Official Luthiers Forum!

Lance,
Just wanted to compliment this site. After seeing the post regarding John Hall being suspended from MIMF, which I had never heard of, I wanted to check out their site and see what all the fuss was about. After using the OLF site for a couple of months now, when I visited the MIMF I found it to seem somewhat confusing, and not as user friendly as your site. I think you have a good thing going here and most of the members seem to be very good spirited towards assisting others in the art of guitar making and the sharing of knowledge and information, which is what I feel a forum is all about. There have to be rules and guidelines in everything we do, otherwise there would be chaos in the world. But, sometimes small infractions have to be overlooked. You have to lose some battles to win the war. My hats off to you and all the guys here. Just wanted to let you know. Keep up the good work.

Did I stick my foot in my mouth again ??

No you didn't. Most have preferences for different things, and tolerance levels for others.

They both have their merits. I love the format of the OLF, but I find that I miss the different sections that the mimf has. If I want to look at a bunch of threads about finishing, I can go there and read a bunch of stuff easily. Same thing about tools, or checking in on who has built their "first or second" guitar. I like compartmentalization, because I'm very ADD. So it helps me to focus and find things without frustration, which happens here sometimes. But I'm different than most because of that condition.

I know folks who have left both forums for various reasons. You can't be all things to all people, it doesn't work to try. Lance follows his conscience with this site, and it works out for the best usually 100% of the time. That's because, as humans we desire and value our freedom above most things in life. Rules that hinder us in ways that aren't really necessary will drive some of us nuts. But the lack of rules can also. The price of too much freedom can be anarchy.

I have some friends who are very put off by religious talk of any kind, even here. That talk is tolerated here, so long as it isn't used to force a viewpoint down the throats of the community. I think that's commendable. A person's belief system is also at the core of who we are, and so that must be respected by all, on all sides to have a community that has a strong bond of friendship and fellowship. Just because a person has a different belief in God, or is an aetheist etc., they should have our respect as fellow human beings and in that common connection we have basis for friendship and community.

Sorry for the rant, these were just some thoughts that flowed out of my limited grey-matter. Feel free to read it or not!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don...you said it best: You can't be all things to all people. And I didn't feel you were ranting at all. An openly discussed opinion. I love it. It just seems I have a tendency to stick my foot where it doesn't belong sometimes and figured I'd done it again. Anyway, thanks for the response. And I will definitely check out the MIMF from time to time as well. It was just my first impression of the site. I think I have a little touch of ADD as well....and OCD, and, and, and...

I love the diversity of the forum. I love the freedom. You will be seeing more of my building hints. I have been teaching how to build for a few years and I have learned a few things. I think it would be great if you can have some headings that we can put specific posts into.
   building finishing etc.   We can all learn more if we share info
John Hall

Hey Don, we share something in common. I too have A.......D.........wait, what was I saying......I can't remember what I was talking about, anyway have a nice day!

[QUOTE=Brian Hawkins] Hey Don, we share something in common. I too have A.......D.........wait, what was I saying......I can't remember what I was talking about, anyway have a nice day! [/QUOTE]

No, it's more like, if you have AD...oh, wow, look at that...I'm hungry, maybe I could...that's a cool song, I wonder...this magazine article looks good, it's got...time to get back to making that drill press table, but I'd better sharpen...better practice my guitar...man, these strings need replacing, but it takes so LONG...I'm thirsty--a nice cold...Oh! It's time for that TV show...what, it's midnight already? ...and so on...

STOP READING MY MIND!!

Stop it Carlton, you're freakin' me out!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRG! Can you really hear the voices inside my head!?!

Great to have friends like you guys....makes me feel right at home.

[QUOTE=Brian Hawkins] STOP READING MY MIND!![/QUOTE]

It's just a typical day for yours truly.

DON: I'm stopping now.

[QUOTE=Don Williams]I love the format of the OLF, but I find that I miss the different sections that the mimf has. If I want to look at a bunch of threads about finishing, I can go there and read a bunch of stuff easily. Same thing about tools, or checking in on who has built their "first or second" guitar. I like compartmentalization, because I'm very ADD. So it helps me to focus and find things without frustration, which happens here sometimes. But I'm different than most because of that condition.
[/QUOTE]

Don't feel so all alone, Don. I like the idea of organized forums as well. It makes things easier to find, for starters.

I strongly suspect that the software that Lance uses now has the capability to organize discussions into a variety of sub forums, instead of just current threads, which is done now.

Yes, MIMF does this, but in what I find to be a quite clunky fashion. I suspect their software is ancient. Most web-based bbs software is quite sophisiticated and easily able to handle the idea of multiple sub-forums.

So, we can hope. Perhaps when Lance has a bit more time available, this is something he can address.

Best,

Michael
Michael McBroom38584.5268171296

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Michael - Ive resisted creating separate forums for different topics in the past, i.e. (newbies) (finishing) etc - because, It pulls the group apart and does not contribute to the intimate community feel we now have. That said, I'm not against it, Ive just have resisted it.

It also creates another forum that will need moderating. I have my hand full keeping up with OLF through out the day, especially lately

Lance

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I can't agree more with Lance on keeping it all one list. Breaking areas into parts does just that to the people.
No one reads all the areas, just the ones of interest to them.
Here if something has a huge list on it I am sure to read it as it must be a "hot topic".
This forum is great as it is. I hate to say keep things the way they are, as I believe in growing and trying new things as much as anyone, but this forum works on so many levels the way it is.
Please don't change!

My 2 cents...
Craig L

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www.handcraftinlay.com

OK, how about this idea:

Separate the archived topics into folders, but leave the current stuff as is (as a mixed-bag of community posts.)

Best of both worlds?

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

I had the same idea as Dennis. Just organize the archives but please leave the current posts untouched, that mixture really adds to things. I wouldn't read all posts if they were separated and would miss some really neat stuff.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I like the format as it is, too. Whenever I visit the MIMF or 13th Fret, I feel as though there are just too many "doors" from which to choose.

Carlton..that's was my first impression of the MIMF and the reason I initially started this thread. Some sites tend to become a maze. And once you enter one door that leads to another, and another..etc. It's difficult to get back to where you initially started. It's much like the guys were saying...It's like having ADD. But, I think Dennis had a great idea to separate the archives into separate files and leave the current threads as they are. Way to go Dennis..nice suggestion.

Lance I too hope you don't make this into separate areas.
I still visit the "Fret", but not as often as I used to (it was daily, reading every post and leaving feedback , asking questions, etc) I just can't hardly make since of it anymore, sorry Dave if you're reading this.
I also visit MIMF and have learned a lot over the years, but there sre topics that I have never looked at nor particpated in because it's less like a community and more like instructional reading. Not that that's not important it's just less enjoyable.
Back to the 13th Fret. As above I always enjoyed the community, the comradery and now it seems more like groups with separate interests.

If you want to find only things on a particualar topic you can always use the excellent search facility on this forum. I like the forum just the way it is thank you, one big converation.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Archives in to separate topic ain't that bad'an idea. Ill think about that and how we could do it easily.

I would not what to have to individually place each topic in to a specific location manually, but I could see adding a drop down menu with select topics that we could choose from, then when we search would could search for every post under one of the seleced topic headers.
I'm not sure I'm making sense, basically, another box under the current Subject box that has a dozen or so "topics" that we could choose from. This would keep the format the same, but allow for a more streamlined search result.
make sense? LanceK38585.6849884259

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Lance,

If that is something that you can easily add, I'd say go for it.

Best,

Michael
Michael McBroom38585.6961342593

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Don't take this the wrong way Jeff. I am not critisizing your POV. But I have a different take on it.

Personally, I don't see it as the OLF vs. the MIMF. Ok, sure... I am biased, but the MIMF has it's place. Deb has worked very hard to make that what it is. Love it or hate it she has worked hard and it is a resource for all of us to draw from.

I think we need to not think of it as a "competition", and just make the OLF even better and forget what everyone else is doing.

There are ideas in the cooker that will get your heart a thumping.



just my .02 worth.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I agree with Colin that the search facilty is excellant, especially given that you can set the level it searches at.

I visited other forums where the content is cut up and sometimes find it hard to know what category to look in.


Just my 2 pence worth.