Shopsmith Forums

Ed in Tampa wrote:I thought we were discussing the merger of Black and Decker and Stanley. And yes it does have polictical/social factors that will effect our woodworking. Without competition, with out critical thinking, without selective and careful purchasing we all are enabling manufactures to past on junk in the name of modern business practices.

If you don't want to discuss these factors fine but when you ask why you can't find a tool or why this business or that went out of business and all you hear is silence. Knot that it will be because you didn't want to discuss the real reasons for things like this merger.

Sorry I think this merger and the reasons for it should concern all us woodworkers. I also believe it has far reaching effects that can even effect Shopsmith.

Now taking cheap shots at a president or a political party is uncalled for and something we shouldn't do in private let alone in on a public forum like this.

Well Said!

Imho, bliss is overrated and dangerous.

Too bad about Stanley et al. Very enlightening to hear about the interconnections, corporate-wise speaking. Splains a lot.

Seems to me, if you can find a quality tool now's the time to acquire it, assuming you will be doing so eventually. That quality may go away. Heck, the company may go away. And quality items may actually be a good investment, if they are things people will always want or need. We probably all have something in the shop that's worth more now than when it was purchased, including vintage Stanleys.

keakap wrote:Imho, bliss is overrated and dangerous.

Too bad about Stanley et al. Very enlightening to hear about the interconnections, corporate-wise speaking. Splains a lot.

Seems to me, if you can find a quality tool now's the time to acquire it, assuming you will be doing so eventually. That quality may go away. Heck, the company may go away. And quality items may actually be a good investment, if they are things people will always want or need. We probably all have something in the shop that's worth more now than when it was purchased, including vintage Stanleys.

Or ShopSmiths!

dusty wrote:It has become almost impossible to develop a thread about either wood working or tools on this forum - or am I the only one that feels that way.

beeg wrote:NOPE, you knot the only one Dusty.

dusty / beeg ...curious to know if you are refering to the levity that gets introduced in the posts.

mickyd wrote:dusty / beeg ...curious to know if you are refering to the levity that gets introduced in the posts.

Yes, Mike, to some degree (because it distracts and is often the factor that causes the thread to go jump track. But the greater frustration for me is that it all leads to not being able to search the thread.

If I cannot get back to a post, that I know is there, but is not detectable by a logical search, then the forum has LOST VALUE (at least to me). This happens whenever the a thread is derailed. The basic subject of the original thread is completely lost and the subject of the side bar is never declared.

I have no problem with the religious, political or humorous side comments or in some cases complete threads because I can ignoe or choose not to read - except to extent that, again, it all detracts from the value of the forum to me.

Now, I know that this forum is not here for me and I can always go somewhere else for that purpose. Believe me, I have given that some thought. It is the Shopsmith tie that keeps me here and little else.

dusty wrote:Yes, Mike, to some degree (because it distracts and is often the factor that causes the thread to go jump track. But the greater frustration for me is that it all leads to not being able to search the thread.

If I cannot get back to a post, that I know is there, but is not detectable by a logical search, then the forum has LOST VALUE (at least to me). This happens whenever the a thread is derailed. The basic subject of the original thread is completely lost and the subject of the side bar is never declared.

I have no problem with the religious, political or humorous side comments or in some cases complete threads because I can ignoe or choose not to read - except to extent that, again, it all detracts from the value of the forum to me.

Now, I know that this forum is not here for me and I can always go somewhere else for that purpose. Believe me, I have given that some thought. It is the Shopsmith tie that keeps me here and little else.

I am starting a new thread on the 'Subject' of "searching".

dusty wrote:Yes, Mike, to some degree (because it distracts and is often the factor that causes the thread to go jump track. But the greater frustration for me is that it all leads to not being able to search the thread.

If I cannot get back to a post, that I know is there, but is not detectable by a logical search, then the forum has LOST VALUE (at least to me). This happens whenever the a thread is derailed. The basic subject of the original thread is completely lost and the subject of the side bar is never declared.

I have no problem with the religious, political or humorous side comments or in some cases complete threads because I can ignoe or choose not to read - except to extent that, again, it all detracts from the value of the forum to me.

Now, I know that this forum is not here for me and I can always go somewhere else for that purpose. Believe me, I have given that some thought. It is the Shopsmith tie that keeps me here and little else.

Thanks for explaining. I now understand your primary and secondary concern.

Regarding your primary search concern, I feel your pain. The search engine used by this vbulletin forum software is not the most advanced. Hopefully, jpg's thread will introduce some techniques not all of us are aware of. I created my own "search engine" on both my Greenie and ER restoration threads. Notice post # 1 of each thread includes a table of contents with links to each topic. That was my way of helping myself when I was looking for stuff.

With threads going off track, we could make a better attempt to stay on topic. Speaking for myself, my brain don't always follow such a logical course. It probably has to do with the amount of time that goes by between posts and where my brain has gone in between those times. Many times, in casual conversation, topics within a single conversation are numerous. In formal structured discussion (i.e. meetings, court cases, presentations etc.), it tends to be far more linear.

The casual conversation I have with my wife.....she is able to bring a story off what I think is the "logical" course to the point where I don't even know how we got to where we are but miraculously (to me at least), at some point, she ties it all together and pulls all the pieces back to our original topic. Each point outside "the line" comes back in. She adds all the other pieces as supporting tidbits, and does so quite effectively. By then, I've forgotten what we were even talking about. Somehow in the end, it all makes sense though. Just don't ask me to have to repeat the path we took throughout the conversation.

Generally, I am more of a point A to B guy in verbal discussion unless I am socializing. When socializing, I can go all over the place. When I am here, I feel like I am both in discussion AND socializing. I can stay very much on point, but at times, the socializing part of me kicks in. Don't know that I can or would even want to try and control that. It's my nature. Other peoples nature is probably the complete opposite, in both directions....pure socializing, pure discussion.

So blah, blah, blah...I don't even know for sure where I took this other than to share my 2 cents worth on what conversation is all about as viewed by this simple little pea brain.

dusty wrote:Yes, Mike, to some degree (because it distracts and is often the factor that causes the thread to go jump track. But the greater frustration for me is that it all leads to not being able to search the thread.

If I cannot get back to a post, that I know is there, but is not detectable by a logical search, then the forum has LOST VALUE (at least to me). This happens whenever the a thread is derailed. The basic subject of the original thread is completely lost and the subject of the side bar is never declared.

I have no problem with the religious, political or humorous side comments or in some cases complete threads because I can ignoe or choose not to read - except to extent that, again, it all detracts from the value of the forum to me.

Now, I know that this forum is not here for me and I can always go somewhere else for that purpose. Believe me, I have given that some thought. It is the Shopsmith tie that keeps me here and little else.

Dusty,
It seems to me that the root of your frustration is in your lack of ability to obtain a quality search other than the threads "jumping track". I would humbly suggest that; instead of fussing at the other forum members who aren't as linear thinking as you... you might try aiming you ire at the people/person responsible for the software/search engine used on this forum. I would think you may have better luck in getting them to change the software than changing all the different personalities on this forum to your will. I did not post this to make you mad or make light of your complaint. It is simply my opinion, and we all know what those are.
Oh! By the way! This subject has nothing to do with the original thread either. Who started this divergence?

[quote="curiousgeorge"]Dusty,
It seems to me that the root of your frustration is in your lack of ability to obtain a quality search other than the threads "jumping track". I would humbly suggest that]

We are now about as far off topic as we could get and that is sorta my point. We are so used to doing that that we may (as you have said) never resolve the tendency.

As far as directing my frustration toward the software developers, that has already been done. Nick and I had a couple different conversations about 1) the inadequacies of the search engine and 2) the antiquated nature of this version of software from vBulletin. Even though this was many months ago, it was made abundantly clear to me that Shopsmith was not going to be paying big bucks to get an updated, more powerful version of the search engine for some time.

Having worked for years in "system engineering", I think my thought process is more circular than linear but that is beside the point.

I'll just terminate my off topic conversation (in this thread) and watch to see if it ever comes back on track.

dusty wrote:We are now about as far off topic as we could get and that is sorta my point. We are so used to doing that that we may (as you have said) never resolve the tendency.

As far as directing my frustration toward the software developers, that has already been done. Nick and I had a couple different conversations about 1) the inadequacies of the search engine and 2) the antiquated nature of this version of software from vBulletin. Even though this was many months ago, it was made abundantly clear to me that Shopsmith was not going to be paying big bucks to get an updated, more powerful version of the search engine for some time.

Having worked for years in "system engineering", I think my thought process is more circular than linear but that is beside the point.

I'll just terminate my off topic conversation (in this thread) and watch to see if it ever comes back on track.

For those who may have lost their 'focus', this thread is about the Stanley/Black & Decker merger!;)