Replies

1. 
   JeffHeath | Dec 31, 2009 09:44am | #1

   I agree. I've given it my
   I agree. I've given it my best effort, and find myself intentionally answering posts that I wouldn't have bothered with under the old format, because I knew several would come along with the same answer, anyway. However, I must admit that I am slowly sneaking my way towards the closet to don my Knot's life jacket. Once I get it on, I will make my way to a life boat.

   It seems that the only folks who seem to really like this new format are the ones that are newest to the forum. Like dgreen mentioned in another thread, it's easy to comment when you have 4 or 5 weeks invested. Like many others, I've got a decade invested in this forum, and it's really sad to think that this could be the end of it.

   For the first time, I've gone seeking for other forums to sink my teeth into, because the content here is almost non-existent. I hope it isn't so.....I hope it isn't so!!!

   Happy New Year to all, and here's hoping than in the new year, we won't see the Knot's forum go down like the Titanic.

   Jeff

1. 
   GRW | Dec 31, 2009 02:22pm | #3

   I was busy with family and work for a while and was unable to check into Knots for a while. When I returned I found the new format. I didn't care for it, and I find that it does have a negative effect on my activity here. If we're voting, I vote to return to the old format. I'm not the host here. I don't have to finance or maintain this forum. I thank those who provide this free service, and respect your right to change it as you see fit. But if you're looking for free feedback from a user who's been here a while, you will get a "Old Format" vote from me.

2. 
   jhonbaker | Dec 31, 2009 05:41pm | #5

   I'm sure that my opinions
   I'm sure that my opinions will be discarded due to my newness to this forum and I will not qualify my presence here as some believe is necessary. However I would see the largest reason traffic might be down is that every time I read a thread it has at least one mention of how the old way was better and how people are leaving - I am still waiting for those people to leave as it seems they are the only ones commenting at all, I suspect that others like myself are waiting as well because we are tired of it. Is this format better? I don't know because I have not been using it much but I can tell you that it is not going to change back but progress forward and one day we will all think it has always been this way with the exception of the last curmudgeon who will hang on to the outmoded so long that even he/she does not remember it but only remembers it was somehow in someway better. It reminds me of nostalgia restaurants that recall a simpler time - whenever I ask where the whites only signs are they get quiet and cannot answer. Like it or not progress moves things and will eventually move things into better territories. Don't like it? Well, as I've always said - if life gives you lemons, shut up and eat your lemons.

   now, I have a woodworking question - is it possible to get back to those?

   Jhon - I retain the right to change my mind.

1. 
   Napie | Dec 31, 2009 08:12pm | #8

   You are of course correct, at least as you see it. So it is all yours enjoy it and I hope you become one of the "new" regulars.

2. 
   mvflaim | Dec 31, 2009 10:07am | #2

   A couple of weeks ago I made a post on how my SawStop activated. I ended up getting about eight replies. At the same time, I placed the exact post over at Breaktime Classic and received over 30 replies even though the forum was new and only had about a hundred members.

   A forum is only as good as the members who participate and with the recent change here I'm not certain I'll stick around much longer. I come here to learn and to get quick answers to my woodworking questions.

   The forum seems dead and I don't blame it on the holdiays because I never noticed that the previous years. Usually members would post Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. I don't see any of that now. Maybe those posts are here and it's hard to find but I'm not going to waste time looking for them.

   I'll give the forum a month to wake up before I decide to move on. It's a sad but fitting end to a crappy 2009 for me.

1. 
   Napie | Dec 31, 2009 08:06pm | #7

   It is dead, at least for the old timers. I don't see many of the regulars here anymore. But the new folks may fill it back up over time since they have little experience with the "old crew" and the community that had been built here. It is sad, while I had a number of spirited exchanges with many of the members it was a place I visited at least a few times a day and very much enjoyed.

   I had stated a long time ago that Taunton had ceased to care about its long time subscribers and supporters of the company. This change seems only to confirm that situation. I am sure Paul Roman would not be happy. A very sad end to a fine organization.

3. 
   Troy | Dec 31, 2009 05:40pm | #4

   I am sure part of the problem is getting used to a new format, I know I like the old format better but maybe I will get used to the new one. It does seem slower though and of course I could use a spell check:)

   Troy

4. 
   Troy | Dec 31, 2009 05:41pm | #6

   I am sure part of the problem is getting used to a new format, I know I like the old format better but maybe I will get used to the new one. It does seem slower though and of course I could use a spell check:)

   Troy

5. 
   stpatrick | Dec 31, 2009 11:56pm | #9

   The holidays have actually given a lot of us MORE time to be here, but i have a lot less desire to dig thru the posts. I have TRIED very hard to get adapted to this layout/format . . . . but it just isn't "happening" for this old fart with lots of discretionary income and time. The old system was more intuitive, better layout and not as sterile.

   Jason, you may be good at generating clicks (first dates) but this relationship no longer has the magical feeling. You may have to find a ride home, and I won't be asking for a second date.

   Any chance in He11 that we can go back to the old romance (format)?

   Just curious, what is or will be your yardstick for deeming this transition a "success", a "failure", or a tie/draw????

   Is the company going to use the same measuring device??

6. 
   Lataxe | Jan 01, 2010 05:29am | #10

   You lads!

   Here are some navigation tips:

   Use the "Navigation" box at the top-left of the initial Knots screen to select "Recent Replies" or "Recent Topics". I prefer the former as it shows who has posted since I last visited.

   Don't just click on this link: open it in a "new tab" or "new window" (right-click the "Recent Replies" link to get a drop-down list containing these options). "New tab" is best, if your browser supports tabs, as you can easily click atween the different tabs you open, all lined up along the top of the browser window.

   If you do open new windows instead they are lined up along the bottom of the screen in the task bar or other O/S equivalent.

   From the "recent replies" list that opens after clicking the "Recent Replies" link, select those replies you are interested in. Select just one reply from any particular topic as the new tab or window you use to open it (use that right-click drop down menu again) will obviously contain all the posts in that topic.

   Each topic and it's replies opens at the top of the thread (a pity but there it is). Scroll down to find the replies of interest, noting those marked "new". You may or may not like the indenting non-linear time line arrangement. In all events, I believe one of the fixes in the pipeline is to make all post time-ordered.

   ****

   I have to say that, if you're finding navigation here difficult you may need to go on a basic computing skills course. It ain't hard just because it's different from something else. We're woodworkers fergawsake! We learn new things 27 times a day! (Don't we)?

   Lataxe, trying to get the moan-buzz out of his surfing eye.

1. 
   lwilliams | Jan 01, 2010 08:41am | #11

   Latax,

   Your solution is fine for those who have a lot of free time on their hands and have personal lives that revolve around this forum. That doesn't work for me.

   When I open Knots it's one of 14 tabs of one book mark folder of woodworking forums. When I'm here, I already have 14 tabs open and I try to scan through them all. I find off-topic posts about some idle person sampling his lady-wife's crullers in the posies an annoyance. I'm not here for that. I don't always get through all 14 tabs and I have yet another book mark folder full of other woodworking related sites I try to watch.

   I also have other folders containing links to other things I'm interested in. I've avoided the Cafe because I don't have time for it. Now I have to scroll through all that stuff too? I don't think so. I'm about to weed out a lot of the links in the different book mark folders and Knots will most likely be one I dump. It's just not worth the time involved in searching out the stuff that's of interest to me.

2. 
   Westchester | Jan 01, 2010 10:12am | #12

   Thanks for the suggestions - it's easier with the tabs -

   SA

3. 
   Napie | Jan 01, 2010 01:19pm | #13

   Well my friend I did not become successful in business by refusing to embrace change and implementing it as soon as it made sense. By the same token I did not achieve that success by jumping on the latest "new" thing just because someone else told me it was better. I pass everything through the "juice-squeeze" equation, i.e. is the juice worth the effort to squeeze it. This new format does not pass that test for me, or it seems many other of the old regulars based on the lack of posts.

   (Please note that I just purchased my first MacBook Pro this past November and am now a HUGE fan so much so that we now have three in the house networked! So yes I love change as long as it works...)

   I aplaude you in your efforts to stick to it and you may become the "senior poster" for all the new folks that show up here and have no history with the prior community. But please stop the insults to those of us who don't care for the new format and don't see it as a positive change, we are not stupid or bull headed, we just don't see any advantage to it.

   BTW I have started a version of your hay rake table in American Ash, I hope you don't mind the cross-the-pond plagiarism!

   Napie -- who got rich knowing which change to embrace and which to run from...

7. 
   Lataxe | Jan 01, 2010 03:07pm | #14

   Nap,

   I confess to being impatient and perhaps too sarky concerning the fellows who are complaining about the new format. In truth I prefer the old format too - so far. But that isn't really the point is it?

   We have no choice concerning this macro change of forum software. Taunton have made the change for whatever reason. We can influence the micro-design of the place, so put in your requests. Why not make them in reasoned tones rather than constantly running down Taunton and its staff? What will it achieve except to induce my sark and encourage Taunton to dismiss your desires as "just moaning"?

   As it's just a forum, just a magazine, not some essential element of life or a terrible imposition we cannot avoid, why treat it as though someone has burnt down the church? The web is like the weather.

   Still, I have indulged in the same intolerance concerning the moaners as the moaners show about Knot's new look, as you rightly say; so I'll stop it now and stand in the corner for a bit all contrite. :-) I'd much rather be yaking about wooden things anyway. Not as "senior poster" or any other such label though, thenk yew! I am just a bloke of no importance, like any other.

   ****

   Now, enjoy that hayrakin'! It is a satisfying style that enables a bit of rough drawknifing and carving. I've become addicted and just this afternoon spent another happy hour or three selecting and planing the oak boards for the Barnsley chest panels. (This morning I was thwoking arrows into a target with a picture of ?????? on it, so the afternoon seed me all relaxed).

   As for plagiarism, copying, mimicking and other natural human methods of becoming civilised, I yam all for it! When I'm dictator those copyright laws will be ritually burnt and everyone will be sent to Leeds to steal (I mean legitimately acquire for the nation) Richard Jones' designs. AFter all, property is theft and intellectual property is the biggest con-theft of the lot. It puts the Enclosure Act in the pale.

   Lataxe, who would be unhappy getting rich or in any other way forcing the world to do his whim. (I'll never be dictator, then, you'll be happy to know).