Ronco Mentality

Just from my Simple scanning of the forum I seem to see a ronco mentality. What do I mean buy that "well set it and forget it". Every one needs to be able to focous energery on where there talents or likes go. For the "Project"  Right now I see a kind of messy desk. I think us helium heads and designers all suffer from seeing to much of the big picture and not enough focous on singular contributation. In other words we all want to pop the turkey into the majic box and out flys the blimp of our dreams. The idea of collective colaberation is great. The only way your going to get things done is some form of well standardization of suggestions or you will be doomed to for ever boping around ideas. Mostly It simply needs re organization into sub forums like some technically orinted forums I have been a part of in the past.

 http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/index.php

http://weldingweb.com/

Just shooting from the hip on how you could re organize hear. I would have seperate sections IE.

<new section>
The Project ( I would  re name it CO OP Blimp as that is what this is)

(then inside that section have subsection you can post in like)

~General discussion~  

~Bio~ (any one intrested in participation must post a bio with some cradentals so you have an idea of how serious to take them.)

~Design submission~ (  with some standardized form of desing submission)

~polls~ ( you could narrow a field down to 5 suggestions then poll on it)
< end section>

< new section>

Airships discussion

~General~

~Certs and standards ~ ( how FAA classifys what)

~engeniring~

< end section>

<new section>

Builds

~your build~

~suppliers~ ( place where we could post our list of suppliers and products were intrested in using)

<end section>

<new section>
Other

~competitions~

~polls~

~other Off topic~

< end section>

This is just my thoughts on how to make this forum a better resouce more so than just a discussion board hope i didnt piss any one off thanks for your time.

I generally agree with your recommendations. But this forum does not support sub-categories AFAIK, so if we want them, we will have to jerry rig it. 

I had originally wanted to approach this forum in a more structured way, but I have found that people are more interested in developing personal projects rather than working on a design by committee. 

I will look into setting up sub-categories and get back. 

Ok, I can do "groups" and "categories". That is the extent. I have started to recategorize the sections. I will work on this a little more later. 

Also there are threads that serve the purpose of some of the sections you suggested. I am not sure all of these items merit a section of their own. Like the "Bio" you recommend is similar to this thread, http://smallblimps.lefora.com/2009/06/23/tell-us-about-yourself-your-interests-your-skills/page2/#post28.

Relevant to the above posts:

Dude, You've been very accommodating, good show!

About congealing on one design:

We are spread out over the entire globe. How are the logistics going to be supported? If you divided the airship up into 200 parts where everyone made 2 parts each one pair for themselves and 99 pairs for everybody else, the original airship design would require perfect agreement, equal financial resources and talents evenly spread over the entire group. That's a tall order to fill. Most well established corporations only get close to that with very deep pockets.

Agreement is hard! That's why I suggested the RC airship contest ( suggested as well by others) to ferret out some of the realities of design, production and cost.

The way it's been working, where different members do different things building toward the goal, and report their findings as they discover things is just the stage we're at right now. If we stay on course, what we can do will grow with time. What we can do together on a combined project will come as we get further up the learning curve.

Dude,  I think a Co Op  Airship  will happen  once  we  get some  working  examples flying , that  we can   get our  brains  around.  Even  if their  in  the  scale  RC  version.     It  could most  certainly   be  a aggregate  of  many  designs brought forth . And that  would be  WAY  cool!  
 We're all looking for  what  works  and what  doesn't  at  this early  stage to  meet  the  design  goals.  . And I'm  sure   paying  as  we  go  in  small  "hobby"  steps   so not to  upset the  ...uhhh.....  Wife !   When  she  sees  the check book. 
 I'm  a mechanic  , So  With  a "parts brake down  "  and " Exploded view"   of what makes up  this  airship .  in  Forum  language  would be   something like  this .

  Airship General Discussion,

 News

  Gas tight Envelopes
 a.  Helium
 b.  Hydrogen, 
 c.  Bladders
 d.  Airship  Skin.

  Power Plants
 a. 2  stroke
 b. 4 stroke.
 c. electric / hybred
 d. props and re drive
 e. mounting

  Attitude control
 a. vectoring thrust
 b. vectoring wash
 c weight shift
 d.  ballast

  Air  Frames
a.   Rigid Keel
b.   air tube
c.   composites and wood
d.   metal

 Emergency  gear  essentials

  Navigation  aids,

Builders log.
 a.  Dudes 
 b.  Mikek
 c.  Swampie.

And  so on .... just my  2 cents.
 
      

Just a question   ,Why  this   Lefora  forum ?  As I have mentioned  before,  there  are better  free forums  to use  that can be  admin  structured  easily to  exacting  needs.,   and  are user friendly.   I don't know if you  guys  are having  a slow  time  for this forum to load  and  stuff  , but I am.

There is no reason why the forum has to be here. Lefora was free and it looked easy, so that is why I chose it. It can be moved (not sure how easily). If I knew that the forum would be better served elsewhere, I would move it. I just don't expect it to be worth the cost to move it. 

I like the idea of a builders log. That would be a good addition.

 I would  keep this site   as  link  to  reference too ,  and  start  anew.  As needed  we can  copy paste bits of info  into  the new one  from here.  We ALL can do that much . If  not,   theres not much hope of  seeing  a  Co OP  Airship.   

Cool im glad im not the only one that sees need for more organization. It can really get difficult even to search a forum some times if it Is not broken into sub groups. I dont think that is a option for Lefora though. This forum seem to work well for searching  maybe we can switch to the system they are using. I am actually taking some intrest in starting forums etc so I will lend a hand as I learn more.

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php

I think we need to check out the work involved. If it is too much, I'd hate to stop design, software, and model (RC) building to do a house keeping chore. Organization can help, but if you're placing the straws in your broom in order prior to sweeping, I don't thing that will be beneficial.

Agrreeed! Let's get UP! That's the original intent, not to build an airship construction encyclopedia.

So, first attract and cater to the builders. We are the ones who will produce a design worth building co-operatively that will get us all into the air. When we have questions, we post them, when we need help, we ask each other for it and in between we shoot the breeze about fun stuff related to personal airships.

Dude has said before that he welcomes help managing the forum and has indicated that still goes. But a great construction index is not the thrust of the group and shouldn't take up too much space. This if more like a blog than a reference site and it works ok.

The associated wiki site s a place where anyone can input a great index.
https://sites.google.com/site/airshipwiki/

Lets not confuse organization with refrence. I have participated with a good number of succesful forums in the past and organization lends it self to being able to help others tred grond already walked more easly. helps to keep down repetative questions and threads and lets folks branch into the limbs of intrest exclusive to them. Lets not forget perception to the out side world will effect how seriously you will be taken. Dude I would love to assist with managing the forums but I have some thing eles up my sleave I Will pm you when I now more.

PS. My cat charlie   

Good lookin kitteh! lol.

Indeed the wiki is a good place for building a reference resource. 

And organisation is difficult. It takes continual effort to keep it up to date as the forum grows and changes.