Questions from the totally clueless

A bit harsh I think.

I find that the 'designers' and 'professionals' on this site go out of their way to go into the detail and 'secrets' of how they do things - giving away valuable intellectual property for free.

If they get useful financial 'flow ons', like promoting their designs, I am very happy about that.

As one long time 'ideas collector', I am grateful for every bit of useful knowledge that has fallen into my lap over the years.

 

I don't see any of the regular professional contributors actively promoting their own designs or design efforts, to prospective clients or posters. I was recently asked why I don't, when I suggested another designer's work.

The problem with these types of discussion forums, is the environment can be a bit sterile and can lack the "inflections" that are common place in regular conversation, which can lead to misinterpretation of the posted comments. This can simply be translation issues, a particular poster's writing style, choice of adjectives, less than purposeful sentence and grammatical structure, etc. It helps to accept the body of a paragraph's intent, rather then specific bits of structure and descriptive choices.

 

I have to say that this forum is a very good source of information for anyone with an interest in boats, be it design, amateur, professional or like me, tinkerer....And a good place to share what you know if you feel so inclined.

What forum members decide to answer to someone posting a question that seems to be out of the ordinary or simply a tad ordinary, is their own choice. The other choice is not to answer of course.

If what looks to be a student in need of assistance for his assignment and with little knowledge or interest, does not appeal to someone, no one is forced to answer.
If someone makes the effort of posting what seems to be a very well thought out reply and is ignored ... well ... what's knew? If you have kids, you probably had this experience a hundred times already.

My opinion only of course.

I really like this forum and even when I am not here very often I wouldn't change anything.

 

Quite the contrary to what Nimble has said, I have noticed, over a long period of time, that the pros are most respectfully restrained about any such commercialism.

I have never mentioned it before but at this time I wish to tip my hat to all of you. Eric, Par, Richard, Daquiri, and all the rest of you professionals who have been anything but selfish and certainly not engaged in self promotion.

While I am at it let me tip my hat to some of the generous academics like Leo, Tom Speer, and several other knowledgeable contributors who have been helpfully constructive, courteous, and kind.

 

I second that. Having been in a position where I was asked some pretty ridiculous questions over the years, I know just how hard it is not to give them a equally ridiculous answer. I think the main people here show admirable restraint, and having participated in this forum for many years I also have only seen one or two times when someone recommended one of their own designs. But it was almost always, more of a comparison of design parameters, or SOR, or some related reason. They weren't trying to sell their product. They were just using as an example or point of comparison to teach the questioner something. I have learned a lot from these people.

 

This accusation is complete bs. Of course, I mean that in the kindest, gentlest and most positive way possible....

As a rank amateur who came to this forum with a lot of woodworking and general construction experience, but no expertise in boat design per se, I will be eternally grateful to the professionals here who've spent some of their limited personal time educating and encouraging me.

 

This forum holds up pretty well imo, there is a substantial drop-off in most internet forums traffic quality and volume in recent times.

 

Troy, good to see your post . . .

 

Indeed, if I see the very professional reply on the thread " Cantilevered Davits - Engineering Problem", all the other negative accusations can be wiped of the table. From this thread, I have also learned something new again. Bert

 

I agree with Troy, and would add that as a resource this is the best boat design forum I have seen. The spread sheets, offered for free are amazing. The ability to converse with experienced designers and engineers is also amazing. When I first came here I had the pleasure of meeting Apex1. I greatly appreciated and enjoyed his frank and sometimes insulting retorts. Take the advice or not, at least it is not nebulous.

 

Nebulous is about right for Richard, Frank. Translations issues often muddled up some of his posts, but he knew his stuff and was typical of his breeding, frank, matter of fact, etc. He's missed, by more then some.

 

As with all things, a balance is required.

People should not be afraid to join the forum or post a question for fear that they will be yelled at or ridiculed for being clueless.

On the other hand, if you are reading this because you are wondering if your question will be judged as clueless, please take a moment to consider the questions you want to ask and take some care to provide as much relevant information as possible that will make your question answerable. Carefully focused questions work best. If you are a student, realize that often academic assignments require the academic constraints and expectations to make sense and so please provide the context of your question so it’s understood what level you’re at and what is expected, and most importantly, please summarize what you’ve already done to research the question yourself and it’s much more likely that other members will want to help you further. No one wants to do a student's homework for them if they feel the student isn't making an effort.

As far as the criticism that professionals use the forum to promote themselves in a way contrary to the do-it-yourselfer, again as with everything, there is a balance.
Obviously, if someone were to join and replied only to sell their service, that would be bad. However, historically overall this has not been a problem. The forum is very thankful that a good number of professionals are willing to give their time to help people. If occasionally the service that a professional provides to earn a living would solve someone’s problem or a set of plans would be an option to reach the person’s goal, that seems to be a win-win for everyone.

Overall, members give a lot of time to help others with a broad spectrum of questions and details, and this is very generous.

A few questions will be silly since not everyone knows enough to ask an answerable question, and some answers, or options presented, will not be exactly what someone is looking for. The forum works best when members respect one another. If you’re new to the forum and reading this thread, don’t be afraid to ask a question you want to learn about, but please respect those who take their time to help by providing as much relevant information as possible, focusing your question on something that is answerable, and providing an idea of the legwork you’ve done already.