forum gets bigger, more and more on-lookers

[kityuser]

well I suppose somebody had to bring this up at some point :lol:

"with the forum getting bigger and better, most posters are probably aware that there seems to be an ever increasing number of ``media professionals`` joining and looking in.

I mean mag writers/editors, people involved in tv programs etc etc
i.e. people who have a VESTED interest in what we are saying on here!

the question for this thread is this:
is this a good thing??????


example:
jo-bloggs writes for a woodworking mag, he gets in a tool (say for a round-up) and remembers reading about it on UKW.
does he then continue with his review/round-up in an impartial way, has he been swayed by the SEVERAL professionals that frequent these pages (me NOT included!!!)?????

are we going to end up buying mags/watching programs that could potentially be full of thread-content that we have already read? (I know this is an exaggeration, but you get the point?)"

I`m not sure, haven`t made up my mind, thats why I`ve posted this thread and am interested in peoples point of view.......

 

[Bean]

I think you have a point, I have considered this as an antidote to magazines, They mostly miss the point of passing on experience and knowledge. But the worst part is that that you cannot communicate with a magazine. I would hate to think we are writing the content for the publishers although each magazine tends to aim at a niche, the beauty of this and other forums is the wild diversity to be found within them.

Bean

 

[Alf]

Hmm, good question; it'll be interesting to see what people think.

The whole thing of reading in a magazine what you've previously read on a forum has already happened though. Jeff Gorman's gleanings from the 'net in GWW are invariably from the Old Tools list, and invariably I've already read them , but as they are supposed to be from the 'net I suppose I'm not entitled to complain. :wink: But much closer to home, I see GWW's latest issue has a small piece about Kity going pear-shaped but no credit to UK Workshop for being where they'd heard it first! For shame, Mr King... :roll:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Anonymous]

I think that the content of magazines may be affected by what is read at places such as this. However i would probably continue to purchase publications as the projects in each give me ideas of whats next on the to-do list.

Aidan.

 

[Guest]

Surely if magazine contributers/editors are to get a true opinion of woodworkers what better place than this and other forums. It is easy to become distanced from the real world of woodwork when your job is to write and not to actually do the work you are writing about.If this forum can give them an idea of what we really think,about them and tools it must be a good thing.I have noticed that snippets of information come back this way too.

 

[Gill]

I agree completely with Jaymar. In fact, now that we have a Gandalf and an Aragorn registered with us, I'm looking forward to GWW featuring plans for making a bed like the one that Frodo had in Rivendell!

Awwww.... come on guys . The woodwork for "The Fellowship" was truly inspirational and that bed was just what I've always wanted.

Yours

Gill

PS Aragorn - please don't spoil my fantasies by saying that any similarities between you and Viggo Mortensen are purely coincidental .

 

[trevtheturner]

Let's not forget, too, the many woodworkers who must be out there without access to these forums, or who don't know about them. They may have to rely on magazines and if some of the excellent knowledge imparted herein eventually finds its way into the mags. those woodworkers will surely benefit. So I see no problem with publishers including material wherever they have got it from, as long as it is good material.

Going on from that - I just buy the mags. that suit me. :roll:

 

[Waka]

Good points all round.

What Trevtheturner says is true about not everyone knowing or having access to this forum. I only found out about it by searching Google so am a relatively new member.

If mags are going to use information/comments/reviews from the forum, and I have no problem with this because it spreads the word, and who better to come from but the professional/non professional woodworker. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if info originates from this excellent forum or others, it would be nice of the mags to recognise that in their mags.
Good free way of spreading the good word.

Thanks for given me the advise I've asked for in the last week, its something I probably would'nt have got from mags.

Cheers
Waka

 

[kityuser]

good points all round :lol:

 

[Aragorn]

PS Aragorn - please don't spoil my fantasies by saying that any similarities between you and Viggo Mortensen are purely coincidental .

How do you know I'm not Viggo? :wink:
A

 

[Guest]

As Gilld says, we have a Gandalf and an Aragorm but I wonder how many would qualify for the roll of Legless

 

[Anonymous]

Hi all

Firstly, let me say that I am very much in favour of "the media" taking part in this forum.

This forum has a membership that is less than one per cent of all woodworkers in the uk. (My guesstimate of uk woodworkers is a figure between 50-100K. This was a finger in the air, as are all my best ideas, based on the fact that GWW has a circulation of just over 18K). In the scheme of things we are fairly small fry, but as a cross section of uk woodworkers we are unbeatable and this is why "the media" are interested.

Ralph Laughton and in particular Andy King, due to the length of time he has been contributing to the forum, have made invaluable contributions to various threads. The two people I have mentioned are professional woodworkers with many years of experience and they have shared that experience freely with us on this forum. No disrespect to our current professional members, but the more the merrier.

The whole thing of reading in a magazine what you've previously read on a forum has already happened though.

This is the Kity situation and I think that Pete Martin has already explained their position and has published the clarification. OK, they didn't mention UKW but it doesn't matter, does it? :wink:

Jeff Gorman's gleanings from the 'net in GWW are invariably from the Old Tools list, and invariably I've already read them.

Alf, you are acknowledged as one of the world authorities on hand tools so I would be very surprised if you hadn't already read them.

jo-bloggs writes for a woodworking mag, he gets in a tool (say for a round-up) and remembers reading about it on UKW.
does he then continue with his review/round-up in an impartial way, has he been swayed by the SEVERAL professionals that frequent these pages (me NOT included!!!)?????

Surely, it is a compliment if the writer takes on board the comments of people actually using the tools? The more real input that is available will, hopefully, benefit all of us in the long run by ensuring that faults in tools/machines are rectified more quickly.



On December 26th last year I posted a thread announcing that the Makita 2012NB thicknesser would be available in this country in January and included various customer reviews of the product. Now, GWW and Popular Woodworking produce reviews on the said Mak 2012NB. I doubt that I played any part in the decision to review the machine, but if I did then I think that is positive.

All of the magazines are desparate for content. But, above all, they want content that is topical and will interest woodworkers enough to part with their cash and buy the magazine. We can help by suggesting topics that are of interest to us that will help the magazines and help us.

I would like to start this list by saying please give us an IN-DEPTH series of articles about dust extraction. This must be one of the topics that is of most interest to everybody.

Sorry for the length of this posting and I hope I haven't upset too many people. :wink:

Cheers
Neil

 

[Newbie_Neil]

I was CERTAIN that I'd signed in.

Cheers
Neil

 

[Keith Smith]

Firstly let me say if any of this thread is directed at me that I am not a media person but a full time woodworker. If I have a particularly interesting project, I occasionally see if any magazine wishes to run it as a project. The financial reward for this is not great and I do it for love more than money :wink: .

I would have thought that having a forum member who wrote the article you are interested in would be a good thing, as I don't think I have ever read a good article and not been left with at least one question.

As for this forum looking like the magazine, the last article I wrote was 5000 words and 50 pages of diagrams, someone said they wanted more depth :lol: !

I posted the thread asking what you want from magazines because I was personally interested, if you don't let the people that produce these mags know what you want, how can they improve?

Thanks Neil for the constructive suggestion "Dust extraction the works" I seem to have spent half my life improving my system so I'll see what I can do.

Finally there is some very poor and downright dangerous advice on this forum, why don't all the professionals correct this?

Keith

 

[Charley]

Finally there is some very poor and downright dangerous advice on this forum, why don't all the professionals correct this?

Keith, care to comment a bit more on this? As personally I don't agree unless I've missed the post(s) you are referring to :?

 

[sawdustalley]

I don't agree either...Much of the time people are actually going against dangerous things, and all hell breaks loose when a D*** blade is mentioned.

 

[Alf]

OK, they didn't mention UKW but it doesn't matter, does it? :wink:

It might have been a nice, nay honourable, thing to do though. GWW gets plenty of air time on here, so a little in return would be a way of thanking Charley perhaps? And if they had then the internet-enabled, GWW-reading, Kity owners would know about the latest news regarding Kity and Scheppach by now, which would be a service to their readership I would have thought.

Finally there is some very poor and downright dangerous advice on this forum, why don't all the professionals correct this?

I'll add my call of "e.g?" to this one too. We try very hard to draw people's attention to anything dangerous and strongly urge them not to do it. If we've missed something we need to know ASAP. BTW, how d'you know it was't a professional giving the poor advice...? :wink:

Gill! Bunker space, if you would be so kind :roll: :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Charley]

We even made James see the light and now he uses the guard on his table saw all the time so he tells me

 

[Anonymous]

As said, many good points made in this thread.

I think that overall the cross-pollination of ideas between everyone involved in working wood or writing about working wood can bring nothing but good.

Finally there is some very poor and downright dangerous advice on this forum, why don't all the professionals correct this?

Having made this statement Keith it would be interesting and obligatory IMO for you to highlight all of the posts which you feel have transgressed.

In my experience some people should not be let near any tool whether the dangers of improper use have been made known or not.

IMO, safety advice regarding the avoidance of loose clothing or body adornments, cleanish and uncluttered working environments( floor area clear of offcuts etc), a reasonable dust extraction sytem, stable and sensible postioning of machines, good stance and posture while operating or using tools are far more important in my mind than the occasional removal of say the protective hood over a table saw for a particular procedure ( provided the danger of such a move is known).

 

[Keith Smith]

The very first thing I noticed on you homepage is that 240 of the respondents of the poll on saw blade guards never use one, and you let this go unchallenged!!!

I can't go through every post and don't want to upset anyone too much but as Charley is a moderator and was the first to post back;

OSB in a workshop is a bad idea but plasterboard?

On the subect of keeping a router switched on in a table no mention was given as to the use of a NVR switch.

Importing US voltage electrical tools into the UK is such a bad idea.

Sorry Charley to pick on you, but I thought you were the hardest target.

Keith (I'll get my coat) Woodsmith