Hi,

Its been quiet around here of late and so I thought that I would take a look at the "user list". This lists all the persons who have "last visited" and so I quickly counted that about 50 TFG Forum stalwarts have chesked in over the last 3 days however apparently with very little to say or contribute.

Has cabin fever struck ?

Regards

Ken Hume

Ken, prior to this post on 12/31 your last post was 11/30!

What have you been up to?

And stateside things usually slow down between Xmas and New Years.

I agree with Ken. Very few people have been on the forum. I have been mostly reading the posts and enjoying them.

I don't understand why more guild members aren't on this forum. I know guys out there are working on projects, well at least I'm sure many are. Post some pics, tell a story for goodness sake! I know I would if I had one. I am working on something that will be of interest to many guild members, but it will be a few months before I'll be ready to show everyone. A few people know, but I'm keeping it quiet til I know it's going to work. I'm aweful, eh?
Otherwise I'm recovering from the holidays, too much food eaten, getting back to the gym, trying to work on a million small chores and projects here on the farm, including finishing an addition of sorts on my shop so I can clear the shop of stuff for "storage".

Hi Mike,

Guilty as charged !

I posed the question because over the years I have noted that activity on the board seems to run in waves and it would be interesting for the Guild to run some analytics to see who / what drives the forum along.

Regards

Ken Hume

Analytics cost money
$ comes from members


I'd rather the TFG use $ from members to deliver real world benefits than trying to analyze how a forum gets used. Publications, projects, etc.

The forum is here. We've discussed before how / why people may or may not want to use it. If you build it, they will come. Or not.

I've been quiet lately. I've been checking in a few times a week, but right now with work, family, holiday travel, and other things that compete for my spare time, I just haven't had much to say.


I wish more practicing timber framers would post here, but I understand the reality that at the end of the day, it's not always healthy for "work" to spill over into your "downtime" by spending time posting about timber framing online while the rest of life happens around you.

Speaking of "work" spilling over into "downtime", I have to go put on some raingear and unload a truckload of timber that is arriving at the yard in a half hour. It's dumping rain and will be for the next several hours, it's Saturday, and it's New Year's day. That's my little bit of timber framing activity to share with you guys. I doubt I'll be able to take any photos you guys would care to see. (I'm not complaining...Ok, maybe just a tiny bit )

In the next week or so, (while my family is out of town) I'll try to post a few pics of some stuff we've been doing for the last while. Things are a bit slow on the forum.

I think it is good if your forums have 2 kinds of people posting on them:
1 people who have questions and kind find the answers or who need pointed in the right direction (NOT people to lazy to look things up for themselves. that bugs the tar out of me!)
2 People who have ideas and need a channel to bring them out, and a setting for genuine discussion, and who want the input of others.
Thus forums will be centered around giving help to those who need it, and in presentation and development of new ideas. For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.

Perhaps you have a different idea for what forums should be?

Keep in mind that my ideas of things come from my German heritage, and from my fascination with ancient Greek thought...

Hi,

When I posed my original question about recent forum activity I made this more as a child like flyaway remark but I have since thought better of my question and now see that some investigation into the metrics that lie behind this question are required in order to take stock about the future direction that this forum and other forms of virtual communication might take.

For example, Guild membership numbers have now fallen considerably from their lofty peak of 2000+ and I confess to being one of those who got to a point where I choose not to renew my membership. The reasons for this decline need to be known and understood if the fortunes of the Guild and its long term survival are to be assured. I conveyed my concerns and suggestions to the executive and I am pleased to report that they listened, heard and acted upon what I had to say.

The average age of members is, I would now guess, considerably older than when the Guild was founded back in the mid eighties and some of the founders must now be at or past retirement age (65?). Richard Casselmaine is a prime example of someone who has spent a lifetime amassing knowledge and has recently used this forum to good effect in sharing this with budding timber framers.

We have in the past 5 years seen the rise of Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere and the move away from the desk based pc to the hand held phone / Ipod / Blackberry type devices.

Many of the early Guild members (including me) have studiously researched, analysed and sythethised the craft of timber framed building and possibly are approaching saturation point but still hanker after that next hard to come by fix.

There has been a resurgence of interest in formal apprenticeship based learning rather than the previous approach of self discovery which was undoubtedly the very driver needed to promote the close cooperation and sharing required to rediscover and revive this "forgotten craft".

D L Bahler has recently drawn our attention to the almost total absence of individuals from countries other than England, Canada and the USA. I now find myself communicating directly with colleagues in Australia and Europe who are only now beginning to use an email based approach to undertaking wider building technology research and appear to be unaware of the Guild. What about the rest of the world - don't they exist ? - have they nothing to offer ?

We have seen the recent move by the Guild away from the exclusive use of a paper based approach to formal communications now embracing and adoptng a digital based approach to generating income by recognising customer based market segmentation and discrimination now resulting in different types of membership categories which hopefully might in the short term afford economies (postage, printing, paper stuffers, etc.) and in the longer term generate opportunities for the growth of membership (publication subscriptions, etc.).

One thing is for sure - it will never again be like it was before.

Regards

Ken Hume

There is no hiding the fact that our economies have taken a serious blow, a blow caused mostly by our own bad decisions culturally. By that I am referring to our disposable culture, our love of instant results and flashy new toys. There is also no way around the fact that the new home market is one of the hardest hit areas, and we are all suffering as a result.

With this economic crisis we have a major choice to make, we can either let it destroy us, or we can let it teach us some valuable lessons.

I think that timber framers have the opportunity to revolutionize our world right now, and we need to do everything in our power to make that happen. We have the opportunity to show people the values of permanence, of sustainability, of craftsmanship, etc. and I am sure that if the new home market were revolutionized in this way, these attitudes would spread to the broader culture.