What would you like to see in this forum?

Mike,

Agreed on that. I'll make it a single subject with multiple subheadings listed in the posts.
 
Tarmix,

Thanks. I was away for awhile because I was in a serious car accident, traumatic brain injury and the whole works. Went from being active to flat on my back, with memory, partial paralysis, and numerous other effects. Luckily, I'm recovered 100% but it's taken a few years. In many ways, I feel like I'm relearning many of the things I could do in my sleep before the accident. I have learned a great deal about perseverance and dealing with confusion and emotional turmoil, and uncertainty. At the same time, I think my previous experience helped me get through the ordeal, because when you are in extreme situations in the field, uncertainty is your constant companion, so you learn not to worry about it and just concentrate on the tasks at hand without worry if you're gonna get killed or make it out. The best anyone can do is apply their knowledge and practiced skills in order to increase the odds in their favor. It's all about managing probabilities, and it does not get any more exact than that.

Going through this injury and aftermath teaches you about how the survival mentality often applies in many other areas of our lives, not just the wilderness.
 
DaleW said:
FAQ's and links to organizations appropriate to disaster preparedness, search and rescue, etc.

Other than that, we're really short on threads about rescuing scantily clad ladies in the woods :D
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To expand on DaleW's idea:

A sticky, containing links (external links, as well as to previous informative threads), FAQs, and general information for several of the major topics relating to Widlerness and Survival Skills.

Example: "Firestarting" It would be a Sticky, maybe some members would put together an informational primer on the various equipment,techniques, uses, needs, etc.

The idea here, is when someone visits for the first or second time, and is interested to jump in, they can first look over the Sticky for their topic, to gain a starter level of information. This will help them make the best of their questions and posts.

If this would be undertaken, the first phase would be to wittle down to a handful of topics, such as: FireStarting, Navigating/Orienteering, Water & Hydration, Cold Weather Survival, Urban Survival, etc. etc. etc.

I agree with Hollowdweller regarding the search feature, without it, this forum will suffer the same basic information being asked and answered ad infinitum.
Many times the best answer to question is to search and link a previous discussion.
 
Paying members can search! (Obligatory plug for Spark...:D)

This will be a lot to take on, and an ongoing project. I may have to ask for help just to get it done in a reasonable amount of time, so any volunteers are welcomed!
 
Evolute said:
Brian,

While a pertinent sticky or two with pointers to many worthwhile threads would be good, please don't make this one of those forums with too many stickies at the top, filling a significant portion of screen real estate. For example, with Barrabas's suggestion, above about a sticky for navigation skills: I really don't want the top of the screen to be filled with an individual sticky each for every relevant outdoor skill... one for navigation, one for fire building, one for shelter building, one for first aid, one for hunting, etc... and soon you have way too many stickies.
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This is very true, and regarding my idea of "primer topics", we would need to find a way to hide or be able to expand them.

Right now when you open this forum, a good half or 2/3rds is Stickies.

i hate to say this, but on other forums I have managed, this actually calls for a couple of sub-forums? or parallel forums... as in "follow this link" for "Basic Skills and Overivews". Then have the Stickes for all the topics appear.

Sorry to over-complicate it, but Evolute brings up a good point.
 
Other sections of BFC have those, so I'm sure Spark will let us do it, as long as it's not a huge housekeeping headache for him. My mod powers only cover content and arranging it within the framework of the forum environment, so I can't restructure things. I have to ask the owner to do it. Stay tuned, and thanks for the feedback.
 
I was going to suggest a couple sub-forums too, don't know how hard it would be or even if it's allowed. Maybe one just for knives and gear, one for trip pics etc. It would make looking around in here that much easier.
 
tknife said:
I was going to suggest a couple sub-forums too, don't know how hard it would be or even if it's allowed. Maybe one just for knives and gear, one for trip pics etc. It would make looking around in here that much easier.
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Agreed. Over on a few other forums:rolleyes:;) they have sub forums of W&S.

Cutting/chopping tools
Kit topics
Skills topics

ect.....

Not sure Spark will go for it, but would make searching/posting what you want to look over easier.

I know for instance there is other members here that love knives, but are mainly here for the skills threads. I'm here for both. Some like to post about their knives and others.

I hear ya Thayne.....:cool:
 
Evolute said:
Brian,

While a pertinent sticky or two with pointers to many worthwhile threads would be good, please don't make this one of those forums with too many stickies at the top, filling a significant portion of screen real estate. For example, with Barrabas's suggestion, above about a sticky for navigation skills: I really don't want the top of the screen to be filled with an individual sticky each for every relevant outdoor skill... one for navigation, one for fire building, one for shelter building, one for first aid, one for hunting, etc... and soon you have way too many stickies.
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We have what, six stickies now? I think it's best to keep them at a minimum. Some of them can be unstuck when they are no longer relevant like the knife lists.

No search feature leads to lots of new posts about beat to death topics. If people knew to search Google it would help prevent duplicate threads and help refresh old ones.

Maybe Spark should note that in the "search disabled" thread.
 
Yeah I'm in process of reducing stickies. I combined the Links and the resources/all in one threads under links. Gotta find out what the deal is with Ironwolf and the knife that he seems to have promised and not delivered. Work is in progress.
 
Brian, besides a few personal websites on survival topics like Doug Ritter's, we also have a couple of guys here who have started wikis.

Instead of stickying each one, I would suggest a "master" sticky with links to survival sites like Doug's and to the wiki's: CanDo's Klippe, and storl's GoingPrepared.com.
 
Thanks, Mike! If they are even half as good as your outstanding photography, you can bet I'll stick 'em up!

~B.
 
I agree on the master sticky idea. Kind of a "threads of interest" type of thing. I wonder if vbulletin has the ability to do a quick summary that anyone can edit like the fatwallet.com forums have (go take a look if you are not familiar). Basically, the OP still has control over the first post, but right underneath that is an area that anyone can edit. This would be super useful for a master links thread, in case the OP disappears and so Brian does not have to spend his days sorting through our piles of links. It could be like a mini wiki that anyone can edit and organize. Heck, if vbulletin can't do it, I would be more than willing to create a place on my wiki for it and have a thread that just links to that.

On another note, Mike definitely needs his stuff in a thread listing all the wilderness sites out there. He has some very thorough articles on fatwood and other tinders, and they make a great read for people not familiar with the subject.
 
ilbruche said:
No search feature leads to lots of new posts about beat to death topics. If people knew to search Google it would help prevent duplicate threads and help refresh old ones.

Maybe Spark should note that in the "search disabled" thread.
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Brian, this is something we can do. As the lead-off line in a master sticky, put the search code for Google for those who can't search BF.

What is it? site:Bladeforums.com - words to search on
 
storl said:
I wonder if vbulletin has the ability to do a quick summary that anyone can edit like the fatwallet.com forums have (go take a look if you are not familiar). Basically, the OP still has control over the first post, but right underneath that is an area that anyone can edit. This would be super useful for a master links thread, in case the OP disappears and so Brian does not have to spend his days sorting through our piles of links.
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If I understand what you're getting at, we don't need a software upgrade. On another website, I did a couple of threads, one listing each subforum and its moderators, and another listing Scandinavian websites by country.

The first post was mine, with the list. Anyone else who had additional or upgraded information posted it after that, and I checked the threads out regularly and upgraded the first post. It really wasn't hard to keep up, once the basic info was there, and then anyone could update that first list, since we had responsible people on those forums. But just as easily, we could put a lead line Do Not Modify This First Post.
 
Brian Jones said:
I'll make it a single subject with multiple subheadings listed in the posts.
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The Schrade forum has something like this and I think it's very effective. The only change I suggest is to limit it to moderator posting to keep it short and simple. Fewer posts makes it easier to search and find things imo.

I would rather not see a bunch of new sub-forums, I think it's fine the way it is. When things get divided up too much it can change the character of a forum and sometimes the discussion itself. YMMV.
 
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