Steve Worcester

[Bill Blasic]

Steve, I replied to your post on Wood Central about use on this site. I have always wondered why this site does not get the use that some of the other sites get. I spend little time here only because of the content, it only takes a few minutes to go over the whole site every day cause no one really uses it. To me there is nothing wrong with the site, the layout is good, the moderators do a good job. With 14,000 + members of the AAW you would think that it would take hours to visit here and read all the remarks, not the case. I'm also no help as I have nothing to offer as to increase the use of the site.

 

[Garmar]

To PC, users here are thin skinned. A person can't offer an opinion or critique without the fear of being censured or banned from using the site. So be it.

Why not offer a REAL tutorial section with video, see it here without having to search YouTube. Just a thought, not a critique.

Emoticons AREN'T helpful!!!!!!!

 

[David Wilkins]

the size limits on pictures don't help either, this medium requires a decent visual representation since the items can't be handled.

 

[robert davis]

like bill...i do not undderstand why more people do not use the site. this is one of three ido use..

 

[John King]

Sites Used

Robert - What are the three sites that you do use?

Perhaps others who frequent this forum would benefit from visiting the other sites that you visit. - John

 

[Steve Worcester]

Robert - What are the three sites that you do use?

Perhaps others who frequent this forum would benefit from visiting the other sites that you visit. - John

Here's a bunch

http://www.turningwood.com/Forums.htm

 

[Steve Worcester]

Why not offer a REAL tutorial section with video, see it here without having to search YouTube. Just a thought, not a critique.

Emoticons AREN'T helpful!!!!!!!

Space and bandwidth. Eventually that would be great. There is the ability to attach video (we don't enable it), but not to stream it.

 

[Ed Davidson]

There are significatly more lerkers than posters hanging out here. These are the AAW forum's site stats for the past six months - these figures do not include visits to the main AAW site, woodturner.org:

Aug, 2008 - 2,549,960 hits
Sep, 2008 - 2,649,998 hits
Oct, 2008 - 2,749,434 hits
Nov, 2008 - 2,695,215 hits
Dec, 2008 - 2,895,287 hits
Jan, 2009 - 3,434,124 hits

 

[Steve Worcester]

the size limits on pictures don't help either, this medium requires a decent visual representation since the items can't be handled.

The current size limit is 100K or 1280x1280 pixels. We can up the limit, but we left it here because we still have quite a few dial up users.

I will up it to 512K and we will see what happens. Max storage per person will remain at 10MBs.

 

[Mike Cunningham]

Not sure why there isn't more posting here but as Ed mentioned there are lots of lurkers which means of course, people are reading. That's mostly what I do, scan the pages every few days for subjects of interest. One of those other websites gets lots of traffic/posting, I think, due to it's being much more of a social gathering place for people rather than strictly a place to ask and answer woodturning questions. Maybe the internet is where they choose to socialize?? There are a few that are there so often that, I wonder when they have the time to work and live their lives, much less turn wood. Anyway, I think this place is fine.

By the way, who funds this site? I assume the AAW, another benefit of membership. Those other websites, besides business advertising, seek donations, etc., this site does not. I think of that whenever I read a post here by someone who mentions not having renewed their membership.
Mike

 

[Ed Davidson]

Thanks Mike, well said - the AAW forum, the AAW's main site and the new AAW Gallery of Wood Art site are funded by the AAW...member's dues.

 

[David Wilkins]

The current size limit is 100K or 1280x1280 pixels. We can up the limit, but we left it here because we still have quite a few dial up users.

I will up it to 512K and we will see what happens. Max storage per person will remain at 10MBs.

Ok, I'll post some pics for discussion later this evening, once I wash this layer of dust off me

Thanks for addressing each of these.

 

[john lucas]

Those of us who frequent the site often have a pretty good time and it's been fun meeting them at clubs and symposiums. This site doesn't have the traffic that wood central does but has a lot more than Wood magazine's turning forum and the other one I frequent (names escape me right now). I think it's like anything else. The more you put into it the more you get out of it. I guess I've never been one to sit on the sidelines. I jump in and sometimes find that it's too deep or too hot or too cold but at least I tried it.

 

[Richard Baker]

The Wood Mag site used to get a lot of traffic a few years ago. I was on dial-up then, and the site was fast enough for me to enjoy and learn more about turning. Then they "improved" it and it became deathly slow. Too slow for me to participate. Apparently a lot of other folks felt the same way. I visit seven turning forums regularly (beats watching most of what is on TV), three of them very briefly.

I think John visits them all. Edit: Except the Australian forum.

 

[S. Clark]

I enjoy this site simply because it is easy to do a quick review for new information or photo posts. Unlike many woodworkers or woodturners, I want to turn wood instead of kill time surfing various Internet sites. I get GOOD information here quickly and easily. Everything loads (downloads) quickly and efficiently. It is focused on woodturning and I don’t have to wade through other woodworking information. I work full time and I commute and then I put 20 hrs or more in at my lathe each week too. This site allows me to easily stick with that schedule and still get photographic inspiration and quality woodturning information as necessary.

Thank you - Scott

 

[Barry Elder]

I agree with Mike!

 

[Eric]

Why Youtube?

To PC, users here are thin skinned. A person can't offer an opinion or critique without the fear of being censured or banned from using the site. So be it.

Why not offer a REAL tutorial section with video, see it here without having to search YouTube. Just a thought, not a critique.

Emoticons AREN'T helpful!!!!!!!

I've tried the Youtube site but frankly don't understand how to navigate to the videos I want to see, I do see the lineup below the screen, but end up in other video categories and can't find my way back. I know I'm getting slow with age - but I keep trying to learn.
One thing I found tonight after viewing a segmented video, the next video in line took me to something I really did not want to see (adult video). I could not find my way back to the woodturning videos and had to leave YouTube and start over.

I agree, Why not offer a REAL tutorial section with video here, without having to search YouTube. I feel much safer here than on the Youtube site.

 

[Eric]

One thing I found tonight after viewing a segmented video, the next video in line took me to something I really did not want to see (adult video). I could not find my way back to the woodturning videos and had to leave YouTube and start over.

I went to recreate this problem to document it better and realized I was at the new Segmented woodturners site not/not the AAW site. I can recreate the problem, the lineup of videos changes after viewing some and after a few videos you'll find one that is not woodturning. This time it was a music video of a recording artist, still couldn't find my way back to woodturning and if I search on "woodturning" I get a different lineup. Maybe Youtube is not Mytube.

 

[Charlie Knighton]

limited posting

I have noticed that the month after the symposium there is more posting to the main forum and the month before the symposium more turnings posted to the gallery. With pictures of turnings posted to the gallery instead of the forum there are less attaboys (attagirls) posting. I check the gallery before I check the main forum, which may limit the postings. The knowledge, wood chosen, and ability shown through the turnings in the gallery can be intimidating. As good as the gallery is on the web, to actually see the pieces at the symposium is overwhelming. Maybe in the 4th dimension of the future we will have some sort of cad program to make pictures more realistic.

 

[Joe Greiner]

Couldn't find it on WoodCentral, so: What was the question? Or section and date? Or a link?

Joe

 

[David Wilkins]

Hi Steve,
I just had one more comment that I wanted to offer up. I noticed the feedback or ratings on photography uploaded here is minimal. Not just on my work, but in general on everyones. On some other sites the work is what the discussion is based on, and it's focused on that. Maybe if we had a forum section dedicated to posting pictures of work and discussion about it. The gallery just doesn't seem to encourage that. I do like though how you can surf through it randomly, just a fantastic feature.

 

[john lucas]

David I agree. I don't often post on the gallery photos. I think it may be because is seems like a private posting to the owner of the piece and not a discussion type topic. I like the way it is done on WOW where you post a photo and then it is discussed only if the person writes "critics and comments welcome". This way only the ones who want honest critics get them. The ones who just want to show their work can do so without feeling like they will get blasted.

 

[loberg]

I'm new to woodturning (a year or so) and I use this forum for information and help. I have been to other forums (English Cars) and they turned into a forum for one or two people to present their "personal" views on all subjects. I like this format as I can get help and information then run out to the shop and try what I have learned. I have in the past taken my laptop out to the shop and used it while I worked on a car problem. I have found this forum to be interesting and diverse enought for me. As soon as I figure out how to get pictures the right size for the forum I'll be able to post. (Just a slow learner I guess) Keep up the great work and I should say I will be joining AAW shortly because of the help I recieved.

 

[David Wilkins]

I'm new to woodturning (a year or so) and I use this forum for information and help. I have been to other forums (English Cars) and they turned into a forum for one or two people to present their "personal" views on all subjects. I like this format as I can get help and information then run out to the shop and try what I have learned. I have in the past taken my laptop out to the shop and used it while I worked on a car problem. I have found this forum to be interesting and diverse enought for me. As soon as I figure out how to get pictures the right size for the forum I'll be able to post. (Just a slow learner I guess) Keep up the great work and I should say I will be joining AAW shortly because of the help I recieved.

I highly recommend irfanview. it has an excellent resize option that keeps the image from skewing or stretching. It also compresses well IMO. My recollection of size limits must have been from some time ago, as it was a 640x480 limit I thought we were limited to.

 

[Steve Worcester]

Couldn't find it on WoodCentral, so: What was the question? Or section and date? Or a link?

Joe

It started with a thread on Woodcenral that I replied to

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/turning3.pl?read=202149#Responses

The idea was to solicit feedback about what you like and dislike about the AAW forums. I am always willing to listen to constructive criticism.

 

[Steve Worcester]

Hi Steve,
I just had one more comment that I wanted to offer up. I noticed the feedback or ratings on photography uploaded here is minimal. Not just on my work, but in general on everyones. On some other sites the work is what the discussion is based on, and it's focused on that. Maybe if we had a forum section dedicated to posting pictures of work and discussion about it. The gallery just doesn't seem to encourage that. I do like though how you can surf through it randomly, just a fantastic feature.

We could look at this again, but their is no reason why you can't attach a photo to any message, the same rules about upload size applies. We have had issues in the past with people either not being able to take the criticism they asked for or the criticism became almost destructive. The problem we have there is it is just words and some are more eloquent that others.

I would like to hear feedback on this.

 

[KurtB]

John,
Many of the gallery photos posted include the phrase 'comments and critiques welcome'. I wish more people on these forums would participate in their comments, even if they only said 'that's nice' or 'well done'. I would really encourage everyone to open up some dialogs, when asked, similar to WOW.

 

[David Wilkins]

My experience is, I'm not getting constructive criticism. Positive feedback is great, but when your not really hitting it, you want to know why. I don't expect to please all the people all the time, some people are going to hate my work, I see lots of stuff I'd burn.

Even on wow, I don't get that criticism that would suggest I change anything, but it doesn't get the responses that others get.

The biggest hammering I've ever taken is on my photography, and I'm working on it.

 

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree with David. I haven't posted much and do more reading. I posted a few things since I joined in 01/2006 but didn't get many responses and most of those were from people who knew me from other sites. I was looking for feedback to help me along with my turning and I know photography is not my strong suit but I am working on it. So I do more reading than posting.

 

[Ruth Niles]

Charlie Knighton made a good point. On Woodcentral, turners post their pictures in the forum and that generates a lot more posts, questions usually lead to longer discussions on wood, finish, technique, etc.

I do check the gallery pictures before I hit "Main Forum" but only the pictures that appear. If I haven't checked here for a few days, I don't check the gallery to see if other pictures were posted.

It's not that we're not allowed to post pictures in the forum, it's just not done very often. I must confess I spend more time looking at the turnings posted on WoW or WC than I do here.

Another good point is WC is more social, more kidding around and they have the flat workers forum, which a lot of turners visit there, too. Maybe turners think of this as the "AAW office" and only come with "business" related questions or posts? I know I felt that way for a long time.

Suggestions? None It's not your fault or anything you can change.

I do have one question of Ed; do those numbers represent unique visitors or just page downloads? A lot of people may check the forum a number of times during the day and post a number of times. I do know one turner who "visits" about every hour after he posts a picture to see if there are any comments. Granted, that wouldn't make a whole lot of difference, but it might.

 

[Dick Sowa]

I have a number of thoughts...

First, I think this forum is, and ought to be, not much different than it currently is. As an arm of AAW, it shouldn't become social networking kinda place. Instead, it's a very subject-focused and professional arena. Also, the caliber of work posted here is breathtaking. On many of the other message boards, folks post some good stuff, but the work posted here is often orders of magnitude beyond what I see in other places.

As far as improvements, I would like to see a couple of things.

Boolean searches. There's another thread discussing this also. But I have also been frustrated trying to search for specific things. AND, OR, +, -, or even putting phrases in quotes would make searching better.

Picture of the day. Maybe I am just missing it somewhere. But I would like to see all the photos of the day...not just the one on the main page. And doing a search within them returns nothing. They gotta be somewhere!

 

[Ed Davidson]

Ruth,

Those big numbers (hits per month) represent how many page visits we get...look at ten pages, get ten "hits".

 

[john lucas]

I think the idea of putting the picture of the day here is a good one. Personally I rarely go to the main AAW home page. When I need to look something up or someone mentions something that is one there is about the only time I go.
Even on WOW I don't comment a whole lot on pieces. I just don't feel like I'm a good critic unless something strikes a particular chord with me. Consequently I usually just look, admire and move on.

 

[Eric]

...... it's a very subject-focused and professional arena. Also, the caliber of work posted here is breathtaking. On many of the other message boards, folks post some good stuff, but the work posted here is often orders of magnitude beyond what I see in other places.

As a member for years now, I think I joined back around 2000, I have often felt intimidated by the level of work/knowledge found here. I'm just a simple hobbyist, not a pro or full time turner like other members, and I often feel out of place. In response to one of my questions on finishing it was suggested that I go "gadfly" other forums for answers so I did, and I did not return for quite a while. This is a great forum with with many members that go to great lengths to help others, and then there are those who want to keep to their own level, and that's OK too, but maybe we could spread out a little into smaller groups.

I suggest the use of more categories where members with different interests, and skill levels, could gather with others that share the same, i.e. new turner, experienced turners, semi pro, etc.. You could try categories on carving, finishing, design, segmenting, the possibilities are staggering. I'll offer Sawmill Creek as one example; they have many categories where someone can zone in on what their interested in and post questions, their latest project and so on. Members there also use more pictures in their post which give a better understanding of the subject.

All in all, I feel this is a good forum, a great organization, and an outstanding journal. I am in awe of work produced by it's members.

Cheers

 

[Steve Worcester]

I think the idea of putting the picture of the day here is a good one. Personally I rarely go to the main AAW home page. When I need to look something up or someone mentions something that is one there is about the only time I go.
.

(I don't go to the AAW homepage either, sorry Ed )
There is no way to get the picture of the day on here. We looked at creating a new subforum just for the photo of the day, but the software does not allow multiples of the same photo.
If we moved it to the subforum, it would belong to the photo of the day group and no longer belong to that user. It is a software limitation.

 

[Steve Worcester]

Boolean searches. There's another thread discussing this also. But I have also been frustrated trying to search for specific things. AND, OR, +, -, or even putting phrases in quotes would make searching better.

I will look into this.
I can't find the other post, but I have fixed the time between searches, now 10 seconds, and the minimum search word size to 2 letters.

 

[Wyatt Holm]

I like this forum pretty much the way it is. Thanks for the upgrades Steve. If I want to talk where there is a lot more people, I will go to Sawmill Creek. But the thing there is you post something, and the next day it is way gone and you can't see what happened to it. I like both places but I am more familiar with the people on this forum.

 

[Steve Worcester]

We have fixed the search cycle times, it should be 10 seconds now. This avoids BOTS trying to tie up our bandwidth. Even the newer versions of Vbulletin I don't see support full Boolean searches. We will have to see what upcoming 4.0 brings (we are on 3.6).

What do you folks (dudes and dudettes) think about a newbie forum (although it may get a beginner header) and maybe a critique forum?

 

[David Wilkins]

newbie, sure, but we are all newbies.
Critique, sure, as long as people critique.

 

[Richard Baker]

Silly me, thinking that this already was (is) a newby and critique (when requested) forum, as well as a forum for the more experienced. Interested to see what others think.

I visit WoW regularly (as well as others), but very rarely feel qualified to comment, especially on the "art" pieces. And the critiques from a couple of folks there often seem a bit "mean spirited" to me. But it's a great place to look and learn.

Used to be a bit intimidated by some of the work shown here and on WoW, but have recovered from that disfunction. None of us is expected or required to become a great turner or great artist (or great photographer). But it is a rare person (just my opinion) that would not like to be better at whatever they do. This forum is a great place to look and learn to become a better turner, artist, and even photographer.