Armortek

Stephens posts on his Comet and his wondering about whether people are watching(yes they definitely are!) raises a point which has been raised before about feed back on build blogs. For various reasons not everyone replies even when advice has been given to them on a problem they have with their model. I have seen other forums where you can click on a button on each post so that a "thank you for this useful post" or something similar comes up. I don't know whether it is feasible to include such a feature on this forum but it may give more encouragement for posters. Just a thought

Hi Peter,

I think that's a feeling most of the builders who have posted there builds have felt from time to time. there is the view counter for you to see if anyone has looked at the post, but as you say, its not feedback. I think most people are just too shy to post, so I think it would be a good idea to have a Face Book stile like button.

Paul.

There is a "Post Love" feature in phpBB but this would need to be coded into the Forum. I think it would be a good idea as it would show that the poster that their work is appreciated without requiring a string of near identical "Wow, Awesome!" posts...

On the subject of replies, threads can develop where the same few people are commenting to progress posts. After a while you can get to feeling that maybe someone else might like to have a go.

I've also felt the disappointment of making posts, only for them to elicit no response. You do then wonder if no-one is interested, or whether people feel that no comment is necessary.

I don't tend to post on Jagd/Panther or King Tiger posts, as I don't know these kits and therefore can be quite hard to determine how much work has gone into modifications etc. Paint jobs are different of course.

Adrian.

i think this topic has been raised before, posting is important in such a small interest hobby, build tecniques, methods of construction have all been of use to me, keep the build posts coming with photo's please, regards simon manning.

Hitting a "thank you" - button is very easy to do. I have seen a forum where posters have a "karma" that increases with the number of thanks received. A very good idea!
/Chris

Hi

I have sent a copy of this thread to the person who looks after the forum and have asked if they can do this, hopefully they will be able to do the necessary changes and if so we will be happy to activate it.

Gill

I agree with others that (a) Like/Thanks/Karma button(s)would be good. Positive feedback is always beneficial.

Peter Silcock also included the following in his intial post, which I would like to comment on.
"For various reasons not everyone replies even when advice has been given to them on a problem they have with their model."
When a problem has been experienced and then solved, it would be useful for others, in the future who experience the same problem, to know what the solution was. Then they could try that first rather than working through all the suggestions that were provided.

I believe it is also common courtesy to give acknowledgement and credit where it is due, and to say "Thank You" when assistance has been provided. Someones suggestion may not have worked in that particular case but they have gone out of their way to think about the problem you are experiencing and posted a possible solution.

A wiki or something like stackoverflow might be better for accumulating knowledge.

NB Google groups is very powerful and the "owner" of the group can control who can read/post etc.

A low tech solution could just be to post "+1", "thanks", "good read" as long as nobody finds this too annoying. There are only 12 items on the recent post lists so it might cause trouble.

Cheers

Sam

Something else which it may be possible to implement is to only allow the read count to be incremented when a register user reads a posting.

Checking the current users pages always lists various "bots" from Google, Bing et al, all of which will artificially increase the apparent interest in threads.

People in the past have complained the 100 people have read their posting and no-one has commented, but there is no way to know whether the post has been read by guests or bots or actual members with the ability to reply.

Adrian.

Peter's original comments have prompted an interesting debate.

Mark, you've really encapsulated exactly what we intended with the Knowledge Base. It's expressly designed to be the place where the current best practice is made available. I say current because of course there is no absolute "right way" with most things and methods evolve and develop. We chose that approach, so that anyone wanting guidance can find it in one place, stored in a logical order. To encourage discussion, we added the extra section. We wanted to keep the "state of the art" and discussion separate so that a topic is unambiguous in its guidance, whilst encouraging debate. Sam, you may wish to have a look.

As ever, comments positively welcome.

Re Peter's original post, my take is that old saying, you only get out what you put in. I've certainly (and unashamedly) taken a lot from some of the great builds on the forum. It does take time to post and not everyone has either the time or the inclination. Which raises the question of competitions and judging of models. I'm dead against it for two reasons, it is almost impossible to judge fairly (even if as last year we get the best experts in as judges) and I believe competition works against sharing and developing the state of the art. As ever, others may have a different take. On the plastic model forums, I detect a reluctance by some to post because they see things competitively and wish, misguidedly, to keep their methods to themselves. It's one of the joys of the Armortek community that I don't see that happening.

Now to dismount from the soapbox.....

Stephen

As Stephen says, an interesting debate ........

Personally, I'm extremely flattered when someone asks me a question (within my very narrow focus of WW1 ). As for my more general postings - again, I'm flattered to get a response, but I get sufficient 'reward' from seeing the 'hit counter' go up with a jump.

I'm not sure that a plethora of standardised 'good work' postings would add to the satisfaction I get from just posting up my thoughts and activities, both historical and technical. Without knowing much about such things, I'd also worry about any increased admin. costs for Armortek in bandwidth, web hosting or storage.

A simple 'like' button, as with TwitBook, could work, though. But I'm not sure that I agree with Adrian that the 'hit rate' should be limited to registered Armortek customers only. I'd hope that our work could benefit a wider audience, including friends, family, researchers and modellers in all scales - certainly my comments on Beutepanzers seem to be near the top of the Google ladder ! (which may cause the 'bots' ?). And, as Stephen observes, none of us seem that 'precious' about our findings and practices which, in other less friendly and helpful environments, would be jealously guarded as 'Intellectual Property'.

In summary, therefore, I like it just the way it is ! Let's not rock the boat too much .....

All the best,

Chris

Lot to be said for the "don't fix it if it ain't broke approach" but a "thank you" button (a simple polite positive acknowledgement of the time and trouble some forum members take to post their build blogs or suggestions of how to fix a problem) does seem to work on some forums allowing people to participate who would not normally consider making a full post.

An example of what it can look like, from a very technical forum: Cheers,
/Chris