This website

[BillyJack]

What does it need to grow? I’m on several forum, but over the years it’s all about chat forums. They use woodworking as a key post, yet 90% just jaw jackin..In one off topic forum one puts in…Took my pills this morning, nice sunrise…. What are these forums becoming. 
 

Where is all the woodworking? Everybody is focused on tye shop, not woodworking. 
 

Am I wrong?

[wtnhighlander]

Can't argue with that too much. I think that here, it is mostly because the group of active members has condensed to a fairly small number. There aren't as many new members asking questions, but there is also noticably less discussion over project journals. When I first joined, projects were much more likely to receive some constructive criticism than I have seen in a long while. So long as the conversation is civil and helpful, I wish we could stir up more discussion about design choices, techniques used, and so forth. 

[BillyJack]

This forum is small and isn’t as bad as the other forums. But when you turn a forum into your daily activities from morning to night it’s a bit too far. One member on a forum posts atleast one YouTube post everyday about something he wants to share on tye forum. He doesn’t do any woodworking , but gets post counts posting it. If you want YouTube , go to YouTube. 

[RichardA]

Even though I can't work in the shop any more, I noticed before I stopped working wood, that this place had turned into  nothing more than a chat forum.  Woodworking kinda disappeared from here. And what a shame, there were great projects, great tips on design and construction, and now I just check in once a week  because there nothing more than inane chat.  Not my thing!

[BillyJack]

A lot of forums have run off members. A lot of skilled woodworkers aren’t going to fuss with YouTube watchers  on direction. .

[wtnhighlander]

I hope we can get some interest going again. Unfortunately, there are relatively few members actively posting projects at the moment. We have a decent number of members posting,but I assume many are like me, and running short of disposable time and/or income to build and post projects. 

[Tpt life]

The problem is that ww has become a hobby for me, and budget money governs how deep I can dig into it. I have plans, but have not been active for a few months now. 

[JohnG]

The forum has been comprised of mostly hobby woodworkers, and life gets in the way of hobbies, and even more so chatting online about hobbies. 

Several of our previously very active journalers have been much less active lately for a variety of reasons. I’ve been itching to do a large woodworking project, but these days I’m lucky if I even get to walk through my shop a couple times a week. I’m stepping away from a side job I’ve been doing for too long, and hoping that will grant me the time for some woodworking. 

[Von]

I've only been around a year so I cannot compare to how things used to be but just wanted to say I have a hard time imagining improving on geedub for both quantity and quality of journals. The billiard chairs journal right now is also very interesting. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

I'd love to see more journals, though I can't really see any way to incentivize it more that the forum does. I believe the feedback I've gotten has always been very useful, both positive and constructive.

[BillyJack]

I’ve put builds on the forum since 2002. I’ve shared poker table builds, cabinet builds, furniture builds, etc.  Mainly on other forums, but some here. 
 

Years ago everyone was chasing Danny Proulx’s cabinet methods. They were simple basic euro style commercial cabinets. A lot of arguments brew from this style of cabinets and many full time cabinet guys left the forums. 
 

Sawstop arguments have gotten many kick off forums including me because arguments between users and non users flare up. 
 

Arguments between metric and standard.

 

Accuracy  portable tools in the shop.. It’s ongoing everywhere..
 

So many things..

[h3nry]

The core of active members here is much smaller than it used to be, but as long as someone is posting inspirational projects, or sharing a journal that I can follow along with, then it's worth checking in ... I've always got good advice here when I've asked for it, and hopefully others have found some of my advice helpful too. I'll take quality over quantity.

I'm as guilty as the next for not being continuously productive, I only make about one big project each year. I do get some interesting feedback as the project progresses, but I don't know how it can be used to spawn some more general discussion.

I learnt most of my furniture building skills on-line in one form or another, and this forum has been a big part of that. I'll keep sharing my projects here, and hopefully both myself and those watching can learn something from any discussion it generates ... and maybe inspire others to share their own work.

[Von]

With the caveat that my knowledge may have holes, the history of this site is kinda odd as I understand it: Marc started it to support the WTO show listener community, but I think it's been a decade since I've heard it promoted on the WTO show. This makes perfect sense since, AFAICT, at best the site seems to provide little value to WTO guys and at worst is competition for their for-pay sites (Guild, HTS - though several of us are also members of those sites as well).

That history leads the site to be in an odd place today with a connection to a podcast largely in name only and no real owners/champions (excepting the moderators, whose role I may be underestimating). So I think if one were to really want this site to grow, it needs a bit of an identity boost. Either reconnecting with WTO and finding a way to provide value back, or finding some other way of answering the question that a woodworker would have: why join and post here? (Assuming they even find out the site exists in the first place - it's not an easy site to find.)

[Immortan D]

Joined these woodworking forums almost 10 years ago for advice, but all I got was a lighter wallet and a shop full of shiny new toys! Worth every penny though! LOL

[legenddc]

I think a lot of people have turned to social media to share their projects instead of a forum. The Wood Whisperer Guild Facebook group can be great, but it's impossible to find stuff posted again, never mind months/years later.

There seems to be a lot of seasonality with hobbyist woodworkers. I know for me, I just finished up the busiest time of my year at work. 2 of the 3 kids sports are done. Looking forward to getting back into the shop, hopefully this week and picking back up on things.

[drzaius]

Social media is such a terrible substitute for a forum. 

[JohnG]

On 10/28/2024 at 4:03 PM, drzaius said:

Social media is terrible. 

Fixed 

[BillyJack]

You can expect to projects all the time. Some actually have jobs . It was easy for me because I had work projects plus home projects. Never did much step by step on work projects as it’s a job.

[wtnhighlander]

There was a point a few years ago, that Marc considered dropping this forum. His activity is focussed on the Guild site and its related group in facebook. To be honest, this forum does little to support his business, and probably doesn't even pay for itself with ad and membership revenue. However, the core group seems to find the forum beneficial enough to beg him to keep it running, and thankfully, he has.

Maybe if we all take the opportunity to chat it up on other platforms (where allowed), we can get a bigger group involved.

Personally, I'd give up woodworking before joining a Facebook group.

[BillyJack]

On 10/28/2024 at 8:12 PM, wtnhighlander said:

There was a point a few years ago, that Marc considered dropping this forum. His activity is focussed on the Guild site and its related group in facebook. To be honest, this forum does little to support his business, and probably doesn't even pay for itself with ad and membership revenue. However, the core group seems to find the forum beneficial enough to beg him to keep it running, and thankfully, he has.

Maybe if we all take the opportunity to chat it up on other platforms (where allowed), we can get a bigger group involved.

Personally, I'd give up woodworking before joining a Facebook group.

It’s missing something to get more active. It either not coming up as a top 10 woodworking site or something. I see new members several times a week on other forums, 

[Chestnut]

On 10/27/2024 at 7:44 PM, JohnG said:

Several of our previously very active journalers have been much less active lately for a variety of reasons.

I could swing projects with little one at home. Having 2 little ones it's just impossible for a while.

Hazel was in our bedroom the other day for a solid 45 min "reading" my fine woodworking mags. Might have some interest there.

[legenddc]

On 10/27/2024 at 1:26 PM, wtnhighlander said:

When I first joined, projects were much more likely to receive some constructive criticism than I have seen in a long while. So long as the conversation is civil and helpful, I wish we could stir up more discussion about design choices, techniques used, and so forth. 

I miss this as well. Next time I make a project journal or post a completed project I will have to remember to include a note encouraging everyone to critique my design, construction, etc.

I often read and enjoy the project journals in things that aren't my style.

One thing that has slowed me up reading/commenting on project journals is picking up where I left off is hard when I switch between various devices. I've had to start reading them only in one place, not 10 minutes during lunch on my work computer, 5 minutes on the iPad, etc. I also prefer to look at project journals on a larger screen than a phone to see the details in the pictures.

[pkinneb]

On 10/29/2024 at 9:36 AM, Chestnut said:

I could swing projects with little one at home. Having 2 little ones it's just impossible for a while.

Hazel was in our bedroom the other day for a solid 45 min "reading" my fine woodworking mags. Might have some interest there.

Two?? How did I miss that Congrats  

[Chestnut]

On 10/29/2024 at 10:32 AM, pkinneb said:

Two?? How did I miss that Congrats  

I got really busy near the arrival date and wasn't posting.  I hinted at it and then forgot to outright say something i guess.

Owen joined us May 30th in the evening. It was a nice quick and relatively uneventful delivery.

[pkinneb]

On 10/31/2024 at 9:31 AM, Chestnut said:

I got really busy near the arrival date and wasn't posting.  I hinted at it and then forgot to outright say something i guess.

Owen joined us May 30th in the evening. It was a nice quick and relatively uneventful delivery.

That's awesome congrats!!

[tperson]

Personally, I much prefer this forum to the others that I browse. I appreciate the smaller size and similar skillsets…it helps prevent drama, reduces the plethora of infant questions (questions are a great way to learn, but so is doing your own research), and seems to have eliminated the single-question accounts. Everyone here is polite with no undertone or agenda and seems to be genuinely interested in each other’s skill growth and project completion. The drawback, as you hinted to BillyJack, is the low volume of new posts. I’m a father of 5 and woodworking is one of my hobbies, so my progress correlates with the daily/weekly family schedule and commitments. I’ve got a well-equipped (for my skills) shop that’s heated/cooled and an endless list of projects; I typically only work on 1 or 2 projects at a time and progress can be slow (the coffee table I posted took 6 weeks to complete). Personally, I’m not big on posting anything on the interweb…dunno if it’s my desire to keep my private life private, insecurity of my growing skills, or the fact that I don’t think other people are interested in what I do…but I just don’t share much publicly. Maybe this is the push I need to share more…I’ll try, but no promises.