Ok. I know a lot about woodworking and I know a fair
bit about how the internet works, SEO and all that.
After a recent spat with admins on another woodworking
forum I've done some thinking about what makes
Lumberjocks a progressive model for a woodworking
forum that others might do well to emulate.
What I like:
1. a robust and accessible graphic interface that allows
people to post pictures easily in forums, blogs and
in "projects". The classifications seem redundant at
times and the competition for "Top 3" seems rather
silly to me, but I recognize that some people enjoy
that part of it so it's ok.
2. subforums. Though the activity level at present
is not so intense subforums are strictly needed,
subforums are a good organizational thing for
compartmentalizing specific topics. Considering the
technical weaknesses of most other woodworking
forums I have looked at I see potential for LJ to
grow among professional woodworkers and people
doing hobby work at an advanced level and that
sort of input will help us all learn.
3. open linking policy. Yes, you can put a link in
your posts and in your signature and people can
click on it. I'll explain that there was this old
search engine optimization belief that if you let
people post "do-follow" links on a forum, or
even "no-follow" links then the forum would
lose credibility in the search engines. I no longer
believe that to be true as Google and other
search engines are using much more advanced
algorythms these days which essentially read and
rate content for quality… which means a site
that has quality content will get "love" from
search engines and redundant sites with regressive
policies will not. Furthermore, allowing users to
link to relevant content and promote their own
websites is a form of give-and-take which cultivates
goodwill from users. The forum I recently stopped
participating in has draconian policies and basically
sucks up free content created by well-meaning
contributors while giving little back to them. While
LJ also benefits from the enormous "crowd-sourced"
content engine its user-base drives, it rewards users
for their contributions in a number of reasonable
ways, including things like "Top 3" recognition and
live link permissions as a default. Most other woodworking
forums are dinosaurs in comparison.
What I don't like:
1. Lack of "stickies" for redundant topics like "how to choose
a table saw".
bit about how the internet works, SEO and all that.
After a recent spat with admins on another woodworking
forum I've done some thinking about what makes
Lumberjocks a progressive model for a woodworking
forum that others might do well to emulate.
What I like:
1. a robust and accessible graphic interface that allows
people to post pictures easily in forums, blogs and
in "projects". The classifications seem redundant at
times and the competition for "Top 3" seems rather
silly to me, but I recognize that some people enjoy
that part of it so it's ok.
2. subforums. Though the activity level at present
is not so intense subforums are strictly needed,
subforums are a good organizational thing for
compartmentalizing specific topics. Considering the
technical weaknesses of most other woodworking
forums I have looked at I see potential for LJ to
grow among professional woodworkers and people
doing hobby work at an advanced level and that
sort of input will help us all learn.
3. open linking policy. Yes, you can put a link in
your posts and in your signature and people can
click on it. I'll explain that there was this old
search engine optimization belief that if you let
people post "do-follow" links on a forum, or
even "no-follow" links then the forum would
lose credibility in the search engines. I no longer
believe that to be true as Google and other
search engines are using much more advanced
algorythms these days which essentially read and
rate content for quality… which means a site
that has quality content will get "love" from
search engines and redundant sites with regressive
policies will not. Furthermore, allowing users to
link to relevant content and promote their own
websites is a form of give-and-take which cultivates
goodwill from users. The forum I recently stopped
participating in has draconian policies and basically
sucks up free content created by well-meaning
contributors while giving little back to them. While
LJ also benefits from the enormous "crowd-sourced"
content engine its user-base drives, it rewards users
for their contributions in a number of reasonable
ways, including things like "Top 3" recognition and
live link permissions as a default. Most other woodworking
forums are dinosaurs in comparison.
What I don't like:
1. Lack of "stickies" for redundant topics like "how to choose
a table saw".
I'm on the Forestry Forum as well and find it IMPOSSIBLE to post pics there.
