most other international metal working forums..
    I doubt that will be too much of a problem, Metalwork Forum is already international. As is WWF and there has been no squeezing out in either. I doubt an Aussie Forum will ever be the same as any other international forums. We are different and that's why WWF is so popular with woodies from everywhere.

    Quote Originally Posted by .RC.
    At the moment I find this forum is a bit obscure and it is better that it is as we can discuss more local things and help out our fellow Aussies... If we were to try to get more publicity and become more popular and were successful in doing so then we would lose a lot of the comradary we have here...
    There is absolutely no reason why anything should change unless the members want it to. If anything it should get to be a much better place with greater sense of comradery, and friendship because we are relatively free and easy compared to some forums.

    More if and when I get a chance.

    Cheers - Neil
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  15. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by ubeaut View Post
    Me neither matter of fact I hardly ever went there before they split off from WWF..
    Whereas I was in there quite a bit before the split.

    Quote Originally Posted by ubeaut View Post
    Nothing wrong with that if your interests lie elsewhere you look elsewhere.
    But I still am interested in reno's (and are still in the process of doing some), but I don't go to the reno forums because I don't have any questions to ask and as I have limited time to browse forums, I spend it in other forums, rather than the reno forum.
    It is possible that I could have some input into questions posted by other reno forumites, however because I don't go to the reno forum I don't see the questions, so the opportunity is lost. At the WWF I browse the new posts list, so see all sorts of woodwork, metalwork and previously reno posts, and read/respond to the ones that interest me ... it is (was) all in one convenient spot.
    Cheers.

    Vernon.
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  16. #15
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    I voted in favour of splitting as there now seems to be more metal working threads than wood working and I have to pick my way through them. I am not into metal working but very occasionally I might read a thread so it would not bother me if they stayed together.
    Tom

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