A couple of minor changes to the forum

[Chris Hall]

While I nurse the worst cold in history and contemplate a visit to urgent care, I have made a couple of minor changes to the CW forum.

First off, the 'suggestion box' section is gone, due to...a lack of suggestions.

I've added a new forum section for those who might want to simply discuss wood in and of itself. This new section comes as a result of ---get ready for it -- a suggestion from a forum member in a private email.

Would love to receive any feedback from members and love to learn of anything I can do to spur more engagement from the nearly 300 members here. I thought after I took a shower last week folks would find this place more approachable, but no. Is it the blue wallpaper? Would you prefer a different font?

Fun fact: did you know that nearly 150 people have registered to join this forum over the past few years and then have not logged in even once after their registration is confirmed? It's a funny thing....(I'm not bitter, just puzzled). Why do people join a forum?

[john verge]

First off it is impossible for you to have "the worst cold in history", this is largely due to the fact that my partner has that, ha! Ginger/garlic spiced broth for that!
Sporadic forum participation. I look in regularly but participate sporadically. I'm ok with the suggestion box gone and a new one to replace it.
I think the forum offers lots of variety of subjects, and therefore there is a lot of opportunity for people to contribute.
The stats on people joining yet never clicking is interesting. I can only imagine why and probably wouldn't even come close to an answer.
The forum is a bit like a democracy, it requires the people to set the mandate but that takes time and work. You know, people work, are busy with life and time gets burned up. Maybe when they do have a spare moment sleep and tv prevail.
I think you have spurred on as much as you can Chris. I think the people have spoken, at least for now.
My plan for the forum is to work the shoji box a little. Would also like to full scale a hip roof for a 10' x 10' teahouse sleeper cabin. Will keep thinking though on your reach out!

[Brian]

I feel as that some of the best discussions I've had WRT real feedback on how to do things and also WRT tools has been on this board, so I'm happy about that.

The quality level of information is extremely high.

I think you need a very high volume of users to get regular comments, new threads, ect. For instance, if you look at WoodCentral's stats, it seems typical for there to be about 1 comment per 150-300 views.

My blog is about the same, my top views in a day have been about 1500 views and on those days I'm usually getting 4-5 comments (not counting my replies).

It just seems that the great majority want to watch and read along, rather than actively participate.

I'm also in a Japanese Tool related Facebook group with 2200 members....and maybe 25 regular participants, many of whom are the regular participants in every other format of Japanese carpentry related discussion back to that message board from the early 2000's, and a few new people sprinkled in.

Sorry to hear about the cold, hopefully you don't have the stomach component like that illness I had a few weeks ago. I lost 5lbs in a week....and there wasn't really 5 lbs to spare!

[john verge]

More interesting stats for sure. Seems to be a small group of participants. This is a pretty obscure area of study, pretty specialised. However, on a practical note the Ko,ko,gen study and application of this formula to work on compound situations was a major break through for me. Also the discovery of the Japanese plane opened my eyes to the amazing knowledge to be found in the world of Japanese carpentry.
There was a thread on curved stairs which was also good and could have really been developed with a little effort on my behalf. I was planning to go curved on some stairs but aborted due to the inability. Probably should have contracted some drawings to be done in order to make it happen and could have documented the process on this forum.
Just a few thoughts.

[Jonnishida]

Bueller?. . . . Bueller?. . . . .. .


Chris, don't get discouraged by the lack of interaction in this forum. As one of the non-posters it doesn't mean that your efforts are not appreciated. Your blog is the first one I check for new posts and is the only blog I've ever gone back to the beginning reading the entire thing. I generally don't post unless I have something pertinent to add to the conversation. I have learned a lot reading your blog and there were many "I wish I had read this before I built whatever" moments along the way. In particular your series on gates was exactly what I was looking for 10 years ago when built a small gate for my yard.

I have to say that as a hobbyist I found your blog more relatable when you were working out of your kitchen than now (now there is a fair amount of jealousy over your machines and tooling ). However I read your blog more for the research, design and joinery than for the implementation.

Your blog really is for a niche audience and even smaller those who can execute at the level and quality that you have shown (even when you were working in your kitchen!).

Stay the course, you're efforts are appreciated.

Jon Nishida (post #2?)

[Chris Hall]

Jon,

appreciate your comment. I do sometimes think that as I have progressed from kitchen to 'shop with many large lumps of iron', I have moved away from relatable content for a certain cluster of readers.

I imagine some people are annoyed I enjoy using a milling machine so much these days to do woodwork. But I made a decision early on that I didn't want to be one of those blogs which produces content for the sole purpose of luring readers and cranking up page views. So I skipped entirely the use of keywords and stuff like that, and don't do posts along the lines of 'Woodworking 101'. It may end up that what i am doing and blogging becomes of interest to a smaller and smaller group of people. So be it.

I find myself wondering a lot these days if moving to a video blogging format might be something to look at. I personally do enjoy a few different video blogs on Youtube. But I also find myself liking the ads on youtube less and less every day, and subjecting others to that is kinda lousy. Producing videos well is also a heap of work and time, much more so than writing, and that's something to weigh for sure.

Anyway, i'm glad my blog has been of usefulness to you over the years.

[Chris Hall]

I feel as that some of the best discussions I've had WRT real feedback on how to do things and also WRT tools has been on this board, so I'm happy about that.

The quality level of information is extremely high.

I think you need a very high volume of users to get regular comments, new threads, ect. For instance, if you look at WoodCentral's stats, it seems typical for there to be about 1 comment per 150-300 views.

My blog is about the same, my top views in a day have been about 1500 views and on those days I'm usually getting 4-5 comments (not counting my replies).

It just seems that the great majority want to watch and read along, rather than actively participate.

I'm also in a Japanese Tool related Facebook group with 2200 members....and maybe 25 regular participants, many of whom are the regular participants in every other format of Japanese carpentry related discussion back to that message board from the early 2000's, and a few new people sprinkled in.

Sorry to hear about the cold, hopefully you don't have the stomach component like that illness I had a few weeks ago. I lost 5lbs in a week....and there wasn't really 5 lbs to spare!

Thanks for you comment Brian- it's my pleasure to get to know you as well.

This cold is brutal, but at least i don't have to take antibiotics. The virus can stick around in some folks for 18 days apparently, and I'm at day 10 still sick...

[Brian]

Anytime!

Feel better, 18 days sounds about right, unfortunately. The worst of it was about a full week for me, but prior to that I just had a general malaise that was probably about 1-2 weeks long.

[Chris Hall]

I've had general malaise myself of late, but I put that down to the election result and aftermath....

[Chris Pyle]

Just recovered from something very similar. Doctor tested me for flu, came back negative. Gave me some type of double antibiotic (penicillin-based and something to kill penicillin resistant infections). He thought it was a combination of bronchitis/sinusitis but it lasted nearly 3 weeks. I would start to feel better for a couple of days and then it would ramp up.

Finally slept nearly an entire day and went to the doctor to begin the antibiotics.

As to the forum: have you considered adding a theme/customizing a theme? I don't know if it would increase engagement but it'd certainly add to the visual appeal of the place. One could create a nice background, embed high res images for the various forums. I would assume most people end up here one of two ways: avid followers of your blog or searching "Japanese woodworking" (although I don't believe this forum is very discoverable via search engine).

I don't know what version of phpbb you are on, but I did a quick search and found a large number of themes to choose from (also found guides on modifying them).

Just a thought. I'm certainly drawn to well-designed things and this forum presents a certain, ahem, 1998 yahoo look.

But I am often in the minority so TIFWIW.