New Category Suggestion?

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Lenp
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New Category Suggestion?

Post by Lenp »

Here's a thought...

Quite frequently there are posts about 'suppliers'... surplus, new, distributors, what have you. Some are positive, some negative.

I have been in this business for forever and deal with many of the 'old world guys' like Newark,Allied Mouser, Digikey...but still, there are many more I am unaware of.

So...
What about another 'Topic Area' maybe called Supplier Resource.
No rambling thread, no interwoven posts, no bickering, hooting or preening, just the facts!

Maybe this format:

Joe and Fred's Used Parts,
www.JoeanFred.com,
Any Place USA 123.456.7890,
Military and industrial surplus,

(Any accidental link from this is an oops!)

(Maybe add a comma at the end of each line then it could be used as a CSV file for import to a database or spreadsheet)
Or if there is a better mechanism within this board. like a form, it would be even better!

Yup! I realize this is bait for spammers and solid moderation will be required. If it is done well, it could be a valuable resource. Let's support the vendors that support us.

Opinions?

Len
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Michael Kaudze
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Post by Michael Kaudze »

Hi Len,

What a coincidence you brought this subject up! We are currently updating a few things on our website and expanding the forum categories is one of them. Details are still being made as to what new categories we will be adding but they should be up soon! More to come soon...

Thanks for the post!
Michael Kaudze :evil:
Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. Stephen William Hawking.
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haklesup
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Post by haklesup »

Well Michael, As long as you are fishing for new categories, we should have one for "General Discussion" of any topic not fitting the other categories.
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frhrwa
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Post by frhrwa »

and, on the manufacturer, dealer, surplus material, etc, make it so its a post only forum, no reply's.. just come to find something, then go... save your reply's if need be for another area.. otherwise, you dig through all the mud to find the information..
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Lenp
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Post by Lenp »

Michael,

Maybe even an 'events' section for trade shows, competetions and swaps. Wow! There might even be a chance to meet a fellow poster face to face! :shock:

Looking forward to the changes!

Len
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philba
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Post by philba »

I think that there isn't enough traffic to warrant a change. if there were hundreds of posts a day, it might make sense but N&V isn't close to to that. A given forum needs to get at a least a few posts every day or it winds up being irrelevant and falls into disuse. Look at "programming", it has one recent post but the one before that was 3 weeks earlier. I almost never even check it.

A second point - make the categories and their names meaningful. For example "computers" sounds good but it really means PCs. It probably should have been named PCs.

Finally a question for Michael - why don't you do things in the Magazine to drive traffic to the forums? For example, why not have your authors respond to questions in the forums (and offer to do so in the article). There other things that could be done as well. I think you could really make the forums much more active than they are now. Once you get the traffic up, the forums will take a life of their own. As it is, they are on life support by a small but dedicated band of contributors (maybe 10 of us).
Engineer1138
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Post by Engineer1138 »

I wondered about this myself. This seems to be a popular magazine, yet these forums are pretty much dead compared to what I would expecte to be less popular areas such as Home Shop Machinist or Cnczone.com.
Are electronics hobbyists really that much smaller in number than guys with lathes & milling machines in their basements? Hard to believe.
philba wrote:I think that there isn't enough traffic to warrant a change. if there were hundreds of posts a day, it might make sense but N&V isn't close to to that.
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Post by Bigglez »

Greetings Michael et al.,
philba wrote: I think that there isn't enough traffic to warrant a change. A second point - make the categories and their names meaningful. For example "computers" sounds good but it really means PCs. It probably should have been named PCs.
I agree with Phil - not enough daily traffic to justify sub-division.
philba wrote:Finally a question for Michael - why don't you do things in the Magazine to drive traffic to the forums?
The Nutsvolts.com website reflects the last few posts from the
forum.
philba wrote:For example, why not have your authors respond to questions in the forums (and offer to do so in the article).
Agreed.
philba wrote:As it is, they are on life support by a small but dedicated band of contributors (maybe 10 of us).
Well, not exactly. If you take a look at the population of users
the top poster has about 1800 posts, while the posters with
more than 200 posts (over their lifetime) fill the next fifty.
Posters with more than ten posts (but less than 200) number
about 325, and that leaves approximately 3948 members
that have posted less than ten (and of these approximately
2153 have never posted at all).

Seems to me that the core posters here are not making this
a destination for the majority (54%) of visitors that sign up!

Comments Welcome!
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philba
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Post by philba »

Bigglez wrote:
philba wrote:As it is, they are on life support by a small but dedicated band of contributors (maybe 10 of us).
Well, not exactly. If you take a look at the population of users
the top poster has about 1800 posts, while the posters with
more than 200 posts (over their lifetime) fill the next fifty.
Posters with more than ten posts (but less than 200) number
about 325, and that leaves approximately 3948 members
that have posted less than ten (and of these approximately
2153 have never posted at all).

Seems to me that the core posters here are not making this
a destination for the majority (54%) of visitors that sign up!

Comments Welcome!
Based on the long term stats, one could draw a similar conclusion but if you snapshot a period of time (say a month or two), you will see that a small group of posters carry the vast majority of the discussion. Maybe it's more than 10 but it's very small. The point I was trying to make is that the group needs to be larger. I'd say the active community is below critical mass.
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Post by Robert Reed »

Michael
I have always been in favor of a separate page where the authors could communicate with interested readers ( that want to actually use the article). This would not be a forum perse, but a central meeting place where questions can be asked, answered and further improvements, advice given that magazine space does not have the capability for. Also since printed copy has its limitations, it would serve to add much needed schematics, layouts, tables and so on. I know it is possible to pick up some of this on the N&V website's back issues, but it is not nearly enough to "cover all bases". Naturally, this would impose a lot of work on the authors part, but they could cut it off at their disgression when they feel there is little else to add.
Much of the info that is available at this time requires special programs to open them and a lot of readers do not have these programs to decipher it. This would be one more advantage in a separate page devoted to this subject as it could use a "common" language.
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Post by Dean Huster »

Here's an example of how too many categories make for an unused forum. Alan Voorhees has the antique radio forum at http://www.antiqueradios.com./forums/index.php . There's quite a few categories now. He added several a few years after the forum first started. At first he only had maybe four or five and has since added the rest. For instance, the Test Equipment category was added around 1997 or 8 when the other main category had a very large percentage of test equipment posts.

A new antique radio forum just started. Being new at it, the guy's mind flew in with all kinds of topics. It's just started, but I doubt that it will go anywhere. http://tuberadio.heavenforum.com/index.htm

Then there's the older forum that only has ONE category. I find it nearly impossible to use, although it does get used a lot because of who operates it. http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Forums

Dean
Dean Huster, Electronics Curmudgeon
Contributing Editor emeritus, "Q & A", of the former "Poptronics" magazine (formerly "Popular Electronics" and "Electronics Now" magazines).

R.I.P.
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dacflyer
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Post by dacflyer »

Michael Kaudze >> hi michael, i do not have a real suggestion for a new catagory, but one idea i have is. at the bottom where you can select catagorys to "JUMP TO" it would be great if there was a item like this at the top of the page also..so one does not have to go all the way to the bottom each time to change catagorys each time.. especially after posting.

is this possibly something that can be done ?
thanks.
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Michael Kaudze
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Post by Michael Kaudze »

Will take into consideration.


Any more suggestions?
Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. Stephen William Hawking.
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philba
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Post by philba »

Michael, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. I've got a lot of experience in watching forums grow and shrink. I can tell you with no doubt that spreading the low traffic over more categories will NOT make for more traffic. In fact, it will make the site look more forlorn and uninteresting. But it's your site - do with it what you wish.

You asked the question why did some sites get big? yes, they start from nothing but they build community. Electro Tech started from nothing but really only has 5 very active sub groups. Their traffic is probably 20X N&V. Why? Not because of a good taxonomy but because there is a cadre of active participants. This causes people to WANT to post questions. Active use breeds more active use. The programming section is an example of the opposite effect. Sparse use discourages use and it followed a downward spiral. If I were you, I'd think of ways to encourage a cadre. There are lots of ideas that can make a difference.

Another thing to consider is that management needs to be active on the site. While Al is a good guy (and a major contributor), he isn't "management" and doesn't have a lot of the authority that a moderator needs. The site needs an owner that sweats the daily details - that's one reason why Electro Tech has done well.

Anyway, good luck - I think you will need it.
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Post by SETEC_Astronomy »

I'm not sure I like the idea of more categories for a couple of reasons. First a week with 10 posts on this site is what I would consider a busy week. It's not like the board is getting flooded with off topic posts that need somewhere to go. Second when I'm led to a board in the search of answers it's very discouraging and overwhelming to find tons of categories to choose from. If you have a project that spans into several topics you end up with ten open tabs in your browser and a feeling of how the heck can I find something in all this. Adding more to this forum wouldn't really affect me in any way but I think it would repel new visitors. To me this site has a nice cozy mom and pop feel free to ask a question feel to it as opposed to some massive impersonal only get rude comments board. If I would change anything I would try to encourage people to start new topics. I'm ashamed to say I've asked questions on here to get some activity going. A lot of you on here have great ideas and projects but don't share them. Sometimes just sharing the idea is enough to click on that light bulb in someones head and get them thinking, inventing and building. If your reluctance to post your own work is because you don't want to toot your own horn then I just have to say, toot, toot. I can't speak for the others but as for me I want to hear what you're up to. Just my opinions on the subject.
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