Brave! A (not so) new woodworking forum

[K. L. McReynolds]

I've been here a while(not as long as many), gotten involved in the operation of the forum, backed away and became just another member, and have watched it change quite a bit. Remember, this was before You Tube became omnipotent. The several woodworking websites in existence were huge depositories of knowledge and advice not found elsewhere.

WoodNet was the brainchild of an editor at August Home Publishing Company in Des Moines, Iowa. That company published three woodworking magazines, a couple of sewing/craft magazines, and a couple of cooking mags. AH employees did extra duty by starting and in administering the forum. They were invested in the concept and intended the forum to be a bit more loose and free than most of the other woodworking forums.

The Off Topic forum was a result of complaints by serious woodworkers complaining about several members posting OT subjects(involving humor and frivolity) in the Woodworking forum. There were only Woodworking, Power Tools, Hand Tools, Home Improvement, and Swap n Sell forums back then.

Finishing, and Turning were added due to demand and participation.

AH had a woodworking shop in the basement of the HQ building and craftsmen made every project featured in the magazines. The plans were offered in several ways. 

The interaction of the Admin staff and many of us 'regulars' in the OT was amazing.

The original rules for the entire forum were:
Stay on Topic
Be Nice
Have Fun

That was it. Sweet and simple. WoodNet soon attracted folks of all skill levels from rank beginners(like myself) to professional furniture makers and literal leaders in their fields. Dust/chip collection, finishing, company reps(Delta/others), and even company owners(the owner of Grizzly is still a member), and more. Many other woodworking websites considered WN as the Wild West of woodworking websites, not really serious and not worth recognizing.

Being free also attracted some folks who were not as focused on being woodworkers and instead participated by causing trouble. That necessitated coming up with additional rules and procedures to bolster the operation on the site.

There were several really serious disturbances(a couple involving lawyers) and one that literally changed WN. There was a night where I  went to sleep not knowing if WN would be open in the morning. We had one chance to keep it going---and enough members stepped in, volunteering to be moderators(by order of the head office at AH) to make it work.

When the new owners took over, several of those member Mods succeeded in convincing the new owners to not close the forum and keep it going. The new owners inserted their own rules and procedures as well.

There have been hundreds of good deeds propagated by WN members. From members traveling hundreds of miles to help a member(or member's widow), just to get together, collect money to help members, hold a Christmas Auction, six of us got together and were on a cable TV show called Warehouse Warriors simply because we were members here, and many, many more adventures.

Does that atmosphere still exist? Not like it was, but members still help at any request. And WN still is in existence because folks can get good advice or good company day and night, all year long.

I have learned more than I remember from folks here, have more friends I have yet to meet, and still learn something almost every week.

[Cian]

More than YouTube, I think it was the explosion of Facebook that sucked so many of the forum participants away.  Because that's about the time that so many forums started going down hill, all at the same time.

THIS.  Also, if folks are already on Facebook, they can get their participation in multiple interest groups (woodworking, car mechanics, woodturning, glass blowing, etc., etc.) without having to leave the medium while also maintaining connectivity to with their social circle who happen to have different interests.

[wood2woodknot]

Well, I hope WN keeps moving forward. I am a literal learner - I need the words. Pictures and videos help somewhat, but text can go behind the action and give you the why's and the do's/do not's. How many videos are shown here, and the first comments critique the dangerous practices shown? I hang out here to learn something new and to query others for their advice and experience. I can't get that on a video. And the social aspects are a bonus. You are part of a family, a brotherhood with common interests. "Ad multos annos! " Long live WN.

[Chuckhead]

I suspect that what we're seeing is also a reflection of older folks retiring, giving up the hobby, or passing on, and younger folks not filling in the gaps.  My observation has been that Gen Xers, Millenials, etc., are generally not interested in woodworking.  With the exception of my nephew who has a small cabinet shop, I literally don't know a single person under the age of 50 who has any interest in woodworking as either a hobby or a career.  I know they're out there, but they seem to be a rapidly shrinking group.  Heck, I don't even know very many under-50s who are interested in working with their hands at all.  Do I think we're the poorer for it?  Yes - but what I think doesn't really matter.  It is what it is.  Or as ®smpr_fi_mac® wisely noted - all things change, all things die.  Until then, however, I'll return to this forum regularly (usually as a lurker) and continue to learn, admire, and take great pleasure from it.

[hbmcc]

I've been here a while(not as long as many), gotten involved in the operation of the forum, backed away and became just another member, and have watched it change quite a bit. Remember, this was before You Tube became omnipotent. The several woodworking websites in existence were huge depositories of knowledge and advice not found elsewhere.

WoodNet was the brainchild of an editor at August Home Publishing Company in Des Moines, Iowa. >>>>SNIP>>>>>

Thank you for this very interesting history. I wish there was a way to permanently save historical information like yours Mr. McReynolds. It provides a perspective and baseline for continuation of the Forums' goals.

[Handplanesandmore]

One of these days (it may be years) Google is going to to monetize YouTube with a paid subscription, ie, Photobucket. When that happens, the game will be open again to forums.

Isn't it interesting that one woodworking forum has recently decided to charge a mandatory fee for being a member?!
 

At least (if Youtube decides on adopting a subscription system), it is possible that if you put in the effort that you may make some money out of your contributions/videos at Youtube.

Simon

[JohnnyEgo]

I suspect that what we're seeing is also a reflection of older folks retiring, giving up the hobby, or passing on, and younger folks not filling in the gaps.  My observation has been that Gen Xers, Millenials, etc., are generally not interested in woodworking.  With the exception of my nephew who has a small cabinet shop, I literally don't know a single person under the age of 50 who has any interest in woodworking as either a hobby or a career.  I know they're out there, but they seem to be a rapidly shrinking group.  Heck, I don't even know very many under-50s who are interested in working with their hands at all.  Do I think we're the poorer for it?  Yes - but what I think doesn't really matter.  It is what it is.  Or as ®smpr_fi_mac® wisely noted - all things change, all things die.  Until then, however, I'll return to this forum regularly (usually as a lurker) and continue to learn, admire, and take great pleasure from it.

I'm a Gen Xer, and I know of a few others of us, both here and in the real world, that enjoy hobby woodworking. I think the difference is that we stand on the transition line between traditional trade education and tech specific. We had one semester of combination Home Economics / Woodshop class when I was in middle school, and we weren't permitted to touch any of the machinery. In high school, you either went the 'Vocational Technologies' or trade-school route, or you stayed in the mainstream high school cirriculum, which was focused on early 90s business technology, like Word Perfect and dBase. Me and most of my associates went the later route. So the bulk of our generation didn't really have the classical basic woodshop or auto mechanics educations that our parents had. Thus those of us with the interest have usually come at it as adults, and found places like this to achieve some semblance of self-education.

I look at my youngest son's education in third grade, and my older young-adult daughter's love of crap from Etsy, and realize that the hand-made craft movement is probably much, much stronger in this generation than it was in mine. My son's tech class has a 3D printer and a robotics lab component. What is different is that rather than making 27 piles of sawdust to master a craft, they will put 120 hours into programming a machine to spit out an ottoman with full bas relief carvings of Game of Thrones scenes, and then market the files for said designs to their peers. The desire to craft, and to have a tangible product of one's accomplishments, is still there and likely stronger than ever. But the ways in which it is channelled are very different.

[CLETUS]

 We had one semester of combination Home Economics / Woodshop class when I was in middle school, and we weren't permitted to touch any of the machinery.  In high school, you either went the 'Vocational Technologies' or trade-school route, or you stayed in the mainstream high school cirriculum, which was focused on early 90s business technology, like Word Perfect and dBase.  

I was in the last group of students that could take, woodshop, metalshop, drafting and CAD as individual classes. That allowed me to also take college prep classes such as Advanced Biology and Physics. 

The shop classes were eliminated and we partnered with a community college. Unfortunately, (IMO), kids were forced to choose the "career center" or a "college prep" path, you couldn't have a combination of the two.

When I decided to start taking college classes part time and working full time, I applied at a tool and die shop. Since I had shop, drafting, CAD and I was a college student they made me a CNC operator. It was a great career.

That background allowed me to remodel a few houses, build furniture and generally do anything that interests me.

My younger brothers never had the opportunity to take shop. They both recently remodeled their first homes. I've been forced to answer a lot of stupid questions, and frankly, they scare me with power tools.

[Cian]

I'm a Gen Xer, and I know of a few others of us, both here and in the real world, that enjoy hobby woodworking.  I think the difference is that we stand on the transition line between traditional trade education and tech specific.  We had one semester of combination Home Economics / Woodshop class when I was in middle school, and we weren't permitted to touch any of the machinery.  In high school, you either went the 'Vocational Technologies' or trade-school route, or you stayed in the mainstream high school cirriculum, which was focused on early 90s business technology, like Word Perfect and dBase.  Me and most of my associates went the later route.  So the bulk of our generation didn't really have the classical basic woodshop or auto mechanics educations that our parents had.  Thus those of us with the interest have usually come at it as adults, and found places like this to achieve some semblance of self-education.

I look at my youngest son's education in third grade, and my older young-adult daughter's love of crap from Etsy, and realize that the hand-made craft movement is probably much, much stronger in this generation than it was in mine.  My son's tech class has a 3D printer and a robotics lab component.  What is different is that rather than making 27 piles of sawdust to master a craft, they will put 120 hours into programming a machine to spit out an ottoman with full bas relief carvings of Game of Thrones scenes, and then market the files for said designs to their peers.  The desire to craft, and to have a tangible product of one's accomplishments, is still there and likely stronger than ever.  But the ways in which it is channelled are very different.

Well said, Johnny.

I too am GenX and was fortunate to have a couple semesters of woodshop in Junior High.  Those experiences planted the seed for my love of woodworking that I enjoy today.  In High School, CAD was just entering the scene, but we still did a lot of our engineering drawings with pencils and straight edges.

I do try to get my nephews and nieces interested in crafting.  As mentioned, these types of classes are no longer available in their schools, but I can see they do enjoy it so it's not all lost yet.

[petertay15]

This forum is greatly appreciated. I began novice woodworking a few years ago after spending my working life doing magazine design via computer.
We poured a 20x20 concrete floor in machine shed bay, bought some used power tools, and watched LOTS of YouTube. I soon discovered this site where I could ask specific questions.

Even a few years ago there seemed to be build-alongs which I loved. When I made a large walnut headboard (with wood that I harvested), I tried to show all the steps, but couldn’t get the many pictures and captions to post properly. Anyway, miss the build-alongs. I check every other day to see what’s new, but not much. Still, I appreciate the willingness of everybody to reply to questions and occasionally show their work. —Peter