first suggestion to be part of our forum primer

[Rob]

If Ionut was still coming on to the forum I would really hope he might come on board....his early posts were excellent.

[grepper]

I think even a little more organization for forum might go a long way.

Here's a forum I frequent.  Very busy place.  Check out the number of categories!

One category:

Newbies: Tips and Information (14 Viewing)
Section of HF, specifically for Passing along info to newcomers to the hobby. Setup, tweaking, orientation practice, etc.

http://www.helifreak.com/

[Rob]

Awesome

[grepper]

I think a getting started manual is a fine idea.  This is just another idea.

One cool thing about well organized forums is that they are for the most part self maintaining, and don't require ongoing administration from one/many individuals.

Notice the use of Sub-Forums:
   
Blade Helicopters (eFlite) (490 Viewing)
Blade Helicopters (eFlite) CP, CX, mCX CX II, CX III. and others
Sub-Forums: Blade 550X, Blade 500X, Blade 450, Blade 450X, Blade 400, 300X, 130X, 120 SR, BCX/CX2/CX3, mCP X, mCP X Brushless Mods, mCP X BL, mCX, mQX, mSR, mSR X, nano CP X, nano CP X Brushless Mods, SR

[grepper]

Your can also tell how much the forum administrators  care about and are in touch with their members.  They created a category especially for me!  I blew by the +5%, but that's OK, I have fake ID.
   
Old Farts Club
Age 40 (+- 5%) Only - Be prepared to show ID

[grepper]

OK so why cant we circulate a simple word file that we collaboratively edit until we jointly sign it off and publish. 

You are speaking of a small group of core editors so this may not be too much of an issue, but may I suggest that from my own experience passing around a doc can get messy.  I believe Google Docs is designed specifically for that:
------
Docs

Our suite of apps makes creating stuff easy and collaborative, no matter where you are or what device you're working from. See others make changes in real-time. Sit back while your edits get automatically saved in Google Drive. Receive and reply to comments right from your inbox. And forget about hunting for the latest version of a file, because there is only one.

https://www.google.com/intl/en/drive/start/apps.html#product=docs
------

I have not used this, and my brain is tired  so I don't feel like research, but I it's free, and specifically designed to circumvent document collaboration headaches.

[Herman Trivilino]

I believe if a new user can consistently sharpen a chisel and a kitchen knife well, that can form the basis for sharpening anything else within the range of the Tormek. 

I think that's a key point, Ken.  A new user anxious to dive in should start with either an old kitchen knife or a wood chisel that he's willing to sacrifice for the cause.  Then move on to a better one, and once he's competent at that he's ready to begin learning some of the finer points like those featured in the manual.

The real problem here, it seems to me, is that not much thought has been put into the education of the Tormek user.  Do they even conduct workshops?  It seems that would be a good way to sell more Tormeks.

[Herman Trivilino]

Without some way to organize this stuff, this thread will soon sink and fall off the bottom of the page into the giant heap of all threads gone before, accessible only by deep browsing or the mighty search box.

So, here is another idea:  How about a top level, (board or category not sure of the proper term), called something like Tips and Tricks with different subcategories. 

These are threads called "stickies" because they stay stuck at the top of the list of threads.  This forum has a welcome sticky, for example.

Ideally someone will need to maintain those stickies, deleting and editing posts for clarity.

[Herman Trivilino]

Hey ho.....if the status quo being preserved is the primary need here...then fair enough.  So much free of charge and willing competence though....it seems a bit of a wasted opportunity. Thats life I guess 

I think the chatter we're generating now is a good warm up.  A lot of these writings could be cut-and-pasted into a sticky or a wiki, or both.

[Herman Trivilino]

Speaking only for myself, I would be quite comfortable turning control over to Jeff.  I don't believe it would impose a large work burden for him. 

I think it would be alot of work for whoever takes it on.  That's the advantage of a wiki.  Once someone with adequate skills to get it set up (not me, I'm lacking) the hard work can be shared by the wiki editors.

[Herman Trivilino]

I kind of like both.  A quick start guide and a subcategorized board.

I agree, and maybe a wiki, too.

[Herman Trivilino]

I dont see the process as difficult either......what I see is a bunch of knowledgable people positively bursting to get going in doing something really useful, but no apparent will to implement it.

We have the will.  What we lack is the authority and the technical skills necessary to set up the stickies and the wikis.

[Herman Trivilino]

OK so why cant we circulate a simple word file that we collaboratively edit until we jointly sign it off and publish. 

In my experience that doesn't work anywhere near as well as a wiki.

[Herman Trivilino]

One cool thing about well organized forums is that they are for the most part self maintaining, and don't require ongoing administration from one/many individuals.

I don't know about that.  I think if you ask administrators of the really active boards they'll report that there's a lot of work involved.  Some of it very technical.

[grepper]

These are threads called "stickies" because they stay stuck at the top of the list of threads.  This forum has a welcome sticky, for example.

Ideally someone will need to maintain those stickies, deleting and editing posts for clarity.

I'm not talking about a thread "sticky".  I'm talking about a forum category or board, (sorry, I have not researched it enough to know which term to use), like you see here:
http://forum.tormek.com/index.php#c1

You could however have a locked category or board that is used for exclusively for viewing articles.  In these areas, users are restricted to read only permissions.  You could however have membergroups that enjoy more liberal permission access.