Andrew, is it possible to preserve informative threads. There is a lot of valuable information that passes through this site in threads that ultimately rotate out when new threads are added. Maybe the forum moderators could confer on selections and place them in a area that would be a recoverable resource for new members and old alike. Pam has a current thread (Scraper?/Beautiful Lithics) with info added by CGODE demonstrating "Secondary Edge Flaking" that would be helpful for new collectors. It's kinda a shame that so much info is lost.

Great Idea Butch!

I agree great idea Butch, can't tell you how many times I have looked for a past post for good information. Just could not find it, good post Butch!

Joe.

Yes, it is a good idea isn't it? I have a suggestion.

If we had a forum category titled something like: "Useful Information Links" then it would be possible to simply post a message with a meaningful title... like say "Recognising Secondary Edge Flaking" and then simply paste a hot-link to the thread that contains the information.

Either Moderators could do this (I would certainly be happy to do so) or by invitation or popular request or whatever. It would be crucially dependent on the otherwise empty post having a title that was meaningful, so a certain degree of control and discipline would be needed rather than a free-for-all I think.

It would also be possible to post hot-links to external resources on the web where there are scholarly articles in exactly the same way.

Members would still need to browse the titles, but at least there would only be one place they needed to look and the title of the post should be a good enough prompt.

Incidentally, I use the search engine on the site to find lost stuff but, oddly the orange bar across the top of the page that has the link to the search engine is sometimes there and sometimes not. It comes and goes and I've never understood why???

Any other suggestions?

Roger

All of the above would take this forum to the next level and would allow all from newbies to pros a place of reference. You have my vote Roger!

This already can be done in categories by making it a "sticky" by moderators...but I am fixing to rearrange the catagories to include all the ideas we have had so far plus some of the stuff me and the other mods have been working on in the background
Andrew

AndrewSchwinn wrote:
Stickies are good Andrew but I think we're talking about a bigger number of links than would really be practical (ie more than a screenful). It would be possible to put the links all into a single post and keep editing it to add new ones. That would mean it could be alphabetised or grouped but presumably only the original poster would be able to do the editing... so that would have to be a willing/nominated person?

Roger

The way I see it, it can be done two ways...1) as you said, a single post almost like a FAQ or Info post or 2) a whole new category that can include just tips and tricks as well as the informative treads...let me know your thoughts on that guys
Andrew

Maybe a reference category with sub categories?

also very possible, I need some other opinions on which way YOU ALL want it...

Some great information in this thread lets have some feedback please? We can make this work but we need the members to provide input.

I think Greg is on to something, at least it makes sense to me..a category for helpful topics/threads/info divided somehow into sub-categories for easy referral. JMO

cgode wrote:
That sounds like a winner! Are you meaning somehow extracting the actual information from the original topic for reference purposes...to view for informational purposes only without the complete thread being involved? I would enjoy reading the information without having to scroll through the whole post.

I would think that the mods/admins should cull the threads so the educational info is contained taking out the posts that simply say..."nice bla bla bla" unless it's relevant somehow to the basic learning experience. I certainly would be one that would benefit from this as I don't really know Jack!

cgode wrote:
Thanks and I agree. Keep it relevant to topic. Can you imagine, the best reference site on the internet?