Naming the Forum

Exception noted. Don't be so anal.

The tab labelled "Home" could be taken as inviting discussion about ones place of residence. I've yet to encounter anybody interested in my style of home furnishing or wallpaper, though such interest may exists. Hardly a matter that keeps me awake at night.

Your observation is actually quite amusing (in a pedant sort of way - I hope you read that in the fun way it's intended). You have managed to afford me the opportunity to digress from the previous paragraph to suggest that there are only 7 types of wallpaper. This is, according to the Science Museum in London, a fact. I feel sure it's correct. Let it never be said that curious facts cannot be inserted into all threads !

Might I be so bold as to ask you for an alternative forum title carver35 ? I shall ponder this, but feel that engineering was around long before we ever gave title to it.

I look forward to reading further comment here, I like you somewhat off-kilter question/observation.

I don't find any problem with the name or subjects at hand. I like the overall diversity of the questions and answers that are here.

I have been around far far worse websites. Check out most of the AE chat sites. They are sort of the oaks of the internet. That is they have nuts every where around them, on them and in them. They also grow slowly and bare little usable fruit as well. However once in a while its fun to go over and shake one up a bit and see what falls out though!

As far as this site, I do think things get a bit too over analyzed and often doesn't take new potential methods or approaches with any seriousness at times. But then the majority here are engineers or come from engineering type professions. Typical if they didn't create it it surly cant exist in their minds mentalities.

My only complaint over all about the web site is the general layout is rather clunky and rough to get around. Its one of the least user friendly layouts( but not the worst!) I have seen so far and could use a fair amount of refinement in regards to navigation. But its what I would expect from something designed by engineers to be used by engineers.

Its one of the least user friendly layouts( but not the worst!) I have seen so far and could use a fair amount of refinement in regards to navigation. But its what I would expect from something designed by engineers to be used by engineers.

You've got to be joking !

Everyone has their particular taste for layout, but CR4 has the best structure of any forum I've seen - bar none. I could think of many (minor)changes I'd like to see, but we can only expect mgaulin to be whipped so much. Mgaulin, Chris, and the rest of the people who've created this place have used a structure that should be regarded as a model for anybody trying to establish an internet discussion site.

If you could cite a comparable site that's better structured and managed, I'd love to hear about it. I suspect you can't. Your ball.... ( but in a fun, smiley sort of way)

So far the best format I have found for overall user friendliness is websites set up similar to the electro-tech-online site. Its the most user friendly setup I have yet to find. Its based on a fairly standard format but has been customized very well.

Sorry to offend but CR4 gets a C- for user friendliness in my book. Electro-tech-online gets a solid A. Their simple and clean layout makes navigation easy and very natural and finding references to other threads and posts is easy too. And when ever I hit enter their text wrap around gives me a new sentence on the next line below. This one gives me a new paragraph. That seems very antiquated and basic to me. I am not an English major by any stretch of the imagination and even I think thats textually incorrect!

Their spell check gets a B+. It works well and never gets glitch's but unfortunately who ever programed their dictionary used a 16th century one. Too many common words are missing and its suggestions tend to bring up countless old words not typically used in daily conversation.

The spell check used here gets a D. It seems like a constant battle between no information sent from server, no text in field, object errors, and most often just hanging for no reason. Also the having to turn it on and then turn it off before you can do anything is a bother. But it at least does have a more current dictionary as a reference point!

I like the diversity and overall technical topics here by far but I also frequent the electro-tech-online site because of the interesting people,topics and much higher traffic they have.

They are far more electronics based in their site than here but over all they have something good and the high average traffic numbers compared to most any other technical website show it.

I am not saying this site is bad. If it was I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't keep coming back. For me the overall intellectual knowledge aspects outweighs the layout issues and the maturity of the regulars keeps the negative sides of AE and environmentalism from over running this site and I definitely appreciate that!

Plus I think my Pickup bumper avatar puts the fur up a bit on the cats around here too! There sure seem to be a high number of them! Does the animal control website know about this?

So theres my CR4 critique. Its not meant to offend but to point out what I have found to be simply less user friendly by my opinion.

That's a good reply, tcmech. Not sure I agree with it all, but it's certainly well reasoned and presented. No offence taken here at all.

What grabs my interest with CR4 is the huge diversity of topics, and the chat-like nature of many threads. By and large people get answers to their questions, but latitude is afforded to people who want to digress a bit (). On many threads the best part of the content is the more general knowledge to be gained when the replies go a bit off-topic. Allowing people to go off at a tangent (and joke around a little) is a risky policy, but it's fairly rare that it goes wrong (in terms of spam/flaming etc).

CR4 does say "discussion" on the tin, and it pretty much does as it says. I'd liken it to a friendly chat in a bar. People certainly visit with very specific technical questions, and they get help, but a lot of people also visit for more general learning about Science/Engineering related stuff. More than a few people here enjoy a little banter and humour ().

The editor/spellchecker is a bit quirky, and can get a bit slow at times, but personally I don't find it a major problem (with my spelling and grammar it's just as well that I'm not bothered by such things !). Some people compose posts in their own text editor and turn off the formatting in CR4's editor. How well that works I don't know, never having explored it much. The way in which it works has been tweaked several times over the years. As far as I understand, just one poor chap (mgaulin) has to keep all the CR4 code up and running, so time constraints mean that such things evolve a bit slowly. The member feedback forum provides a chance for people to suggest improvements on all aspects of CR4.

Your quite right about the abundance of cats, they seem to be the everywhere on the internet - LOL . Such critters hold no fear for me in my furry guise, though I've splurfed many cups of coffee when reading their posts.

I had a quick peak at electro-tech, and may go back for more. A recent car boot sale acquisition may even give me need of their help (though I think I have the info I require already bookmarked). Picked me up an old style telephone for £2.50 that I intend to get working and hook up for some retro fun;

i'd name it "debunk urban myths and perpetual motion machines" forum

It's easy to create sustainable engineering. All you have to do is say the product will only ship when the engineer is completely satisfied and has no more improvements to make.

That'd be suss-engineering

Did you start this thread by first preparing a full pot and pack a lunch?