Specific Tool Indexes?

[Matthew Schenker]

Everyone,
There has been such an amazing amount of information shared here about the Domino -- basic tool uses, projects, reviews, unusual applications and techniques, tool enhancements, and more.

How can we pull all that information together in a more organized fashion?

I'm imagining an evolving, virtual resource book that expands as more information and ideas are posted.  It would be a kind of easy-to-follow index, with links out to specific posts on the sub-topic for that tool.  Of course, members can always use the forum's "search" function, but I wonder if this idea would be even more friendly?

I've got this image of what I'd like to see, but it's still a bit hazy.  The challenge is to make it easier to find information, while keeping the structure simple.

Right now, I'm talking about the Domino, but there may be other tools that could use a "specific tool index."  I'm thinking about the plunge saws, routers, and sanders, for example.

What do you all think of this?  Do you think it would be beneficial?  Do we need it?  If we did it, how should it be structured?

Stay in touch,
Matthew Schenker

 

[Dan Lyke]

I have been amazed at the ways that wikis can evolve into useful structure, but I'm not sure how socially to get there from here.

I think if we started out with wiki-like pages devoted to the tools, or maybe broken into categories at first, circular saws, routers, sanders (which I'm sure would become Rotex and "other" almost instantly), the Domino, and just started pasting links to the appropriate places in the message forums, or copying and pasting text from the forums into the Wiki, we'd start to evolve some good structure.

The leap from forums, which encourage a chronological organization and a lot of socializing (which is also good!), to a wiki, which should encourage editing and reorganization, won't be immediate, and in a perfect world wouldn't be "from" one "to" another, but would encompass both. But if such a resource were there, then if every once in a while one of us goes and summarizes a message thread into the Wiki and sets it up as a document for everyone to fine-tune, maybe it'd work.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Dan,
Yes, my goal would be to have this be a feature of the forum.  The social aspects of a forum, and the chronological nature, are of vital importance.

What I want to do (and again I'm working with a hazy idea here) is to have places where clusters of information come together.

We all come to this forum, browse, read posts, sometimes with a purpose and sometimes just to meander and socialize.  But a lot of times someone comes here saying, "I want to see all the Domino stuff."  I want to have a place where the member can go to focus just on that tool.  The index would not provide different information, just an organized, nicely arranged area showing all the information that's available.

If successful, this would be better than a wiki: it would fit naturally into the forum structure, enhance the social aspects, and provide more information.  It would also have visual impact -- going to the tool index would make a strong impression on the member, showing how much is available on the Domino (for example).

Matthew Schenker

 

[Daviddubya]

...How can we pull all that information together in a more organized fashion?
...

I use the Search function to find information about a specific subject.  Google has made that function a way of life on the Internet.  Perhaps this forum could employ the power of Google, as some other forums have done.

 

[charlie b]

How about having a web page - or two - or more
with descriptions of info and links to where it
is - AND a search feature.  The problem with
"searching" if knowing WHAT to search FOR.
It's sort of like trying to look up the spelling
of a word by using something that you need
to know how to spell in order to find out how
it's spelled.

The other shortcoming of just a search feature
is all the other stuff that might catch your
interest and may be far more useful than
whatever it was you initially wanted to search
for. There's a lot to be said for serendipity.

Here's an example of a set up that I found
worked well for storing and accessing info
on the subject of woodworking benches
http://www.workbenchdesign.net/rothers.html

And here's a clunky one I put up to answer
all the questions that come up about Pointy
Sticks.
http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/PointyStick/PS1TableOfContent.html

Any librarians out there.  Librarians are VERY
good at structuring information in a way that
can be gotten to quickly.

charlie b

 

[Brice Burrell]

  I like Matthew's idea, Here is how we set up this kind of thing on anther forum that I used to mod. Start a new category, with sub categories, Festool owners group>Tool index or tool resource>Domino or other tool. Then tack thread(s) with the resources and lock them, so they don't get cluttered and add to them when some thing new comes up. People can start new threads about the question that will arise. So what do you guys think?

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Brice,
Yes, I want is for people to continue posting anywhere they want on any subject, just as we do now.  But I would add an index for certain tools, based on the number and complexity of the posts on that tool.  Once the  index itself is created, people would not be able to comment on it.  (But we would have a general area within the index board for comments).

For example, "Domino Index" could have the following entries:
Basic Usage
Advanced Usage
Project Ideas
Tool Enhancements
Reviews

My goal here is to give members many different ways of finding what they want.  They can casually see the variety of posts about certain tools, or go to a more structured list of everything on that tool.  They would see entries they might not think of when doing a search.

If this works, the indexes would form "nodes" of information, spots where all the various and sundry discussions come into focus.  It's important for this to be integrated into the forum, not a separate feature.  I want all useful information to be housed under the same roof.

I may go in and create an experimental index.

More comments and suggestions are welcome.

Matthew

 

[Matthew Schenker]

I have been amazed at the ways that wikis can evolve into useful structure, but I'm not sure how socially to get there from here.

There are plug-ins for this software that allow a wiki to be developed and integrated into the forum.  There are options for making the wiki private, so it is only accessible to members of the forum.  I'm looking into it now.

Matthew

 

[Dan Lyke]

Cool. For all the reasons we've both mentioned, starting with a Wiki doesn't work, but using one so that all the users can help and reorganize threads of value sounds like a really good thing.