New board software.. etc .. suggestion

[Rover]

To those in the capacity to shape the migration to a newer software, a suggestion.. subdivide the wind categories, doesn't mean you can't read them all, but should post in the one that reflects your endeavors

Ok right, the current level of posts,  we can suffice with  one wind category. But when/if the software changes, the posts may increase.

There is an obvious difference between the "Large" wind and "Smaller" wind folk.  I suggest creating two topics/sub forums etc. I think a subdivision may enhance the board.

Just a thought, create a boundary at 8' diameter blade rotation.. guess those who go into larger and those who go into smaller?. (How many  have an 8 ft blade diameter? .. 7' yes a lot, 10 yes a lot.. but 8'?)

The technologies for the 2 levels are sufficiently different to warrant it.

Typically...

Large wind.

• Home made horizontal axial (ok vertical too) units
  
  
• Larger swept aread (duh?)
  
  
• Some larger commercial units (2 kw or larger)
  
  
• Blades: a lot of home made, lower velocity, higher power

  
  
  

Small Wind

-Homemade, re-engineered , ECM, treadmill, other small alternators/generators

-Blades: a lot of commercial, some pvc, fewer homemade, high velocity, lower power

-Experimental ( Trape drives etc)

Just a thought....

p.s... I'm in "small wind" .. (and I know this doesn't cover everyone...not hard to figure out where to post though)

[bob g]

when the layout for microcogen.info was laid out, there were about 40 something

boards in the forum in maybe 15 catagories

there was a lot of flap at first, folks bitchin about it being to cumbersome, and getting lost, and other minor concerns

it didn't take long for most to see the value in a segmented forum, it makes things much easier to locate and the ability to have a multitude of discussions actively going on all at once really took off and it has taken on a life of its own.

march 22nd will be 6 months for our forum and it has about 240 members, about 8200 plus posts in 600 plus topics, not bad at all in my opinion.

personally i think the key to success is to not focus too narrowly, provide some room to grow, and most of all the large number of moderators involved. each taking it upon himself to shape a board with a bit of personal touch and keep the discussion lively.

i had hoped we could have attracted some windpower guys to that section of our forum because i really believe any real microcogeneration system can only be improved by the addition of  wind power, solar, and hydro power, among other stuff.

hopefully this forum will morph into something more intuitive, and a bit easier to use, along with being more dependable. Also being able to expand it a bit or provide some room for growth into area's that dovetail nicely with windpower.

patiently awaiting the change

bob g

[BruceDownunder]

with respect,,,,

  Please, please , keep any sticky Geek fingers off what we have ...

 Just make the reply and posting pic's section more friendly

 Cranky ol bugger ,

Bruce

[bob g]

Geeky???

Creaky fingers maybe?

bob g

aka, another cranky old fart

[wooferhound]

well then you would need a VAWT category

then you would need a Large & Small VAWT Categories . . .

[DanB]

geez it's a hard call how to do this.

By the way... just so folks do know, we're still moving forward to a migration to SMF (soon) - honestly, it's partly an issue of time and partly an issue of paying a programmer to (hopefully) get it right.

At this point - there will be similar sections to what we have now, there will be a 'wind' section.  And part of the trouble with too many categories is migrating all the old content into the 'right' place.

Regarding small wind/large wind...  the 'standard' definition of 'large' wind is anything over 100kW output.  'small' wind is something like anything over 5kW and 'micro wind'...  that's the stuff most of us play with ;-)

We can tweak categories as time moves forward but at this time it's a bit too late to be making changes (for a while) until all this content that's here now is migrated.

[fabricator]

Why not set up some kind of migration donation thingy in the otherpower store? Then put a sticky up on every page (are stickies even possible with poop.....er, I mean scoop?) the only problem with that is paying with paypal, I hate paypal with a purple passion, but I'd hold my nose and do it for this good cause.

[TomW]

fabricator;

No stickies on The pooper Scooper.

Adding sections after it is running looks easy on SMF. Once it is in place.

I would toss a few bucks in myself but I use PayPal every day [incoming hopefully]. It is sort of like raising hogs, after awhile you don't mind the stench to get the profit.

Is that a bad thing?

Tom

[halfcrazy]

yes I would kick in a donation as this board has been super valuable for me. I say set up a link to paypal and we can all donate as we please to the cause

[fabricator]

I recently had a big dispute with paypal, they placed a random 21 day hold on a $2500 dollar payment for an engine I sold, the buyer received it and left positive feedback but according to the paypal bots this is now company policy ARRRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!! Paypal is not a bank and is not regulated like one so they can basically do any thing they please any time, but yeah, it's like mud wrestling with a pig, you both get covered in mud and pig poop but after a while you realize the pig likes it.

[Rover]

Actually wasn't considering trying to subdivide the existing posts.. pretty much impossible.. someone would have to read each post and make a decision.. can't see that happening. More along the lines of day forward.

I agree there +/- s on the idea.. and yeah then everyon would want a subdivision .

From a databsae standpoint, subdivision is actually a good thing, if properly done with the right indexes, makes the entire board faster.

But then again... I'll still read everything, guess most of us will. In my 2-3 years here I can easily say this has been one of the best educations I've had.. count me in on any donations that go to upgrading the board

[bj]

  On the subject of donations, count me in as well.  Whatever payment method is chosen, I am sure I can happily make it happen.

 

[bob g]

put me down for a donation as well

as for adding subsections (boards) to SMF, it takes all of about a minute to do, just

have a name, what it is to be about, and one click, and boom you have it.

bob g

[DanB]

yes. once the board is up/running, I think we can easily add lots of refinements to categories/etc.  We should wait till then though.

Nice of everyone to offer donations to speed this forward -we're pondering that!  Seeing folks like TomW offer is pretty amazing... we should be taking donations to give TomW some kibble actually, he donates a great deal of time here.  Thanks Tom!!!

[Rover]

Ok.. I'll give Tom some kibble...remember tha has a different mining in dog terms...or maybe it doesn't

[ruddycrazy]

if TomW gets some kibble who's going to walk behind him with the pooper scoop'er ?

[Airstream]

That's a hidden feature of Scoop...

[Volvo farmer]

That explains a lot!