Hi all, it's great to see so many people from LumberJocks coming to Craftisian and joining our site. Welcome!
I am well aware of the recent abrupt changes on LJ. They have been unfortunate to say the least. But because they essentially killed what made LJ unique, I think it's time to stop looking back and move forward...
I'd like to take some time to outline a few key differences between both sites and shed some light on a few points raised in the recent discussions. Think of this is as a brief orientation for the LumberJocks so you can feel right at home here at Craftisian.
We don't have buddies feature, instead you can follow other members. This is as easy clicking on the Follow button on the author card as well as on the member page. You will be notified of any new projects, blogs, forum topics posted by the members you opted to follow.
There are no favourites on CS, instead we have Collections. Collections are more powerful than good old faves on LJ because you can create multiple collections (not just one fave bucket). Perhaps, think of these as the Pinterest boards. You can also browse collections created by other members on this Collections page. Look for the following icon/button to start collecting projects - it can be your projects or projects from other members, there are no limits. I see private/public collections and collaborated collections in the future...
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There is no Pulse on CS for now. This was one of the top features on LJ and I will think hard about implementing something similar here. Until that happens, you will have to rely on the Notifications (the bell icon in the header) and Email Digests.
The text editor on CS is visual and more powerful. You probably noticed that we have what's called WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor, meaning that any formatting (bold, italics, lists) as well as attachments like images are immediately displayed as you compose your content. This should make your posting experience more pleasant. Also, I have big plans for the editor magic-embeds. You can already embed/insert interactive project cards into your content just by pasting a direct project link / url into the content. It should look like this:
This will soon be expanded to support youtube videos, blogs etc.
User/member mentions are coming soon. You will soon be able to mention members in your posts so they get notified and can respond directly.
Workshops will be added soon. I like the idea of having them - as suggested in recent comments. You may start taking photos as early as today :)
We don't have a dedicated Tool Reviews section on CS currently. Original reviews on LJ were awesome, I remember spending weeks working on them. We had initial version of Tools section in the early CS days but it was not carried over during the latest redesign. I plan to improve it first before launching it again. Also, the idea is to make it work together with the unique CS feature - Tools & supplies section on each project. This area needs some improvements like suggestions and completions but it's our attempt to build the biggest repository of projects according to specific tools and brands. Make sure to add them when posting your next project:
We have blog series and they are awesome. This works very similar and you can use Series to document your builds and group other related entries into sequences:
Forums have no categories. This will be soon changing for the better and I also plan to rename Forums to Discussions. With this initial categories (not too granular) will be introduced.
Craftisian is also open to people working with metal and leather. To raise the bar after LJ, my vision was to bring craftisans from other fields to one online home - that being Crafitisian. You can explore these other sections by clicking on the All Crafts selector in the header. If you happen to know a few dedicated metalworkers or leatherworkers, send them an invite, please.
We have Craftisian Weekender and Bespoke emails. Weekenders are being distributed each Saturday and are basically a nice digest of the past week's activity. Bespokes are sent once per month and are edited by our indispensable community editor MsDebbieP.
We run a Monthly Book Giveaway and Craftisian Awards - summer and winter edition. Make sure to submit your entry into the ongoing Uncommon BOX awards. I didn't have much time promoting these but am always open to any ideas and partnership requests - just message me.
I hope this list will help you get oriented faster and I am happy to answer any other questions in the comments below.
Seems like it's going to get busy here. Let's make this the best craft website that feels like home...
I’m a refugee from LJ. I would spend hours building a project from the lead thumb nail photos to the process and in the (improved site my work process was at the top of the page and my lead photos were at the bottom.
The insect the manages the page said just edit it. I don’t have many of those photos any longer.
When I posted a complaint about the new format the Enifera scolded me and moved my comment to a different section on comments and said I was inciting drama.
We all can guess who the drama Queen is. Lol
Thanks for this awesome place to show our talents.
drama queen james,im trying to figure out who that would be -lmao. yeah scolding and moving someones comments to where they think it should be doesn't help or improve anything. and dont say something she doesn't like or you'll join me, which was actually great because it brought me here.
martin i didn't understand the collections feature now that i look at it i think it's gonna be even better than favorites was.thanks.
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
Thank you so much for this info Martin, I have a better understanding of how you’ve structured things now ?? I appreciate what you’re doing here…keep it up!
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
Martin, thanks for the warm welcome and for the tutorial to make the introduction to a "new" site so easy. Like so many others I really enjoyed growing with you and your "other" site and look forward to doing the same here. I think it's great how you combined other crafts (leather working and metal working) along side woodworking. By following a recent knife swap it appears that many have a vested interest in all three. I received the Weekender over this past weekend and I was pleasantly surprised, but then I remembered that Craftisian is blessed with MsDebbieP. Take your time and make changes as they fit your plan, you have already given us so much hope. Just don't leave us again!!
There seems to be a bit of over moderation over there. I made a comment about someone not working the weekend when so much is going on. I was accused of bullying but not banned.
Hi Martin, I was wondering what everybody thinks about being able to reply to a particular comment, instead of just posting at the end of the post? Sometimes I see a comment half way up the page that I would like to respond to, but by the time I make my post it's so far down it wouldn't make sense to post.
Figuring out how to do something you have never done is what makes a good challenge.
Bentlyj I’d support this for sure. In the past, on other sites, it’s been done with quotes, but I think something maybe a little more like what Apple has done for their txt’s could be cool…
Something that puts the reply logically in-line with the original comment would be cool. Although sometimes I quote multiple posts so I’m not sure how that would work out. Maybe quotes are the best way to go??
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
