re: ARE WE A GOOD OL BOYS CLUB ?

I don’t  have answers to any of this, but  think the forums represent life as it is. I doubt many of us are producing projects and content everyday…unless it’s our career. What we do everyday is socialize, discuss events, relate experiences…which is exactly what shows up in the forums. And once in a while we make something in the shop. 

I’d love to be able to build a meaningful project every day, but life doesn’t allow that. I’d also love to view a dozen new projects with write ups on here everyday, but your lives don’t allow you time to make and post projects for me everyday. 

The community here isn’t a perfect cross section of America, or even the woodworking community as a whole, but it is a social club where members have found a common element they can talk about and that’s lead to other discussion they might not otherwise talk about. Nothing wrong with that. That’s life. 

There’s some immense talent here, displayed in the project posts. There’s no specific way to increase or manufacture more of that. In theory, adding a couple thousand more participants will see more projects posted, but does that make the overall site better? I suppose that depends what you’re interested in. This community, like any other, is an ever evolving culture. You can’t force it to be anything other than what it becomes on its own. It succeeds or fails on its own. I know one thing, trying to force it to be something it’s not on its own is a sure way to kill it…just like any other culture. 

You want more content? Hold more swaps or competitions or the like. Woodworkers are always looking for project ideas, giving them ideas and a timeline is a great way to motivate someone who’s maybe a little bored.