Is it me, or....

[Gregory of Sherwood Forest]

Even the old tools mailing list lives (does it?).

Cheers
Pedder

It does still live, Pedder. I get it daily, although my participation isn't regular.

[Tony Z]

Old tool list is alive and doing well, though the rands are dwindling as members move on to that workbench in the sky!

[Jack in omaha]

I can say the KC club is super and has been for a long time. I went to several of the meetings many years ago. They hosted this guy If you near or in KC check in with this club. They are outstanding an group of people!

https://youtu.be/lrAAglKLPh8

[Rob Young]

I can say the KC club is super and has been for a long time. I went to several of the meetings many years ago. They hosted this guy If you near or in KC check in with this club. They are outstanding an group of people!

https://youtu.be/lrAAglKLPh8

That was a LONG while ago...  


Monthly meeting is tonight (www.kcwoodworkersguild.org).  A member, Les Hastings, who is from Wichita will be demonstrating the design, jigs and methods for making compound curved doors using solid stock (not coopered).  This includes rail & stile construction with raised panels.  Think "French Provincial".

Last year we hosted the dinner during Woodworking In America and supplied some of the odds and ends that are too tough to truck.

In September of this year, after WIA2016, we will be hosting Freddy Roman (for the 2nd time) for a couple of workshop/classes on making Federal style bandings and building a Federal side table.  See his recent article in Fine Woodworking for details on the sort of banding work I'm talking about.

Currently we have an on-going "build a Chippendale side chair" workshop that meets once a week on Saturdays.  The full maghilla on the chair as it will have its front two feet carved as ball-and-claw.  Couldn't convince Cal Hobbs (member and mentoring the class, son of Ben Hobbs who was a recent recpient of the SAPFM Cartuche award) to do hairy paws...

Last month we hosted John Wilson (has the cover story in the latest Popular Woodworking) to make Shaker Boxes and other treats.  That month we also had a booth at the Kansas City Maker Faire and helped about 750 kids make wooden toy trucks from kits our members made.  For Xmas 2015 they made some other crazy number of little wooden trains, engine, couple of cars and a caboose, for a local foster kid charity.  Never seen so many little piles of poplar toy parts in your life.

And none of this was affected by the change in the Woodnet forum software.

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

Well this subject touches two areas of my expertise. One area I am familiar with is Woodnet. I have been active for many years and used the old software alot. The second area where I have expertise is in software development, infrastructure management and customer service and support. I have managed teams in all of these areas for many large enterprises. It is not easy work.

Forum owners are dependent on their software provider and must upgrade constantly. Hardware goes obsolete and must be replaced. Operating systems need upgrades and almost constant security patches. Applications must be kept current or they run out of support. Lack of support means that they can (and will) fail catastrophically and everything goes dark. There is no room of on site coders. Software today is purchased and implemented with local options. Rare is the software transition that does not cause user consternation. People do not like change.

If you are lucky, you have a good staff who can handle these transitions with only a slight loss of blood. I think kudos are due here for the group that did this change. Based on my experience, they did an outstanding job. The system transitioned and came back on line. Most stuff worked immediately. Other nagging problems were killed one at a time. What they pulled off was amazing to me. Did I get frustrated? Yes. The first week was a little painful. But that is most common user experience to an upgrade this large. These things are hard. People plan for months. They work hard. They lose sleep. But if they are really good, they make everything work. And then they improve the user experience. It is exactly what we are seeing here.

Hip Hip Huzza! Thank you IT team. You should be proud of what you have accomplished.

[Admiral]

Well put.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

I've been on the forum for about 13 years. I love Woodnet and I have learned a great deal here. I've also witnessed many shenanigans and squirrelly behavior. Unfortunately, I don't like the new format and this is either my first or second post....I don't recall.

I don't know why the format change occurred but I would love to go back to the old. The old brings memories of greater youth, the crib for my first child, the purchase of my first home and many other memories that occurred with the old format.

I agree, post are down. They've been been down for the past couple years. Maybe the forum novelty has ran its course or maybe there's nothing new in the forum that warrants a visit. I'll admit, I look for only a handful of posters when I browse. I skip over many threads based on the topic or author. I've come to learn who's advise I can take to the bank.

I have posted a handful of projects over the years and I use to itch to post them. Not so much anymore. The thing that irks me the most is the professional forum woodworkers who always have their two cents but have never posted a project themselves. Or the 100 views you may get with only 1 response. A great deal of time goes into creating a post with a description and pictures. Yes, making it easier would most likely generate more interesting threads.

With all said, at least I spent my day in the shop. Maybe I'll post a few threads on my current project--a farm table, bench and chairs. I'll start the finishing tomorrow or the end of the week. A long project indeed.... I need to turn on my PM's...

[Mike Brady]

It could be that the lack of new tools coming into the marketplace is starving the forum too.  This is the most tool-centric of the forums (as opposed to tool technique and actual projects).  There is not a lot to talk about with tools these days.  I also miss the participation of several forum members and our moderator.  The new format doesn't bother me but there should be a PM flag of some sort.

[Admiral]

  The new format doesn't bother me but there should be a PM flag of some sort.

There is, sort of, upper right corner under the search box will tell you, and if you check the notification box in "Edit Options" in the User CP, you get a display notice upon login that you have an unread PM and a link to it.

Otherwise, software upgrades affect different people different ways.  In my job, software "tools" as they call them (I cringe at the use of the word) change often, and I have to learn new programs and interfaces all the time, so this is no real challenge for me here.  Folks here who don't have to deal with upgrades all the time just have to use the program and with use comes familiarity.

Also, other forum software is different; like over at Wood Central, the software is really clumsy to use and not very intuitive.

Nothing remains the same, everything changes....

[planejack]

All,
It has been a royal bother to me on my Mac Book Pro. I don't post much but I am here daily. I am replying on my Mac Book here and can get on on my iPad Air II. All are on Safari. I have attempted over several weeks to recover the password to no avail. I get no response by email. I PM'd a moderato and an Administrator and so far have gotten no response. Thought i'd give it a shot here with you guys since I know that you are here daily. Any suggestion will be tried. I have the user name/password stored on all machines and they match my login on all mPro machines. I deleted them from the Mac Book Pro and entered that manually for last trial. I don't know where cache/cookies are stored so I haven't tried that.
I'll be out in my shop for a while and check back in a few hours.
Jack