Forum direction ?

tcmtech said:

American Wind Energy Associaton left me feeling sour for a few years. Someone asked the simple question about how to make more power with his home made genset. I read his suppled info on how it was designed and concluded that a bigger blade set was the simplest way to go. That was it, no complicated math theory on aerodynamics or any thing. just simple common sense!
I got shot all to pieces! What kind of idiot would propose using a bigger blade to catch more wind? aparently I should have answered with three pages of mathematical nonsense and told the poor guy he needs to go to an aerospace engineering company and spend a few hunderd thousand and have them reshape his wood blades to get a theoretical 10% more efficiency.

Click to expand...

lol...do you mind linking that thread. I'm kind of curious to see what the arguments against it where.

I have to be honest, the main reason that I am a member of this forum is to actually "be around" people with similar interests. I mean face it, people in electronics are totally different to accountants or wildlife conservationists - we are a unique breed - hence this forum is unique
And while my activity may not be high I enjoy reading about problems being posted and being resolved, and there are some rare occasions when I actually know the solution to a problem but miss out on posting a solution myself as somebody already would have- *sigh* maybe its the time difference!? But then again it is VERY rarely that I actually can help

What I like about Electro Tech and suggestions

On many forums there is a small group of people who think they know everything. I see very little of that here.

Given the fragmented nature of the electronics it takes a number of people with different interests to provide coverage. We are lucky enough to have the right people to do that.

I like it that one can be wrong without a pack of wolves showing up to chew your hide for the next two pages.

Most people here realize there is little new and are willing to share their work. (I would like to see more of this)

I like that we help new people with an interest in electronics. It is rewarding to watch as they advance and post more complex questions.

Suggestions

Another member noted that we are answering the same questions we were answering several years ago.

We could add sub-forums for common topics. In microcontrollers I would start by adding PWM, LCD, and 7SEG. My thinking is that a more organized structure would put related posts at peoples fingertips. As is done at CNCZone.

I find the fourm search lacking. You can not search for many topics because they have too few letters. LCD LED PWM TTL etc.

As much as I like to help students the homework thing feels more and more like noise that does not belong in the tech sections of the forum.

3v0

A simple FAQ section were the most helpful posts are placed on common issues. Sounds like a good idea.

Thanks for seeing the humor dknguyen!

I may have misquoted thehactual chat site name though!
its been about five years now since that incident happened.

A freind of mine that stayed with it far longer than me said that chat room went so far off track (poor moderation,too many enviro nutters and self proclaimed experts) they eventualy dumped the whole site and started over. I never went back to find out if it was true and if so weather or not the achives stayed intact.

Thanks to the fair views, good reasoning, nicely done moderation, and diligent self policeing done here I think this site may hold its own for some time yet!

Still, I think letting a few enviro/overunity nutters in from time to time does give some regulars a chance to poke and giggle with out true harm being done!