BT3Central Activity

[JoeyGee]

BTW, thanks to ISawThat, TFischer and others that have generated a lot of activity lately on looking for and providing info on replacing/rebuilding BT3 motors. I know I have learned a lot that I hadn't known before. I don't think I would ever go to those lengths to rebuild my BT3100, but I do appreciate the invaluable info you guys have recorded here. That really is the core of what we do here.

[Brian G]

I have posted some finished projects in the past, but, they didn't generate much for comments. I guess that may be part of the reason I don't make a bigger effort to post the projects I do complete.

This is a good point. I admit being lax on providing comments about finished projects. I agree with your sentiment. It takes time, planning, and purpose to pause in the build of a project to take photographs for the purpose of a build thread or description of a finished project. By the time a project is done, I'm ready to move on and not re-live the car crash some of them turn out to be. Then when there are a few token responses, the incentive to post more declines. That doesn''t mean I expect or need affirmation, but I think we don't do any favors to the forum.

Second, I think people generally are electronic media fatigued, and internet forums suffer for it. I spend most of my work days in front of a monitor, so my forum time (here and one other forum) is limited.

This is still a great place.

[billwmeyer]

Forum

I haven't been on here much during the last year or so. I have never posted a lot, but I used to lurk here almost every day. I owe the forme a lot. When my daughter's house burned about 5 or 6 years ago the forum set up paypal donations to help her and her 2 sons. I will be forever grateful. I hope you can give the forum a boost.

I haven't been very active in the shop. I had a knee replacement in March. I am learning scroll sawing, and thought I could do that while I was healing. My knee wouldn't let me sit at the saw. I did make a clock in the shape of a viola for my youngest grandson for Christmas, and I am working on something for my grandson who is in the Navy. I hope to retire in a year and a half, and then shop time will be on top of my to do list. I hope for the best for BT 3.

[woodturner]

Even then, with a name change, its going to be hard to come up with a compelling reason to drive people here.

IMHO, one compelling reason people come here and stay here is the moderator team. Unlike nearly every other woodworking site, the mods here are reasonable people - they don't arbitrarily ban people without reason or notice, don't delete threads because they don't like someone's opinion, etc. For those that have been around a bit, that is a huge plus.

The users here are a second reason - essentially everyone is friendly and helpful, and we almost never see the "fighting" so common on the other boards. Maybe it's just the mods doing their job well, but I suspect it's as much that the users have a more accepting demeanor.

How we can "market" that is another question altogether, but if we can get like-minded people here, I think they will stay.

[ironhat]

Revamping the forum into yet another generic, broad-spectrum woodworking group for the purpose of generating traffic can be understandable for economic reasons.
However, it is, IMHO, also done at the risk of causing interest to wane in those who are primarily concerned with the BT3 series.

Good point! That said, 'we' might consider a tag line such as, "Former home of the BT3". JAT.

Regarding the dwindling population, being ignored can be a newbie killer. I've noted over the years that there are cliques on most every board, who post back to their subset of 'members' but not to others. Yea, I've considered quality, if you will, of the texts being ignored and within the cliques the cross talk is pretty active even when the posts get silly. So, give the newbies a break, OK? Be friendly. Again, JAT.