What can we do to make the forum a better place for YOU?

[Administrator_JSVN]

This is typically a slow time of year on the forum and for good reason --- people are out enjoying the beautiful summer weather and those of you who make a living working outdoors are hopefully making some bank. But, this is also a good time to poll the forum members to make sure we're doing a good job serving you personally. If you have feedback you'd like to share either publicly here in this thread or privately via email or PM to myself or one of the moderators, I'd enjoy hearing what you all have to say. Hopefully the forum continues to offer advice, answer questions, provide collaboration, inspire through the sharing of members' projects and offer a friendly place for each of you to visit.

If there's anything I can do, please feel free to tell me what I can do to make your time here more valuable and enjoyable.

And, thanks to each of you for your valuable contributions here on the forum. While it's probably not said often enough, there are thousands of members and anonymous visitors who benefit from the posts here.

Shane

 

[Steve R]

The FOG site has been a great source of information for me and hundred others. I have been on there a while and as I have learned more. I find that there might be an opportunity to maybe add a Discussions group or two that just might add value at little to no cost.

As former Business Consultant my apologies in advance as, I have not fully thought this out and can't give a full recommendation, but allow me to comment on what I perceive as lacking and things missing.

When I look at the listed Discussions on the FOG site all are mostly clear about what they are about. Being that this web site is not just social but also serves as a learning and information site I see opportunity.

I started the thread What a great Festool day Last Wednesday was!!!  in reply 11 I found out where to find the Festool corporate training site http://www.festooltraining.com/schedule/ If that link is on the Festool USA site you’ve got it hidden. This should be better linked back and forth from the main USA site and The Training. I really found it odd and frustrating that I could not get back to the Main product pages for the training site.
in reply 13 I find out Shane posted last week the “Come visit us at Festool events in your area” post.  If someone had not posted that link I would not ever have found that post.

I thought to myself why can’t I find this out on the main site? So I started looking and looking …. And looking…  I finally found the info…. But it took way to long to expect the average person find it…unless they just got lucky.

NOTE: you have a continuity error on the Festool USA site. In looking for it I found that. You call it two different things and have a third thing almost named the same thing that is something else.

The “Where to buy tab” is a link that almost every website on the planet has. It has become a place that most internet users have been trained by experience that it is only for finding a dealer store, map, phone and hours. Not a place I would go to when looking for training or events.

The term “Regional Open Houses” is not a term that has a precise meaning. To me it means an event just for coffee and cookies and touch a product. As a pro I don’t have the time to go to weekday event just for coffee and cookies and touch a product that I can touch any other day at a dealer and not have a crowd around me.

The explanations about the events that are given once you click on it do help a bit….but your dealer network does not have sales people trained at a level that can do much more than sell me the product. WoodCraft here is the best I have found but I know what they know already. I shop Seven C. but I haven’t run into anyone that knows Festool besides knowing their stock. If it was not for Danny Hale’s PM from the FOG site I would not have known about or gone, as he described the event in more detail than I found at the link.

[attachthumb=#]

Now on the bottom of most of your pages Festool USA site you call it “Regional Demo Days”. This too has no defined meaning but does say I will most likely see it used.  

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On the Support page which is where I looked first as that is where I would expect to find training and events, you have “Wood Shop Demos” something different…. In the past that is where I stopped looking.

[attachthumb=#]

Also Seven Corners event I found out about Festool.TV. I just have to ask why is this not promoted better?

Currently on the FOG site in the Discussion area Festool Tools & Accessories there are some sticky items that are of great help.  

What I don’t see is any Discussion area about corporate info, training links, threads, ETC.

Consider the idea that the five stickys in the Festool Tools & Accessories maybe should be their own Discussion area or two.

There might be at least two main concept areas that might make the site faster to use and have greater benefit.
One concept area would be – where I would go to find Festool information that helps me with my product. Call it??  I don’t know…. reference, library, achieve, index, etc.?  I’m thinking only Festool Corp would be able to post here.
What I would like to find there would be.
1. Festool corporate news
2. ETA for intros into NA
3. Festool info that Festool posts like updates about a product that consumers might need to know. Such as a delay in a product just prior to its release
4. a list of all the supplement manuals and where to download them
5. pictures of how to get stuff back into classic systainers
6. parts diagrams
7. Sysnotes archive
8. Catalogs/manuals etc in PDF
9. Info about Festool.TV?
10. ETC.
A Second area might be – Training.
11. Corp Training Schedules
12. Demo Days notices and a description of what I would find
13. Festool might start a thread for every class/demo day. For directions and questions about that one class. Then archive or delete it. That way there is not one 35 page long thread.
14. A “Tips from the Trainers” area would be good.  NOT a Blog type thing as they far too often become rambling rants. What I thinking is someone like Steve Bace has threads that ONLY he can Post To. Where he can list the tips that he has for the different product. These would not be long post just a few words. Nor would they be expected to the end all for info, just starting point.
a. One example - the LR 32 system
i. When you get the product here is how you check it/ align it, or what links to read/view to do the same
ii. Books he recommend that will help you learn the 32 system
iii. What products he would recommend for the starter, full shop and recommended accessories.
iv. What hinges, etc. he used in the demo and class
v. Links to the Video training he did that is online or others he would recommend.
vi. If you’re coming to his 32 class – read, view or bring these things to get more out of it.
vii. ETC.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[pugilato]

The Forum is pretty cool, and I like it a lot.  One thing that I find myself doing when I open it is going to the bottom to find out what the latest replies on a particular subject are.  Maybe you could have a link at the top of the page with the "latest..." entries.

Since most of Festool's training occurs north and west of Florida, I would like to see a podcast.  Making a video of some of these training sessions should not be terribly difficult (the guys from Woodsmith Shop do it).  It could show the capabilities and advantages of the Festools and push some of the undecideds to buy a piece.

 

[mouppe]

I think you should force members to use British spelling.

[poke]

 

[RDMuller]

Better titles on posts.  "Dumb Question" being an example of something that is useless --- what machine? what project? etc

 

[fidelfs]

The Forum is pretty cool, and I like it a lot.  One thing that I find myself doing when I open it is going to the bottom to find out what the latest replies on a particular subject are.  Maybe you could have a link at the top of the page with the "latest..." entries.

It is something similar there, look at the right top for "UNREAD POSTS since last visit / NEW REPLIES to your posts"

 

[Alan m]

id like to see the following features

a section in the members section for friends, common members viewed etc.

a favorites section where you will have a link in your profile for threads that you like or ones that you want to be able to go back to easily

a section in your profile for threads that you started

make images automatically be small size (where you click to make bigger) and go back to small size when the thread opens again

make the threads open  and stay at the new post rather than move up as the pics open.

make members show a location including state etc not just usa (i know im a hipocrite on this)

some sort of calender to show all the upcomming events , training days and tool releases etc

show in a thread how is the opening poster that way we know how is repling to the thread and who is answering the replies

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

a section in your profile for threads that you started

You can go to your own profile page or that of other members and click the link at the bottom that says "Show the last posts of this person."

make members show a location including state etc not just usa (i know im a hipocrite on this)

This is a bit of a privacy issue. I respect members choice of choosing how specific to be about their whereabouts. For the purposes of answering questions on the forum, country is general specific enough.

 

[Neill]

Shane,

In general, there are about 100 things I like about the forum and only six issues. The thing is, I am not sure these are issues with the forum as much as they are issues with the members.

1)  Members who revive a post that is a year old or more and that has not been touched since.

2)  Members who fail to use the spell check feature.  It seems that our members across the waters do a better job of using English than those that live in NA.

3)  Members who post to a subject but fail to read the prior posts.

4)  "Members" who join for the SOLE purpose of posting about how superior other brands of tools are and to knock Festool.

5)  Members who seem to get into one on one conversations back and forth with another member.  They wind up getting off topic and those that are interested in the topic wind up having to wade through a bunch of garbage or just ignore responding when they might have something germane to add.

6)  Members that do nothing but criticize subjects or solutions brought up by other members.

Neill

 

[rnt80]

I would echo the request for podcasts or videos of the training sessions.  I could be wrong but I can't imagine those classes are a huge money maker for the company.  It would certainly benefit your clientele more if that information was available en masse.  I've never attended a class and don't really have the time and money to do so right now but I would like to learn some of what's taught.  It seems after each session some of those that were fortunate enough to attend rave about some of the "tricks" or new techniques they learned at the class.  Each time I use some of my Festool's I can't help but think that I'm not even touching the surface of the capabilities of the tool.  It would be great if all of this information/experience was accessible in such a way that more people could benefit from it.

 

[Steve R]

make members show a location including state etc not just usa (i know im a hipocrite on this)

This is a bit of a privacy issue. I respect members choice of choosing how specific to be about their whereabouts. For the purposes of answering questions on the forum, country is general specific enough.

I understand your point Shane. But if I had NOT put Twin Cities, MN  in my profile. maybe I'm lucky as Twin Cites covers about 30 towns. I don't want to give out my address,so someone can drive up and get my tools.

If I didn't have an area listed, I would have missed out on the Seven Corners Hardware Festool Event. Danny Hale the Regional Festool Rep. looked around the site and found I lived in the area and sent me a PM.

It would be helpful if we Festool junkies could Find members that are within so many miles of us. Their location could be hidden. But it would be helpful if Danny or one of us that knew about Festool event could contact the others that might like to attend.

But that feature would not like not be easy...... so the name of the City really does or even saying Central, MN or South MN.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Jesse Cloud]

I think the forum is great, and frankly - it has sold a lot of Festools.

Only suggestion I have is to improve the search tool.  Several times I have known there was a thread about a topic but just couldn't find it, and I see others mention having a similar experience.  Some sites offer search by google, maybe that would help.

And, tongue in cheek, maybe offer a widget that translates back and forth between British and American English.

 

[Alan m]

a section in your profile for threads that you started

You can go to your own profile page or that of other members and click the link at the bottom that says "Show the last posts of this person."

i know you can view your posts but wading through several hundred or thousand posts is a pain. if there was a link to the ones i started it would speed things up a bit. the search section needs a word put in  so this limits the search.

 

[Alan m]

Shane,

In general, there are about 100 things I like about the forum and only six issues. The thing is, I am not sure these are issues with the forum as much as they are issues with the members.

1)  Members who revive a post that is a year old or more and that has not been touched since.
whats wrong with that, some of the old threads are still relivent

2)  Members who fail to use the spell check feature.  It seems that our members across the waters do a better job of using English than those that live in NA.
the spell checker is slow and tedious. 99% of the posts (outside of JMB ) are easily read. people could use more parragraphs

3)  Members who post to a subject but fail to read the prior posts.
ok thats aonoying

4)  "Members" who join for the SOLE purpose of posting about how superior other brands of tools are and to knock Festool.

i believe that every tool has good points and bad and that every member should know that. there is nothing worse than someone ignoring one side of that ballence

5)  Members who seem to get into one on one conversations back and forth with another member.  They wind up getting off topic and those that are interested in the topic wind up having to wade through a bunch of garbage or just ignore responding when they might have something germane to add.

i know this gets out of hand sometimes but it is only friendly banter. them der UK members get carried away 2 much [poke] [poke]

6)  Members that do nothing but criticize subjects or solutions brought up by other members.

we should always be as realistic as posible but not too critical.you cannot loose sight of the fact that it is critisism that makes us push ourself harder and try to improve ourselfs and our work

Neill

ps i hate when people reply in a quote it drives me mad [wink]

 

[fidelfs]

I think the forum is great, and frankly - it has sold a lot of Festools.

Only suggestion I have is to improve the search tool.  Several times I have known there was a thread about a topic but just couldn't find it, and I see others mention having a similar experience.  Some sites offer search by google, maybe that would help.

And, tongue in cheek, maybe offer a widget that translates back and forth between British and American English.

In the mean time if you want to search this site with google, you have to go to google.com. Advance search http://www.google.com/advanced_search.  There is a box called "Search within a site or domain:". Enter www.festoolownwersgroup.com and use the other boxes to enter your search criteria.

I know is better to have it builtin but there is a option.

 

[jmbfestool]

Shane,

In general, there are about 100 things I like about the forum and only six issues. The thing is, I am not sure these are issues with the forum as much as they are issues with the members.

1)  Members who revive a post that is a year old or more and that has not been touched since.
whats wrong with that, some of the old threads are still relivent

2)  Members who fail to use the spell check feature.  It seems that our members across the waters do a better job of using English than those that live in NA.
the spell checker is slow and tedious. 99% of the posts (outside of JMB ) are easily read. people could use more parragraphs

3)  Members who post to a subject but fail to read the prior posts.
ok thats aonoying

4)  "Members" who join for the SOLE purpose of posting about how superior other brands of tools are and to knock Festool.

i believe that every tool has good points and bad and that every member should know that. there is nothing worse than someone ignoring one side of that ballence

5)  Members who seem to get into one on one conversations back and forth with another member.  They wind up getting off topic and those that are interested in the topic wind up having to wade through a bunch of garbage or just ignore responding when they might have something germane to add.

i know this gets out of hand sometimes but it is only friendly banter. them der UK members get carried away 2 much [poke] [poke]

6)  Members that do nothing but criticize subjects or solutions brought up by other members.

we should always be as realistic as posible but not too critical.you cannot loose sight of the fact that it is critisism that makes us push ourself harder and try to improve ourselfs and our work

Neill

ps i hate when people reply in a quote it drives me mad [wink]

I knew my name would come up when I read Neills post!   I thought some one is going to say something and it had to be you Alan M the annoying member who used Red highlight appose to just making it bold!  Its hard to read!

I hate members who highlight especially yellow highlight really hard to read.  [tongue] [tongue] [tongue]

A few improvements I would like to see.

1) Is being able to untag your self from a thread once you posted as some threads go on an on an on an on an on an on an on and every time I sign on I click on new replies the thread is back der again  I end up just clicking on it and then clicking pack on new replies to get it away.  The only solutions I found was to delete all my post I posted in the thread.

2) Being able to go onto your own profile and see ALL Threads/Topics you started as I think I have started a fair few and I cnt remember them all nor can I easily find them some times.

3) Clicking on my profile I am able to see all my posts I have posted not in order like it is now Show members last post which takes ages to find what your want but in categories  so this would help with number 2 included!  So as well as seeing   Show members last post   another section Show members Posts/Threads.    

It takes you to a page and you can see ALL Threads started by this member and by clicking on a specific Thread you can see all posts this member has posted ONLY in this Thread no other post by other members.    

Go back to the Show members Posts/Threads  you can also see all other Threads this person has posted but not Threads started by this person and click on them to see what they ONLY have posted in that particular Thread.

All this Show memeber posts/Threads can be put in order of Type!  So by Date or Type of Thread-Topic (General Chat, Woodworking)

4) Going on a members Profile and Seeing ALL pictures he/she loaded up and ALL Videos (Youtube links)

The first two are my two MAIN upgrades I would like to see in the Forum

Thank you

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

I definitely appreciate all of this feedback. Some of it may be possible, some not as we are limited by the inherent capabilities of the forum software.

However, I guess I had something a little different in mind with my original post. I was gearing it more toward: is there something we can do to make the forum more enjoyable, engaging, valuable to you as a member.

 

[pugilato]

The Forum is pretty cool, and I like it a lot.  One thing that I find myself doing when I open it is going to the bottom to find out what the latest replies on a particular subject are.  Maybe you could have a link at the top of the page with the "latest..." entries.

It is something similar there, look at the right top for "UNREAD POSTS since last visit / NEW REPLIES to your posts"

The unread posts since last visit doesn't work most of the time that I look at it, therefore I just go to the bottom of the page and see who's posted what.

 

[pugilato]

I definitely appreciate all of this feedback. Some of it may be possible, some not as we are limited by the inherent capabilities of the forum software.

However, I guess I had something a little different in mind with my original post. I was gearing it more toward: is there something we can do to make the forum more enjoyable, engaging, valuable to you as a member.

The forum is pretty good as is.  My suggestion about the podcasts is not relevant to the forum, but still something I would like to see.  One thing I would definetely like to see is, when I get an email about a new posting on a certain subject... Is it possible to show the text posted?  Kind of like facebook does.  That way I can check the posting in email, and if I want to reply, I'll just log on.  Otherwise, keep doing other things.

 

[kevros]

The Forum is pretty cool, and I like it a lot.  One thing that I find myself doing when I open it is going to the bottom to find out what the latest replies on a particular subject are.  Maybe you could have a link at the top of the page with the "latest..." entries.

It is something similar there, look at the right top for "UNREAD POSTS since last visit / NEW REPLIES to your posts"

The unread posts since last visit doesn't work most of the time that I look at it, therefore I just go to the bottom of the page and see who's posted what.

I use the  "UNREAD POSTS since last visit / NEW REPLIES to your posts" regularly and seems to work for me. Though if I haven't visited for a couple of days it may be five pages long!!
One thing I would like to see is the ability to tage a post (or thread) in a personal archive, which I could go back to at my leisure.