New distillers reading lounge

[Bushman]

My sons wedding is behind me along with my remodel. At the end of the week our cousins from Norway leave thus I will have time to work on the new distillers reading lounge.

My task has been (for some time now) to look over it and see if we can make it easier and improve on the info for our new members. I will be working on it and then taking the recommendations to the management team for suggestions and approval. If you have an interest or ideas on this PM me and maybe we can work together on it.

Thanks in advance
Bushman

[S-Cackalacky]

Not to minimize what's already here, but I think it would be helpful to have some well written tutorial type articles. What I'm talking about are articles (tutorials) that go through intense scruitiny and editing by the "master distillers" here on the forum before publication. There are already some of these scattered around the forum - for instance, the soldering tutorials for biginners and for doing ss soldering. Just sayin' that it would be nice to have the well thought out tutorial type articles placed under a single heading with subheadings such as soldering, mashing, building, etc.

Using a still build as an example - there are already thousands of bits and pieces that can be searched out for those wanting information on a specific problem they might have. But, for a beginner, it might help tremendously to read an article or watch a video that takes them through a build from beginning to end. As an example, I think it would be really great to see a video, or read an illustrated article about building Samohon's simple pot still, or a flute, or a boka.

I'm sure, in developing such articles, it would be a difficult task for a member to take on, but there would be a tremendous satisfaction in knowing that they took the knowledge they garnered from this forum and then paid it forward to the benefit of those up and coming in the hobby. Not to mention the personal satisfaction of such an accomplishment.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about from a different website: http://theelectricbrewery.com/heating-elements . I used this tutorial for the installation of my pot still heating element. I didn't do mine exactly as illustrated, but I was able to gleen what I needed from the article to do what I needed to do. I even bought the parts I needed by clicking some of the links in the article.

A good model for this would be the tried and true recipe section - basically the same process of vetting out the information before allowing it to be included as a tried and true recipe. However, I would recommend that articles be standalone - that is, without comments being included. Maybe have a separate subtopic for comments on each article.

Anyway, I appologize for goin on and on, but I've seen this work to good effect on other forums and just wanted to put it forward for consideration.

Thanks,
S-C

[wv_cooker]

Well said S-Cack clear concise tutorials, plans thread, Safety, Rules,Mashing, Recipes, etc. No ability to comment so no clutter from BS. Perfect situation for learning. All decided on by the Master's not the masses. Maybe update with some of the new type stills and packings such as Flutes and SPP instead of the generic build a Boka answers. Allowing for educated decision's, nothing against Boka's just that we are in a new time and have different choices. A lot of work Bushman but there seems to be a lot of writers that should be happy to help you compile an excellent Reading Lounge.

[Husker]

good ideas cacky. Yes, this type discussion has been batted around a lot over the years, behind the scene in the mod's forums. One other thing we would also like to do, is for some of the 'best' type topics, split them up, into the REAL meat and potatoes part (i.e. the REAL tut), and then hang a discussion thread OFF of that main thread. There are about 30-40 threads which should be done that way. But we mods have not taken the time to put into that .

IF there are other wishes wants from the other forum members of things to make improvements on the content we have, BY ALL MEANS speak up. We make not guarantee that things will get done (at least right away), since we all are part time volunteers. But there are times when some of us DO get an itch to improve things. Bushy was recruited into the mod team, just for this reason (along with others). He has a deeper background / knowledge in designing learning plans than most of the other mods, and that is something we hope will help out in the reading lounge.

H.

[Bushman]

Very similar to my thoughts on what we should target. Also some info that was good 5 years ago has changed with the new designs that have come out from members of this forum. A prime example is the CM still, we show a picture of the one we would not recommend to members and talk about the inefficiency of the still which was true in its day.

[S-Cackalacky]

Thank you everyone for your kind remarks and for considering this proposal.

The only thing I might add - If it's decided to go ahead with this, it might be good for Bushman to go ahead and get the structure established as part of his revamp. And, I'm sure there are already some decent tutorials/informational articles that could be moved into it. Of course you all (management) would need to settle on what it should look like, what existing articles (if any) should be included, and what the submission criteria will be for future articles. Doesn't seem like much up front planning to at least get it started and then hopefully it will perpetuate itself.

Thanks again,
S-C

[S-Cackalacky]

Very similar to my thoughts on what we should target. Also some info that was good 5 years ago has changed with the new designs that have come out from members of this forum. A prime example is the CM still, we show a picture of the one we would not recommend to members and talk about the inefficiency of the still which was true in its day.

Sorry Bushman, I think we were posting at the same time. Your example of the CM still is a good one and maybe your reorganization will go a long way in making it easier to keep things up to date. I think we all owe you a debt of gratitude for your willingness to take this on.

Good luck to you,
S-C

[lampshade]

I recommend trouble-shooting guides, like what to check for and what is the remedy for a stalled fermentation. If you like, I can give that particular guide a start, to be corrected and added to by the masters. And after the masters complete the guide, we could invite others to submit suggestions, to be reviewed by the masters before inclusion into the guide.

I again would like to thank the masters for their passion, wisdom, and efforts to make this hobby successful, safe, and orthodox. In particular I thank Rad, Mash Rookie, Mr P, Jimbo, and the other masters for keeping me on track.

[Bushman]

Lampshade, any help is appreciated. If all interested wanted to take a section this won't seem overwhelming like writing new curriculum. S-cracky is correct we need to have a format so the look is the same and then everything will fall into place.

[Bushman]

Your example of the CM still is a good one and maybe your reorganization will go a long way in making it easier to keep things up to date. I think we all owe you a debt of gratitude for your willingness to take this on.

Good luck to you,
S-C

Your idea of tutorials is a good one. PM me any you would like to see included. Also with tutorial builds For stills I was thinking in the lines of Samohon's pictures and then breaking the components down such as a different tutorial for each part. An example would be the condenser. If we go from start to finish say on a simple pot still then everyone will be building a Liebig condenser as an example. I am currently working out a simpler design on a three walled condenser that is simpler than a shotgun yet will not need the length of a Liebig. This will give people a choice to alter design to fit their needs. (Just brainstorming with an open mike so to speak).

[wv_cooker]

After reading post after post that the answer is please use the HD Google search function, it seems that no one even see's the nice little menu section at the top of each page. Could I recommend a section of short tutorials of how to use the Forum somewhere in the beginning of the lounge.

[rumplestiltskin]

+1 On what S-Cack said. Not to minimize what's here. I've learned everything I know about distilling from this site and the parent site. Trouble is there is so much info here, if you find something you need sometimes its hard to find your way back to it. I have resulted to taking pictures of the screen with my phone on occasion if I run up on something extra good. The search function may or may not pull up what your looking for. I guess what im trying to say is maybe a better/different way of organization. I don't know what that would be personally. Just a thought from somebody that's not been here to long. I guess it would be kinda tough to organize the amount of info that's on this site any way you slice it......just my two cents.

[Husker]

I should know better than to hijack a thread, but if you find a topic that is really good, and want to always keep it at your finger tips, you can use the 'bookmark topic' link, to make a personal bookmark. You can then go to the User Control Panel, and see your bookmarked posts, and go right to it.

Sorry for the hijack, now back to the OP

[lampshade]

I'd like to also recommend that bookmark function, I use it a lot.

[lampshade]

Writing a good tutorial is lot of work.

In the past, I mentioned, on HD, that I would be willing to buy a book from the HD masters.

I believe it is reasonable to compensate the HD masters for their work on any tutorials. I am a "Site Donor" and I would like to also be a "Tutorial Donor," as a token of my appreciation for the masters' time and expertise for preparing a tutorial.

Besides, compensation is a good motivation for the masters to expend the time needed to produce good tutorials.

[Bushman]

Thanks, what you have contributed is payment enough. Writing tutorials is a way of learning as well, and the way HD was set up before my time was to share ideas. HD could have collected money for advertisements as some of the other sites due but the wisdom of the administrators before my time saw fit to keep this open and non bias to all so as not to feel obligated to any one. Getting back to your statement on compensation I taught school for 33 years and teachers very seldom got paid for their extra time writing curriculum however the reward for teaching made those extra hours worth while. My personal believe is everyone on HD contributes even if they ask a question that gets answered as others learn from those questions. Your PM to me on causes of yeast failure is good and when I get the format down I will share with the rest of the team to critique and best place it in the New Distillers Lounge.

Again this is a good chance for me to thank those that have made suggestions and also stepped up to the plate to help revamp the lounge.

bushmam

[Bushman]

Maybe adding a section to the lounge similar to the advice I have given new members for navigating and organizing info should be included so Husker I look at that as a suggestion not a birdwalk from the topic!

[Cu29]

Great ideas.

I would only suggest adding this to the wiki section instead of adding to the forums. HTML nav would just make it easier to organize. Each still tutorial could just link to the condenser page to see that list of options. I'm sure you could limit access as well so just the masters could edit. By default there's no comments. You could even have a FAQ page that sent you to the right wiki page. It would probably be easier to edit as well. Sending around 99 pm's with the latest and greatest edit gets old in a hurry.

I'm happy to help to if needed, at least with the wiki part.

$0.02

[andy_warethanol]

Hey Bushman. Im completely new to all this but if i could be of some service in your journey i would be glad to help in any way i can.

[Bushman]

Thanks for the advice and offers, currently finishing up the Mashing/Fermenting section as I thought this would be the easiest to start with. The section when finished will not be allowed to comment on but you can start new threads elsewhere if you have questions about it. When I get it done, approved, and posted we will post so members can read over it and make any suggestions they have.

I believe if we go the route of tutorials on the still section, I will need help finding and linking the best tutorials to help members build. So just a heads up if anyone has a perticular build they felt really helped them please PM the URL to me and I will look them over. As I mentioned earlier there is more than one way to build a good mouse trap so referencing a tutorial one way and not mentioning the other possibilities might be difficult. On the same token, those that are building a still it would be nice if you created a tutorial during the process to share with others.

Thanks in advance
Bushman

[andy_warethanol]

I know a little about web building. But it goes back to ancient days, html days so im far behind the curve. I think it would be nice to have a messenger/post/ reply alert function. Some kind of alert that allows you to keep on flow and stay on topic after a post, new topic, reply, message, etc. I dont know how hard that would be to generate. Back in the day I would be very ape and copy the html code for an interesting add on such as a chat room but I dont know about the language they use these days to encode or generate websites.

[lampshade]

I know a little about web building. But it goes back to ancient days, html days so im far behind the curve. I think it would be nice to have a messenger/post/ reply alert function. Some kind of alert that allows you to keep on flow and stay on topic after a post, new topic, reply, message, etc. I dont know how hard that would be to generate. Back in the day I would be very ape and copy the html code for an interesting add on such as a chat room but I dont know about the language they use these days to encode or generate websites.

There is currently implemented a "View new posts" link that will bring up all new posts, in descending date order. Will that accomplish what you are asking? Or are you asking to tag a particular thread for notification whenever it us updated with a new post? If the latter is the case, then I think you are asking to modify the "View your posts" link to include, not only updates to the threads in which you have previously participated, but to include also threads that you have tagged.

[rad14701]

You can also Subscribe and Bookmark topics...

And, above all else, remember that this is a canned bulletin board package and it has a steep learning curve to become proficient at writing custom code for it... It uses over 100 database tables, session and authentication handling, specialized PHP classes, and a whole lot more than just simple HTML... It all takes time and effort that is currently being used to administrate and moderate these very forums...

[andy_warethanol]

I love the site the way it is. im just chimming in i guess. idk rad, i was thinking of a popup or automated email to indicate forum action going on but maybe thats to much or to cliche. i mainly use my phone to navigate and post. so far i use the red highlighted words of a post to see what new posts hav come up or for my posts i click on view users posts link and check if red. but its hard to come up with more streamlined ways to make communication flow when you get this far. html, yea its arcane but still holds solid, esp for forums.

[Flyer Tuck]

Thanks for the advice and offers, currently finishing up the Mashing/Fermenting section as I thought this would be the easiest to start with. The section when finished will not be allowed to comment on but you can start new threads elsewhere if you have questions about it. When I get it done, approved, and posted we will post so members can read over it and make any suggestions they have.

I believe if we go the route of tutorials on the still section, I will need help finding and linking the best tutorials to help members build. So just a heads up if anyone has a perticular build they felt really helped them please PM the URL to me and I will look them over. As I mentioned earlier there is more than one way to build a good mouse trap so referencing a tutorial one way and not mentioning the other possibilities might be difficult. On the same token, those that are building a still it would be nice if you created a tutorial during the process to share with others.

Thanks in advance
Bushman

I am a new member, so do not know the history but...

Why is the site not using the WIKI to accumulate the distributed knowledge of the members?

I am new to distilling and have been researching still designs to help a friend. I was going to place some of the information I have found into the WIKI and found that my login here did not transfer to there and that I am not allowed to add to the WIKI.

A WIKI is one of the most efficient known methods of knowledge accumulation from multiple people. While threads may be disjointed and disorganized, people actively work to edit and link a WIKI into an organized whole.

[Flyer Tuck]

Also...

For the second time (of 2) since joining HD, I am having trouble downloading a PDF file (or the ZIP files of the MS Word versions) from the following thread:

viewtopic.php?f=62&t=14559

When I try to download the PDF, I only get the first page.

When I try the ZIP's, I go to a page where I'm told I'm not authorized to download.

Thanks for the great site!

Flyer

[Husker]

I found the reason and problem here. I have a script I run that strips out all GEOcode data from the pix uploaded to the site. Well, it has some problems at times with some pdf files. The pdf I built here, is one that it has problems with. I have corrected the problem, so when I run this script again, it will skip all pdf files (and .zip files, etc). It is harder than simply skipping some 'known' extension, since phpbb stores the files using a unique file naming method. There are no extensions, nor anything that really relates the file, to what it really is. To get the file names, phpbb hits the database, to recompute the name. This is done to 'hide' ability to directly download files. But my script looks at the internal contents of each file, before calling the morgify program that does the real 'stripping' of the geocode stuff.

H.

[Jimbo]

Thank you for lookin out for us Husker and strippin out any geo code! Appreciate all your efforts here!

[Doogie]

yes, thanks for looking out for all of us !!

[varocketry]

LAMPSHADE:

Any progress yet on the Stalled Fermentations guide you offered to write in August?

I'm experiencing UJSSM stalls and could use some guidance.

Thanks.