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Encyclopedia [name edit]

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Waldo

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Knobby,

Over time, I have seen repeated requests for subject matter that has been fully addressed in earlier threads. These requests commonly come from "newbies", although other more experienced forum users are guilty as well. The search function doesn't always bring up an answer to the members inquiry, and often there are 100's of posts that contain the key words used in the search. I believe this results in the person asking their question anyway, as they don't want to look thru all the search results. We can perhaps provide a service to the "newbies" by the addition of another "division" within the forum, described below.

"Forum" in the traditional sense, refers to "Discussion". I envision this new division more as an encyclopedia. Posts to this section would/should be in a format of "Definition" as opposed to "Discussion". A member could create a subject matter entry, say "PA vs CBA", wherein the original posting would address the merits and drawbacks of both types of accordions. Others could add details that might have been omitted, or opinions based on their experiences, in the fashion of the existing Forum layout. In order to prevent questions or subject deviations within the thread, postings could be restricted to Site Supporters, or some "membership length of time" requirement.

The "Beginners" division could include a preface describing the intent of this section, and the hope that the newbie would be able to find the answer to their inquire here. There are numerous subject matters I can think of just off the top of my head; the aforementioned PA vs CBA vs DBA, What's it Worth, Fingering, Basic Music Theory, Accordion Construction, Repairs, Dating Old Accordions, What is the Best Accordion, E-bay Considerations, and on and on. Once a subject matter has been posted, additions by qualified members, would fill out the details of common questions to where, eventually, an encyclopedia of information would result. If adopted, the ability to bring over existing postings to the "Beginners" division, would allow filling out the division without requiring the "experts" re-enter information they have previously posted in another thread.

Just an idea. What do you think?

Waldo

Edit: Some things I thought in the shower. (No idea if the software could handle some of the thoughts here)
A "wikipedia" type format that would permit additions to previous posts in order to keep the relevant material in one location.
A moderator to oversee content organization.
Alphabetize by subject heading.
Got one more, but can't remember it (It's the end of my day, here)
 
Last edited:
Dingo; See edit above and name change. I believe an encyclopedia would rapidly advance beyond a beginner resource, so the name change. The idea is in morphology at this moment.
 
I have thought along the same lines. It would be real handy to send a link every time some newbie asks what’s my accordion worth.

But I can understand this could significantly increase the amount of effort required for the moderator, and might not even be possible within the parameters of the platform.

Maybe the easy way would be able to make a “section” (calling it something like consolidated knowledge base ) that is closed for entry to most “users” and assign someone specifically to maintain those topics. We could have a discussion elsewhere in the forum to come to consensus on topics and recommend edits.
 
I have thought along the same lines. It would be real handy to send a link every time some newbie asks what’s my accordion worth.

But I can understand this could significantly increase the amount of effort required for the moderator, and might not even be possible within the parameters of the platform.

Maybe the easy way would be able to make a “section” (calling it something like consolidated knowledge base ) that is closed for entry to most “users” and assign someone specifically to maintain those topics. We could have a discussion elsewhere in the forum to come to consensus on topics and recommend edits.
The idea, although noble, would require a lot of work. Perhaps in a format similar to Wikipedia where multiple people could contribute to a topic and perhaps edit information posted each topic. I don't know how feasible this would be and if it would be non-controversial. It sometimes appears that accordionists are the mixed martial arts members in the musical world.
 
A "wikipedia" type format that would permit additions to previous posts in order to keep the relevant material in one location.
A moderator to oversee content organization.
Alphabetize by subject heading.
Entirely possible with the current platform, but (there's always a "but")...
The idea, although noble, would require a lot of work.
It would be a huge amount of work to implement. To be of any use it would need lots of content to be generated, checked, formatted, indexed, maintained, etc. A few years ago I was going to do a similar thing and put out a request for accordion related articles to use. I received absolutely no response; not a single article!
I also tried adding a gallery of accordions to help people with identification. Only about 4 people ever uploaded photos so it was discontinued when we moved over to the current platform.
So although it's a great idea I'm afraid I'm not going to do anything with it. Sorry.
Maybe I can look ino improving the search function, although if people don't bother to search then ... well ... !
 
Entirely possible with the current platform, but (there's always a "but")...

It would be a huge amount of work to implement. To be of any use it would need lots of content to be generated, checked, formatted, indexed, maintained, etc. A few years ago I was going to do a similar thing and put out a request for accordion related articles to use. I received absolutely no response; not a single article!
I also tried adding a gallery of accordions to help people with identification. Only about 4 people ever uploaded photos so it was discontinued when we moved over to the current platform.
So although it's a great idea I'm afraid I'm not going to do anything with it. Sorry.
Maybe I can look ino improving the search function, although if people don't bother to search then ... well ... !
I think the improved search route is the way to go. It is a technical solution to a problem that requires huge amounts of human curation of information to solve otherwise. In professional areas where huge amounts of poorly curated information is stored, the “search on steroids” solution is the way to improve retrieval accuracy.
 
Maybe I can look ino improving the search function, although if people don't bother to search then ... well ... !The search could not be completed because the search keywords were too short, too long, or too common.

In particular order:

-CBA
-FRX
-USB
-MP3
-WAV

''The search could not be completed because the search keywords were too short, too long, or too common.''

It looks like a keyword has to consist of at least 4 letters.

Could you look into changing that part of the search function?

After all, there are so many interesting CBA-related posts on this forum.

It would be a pity if (new) members couldn't find them.
 
I often find the thread I am looking for by searching through Google instead of the forum's search function.
 
Sometimes new threads on old and tired subjects can jog ancient memories from fresh new members who have been around the accordion world a lot longer than most. This is one reason why I like them. There are a few other reasons. Some of the old threads are plenty locked as it is. There is definitely too much information to sift through at times, but I find is always worth the effort - if I have the time. I also find my own opinions changing over time, ultimately there a vast number of ways to express a lot of things even via text, and as it applies to accordions, uniformity seems somewhat akin to antimatter. Plus new threads have a way of helping keep things alive, something I believe the accordion world really needs. As someone who is still relatively new to this realm it can be nice to feel like I'm discovering things previously undiscovered (it also helps to temper my comments knowing this is very far from the truth :)). Plus I'm sure it helps keep a lot of rather knowledgeable folks feel relevant, which they most certainly are! Definitely not opposed to some sort of compendium though!

Really liking the new 3 letter search function idea - just not sure it is working properly (getting results - but literally every thread on the forum is being listed no matter what the search).
 
Really liking the new 3 letter search function idea - just not sure it is working properly (getting results - but literally every thread on the forum is being listed no matter what the search).
It's working fine for me on both computer and mobile phone. Below are the results I get when searching for "cba" on my phone.
Screenshot_20220310-101345.png
 
It's working fine for me on both computer and mobile phone. Below are the results I get when searching for "cba" on my phone.
Screenshot_20220310-101345.png
Maybe I am using the wrong search function? Trying again and the same thing, results listed are literally ascending from the last post on the forum on up.
 

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I use a cycling forum quite a bit and I've found that searching using the forum tools is nearly always beaten by using google,
eg:

google for "suntour hubs site:bikeforums.net"

The point I'm almost making is that the google "site:" tag can be used to limit google to only this site.
 
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