There’s a chat option here on this forum that I had enabled for a while, but the problem is that, just like other chats, they aren’t searchable. People will flock there for easy answers (i.e. for convenience) and then that chat is just ANOTHER PLACE someone would have to look at or post for help or get info.
I know that convenience and “quick answers” are king right now and I’m trying to get people to come back here. One can get quick answers on forums, but the problem is that it has to be busy with users. Here, an enthusiast has the control. When you use another platform, they have control of content and user data. It’s me against the big guys with deep pockets. It’s like the open-source folks and the big software manufactures. I didn’t sell out like other forums.
But perhaps I’m missing your thought altogether – why did you propose the Discord?
I agree that the convenience factor is likely the culprit. My guess is people can’t even be bothered to create an account for a forum now. But this style does make information immensely more accessible and organized.
For instance, we seem to have lost a lot of pics since the 2000s, so when I go to do this swap I hopefully grab some pics of the wiring changes so someone else can have a visual reference if they go to replicate.
unfortunately, despite my request, a lot of people used imagestation to host pix instead of the built-in image system. While I tried to save them in the forum itself, it didn’t work for maybe 67% of them. I have them stored on a harddrive on my computer, but it’s difficult to find out where they went.
I wonder if I can use AI to “tag” the pictures and then upload them in a section on the site. That’s a thought.