Seeking recommendations on how to improve the FOG.

[joraft]

On the subject of locations of Fog members, I for one have lots of privacy/security "issues" as indicated by the name I have used here for a long time.  Despite that "high concern" I have no problem with a) using the ISP address, b) zip code, c) City or State as an additional identifier as long as the additional identifier does not address a population of roughly smaller than a zip code area.    It wasn't until relatively recently that I discovered that one of the long standing members of this group, who has been of great help to me, actually lived in the same part of Arizona as I do. 

Please don't take this as criticism, but I have often wondered how "BC6738F5BCE98B4" is any more secure than a nickname like "woodnut" or something like that.

 

[justinmcf]

i agree with you joraft, in fact i thought his user name was some kind of teenage joke when i first saw it!

i dont understand either how it is any more secure than a normal user name. each to their own. as i am not a fast typer, i steer clear of people with these child like user names. i like to address people by their name not a number.

regards, justin.

 

[score0matic]

On the subject of locations of Fog members, I for one have lots of privacy/security "issues" as indicated by the name I have used here for a long time.  Despite that "high concern" I have no problem with a) using the ISP address, b) zip code, c) City or State as an additional identifier as long as the additional identifier does not address a population of roughly smaller than a zip code area.    It wasn't until relatively recently that I discovered that one of the long standing members of this group, who has been of great help to me, actually lived in the same part of Arizona as I do. 

Please don't take this as criticism, but I have often wondered how "BC6738F5BCE98B4" is any more secure than a nickname like "woodnut" or something like that.

But John it has a Certain ......Cadence to it......specally when sung to tommy 2 tone's....8675309

Craig

 

[JeromeM]

My thought(s) on how Festool could improve the fog . . .

On the subject of locations of Fog members, I for one have lots of privacy/security "issues" as indicated by the name I have used here for a long time.  Despite that "high concern" I have no problem with a) using the ISP address, b) zip code, c) City or State as an additional identifier as long as the additional identifier does not address a population of roughly smaller than a zip code area. 
That's my thought.

Don't forget that in some countries that members are in, like the UK, a Zip (postal) code will be as few as 4 houses and so that would not be suitable.

 

[Holzhacker]

Per my wife, FOGWA section. FOG Women's Auxiliary. This is where wives can post about how weird their husbands' obsession is. Also discuss various accessories they have bought, would like to buy and which ones get used, etc, etc.
Sounds like a great idea to me. Especially if Festool would get it together and put together Xmas/holiday promo packs like every other major manufacturer on the planet. Talk about increasing market share and making husbands happy.

 

[jonny round boy]

Per my wife, FOGWA section. FOG Women's Auxiliary. This is where wives can post about how weird their husbands' obsession is.

I like that idea, but only if it's filled with purposeful dis-information, especially regarding pricing. That way, SWMBO can indeed verify that I only paid 50 quid for that 250 quid accessory...  ;D

 

[justinmcf]

i thought i was the only one who bent the truth with regards to tool prices!

if she ever found out the truth........

justin.

 

[CharlesWilson]

My suggestion:

Make it possible to upload a project pdf (of approximately 10 MB) instead of having to compose a message with pictures and text. It seems that some of the projects I documented here had all of their links broken by Flickr somehow or other, and although the text survives, the pictures don't.

If this feature already exists, please let me know, and I will fix up the offending messages.

Charles

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Especially if Festool would get it together and put together Xmas/holiday promo packs

Markus/all,

I had started a thread a while back soliciting ideas and feedback from members about what they would like to see in the way of future Festool promos.  Maybe it's time to revisit that thread and have members give additional feedback.  There are new Festool promotions that are running for October and November.  I look forward to reading everyone's ideas.

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Per my wife, FOGWA section. FOG Women's Auxiliary. This is where wives can post about how weird their husbands' obsession is.

I like that idea, but only if it's filled with purposeful dis-information, especially regarding pricing. That way, SWMBO can indeed verify that I only paid 50 quid for that 250 quid accessory...  ;D

Maybe I should consider adding a page to the website where husbands and go and generate sales receipts that have "wife-friendly" pricing

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Make it possible to upload a project pdf (of approximately 10 MB) instead of having to compose a message with pictures and text. It seems that some of the projects I documented here had all of their links broken by Flickr somehow or other, and although the text survives, the pictures don't.

If this feature already exists, please let me know, and I will fix up the offending messages.

Charles, you can currently attach a PDF to a post.  To do so, click the "Additional Options" link at the bottom of the post page.  Attachments are currently limited to 125KB each with a maximum of 500KB per post.  The current web hosting plan has a limited amount of disk space.  In the future, we may increase the amount of disk space and that will allow members to post larger (and more) attachments per post.  In the mean time, if you want to send me the PDF, I can post it on the Festool USA web server and provide a link that you can use in the post.

 

[BC6738F5BCE98B4]

[/quote]

Please don't take this as criticism, but I have often wondered how "BC6738F5BCE98B4" is any more secure than a nickname like "woodnut" or something like that.

[/quote]

It is no more "secure" than "woodnut" or something like that.  However I have a random alphanumeric string generator which always provides results whereas my imaginative abilities to come up with new nicknames is severely constrained.

 

[peter halle]

Please don't take this as criticism, but I have often wondered how "BC6738F5BCE98B4" is any more secure than a nickname like "woodnut" or something like that.

[/quote]

It is no more "secure" than "woodnut" or something like that.  However I have a random alphanumeric string generator which always provides results whereas my imaginative abilities to come up with new nicknames is severely constrained.
[/quote]

Please don't take this the wrong way.  What works for you works for you.  If I had a random alpha ...  generate names and or passwords for me I'd just shoot myself or risk having to write them down or keep them in my cell phone or use an online vault for storage and risk that they could get the personal information regarding my involvement in the FOG.

You're a better man than I am.  Rock on.

Peter

 

[BC6738F5BCE98B4]

Actually, if I wrote them down I would lose the piece of paper.  Luckily my computer stores them and remembers them by website thus removing all requirements on my memory (a good thing).

 

[peter halle]

I thought that you had some sort of system.  I've had a hard disk crash.  Man I hope you back up.

Peter

 

[Neill]

Actually, if I wrote them down I would lose the piece of paper.  Luckily my computer stores them and remembers them by website thus removing all requirements on my memory (a good thing).

BC...

When I first signed on I was gonna use that exact alpha numeric configuration but you had already taken it.  Real bummer at the time.  I thought to myself, why would somebody use the exact sequence that was on my prison uniform?  Oh well.

Neill

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

A couple of things I noticed which I'd like to ask about:

1. When I post a reply I'm taken back to the list of topics. What I'd like to do is to stay within the thread I'm looking at. Sometimes it's better to carry on reading a thread rather than having to select it again?

2. I noticed that I can click on the email icon and it immediately opened up a new email message. Is that by design? I've set my profile to hide my email from public use so I'm wondering why a quick click on the icon opens up the email draft? Again, I'm happy to accept I've missed an important setting somewhere and if emails are selectable does anyone know how I can disable it? I don't mind receiving PMs but for obvious reasons I like to keep my email privileged.

 

[AlexThePalex]

1. When I post a reply I'm taken back to the list of topics. What I'd like to do is to stay within the thread I'm looking at. Sometimes it's better to carry on reading a thread rather than having to select it again?

I asked this a couple of days ago and Brice kindly notified me that there's a setting in your profile where you can select to go back to the thread.

2. I noticed that I can click on the email icon and it immediately opened up a new email message. Is that by design? I've set my profile to hide my email from public use so I'm wondering why a quick click on the icon opens up the email draft?

I can't see an email icon under your name. I can see an email icon under my name while I also selected it to be private. So my guess is that only you can see that icon and not others.

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

Alex,

I figured I missed a setting somewhere. I'll go back and check what my profile is set to.

The email icon puzzles me. You can see the icon under your name and I can see it under mine. I'm sort of curious why I'd want to send an email to myself as it lists my email address. I know there are not many people in the world who love me enough to write to me but writing to myself is well, oh so unusual. ;D That's something I will check on later.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Matthew tried to get members to take better advantage of the gallery and it never happened. The problem is the members don't always know exactly how to use it, I'm not sure how to make that info more readily available. In the past a member only had to ask for a gallery of their own (I'm assuming the process is the same now). ... What can Festool do to improve the gallery, I'm not sure, I do like the idea of increasing the file size if possible, maybe a provision for larger files like PDFs or SketchUp files.

My original plan for the gallery was to have it fit into a larger effort to make the FOG a full multi-media zone where every member had full sets of links to his or her posts, photos, and videos.  The site re-design I did in early 2008 was the first major step in that direction, and the gallery was another part.  But technically, it's very difficult to pull it off the way I envisioned.  Over time, the gallery developed nicely as a repository of files and images, which members could use to either store or embed in their forum posts.

The way the gallery software works, member galleries have to be created by hand, which is why members needed to ask for them.  Theoretically, the administrator could create a new gallery (folder) for every member without waiting for a request.  But that would be unbelievably time consuming.  The gallery and the forum are actually separate entities, and it is only with software tricks that I was able to get the membership data linked between the two.

Increasing the file size, of course, has to do with the server space.  When I ran the forum, using the Web hosting service I subscribed to, it would have been prohibitively expensive for me to get enough space to accomodate Sketchup files.

Sometimes, and this is true of all software systems, what seems like an easy thing to do from a customer point of view is actually really difficult technically.  It can be frustrating when you're the one designing the site and really want to give your members what they ask for.

Contests are great, but what ended up happening towards the end was that if it was based on the project itself, people were not going to post if they felt that the prize wasn't worthy.  IMHO monthly project contests are too often - they become normal versus something to create a buzz.  

Yes, the concept for the contests seemed to stray for that reason.  My goal for the contests was to use them as a way to get members posting more, and posting more variety.  I also wanted to encourage members to look back through FOG history and find posts that were not as visible any more simply because they were a bit older.  That's why a lot of the contest themes I put together had to do with finding existing posts.

But running contests ends up being very time consuming.  A lot of background work has to be done to contact sellers to donate items, then you have to set up the rules and manage questions and concerns.  Random contests make that a bit easier, but they lose the edge I mentioned above.

Like the software, sometimes something that seems easy is actually quite complex to implement!

Stay in touch,
Matthew