Originally posted by jeff
<br />Is the concern that we'd get a lot of members who are not penturners just flooding us with other turnings?
I guess there are two ways to look at this. (1) If we are a community, then maybe we're interested in other things we do which are closely related to penturning. (2) If we're a laser-focused association of penturners, then we should not have casual conversation, marketing, or anything else that isn't 100% tied to making pens. Every single post should be directly related to penturning.
The sense I get from some of these comments is that we need only one forum: penturning. I guess I should start polling about which forums to delete. [}
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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<b>Well, Jeff, YES, we are (or at least we were) laser-focused on all things personally-made pen-related.</b> This debate happened shortly after <u>you</u> amd <u>Scott</u> founded this forum. It was widely debated...<u>Russ</u>...<u>Kenn</u>...<u>Bob</u>...<u>Ed</u>...and a lot of others. A <b>Mission statement</b> was drawn up. Guidelines were established. The group, forum and the association were about PENS (and pencils [
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
]). The <u>objectives were ratified</u> not only by the <u>members</u>, but also by the short-lived <u>Board of Directors</u>. <b>Yes, the mission of this site is all things (personally-made) pens. Period.</b>
Now as I have said before, this is your living room. Host whatever meetings (forums) you want. But I will predict that there will be a <u>de-focusing on pens</u> in fairly short order. Once that happens, there will be another <b>Jeff</b> and another <b>Scott</b> who will decide that there's a place in this world for folks who have a tight grip and focus on a hobby...making pens. Yes, some will want to talk about how to finsh the pens they make, some will want to learn how to photograph the pens they make, others will want to discuss how to market the pens they make. These people will NOT want to discuss how someone finishes bowls <u>which they do not make</u>.
Generic turning forums:
http://www.woodturner.org/vbforum/forumdisplay.php?f=2
http://www.woodturningonline.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=5.
http://www.woodturningcenter.org/WTCBB/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=63c5ddb97f98f8dbb55ba1d9ac769c6b
http://www.woodworking.com/dcforum/dcboard.pl?az=list&forum=DCForumID13&conf=DCConfID3
http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=turning
http://dgroups.woodmagazine.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=woodturning
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/forumdisplay.php?s=4a3280b899a43163d1f7127b84202c0d&f=20
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/forumdisplay.php?s=1e7044962da094f05a3d4476b8f8faa5&f=8
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/forumdisplay.php?s=1e7044962da094f05a3d4476b8f8faa5&f=22
http://www.canadianwoodworking.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=d651ec858813ce6e52cc67dd96aebede&f=10