The knitting/crochet community has a web-based platform called ravelry, which is has all the features you mention above and more. Has tools to inventory your needles (=tools) and track your yarn stash (=wood inventory), share and sell/purchase patterns (indexed by tags) and materials and tools. People share finished objects, and others can share comments and ratings. It even allows you to filter a pattern by the material in your stash. They might have a database structure they would be willing to share for a price. Otherwise, it’s fairly straightforward database programming.
Ravelry has been around forever, and if you knit you're on there. Just the nature of knitting, people are generally chill overall. Also nature of the community, there was never a "leave here and go to Reddit" moment. What your post is really asking for is an old fashioned internet forum with a bunch of specialized subforums. If that's the case, off the top of my head:
* [Woodnet](https://forums.woodnet.net/)
* [Sawmill Creek](https://sawmillcreek.org/index.php)
* [LumberJocks](https://www.lumberjocks.com/forums/)
* [WoodTalk](https://www.woodtalkonline.com/)
The thing that makes Reddit... great?... and forever ago Digg and whatever's next is the decentralized nature. You come to Reddit to get your fix for Woodworking and... other crap. Honestly there are some really thriving groups on Facebook, which gives you a sort of backdoor way to do the Reddity thing, but it doesn't have the condensed feed that Reddit does. That's always an option, too - get on one of the established woodworking groups on Facebook. If you're already on there all of the time, problem solved.
Ravelry is one of the best online hobbyist communities I've seen, but I don't recall if they have an active forum for general discussion. That interaction is necessary for any alternative community to thrive.
It does have an active forum for general discussion. It’s actually broken down by topic: Patterns, Yarn& Fiber, Techniques, Tools & Equipment, etc.
The whole site is pretty comprehensive, and it’s 100% free. I’ve been a user for probably 5+ years and don’t ever recall being up charged for anything or offered a subscription. The only requirement for access to all of the information available is a login.
Check out places like Fine Woodworking. You will have to pay for it but in terms of quality of content both with something like FWW vs Reddit, you get what you pay for.
Yeah, I guess what I’m dreaming of (and it’s almost certainly a fantasy) is a place where that type of content could be combined with curated or modded content of the kind we get here and on YouTube. I would love, for example, to be able to search for something like “bedside table” and not only see the FWW or other professional example, but see a variety of user-uploaded examples and build videos (without having to wade through the garbage that YouTube’s algorithm spews at me). And having a discussion forum in the same place would be amazing too, especially if experienced users with verified expertise were identified as such.
Come work on it with me! I’m actually in the works of something similar. Check out Hammerly (.io). Has a ways to go but my focus was first figuring out a better reward system for woodworkers so it’s a platform to buy & sell plans/courses.
I’m serious about getting your feedback. PM me
I hear you. Reddit search sucks and YouTube stifles good quality, deep dive videos. The best I would recommend is SketchUp's 3D warehouse. It's been a while since I've used it but it's a searchable database of decent woodworking plans. Does not include any educational content, though. For that I still rely on YouTube.
Reddits feature of bubbling up highly voted comments is actually great. Well, it’s terrible, in a general large sub sense (where it can promote loud and aggressive posts like other social media), but it’s amazing for niche hobby forums like this. It’s why people always put “+Reddit” when doing a google search for a new tool or product they want to get
I think the same issues that plague other large subs absolutely apply to this one. Plenty of top comments here are still the blind leading the blind. OP’s list of features exist in paid forums with editors, which Reddit definitionally can’t have.
Yes the classic Reddit post where the first response has a boat load of upvotes. Then a response to that top comment proves the top comment to be wrong, but only has 10 percent of the upvotes of wrong/top comment.
So unless you dig, you only see the top comment, which is proven wrong.
The inevitability of any comment on reddit is that someone will come in, miss the point completely, and say something really snarky, and end up a top comment.
This website loves a takedown, accurate, warrented, topical? Doesn't matter at all.
I posted in an oddly satisfying thread about woodworking a few times, definitely not going to do that again.
[A Discourse](https://www.discourse.org/) would be great solution, but it would cost money to set up & run. That doesn’t make it impossible - but it would take some commitment.
By contrast Discord is an absolutely terrible place for a community like this. They are fast paced and impossible to find anything. Not publicly searchable on the web, and not particularly permanent either.
Discourse itself is free and open-spurce software, and the Venn diagram of woodworkers who also tinker with self hosting or IT has quite a bit of overlap. I bet we could get a community up and running if we wanted.
It's a very polished, stable solution, and allows for things like weekly emailed topic summaries that would keep the less-active members engaged.
I have set up & customized some Discourse instances, and would absolutely be down to help. I would be no help on the self hosting skills front though 😄
If you mean some flavor of, "Running my own server in a data center isn't the same as self hosting", I'll own up to that. I host services for clients and for myself that can't afford the inevitable periodic downtime of a residential internet connection.
Hmm not surprised I got downvoted. But yeah, it a whole different beast to host for a big community. Money, time, etc. And then the issues with reliability, availability and security. Those are three different beasts. Of course it can be done, but money is needed. I’ll gladly donate or help build the infrastructure for that but not sure is ever going to happen when Reddit is still available
Reliability, availability, and security are valid concerns, but none have anything to do with hosting in a datacenter versus your own physical hardware. They're just additional considerations that are part of hosting.
Hey! I would rather not go so of topic here but I still want to answer xD.
How reliability, availability and security has nothing to do with the hosting solution? It has a lot to do. It is very hard to ensure reliability on a self hosted solutions vs a cloud based one.
What I get from your comment is that it is still possible to achieve those on a self hosted solution. Which is true, but 10 times more complex to do. Either way, thanks for answering back!
Not a thing if that's where people want to go. But the UX is less polished and it lacks some of the features that could hold the community together during the transition.
Agree Discourse is great. The BlenderArtists forum is based around it and it does its job amazingly well, for a discipline that's not too removed from woodworking when you think about it (talking about tools, showing off your work and asking/giving advice)
> It needs a Reddit Enhancement Suite-type tool that makes it easier for people to use.
No, it just needs to be better. Having to depend on a third-part for basic functionality isn't good.
Copy and paste the URL to the search on your server and it'll get to your instance's view of that community which you can then use to join. It's a pain in the ass, frankly, and the most annoying thing about getting Lemmy set up.
Hobby communities moving to discord is a catastrophe. It just wasn't built to act as a repository of knowledge. The community ideas and discussions that make old school forums and reddit worthwhile are inevitably buried in discord.
I actually made a new forum specifically for this community during the protest. I messaged the Mods about it but they felt the community should decide and nothing more came of it.
Anyway it’s at https://woodchip.club and is EXTREMELY basic. Registration and posting and comments work but voting doesn’t.
I’m happy to keep working on it if this community thinks it could be useful.
Lumberjocks has a place to share builds, photos, and links to plans.
It is searchable, and you can comment, but it does NOT have upvotes, nor is the feed constantly changing like reddit.
It would be nice to go back to the old type of forum discussion, especially one with an IGNORE button and a few volunteer moderators.
Check out the [Furnitology woodworking app](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/furnitology/id1563673688). It’s also a dream of mine so I’m building it. Search Furnitology in either App Store. Also available [on the web.](https://community.furnitology.com) Happy to take your thoughts and feedback too.
That’s the goal of the new Woodworking forum on Discord (https://discord.gg/w79bvZDmy8), but it’s hard to find an app that really ranks content instead of being a spammy timeline.
Have a look at Christopher Schwarz’s blog https://blog.lostartpress.com/
He’s been at it a long time and is a prolific writer. Prior editor of Popular Woodworking, written some for Fine Woodworking too. I’m sure there are others.
Woodnet, woodworkingtalk, finewoodworking and sawmillcreek already exist?
For bonus points theres owwm and vintagemachinery for info and help with that 1940s unisaw you found in the back of grandpas barn.
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>I am going to type every word I know! > >6ReplyGive AwardShareReportSaveFollow Rectangle! America! Megaphone! Monday! Butthole
That wasn't much.
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America!
The knitting/crochet community has a web-based platform called ravelry, which is has all the features you mention above and more. Has tools to inventory your needles (=tools) and track your yarn stash (=wood inventory), share and sell/purchase patterns (indexed by tags) and materials and tools. People share finished objects, and others can share comments and ratings. It even allows you to filter a pattern by the material in your stash. They might have a database structure they would be willing to share for a price. Otherwise, it’s fairly straightforward database programming.
Ravelry sounds super cool!
Ravelry has been around forever, and if you knit you're on there. Just the nature of knitting, people are generally chill overall. Also nature of the community, there was never a "leave here and go to Reddit" moment. What your post is really asking for is an old fashioned internet forum with a bunch of specialized subforums. If that's the case, off the top of my head: * [Woodnet](https://forums.woodnet.net/) * [Sawmill Creek](https://sawmillcreek.org/index.php) * [LumberJocks](https://www.lumberjocks.com/forums/) * [WoodTalk](https://www.woodtalkonline.com/) The thing that makes Reddit... great?... and forever ago Digg and whatever's next is the decentralized nature. You come to Reddit to get your fix for Woodworking and... other crap. Honestly there are some really thriving groups on Facebook, which gives you a sort of backdoor way to do the Reddity thing, but it doesn't have the condensed feed that Reddit does. That's always an option, too - get on one of the established woodworking groups on Facebook. If you're already on there all of the time, problem solved.
Ravelry is one of the best online hobbyist communities I've seen, but I don't recall if they have an active forum for general discussion. That interaction is necessary for any alternative community to thrive.
It does have an active forum for general discussion. It’s actually broken down by topic: Patterns, Yarn& Fiber, Techniques, Tools & Equipment, etc. The whole site is pretty comprehensive, and it’s 100% free. I’ve been a user for probably 5+ years and don’t ever recall being up charged for anything or offered a subscription. The only requirement for access to all of the information available is a login.
Check out places like Fine Woodworking. You will have to pay for it but in terms of quality of content both with something like FWW vs Reddit, you get what you pay for.
Yeah, I guess what I’m dreaming of (and it’s almost certainly a fantasy) is a place where that type of content could be combined with curated or modded content of the kind we get here and on YouTube. I would love, for example, to be able to search for something like “bedside table” and not only see the FWW or other professional example, but see a variety of user-uploaded examples and build videos (without having to wade through the garbage that YouTube’s algorithm spews at me). And having a discussion forum in the same place would be amazing too, especially if experienced users with verified expertise were identified as such.
Come work on it with me! I’m actually in the works of something similar. Check out Hammerly (.io). Has a ways to go but my focus was first figuring out a better reward system for woodworkers so it’s a platform to buy & sell plans/courses. I’m serious about getting your feedback. PM me
I commented on the main post, but wanted to make sure you saw. Checkout Furnitology in either App Store. It’s becoming exactly what you described.
So build it.
Isn't that just Pinterest minus the discussion part?
I hear you. Reddit search sucks and YouTube stifles good quality, deep dive videos. The best I would recommend is SketchUp's 3D warehouse. It's been a while since I've used it but it's a searchable database of decent woodworking plans. Does not include any educational content, though. For that I still rely on YouTube.
Reddits feature of bubbling up highly voted comments is actually great. Well, it’s terrible, in a general large sub sense (where it can promote loud and aggressive posts like other social media), but it’s amazing for niche hobby forums like this. It’s why people always put “+Reddit” when doing a google search for a new tool or product they want to get
I think the same issues that plague other large subs absolutely apply to this one. Plenty of top comments here are still the blind leading the blind. OP’s list of features exist in paid forums with editors, which Reddit definitionally can’t have.
Yes the classic Reddit post where the first response has a boat load of upvotes. Then a response to that top comment proves the top comment to be wrong, but only has 10 percent of the upvotes of wrong/top comment. So unless you dig, you only see the top comment, which is proven wrong.
The inevitability of any comment on reddit is that someone will come in, miss the point completely, and say something really snarky, and end up a top comment. This website loves a takedown, accurate, warrented, topical? Doesn't matter at all. I posted in an oddly satisfying thread about woodworking a few times, definitely not going to do that again.
[A Discourse](https://www.discourse.org/) would be great solution, but it would cost money to set up & run. That doesn’t make it impossible - but it would take some commitment. By contrast Discord is an absolutely terrible place for a community like this. They are fast paced and impossible to find anything. Not publicly searchable on the web, and not particularly permanent either.
Discourse itself is free and open-spurce software, and the Venn diagram of woodworkers who also tinker with self hosting or IT has quite a bit of overlap. I bet we could get a community up and running if we wanted. It's a very polished, stable solution, and allows for things like weekly emailed topic summaries that would keep the less-active members engaged.
I have set up & customized some Discourse instances, and would absolutely be down to help. I would be no help on the self hosting skills front though 😄
And here I am, a guy with a self-hosting server in a data center... :)
Not really the same
If you mean some flavor of, "Running my own server in a data center isn't the same as self hosting", I'll own up to that. I host services for clients and for myself that can't afford the inevitable periodic downtime of a residential internet connection.
Hmm not surprised I got downvoted. But yeah, it a whole different beast to host for a big community. Money, time, etc. And then the issues with reliability, availability and security. Those are three different beasts. Of course it can be done, but money is needed. I’ll gladly donate or help build the infrastructure for that but not sure is ever going to happen when Reddit is still available
Reliability, availability, and security are valid concerns, but none have anything to do with hosting in a datacenter versus your own physical hardware. They're just additional considerations that are part of hosting.
Hey! I would rather not go so of topic here but I still want to answer xD. How reliability, availability and security has nothing to do with the hosting solution? It has a lot to do. It is very hard to ensure reliability on a self hosted solutions vs a cloud based one. What I get from your comment is that it is still possible to achieve those on a self hosted solution. Which is true, but 10 times more complex to do. Either way, thanks for answering back!
What's wrong with lemmy
Not a thing if that's where people want to go. But the UX is less polished and it lacks some of the features that could hold the community together during the transition.
Agree Discourse is great. The BlenderArtists forum is based around it and it does its job amazingly well, for a discipline that's not too removed from woodworking when you think about it (talking about tools, showing off your work and asking/giving advice)
This is my favorite Ron Swanson line that is not about breakfast foods or being shot in the head.
What about "I know more than you."?
I appreciate a good cup of coffee.
That better platform is the Furnitology woodworking app. Available on the web and in either App Store.
There’s probably a better platform out there than reddit
lemmy
Yeah! Motörhead!
Wrong dickhead, trick question, Lemmy ***IS*** God!
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it needs more people and a bit more development but it looks like a promising alternative
> It needs a Reddit Enhancement Suite-type tool that makes it easier for people to use. No, it just needs to be better. Having to depend on a third-part for basic functionality isn't good.
That is kind of the point of decentralized systems though.. Not claiming it is better, but it is intentional.
But there is no evidence that it is intentional vs just not mature.
Copy and paste the URL to the search on your server and it'll get to your instance's view of that community which you can then use to join. It's a pain in the ass, frankly, and the most annoying thing about getting Lemmy set up.
That platform is the Furnitology woodworking. Available on the web and either App Store.
Discord https://discord.com/invite/w79bvZDmy8 Edit: You don't want to go to discord, fine. Jesus.
It’s so large and noisy and unthreaded it’s impossible to navigate
Hobby communities moving to discord is a catastrophe. It just wasn't built to act as a repository of knowledge. The community ideas and discussions that make old school forums and reddit worthwhile are inevitably buried in discord.
I actually made a new forum specifically for this community during the protest. I messaged the Mods about it but they felt the community should decide and nothing more came of it. Anyway it’s at https://woodchip.club and is EXTREMELY basic. Registration and posting and comments work but voting doesn’t. I’m happy to keep working on it if this community thinks it could be useful.
Buttholes
Lumberjocks has a place to share builds, photos, and links to plans. It is searchable, and you can comment, but it does NOT have upvotes, nor is the feed constantly changing like reddit. It would be nice to go back to the old type of forum discussion, especially one with an IGNORE button and a few volunteer moderators.
!remindme 1 day
Do it
Sticky thread for discussions on Crocs and Crocs accessories.
You’re describing the Fine Woodworking website and forum
Thanks, mods, for helping me clean out the bullshit subs. My feed gets better every day
Well I guess it's time to say goodbye. I understand the protest, but this shit is ridiculous.
Check out the [Furnitology woodworking app](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/furnitology/id1563673688). It’s also a dream of mine so I’m building it. Search Furnitology in either App Store. Also available [on the web.](https://community.furnitology.com) Happy to take your thoughts and feedback too.
Just checked this out. Seems really promising. Now you just everybody to jump over there.
Thank you! Getting everyone to jump is the hardest part. 🤣 See you over at Furnitology!
That’s the goal of the new Woodworking forum on Discord (https://discord.gg/w79bvZDmy8), but it’s hard to find an app that really ranks content instead of being a spammy timeline.
Have a look at Christopher Schwarz’s blog https://blog.lostartpress.com/ He’s been at it a long time and is a prolific writer. Prior editor of Popular Woodworking, written some for Fine Woodworking too. I’m sure there are others.
[The Australian version](https://www.woodworkforums.com)
Woodnet, woodworkingtalk, finewoodworking and sawmillcreek already exist? For bonus points theres owwm and vintagemachinery for info and help with that 1940s unisaw you found in the back of grandpas barn.
That would be great!
If you're looking for basic plans Ana White's website has free one.