Shopsmith Forums

[quote="JPG40504"]As one who often has 'put out the word', I offer my viewpoint.

I can see the reason for the 'heads up' posts to be in community, but those who might actually be interested will likely be cruising the M&R forum.

Not all here cruise the CL & e-bay sites daily. Geez some folks have to still work for a pay check!:rolleyes:

I agree more folks here are not interested in saving these machines than those that do, but these posts do sometimes spin off into discussions regarding some things that not all here have 'seen' before. i.e. learning occurs.

So I will continue to put them in the M&R forum with a 'Heads Up' title.

Those not interested or offended by them will know to not click on them.












FWIW IMHO A good natured jab at being crabby is a reasonable thing for a fed up person venting to endure.]


You make a good point I often do learn things from some of the posts on restoring the old machines.
I'm fairly selective on the posts and post I do not click on.

In the beginners I rarely click on anything to do with turning, I turn but not enough to offer advice.

In the Maint and Repair I rarely click on 10Er posts or how do I adj glimer belt type questions.

On the rest I pretty much read them all.

I can't say any have been a real waste of my time, when you consider I'm probably wasting time being on the forum to start with

So what next?

Crabby, fed up, venting, now bitchy.

All are an emotional state of mind.


I dare say Rbursek is much more knowledgeable as a result of those interchanges.

As I dare say are others.


Open interchanges can benefit 'observers' when done openly. Not so when PM is used.

Do not consider this as an attack or attempt to 'escalate', but merely to observe and reflect.

Keep in mind an individuals need/preferences are not universal. Diffent stokes fo diffnt folks. So I agree to disagree.

Dusty, as a moderator on a few forums, most of which have a "community" or some other "off topic" section, that section IS a chat room. That is what it is designed for.






That is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

steve

I think I'm going to have to come out on Dusty side on this one.

I spend maybe 95% less time here then I did in the past. I no longer read all the posts like I use to. I have even began thinking that I can get along fine reading once a day. This leaves more time for doing other things that interest me more.

I've pretty much given up participating in "chats", most don't interest me.

I don't get in to repairs or diagnosing problems like I use to.

I don't spend hours doing projects that I would share details and photos of during builds, I just do them and sometime show pictures of "finished" projects. No one seems interested in doing this and I've pretty much given up on this as a worth while pastime.

If I were interested in buying of "C"list I would shop there, I don't I haven't even been on ebay in 3 or 4 months, point is if this interested me I'd take the time to look. Now if you find a dewalt router on sale for $39 at a chain store or online store that is a different thing. Those things come up from time to time but not as often as we see shopsmith "deals". Perhaps we could curtail some of that craigs listings???

Of course I can lower my involvement even more and then I could care less what happens on the subject.

You can call me itch stitches until Tuesday if you want but the subject is one we should all think about, don't assume I'm right or wrong just think about it.

Ed

reible wrote:I think I'm going to have to come out on Dusty side on this one.

I spend maybe 95% less time here then I did in the past. I no longer read all the posts like I use to. I have even began thinking that I can get along fine reading once a day. This leaves more time for doing other things that interest me more.

I've pretty much given up participating in "chats", most don't interest me.

I don't get in to repairs or diagnosing problems like I use to.

I don't spend hours doing projects that I would share details and photos of during builds, I just do them and sometime show pictures of "finished" projects. No one seems interested in doing this and I've pretty much given up on this as a worth while pastime.

If I were interested in buying of "C"list I would shop there, I don't I haven't even been on ebay in 3 or 4 months, point is if this interested me I'd take the time to look. Now if you find a dewalt router on sale for $39 at a chain store or online store that is a different thing. Those things come up from time to time but not as often as we see shopsmith "deals". Perhaps we could curtail some of that craigs listings???

Of course I can lower my involvement even more and then I could care less what happens on the subject.

You can call me itch stitches until Tuesday if you want but the subject is one we should all think about, don't assume I'm right or wrong just think about it.

Ed

I'm sorry to read that, Ed. I for one, certainly enjoy and learn from your build posts and your participation in diagnosis, as well.

Well Opinions differ here.
I would be willing to drive 100 miles or so for a great deal but I'm not gonna check CL for every location that far.
I suppose a good title for a new post can help those uninterested people just skip on by it. But when I'm bored I'll read just about anything on this forum.

I'll add just a couple of my opinions on the topic... It was mentioned earlier that there could potentially be a thread specifically for CL/eBay "finds"; I participate in another online community specific to the make and model RV I have and the issue of frequent CL ads was becoming a distraction across all the threads on the site. The admins created a separate thread just for those posts and are ruthless in moving rouge posts to that CL/eBay thread then informing the poster where to place their posts in the future. It now works very well.

A key difference is that the manufacture of that specific make/model of RV has been out of business for several years and the community operates and maintains the website. That is not the case here; Shopsmith is in business and is actively selling systems and they spend the time and money to operate this forum on our behalf. It would not be in their best interests to provide support for sales that do not benefit them. I think that sometimes people forget that we are afforded this site due to their generosity and posting "finds" is probably something that we as a community should refrain from. On other vendor supported sites, these type of posting would just be removed immediately by the vendor admins. Everyone here knows how to use CL or eBay to find local items when they want to... thanks.

I also agree that we are participating in a forum, not a social network... If that's what you want do, then by all means join the people using Facebook and Twitter to spam about their lives on those site; Shopsmith just recently launch a page on Facebook. I understand that we get new folks here from time-to-time and they are excited about their "new toy" and we don't want to discourage their seeking knowledge and operating their Shopsmith in a safe manner but the "manic", hyperactive posters truly need to "get a hobby". Maybe woodworking might be a good channel for all that energy, just a thought... What we don't want is to drive away long-standing members of this community and loose the valuable knowledge they have to impart.

Again, just my opinions and fortunately, they are the only ones I care about.

The adage familiarly breeds contempt may be at play here. I think some of us are losing patience with others. Some of us seem to be awfully quick on our come backs and I wonder if many that were meant to be done as humorous becomes misunderstood and appear hostile.

My biggest beef is the interesting threads on interesting topics too often get sidetracked by feeble attempts of humor or who cares chit chat.

I like Reible's step by step with picture illustrations of interesting projects. I don't like playing guess what I'm making though. Tell me what you making and let me learn from your techniques don't blur it all because I'm trying to figure out what you are making.

I hope I have earned the right to state my opinion every once in a while on this site. Otherwise, just tell me to buzz off, which some of you have

Fred

Like a Shopsmith, this thread has lots of moving parts.

1. Craigslist "deal" posts belong, if anywhere, in the community forum. Shopsmith can protect its interests by deleting these threads if it wants to; but for every used Shopsmith that gets sold, I'm willing to bet Shopsmith gets new sales in repair parts, missing parts and consumables. I've posted a couple of these deal alerts but, after reading the various viewpoints, I agree we all know how to use CL so it probably isn't necessary and I will no longer make those kinds of posts.

2. There is still a lot great Shopsmith-related/woodworking-related information on the forum. But I have noticed an increase in the proportion of what I consider to be totally pointless/useless posts that have nothing whatsoever to do with woodworking or Shopsmith. Yes, the community forum is there for those off-topic posts, But when the community forum gets to be more active that the other forums it bores me and I view it as an indication that the forum is not healthy and is turning into a second-rate social media site. During presidential elections the forum can becomes a second-rate political site. But that's another story....

3. My solution has been to make increasing use of the "ignore" list function. At one point I only used it for spammers. But now I use it for members I consider tiresome "Johnny One Notes" who can be counted on to say essentially the same thing in response to any and every post. In addition, I've put a few folks on there whose posts I find too difficult to read because they seem to be trying hard to show off their personality with their intentional use of non-standard spelling and punctuation (not talking about typos). Its just too much work to read their posts and usually they don't have anything to say that interests me anyway.

3. I still read almost every project post and every post with questions about maintenance and repair.

Al