How a Captive Nut turned into a How-To-Make-a-How-To-Thread

[Grant Bowker]

I think it could work to put the information in one thread and post a link to the original information in the other thread, reducing storage and bandwidth demands, reduce work for moderators (as anyone can create the link) and provide information flow.

If the above is practical, I think I would prefer to see the full information in the restoration thread which would let me see the information with the context of why the how-to was needed, how it works and the result of the inventor used it, then the how-to thread might just be a series of links to other threads.

On the other hand, I can recall postings of how-to that were not related to a restoration - just a technique a member wanted to share.

[Alex van de Wetering]

All fair comments I think.
The HOW-to's could be made into short articles on the mapleleafup website or copied posts made into new threads, locked for comments to reduce clutter(?)....but Grants suggestion might be the easiest and less labor intensive for all of us.....it could be one HOW-to "sticky" thread with links to all sorts of interesting techniques displayed in other threads.

And yes Hanno...contrary to what I said earlier, I think the discussion on HOW-to's is better of as a separate thread in TAC HQ

So the subject of making captive or caged nuts stays in this thread, or it gets moved to its own thread. Up to you, Alex

I rather keep it here, Hanno.

Alex

[Chris Suslowicz]

Definitely a "Hints and Tips" topic would be a good idea.

Searchable title, brief description and a link to the post with the details?

(Of course, you'd most likely end up with the "TVtropes" time sink problem, where following any link causes the entire thread to be read, to the detriment of getting any work done, but still...)

Chris.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Grant Bowker

I think it could work to put the information in one thread and post a link to the original information in the other thread, reducing storage and bandwidth demands, reduce work for moderators (as anyone can create the link) and provide information flow.

If the above is practical, I think I would prefer to see the full information in the restoration thread which would let me see the information with the context of why the how-to was needed, how it works and the result of the inventor used it, then the how-to thread might just be a series of links to other threads.

On the other hand, I can recall postings of how-to that were not related to a restoration - just a technique a member wanted to share.

Anyone on this forum can start a new thread on a specific topic, and insert links to related threads and posts on this (or another!) forum. You can link to a thread by:

1) going to that thread and copying and pasting the title;

2) copy the URL in the top of your browsers (starts with http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.....);

3) then select the title and click on the "insert link" button createlink.gif above the message box - an "insert hyperlink" popup opens;

4) paste to copied URL in the URL box and click OK

Example: Chevrolet C8 1940 Cab 11 restoration, The Netherlands


You can also link to a specific post by looking up the post, click on the number (to the right of the date header). You are then viewing a single post in your screen. Create a link to like explained above: make a few new cages (or just post the link: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...&postcount=188 )

I you want to make it really fancy, you can click on "thread" on the right of the "view single post" header and insert that link: make a few new cages - in this case anyone clicking on this link will jump to the specific post in the thread, while keeping it in context with the rest of the thread.

I would like to encourage anyone to try this, I can always fix things if you make mistakes.

Good luck and let me know if you need help!

Hanno

[Hanno Spoelstra]

I have now added two thread prefixes for the restoration sub-forum: "How To:", "Info needed:" and "Reference". I can add more thread prefixes (or labels) if you like. What would be the appropriate prefix for someone's restoration thread? "My restoration"? Can't come up with an appropriate one right now.

Anyone posting a thread can now select a prefix, just like in the For Sale sub-forum. I have added some of these prefixes to existing threads as an example.

It helps to give a better overview or you can even search for threads with a specific prefix via the search function under search options.

Let me know what you think about this.

Thanks,
Hanno

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

The HOW-to's could be made into short articles on the mapleleafup website or copied posts made into new threads, locked for comments to reduce clutter(?)....but Grants suggestion might be the easiest and less labor intensive for all of us.....it could be one HOW-to "sticky" thread with links to all sorts of interesting techniques displayed in other threads.

As a test, I have added a thread acting as a reference to information on a particular subject to be found somewhere on this forum:

Reference: Caged or captive nuts

I can see anyone looking for certain information finding useful threads, and groups them in a new "reference" thread so others can benefit from what was found.

It does mean anyone gathering information on this forum needs to go through the trouble of acting as a sort of editor.

Is this what you mean?

Thanks,
Hanno

[Alex van de Wetering]

This is what I had in mind, Hanno. (and also how I read Grants comment(?))


One HOW-TO thread....preferebly a sticky with links to HOW-TO info elsewhere on the forum.
This way people interested in techniques, tricks etc. can start by accessing this thread, which is easy to find...always on top of the list in the resto-forum. If they can't find the info there, they could always use the search function or google.
Maybe the thread should even be locked to avoid people responding to the links instead of responding to the actual HOW-TO as displayed within other threads or stand-alone HOW-TO threads, like the ones posted by Phil for instance. When a new batch of HOW-TO links is available, they could be added to the thread by a mod and than locked again(?).


Feel free to delete or move the new thread....I just made a thread to illustrate what it could look like.

Alex