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Proposal: Woodworking

In another discussion on this forum the idea came up to contact some of the YouTube/internet woodworking guru's to help promote the Woodworking Community proposal. It was, however, roundly agreed upon that this was a tough nut to crack (someone actually tried to contact a few of them and was thoroughly shot down from the sounds of it). As I see it, the natural progression of this idea is to bypass the talking heads and just post some videos of our own.

My proposal is that we select a few questions from the sample list and shoot some simple DIY videos depicting crowd-sourced answers.

I thought about shooting a sample to demonstrate the viability of the concept, but it seemed best to give the group a chance to offer some feedback on how to handle some of the logistics (vetting the questions/answer, ideas on presentation, etc.) and to get some guidance on how to keep within the by-laws of the Stack Exchange in regards to representation (using logo's etc.)

My hope is that this can not only help attract members to start the community, but it can also establish a precedent for answering questions with videos when applicable as this is sometimes the best way to illustrate techniques and concepts.

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  • Interesting idea. For this to work well, make sure you link to this proposal if/when you post promotions!
    – Shokhet
    Nov 10, 2014 at 6:07
  • I proposed this on the Home Improvement Meta this morning and got my teeth kicked in. Basically the most positive feedback I got was "don't use our logo's or suggest you represent the SE and we won't actively stop you." I don't know what I was expecting but I'm kind of astonished at how little enthusiasm this is generating.
    – paperstreet
    Nov 22, 2014 at 20:33
  • The main issue I see with the YT gurus is that they are all trying to monetize what they're doing - selling their plans or subscriptions, etc. I can't blame them. But I'm not sure they'd willingly turn potential revenue towards a free resource.
    – Raystafarian
    Nov 27, 2014 at 10:48
  • @raysta Yeah, I abandoned that idea pretty quickly. Now I'm just wrestling with: should i just do it(make my own) and lead by example, or does jumping out in front run contrary to the Stack Exchange ethos. I've gotten so little feed back I can't get a sense of what the popular opinion is.
    – paperstreet
    Nov 27, 2014 at 14:34
  • I think you should try to get in touch with Nick Offerman. I am not familiar with woodworking but I have to admit I watched a few how to's (dovetails etc.) on woodworking. Is it okay to ask questions about technique and tools on SE (specifically woodworking)?
    – vkvau
    Nov 28, 2014 at 8:32
  • @vkvau I've kind of resigned myself to hold off on trying to reach out to guys like that until the community is established so they aren't confused by the whole commitment/beta concept. Yes questions like that are tolerated on the Home Improvement stack even though they're slightly off topic.
    – paperstreet
    Nov 28, 2014 at 17:14

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I would say to go ahead and try making a video, especially if you have the motivation and the time. We won't truly know whether it's a good idea until it's tried. I wouldn't bother with any logos or anything. Just put in the description that you're supporting/committed to Woodworking Q&A (with a link) and maybe how Q&As are so much more helpful than forums.

Have you thought about what you would demonstrate?

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  • Thanks, I was hoping to get your blessing seeing as this is your baby and all. You know I've really been struggling with the selection process but my exchange with vkvau (see above) gave me an idea. I'm thinking of posting the top rated (technique based) sample question from the proposal as a thread on this discussion board and give people a chance to post answers to it. After a week? I'll shoot a video demonstrating the top rated answer. Or maybe I'll go Amercia's Test Kitchen style and "test" the top three? What do you think?
    – paperstreet
    Nov 28, 2014 at 17:24
  • Good, but I wouldn't necessarily choose a topic based on it being the top-rated question. It'd be better to demonstrate something that you have solid experience with. If you have time for showing the top three methods (and if they're different enough), that would make for a better video, I bet.
    – drs
    Dec 4, 2014 at 2:44

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