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Emiliano Achaval

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I wonder why this forum has such low % of AAW members participating. Should be one of the best and busiest forums. Definitely in my opinion is the one with more prestige, yet you post a picture and nobody even looks at it. Same picture on a Facebook woodturning group can get a 100 likes overnight, on instagram within a few hours also hundreds. What can we do to encourage more turners to participate? Maybe there are too many websites with forums, I know, I frequently troll about 4, plus 4 or 5 Facebook groups. I'm the administrator for one, we are about to reach 10.000 turners... The AAW has done a lot for me and our club, I like to keep supporting this forum, and would like to hear what can we do to bring more turners.
 

Emiliano Achaval

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The AAW Facebook page is a closed page, meaning nobody can post anything. Maybe we need to have a few administrators and open it up so people can post, discuss, exchange ideas etc... I wonder what is the reason behind the non participation page?? I would volunteer to moderate there if we open it up, perhaps start a new one under the AAW? Ideas??
 

Bill Boehme

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It's a trend across the Internet that forum participation peaked about ten years ago and has been steadily declining since then. Maybe social media like Facebook is the reason for this trend. It's a shame became I don't see any in-depth discussions on Facebook. Some woodturning forums have almost no activity such as the woodturning sub forum on WoodworkingTalk. Even the huge forums such as photography-on-the.net which has nearly a half million members and nearly 20 million posts has slowed down considerably in the past few years. My club has over two hundred members, but I think that I'm the only member who is an active participant on this forum. There are three or four club member who lurk, but rarely post anything. Most woodturners don't seem to be interested in online discussion groups.
 

Emiliano Achaval

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It's a trend across the Internet that forum participation peaked about ten years ago and has been steadily declining since then. Maybe social media like Facebook is the reason for this trend. It's a shame became I don't see any in-depth discussions on Facebook. Some woodturning forums have almost no activity such as the woodturning sub forum on WoodworkingTalk. Even the huge forums such as photography-on-the.net which has nearly a half million members and nearly 20 million posts has slowed down considerably in the past few years. My club has over two hundred members, but I think that I'm the only member who is an active participant on this forum. There are three or four club member who lurk, but rarely post anything. Most woodturners don't seem to be interested in online discussion groups.
What about opening the AAW Facebook? Each Facebook group that I belong to has thousands of members...
 

john lucas

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I think as far as the AAW site is concerned it's kind of awkward or must no intuitive to use the photo gallery. I tend to click on the main or other topic and see what people are talking about. I don't often click on photos although I do look at them. On other Forum's you usually bring up a topic and photo appears and it's easy to talk about it and get things going.
 
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Well you know that internet thing is just a fad. o_O
Ten years ago there were fewer websites, today there are many more websites contending for views.
 
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I think the AAW forums are difficult to find for some people. First they have to join the AAW, and then they have to find the forums. As well have to know what forums are and how to use them. The younger crowd doesn't even know what forums are. In the paintball community the forums have dwindled just like this one, 10 years ago they were huge and the place to be, now they are pretty barren. Many people are already on facebook for other reasons, and they get their dose of hobby chat there.

Mobile devices don't help either. My desktop computer barely gets used anymore. I have a tablet and the forums don't work so well on it frequently.
 
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Personally, I prefer the forum as opposed to FB. Even though participation might be lower, I like the way photos are available and and easier, to me, to "converse" with others. If I looked at forums and FB, I would never get anything done. I can click on a forum, scan the topics and click on the ones I want to read. With FB, I have to scroll down through the whole thing.
I was on the forum long before I joined AAW.
 
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There are several support groups that will help people that want to stop using Facebook.
It has been over (2) years for myself since I have used Facebook.
Too much brainwashing going on these days in our multimedia society.
Too many people have their nose stuck to their smart phones like Zombies on crack cocaine.
 

odie

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The discussions here are what I'm looking for in a forum. I want to stay focused on woodturning.....and it does that. I find myself doing a lot of contemplating on the AAW forums .....a good thing, and I think it helps my personal growth overall. The exchanges here make me modify, and experiment in my own shop.

I think no matter where you go for discussion, the participants will come and go.....with a few long term participants who are dedicated to the subject. That's certainly true of the AAW forums. What's needed for positive input, are a few people who do more than talk the talk.....on these forums, there are a few people who walk the walk.....and, these people are the ones I'm more interested in communicating with.....:D

ko
 
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Part of the issue is how much time the average person has and the number of websites available.
YouTube has an endless number of wood turning videos that can help the average wood turner.
Every wood turning club has a website and some of these have active forums.
Many regional wood industry vendors sponsor websites and have active forums.
A comparison would be having cable TV with a 1000 channels to choose from compared to the old
days when you had 3 or 4 major network channels to choose from.
The major corporations are in an all out competition for views on every website that is paid for by
advertising revenue.
 
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the forum is benefit of the AAW, use it as you will, as I go about my daily life I mostly do not interact with other woodturners, some know I do things with wood but rarely do they even know what a lathe is, they think I carve the forms ??????????, its ok, I just smile, I come here to interact with other woodturners.......I enjoy the gallery and the different forms presented.......do your own thing......enjoy
 
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I'm very new here and I think this kind of forum is the best style to gain information from. So far what I've read has been mostly helpful. I'm am not a Facebook type person. I don't see the attraction of reading about people's mood changes.

I have read a lot on here and the information has helped a great deal. I only know two people that know what a lathe is. They focus on pens and I helped them get started. This forum and its members has been my mentor with the lathe on non pen turning.
 

hockenbery

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@Emiliano Achaval
The AAW forum has never had a large percentage of members on it.
However it has attracted new members and serves those who do participate.

Change usually begins with a member willing to give his or her time to a project.
I suggest you call Tibb Shaw at the AAW office.
Tell her your idea and willingness to be a moderator for a postable page
It fits with AAW wanting to reach younger folks. They are more likely to be on Facebook.
 
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Roy,

Don't you want to visit someone's Facebook page so you can see what they ate for lunch? :D
YouTube is one of the few sites that a person can monetize there efforts in creating video's
that may be of interest to the market place.
 

Bill Boehme

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I think the AAW forums are difficult to find for some people. First they have to join the AAW, and then they have to find the forums. As well have to know what forums are and how to use them. The younger crowd doesn't even know what forums are. In the paintball community the forums have dwindled just like this one, 10 years ago they were huge and the place to be, now they are pretty barren. Many people are already on facebook for other reasons, and they get their dose of hobby chat there.

Mobile devices don't help either. My desktop computer barely gets used anymore. I have a tablet and the forums don't work so well on it frequently.

You are mistaken about needing to join the AAW. The AAW forum is open to all woodturners, not just AAW members. Membership in the forum is roughly half AAW members and half non members. Finding the forum is easy if you know what Google is for, but believe it or not, many people don't even understand Google.

Not knowing about Internet forums is another issue that seems a bit foreign to me since I've been active on forums since the very beginning and on bulletin boards before that when everything was just text based. The vast majority of people in the 60+ age group aren't interested in computers and many can barely turn them on without the help of a grandchild. The culture on forums 15 - 20 years ago was very different and permanently drove many people away because of trolling, flame wars, and all of the worst behavior imaginable.

A number of my club members are on Facebook, but the information shared there is far different from this and other woodturning forums. Facebook is the place to go to see kitten and puppy video clips or as Mike John said, find out what somebody had for breakfast. It isn't a place to get woodturning questions answered other than in a very superficial way. Facebook has about a billion members and this forum has about ten thousand which explains why a picture might get more likes on Facebook, but how much is a "Facebook like" worth in comparison to an "AAW like"? We don't hand out likes indiscriminately here. When I like something, I really mean that I like it from a knowledgeable perspective. To me the social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are the lowest common denominator of shallow communication.

XenForo forum software has been optimized for use on mobile devices and I primarily use my iPad for reading and posting on the forum as well as my administrative work on this forum.

In case nobody has noticed, down at the bottom left of each page on this forum just above the breadcrumbs you can share the page on Twitter and Facebook. (I'm waiting for somebody to ask, "What are breadcrumbs" :D)

The only thing constant about the Internet is change. I've been involved with computers for about fifty years starting with writing programs on mainframe computers in the mid 1960's. There were no monitors back then. Input was via a deck of Hollerith cards and output was on 11 X 17 green bar fanfold paper about thirty minutes later. Online communication meant direct dial up to another facility and file transfer via FTP at 75 baud. Ten years in the future who knows what online communication will look like.
 
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Actually, I check one FB page that is connected with a group of which I am a member. I look at the forum, then go back to the main page and click on the Member's FB page.
I was told to join FB when I was the state chair for an international organization. The first time I looked at FB, the wife of a member was telling everyone she was going to the grocery store! Who cares....unless you are a burglar.
 

Bill Boehme

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Actually, I check one FB page that is connected with a group of which I am a member. I look at the forum, then go back to the main page and click on the Member's FB page.
I was told to join FB when I was the state chair for an international organization. The first time I looked at FB, the wife of a member was telling everyone she was going to the grocery store! Who cares....unless you are a burglar.

I'm going to the hardware store. :)
 

Bill Boehme

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I think as far as the AAW site is concerned it's kind of awkward or must no intuitive to use the photo gallery. I tend to click on the main or other topic and see what people are talking about. I don't often click on photos although I do look at them. On other Forum's you usually bring up a topic and photo appears and it's easy to talk about it and get things going.

I'm not certain if you're talking about the AAW site or the AAW forum, John. I have a small gallery of photos on the AAW main site. I didn't find it difficult to use at all, but very few AAW members have been taking advantage of that feature on the AAW site, probably because you have to look for it to even know that it exists. Let's have a show of hands, how many of you know about this feature on the AAW main site?

If you were referring to the AAW forum here, I noticed that you have created a separate album for each of the images that you have here on this site so I think that I see the problem. It looks like you are creating unnecessary work for yourself when the process actually is very simple.
 

john lucas

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Bill the process of putting a photo on the Gallery is extremely confusing to me. I struggled one day and found that if I hit the create an album button it worked. Didn't know there was any other way. An Album to me is something that runs at 33 1/3rpm.
 

Bill Boehme

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Bill the process of putting a photo on the Gallery is extremely confusing to me. I struggled one day and found that if I hit the create an album button it worked. Didn't know there was any other way. An Album to me is something that runs at 33 1/3rpm.

I hear tell there's something new on the horizon called DVD's. Supposedly they spin at 570 to 1600 RPM. Seems like that would make the voices high pitched sort of like dolphin talk.

I see that I might need to create a tutorial for the image gallery.
 
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I post in the gallery, I have never used album feature, I just post......What does having an album help you
 

odie

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I see that I might need to create a tutorial for the image gallery.

I remember thinking about creating an album, but didn't see how to do it.......I'm satisfied with just posting in the gallery, tho.......

What advantage to have an album?
 

Bill Boehme

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I post in the gallery, I have never used album feature, I just post......What does having an album help you

Using albums gives you the ability to organize yor photos into categories such as bowls, platters, hollowforms, rolling pins, writing pens, spinning tops, and pieces that were flops. By using albums, you can also sort the display order in each album. When you use Member Categories then the display order is the date that the images were posted.
 

Bill Boehme

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Ok-are "breadcrumbs" diabetic "cookies??

Like Hansel and Gretel, the breadcrumbs allow you to find your way back to the beginning or to hierarchical points between the top level and current location by clicking on the appropriate crumb. The breadcrumbs appear at both the top and bottom of each page.
Breadcrumbs.jpg
 

Emiliano Achaval

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@Emiliano Achaval
The AAW forum has never had a large percentage of members on it.
However it has attracted new members and serves those who do participate.

Change usually begins with a member willing to give his or her time to a project.
I suggest you call Tibb Shaw at the AAW office.
Tell her your idea and willingness to be a moderator for a postable page
It fits with AAW wanting to reach younger folks. They are more likely to be on Facebook.
As you know, my name is known around the AAW office, I wrote 2 articles for the journal, I won the Arrowmont Scholarship, and since I'm the president of the club here, I'm always calling the office... I already emailed Linda ferber about it... Not that I need another project, but we are missing a big opportunity, I believe an official AAW open Facebook group with a few administrators could be big.
 

Emiliano Achaval

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Roy,

Don't you want to visit someone's Facebook page so you can see what they ate for lunch? :D
YouTube is one of the few sites that a person can monetize there efforts in creating video's
that may be of interest to the market place.
You tube is a terrible platform for the beginner woodturner, people come to take classes, they show me some horrible technique, and they tell me but I saw it on YouTube!! Watch only AAW proved videos, thats my advice.
 

Emiliano Achaval

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Like Hansel and Gretel, the breadcrumbs allow you to find your way back to the beginning or to hierarchical points between the top level and current location by clicking on the appropriate crumb. The breadcrumbs appear at both the top and bottom of each page.
View attachment 22261
Hmmm, I believe that in web site design classes we call that Links for short, they are "Hiperlinks" They take you to a deferent address...
 

Bill Boehme

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Hmmm, I believe that in web site design classes we call that Links for short, they are "Hiperlinks" They take you to a deferent address...

Link is just short for hyperlink which is the protocol (http) used by the world wide web. Breadcrumbs is standard forum nomenclature for going up higher levels from the current directory.
 
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