Dar S.
sheltech@webtv.net

Lee sez:
>I know, I know....You are just like an old fella' sitting on the front porch, whittlin' on a stick, spittin' your chaw, grumbling about how none of the young whippersnappers pay any attention to your pithy sayings anymore. I'm in the same boat as you.

dar sez:
Well, you've met me, so you can get away with saying that. Anyone else did, they'd have to be one o' them thar newfangled psychic friends...

Lee sez:
>I have had the same problem with the lack of contributors, but in most cases, there is very little drivel quotient as there is in most discussion groups.

dar sez:
Drivel, witty banter, whatever; there's not much of anything. Heck, I'd welcome a flamewar here just for something to do. But you're right, high signal-to-noise ratio is a good thing.

Lee sez:
 Since this a focused source of information, (and you have to admit, not the easiest to post on), it is certainly likely that there is an intimidation factor to deal with. Also, some of the messages get very esoteric when we start talking about some of the deeper aspects of die forming.
>I would suggest that to make the information more accessible to the beginner (and get them to read the text, rather than just scanning the images), that we each try to write as if the reader had only basic information. Let's try this for a bit and see what the results are.

dar sez:
You first (^:#. I bet nothing different happens, but agree it's worth a try.

Lee sez:
>I know that we are getting an amazing amount of "hits" every week, and the largest number are always for this section.

dar sez:
There is that.  After all my grumbling is done (you haven't even SEEN any WHINING!!) I don't really want to have to spend a lot of time answering a lot of the same old beginner quetions all the time. Fortunately I only am an expert at one obscure thing, so this works out for everyone. But SOME form of input/interaction ........  well, I guess it's back to my info being both obscure and technical. But I don't mind responding to occasional easy questions. I doubt we're in any danger of being overwhelmed here.

PS there's also some professional and personal responsibility ( which could fall in the broader category of responsibility to the work) I feel towards you, Lee, to being a source of information about my obscure specialty, it being intimately linked with your own. So here we are. What kind of knife you like?...
wood???.... dang young whippersnappers.....
(^:#

[ This message was edited on Mon Jun 24 by the author ]