A regular of many years, mostly lurker and occasionally received some
great advice in here, I just wanted to run something by the masses to
see what you all think.

There is without doubt and enormous amount of useful DIY information
both within the group and on the accompanying FAQ website but I for one
am great fan of being 'shown' how to do something as well as having it
explained.

Has the group ever considered or discussed the possibility of
introducing short video clips to cover some of the FAQ material?. I
think this would be an invaluable addition to what is already and
excellent source of information. In keeping with the community aspect,
anyone could contribute to site and most importantly everything would be
free!

Some examples of a short vid clip could be:
1) Adding extra sockets
2) Mixing plaster correctly
3) Installing down lighters

One problem I foresee is that perhaps all videos may not be considered
as demonstrating 'best practice' - so a peer review\feedback system
could be introduced so that other could grade the accuracy of the info
in the video

Looking for constructive debate on this - thoughts?.....

John

Jonni wrote:

There is without doubt and enormous amount of useful DIY information
both within the group and on the accompanying FAQ website but I for one
am great fan of being 'shown' how to do something as well as having it
explained.

Yup, that can be good.

Has the group ever considered or discussed the possibility of
introducing short video clips to cover some of the FAQ material?. I
think this would be an invaluable addition to what is already and
excellent source of information. In keeping with the community aspect,
anyone could contribute to site and most importantly everything would be
free!

I am all in favour of more graphical content - there are plenty of times
where a diagram or couple of photos can save plenty of words.

Video clips are also "nice", but I can see there will be several
problems that would need to be overcome:

They take a certain amount of effort, cost and time to produce. I can't
see many people setting about a major DIY task just so that they can
video it, i.e. things that are easy to produce in a commercial setting
with real money being spent, are not always easy or possibe to reproduce
for "nothing". So it will be a matter of people filming stuff they were
doing anyway, which can be quite a time consuming burden and hinderance
to getting the real job done. The most likely alternative would be a web
based "storyboard" with photos and descriptions - taking some photos as
a project progresses is easy enough to do - this is far simpler to
produce (and a number of regulars have done this over the years).

Hosting would be another issue. Video content would result in a massive
use of hosting bandwidth. This may be a problem that can't easily be
solved without spending real money. (for example my "static image" loft
conversion site generated some 180MB of traffic in its first 15 days,
however over a few months that has fallen to a reasonably constant 70 -
80MB / month and a few hundred visits / month. That is a fairly trivial
amount of traffic in real terms. However with that site there are no
large files to be downloaded - the entire site is under 1.5MB even if
you read *every* page. Adding 20MB of video content could easily result
in 40GB / month of traffic - not quite so easy to lose on the back of a
small comercial hosting package like ours.

Some examples of a short vid clip could be:
1) Adding extra sockets

Storyboard site or even a book can show this well enough I would suggest.

2) Mixing plaster correctly

Yup, could be worth having as video.

3) Installing down lighters

as per 1

One problem I foresee is that perhaps all videos may not be considered
as demonstrating 'best practice' - so a peer review\feedback system
could be introduced so that other could grade the accuracy of the info
in the video

Having decided that something is "not quite right" in a video, how do
you go about correcting it? Append a big block of notes or get the
poster to go rip it all down and start again ;-)

Looking for constructive debate on this - thoughts?.....

My starter for ten.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Jonni wrote:

Some examples of a short vid clip could be:
1) Adding extra sockets

I've got one of that, but IIRC its a few Mb in size.

NT

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 13:00:28 GMT, Jonni wrote:

A regular of many years, mostly lurker and occasionally received some
great advice in here, I just wanted to run something by the masses to
see what you all think.

There is without doubt and enormous amount of useful DIY information
both within the group and on the accompanying FAQ website but I for one
am great fan of being 'shown' how to do something as well as having it
explained.

Has the group ever considered or discussed the possibility of
introducing short video clips to cover some of the FAQ material?. I
think this would be an invaluable addition to what is already and
excellent source of information. In keeping with the community aspect,
anyone could contribute to site and most importantly everything would be
free!

Some examples of a short vid clip could be:
1) Adding extra sockets
2) Mixing plaster correctly
3) Installing down lighters

One problem I foresee is that perhaps all videos may not be considered
as demonstrating 'best practice' - so a peer review\feedback system
could be introduced so that other could grade the accuracy of the info
in the video

Looking for constructive debate on this - thoughts?.....

John

What has happened in other places, is a move to web based and potentially
moderated groups.

have a look here for one I frequent a lot

www.rcgroups.com

Look under discussions.

You can post pictures, videos and anything.

Complete step by step instrictions with photos are not unusual on some
projects.

However the site costs money to run..and therefore takes in advertising.

Thats sometimes dictates a slightly more 'conservative' approach to product
bashing..imagime having saniflo, or B & Q as a sponsor...

The software core is freeware, but obviously setting it all up requires a
technical gurus, and as server based somewhere decent.

The greatest asset is that its all archived...you can read previous
material much more easily than Usenet.

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 13:00:28 GMT, in uk.d-i-y Jonni
wrote:

A regular of many years, mostly lurker and occasionally received some
great advice in here, I just wanted to run something by the masses to
see what you all think.

There is without doubt and enormous amount of useful DIY information
both within the group and on the accompanying FAQ website but I for one
am great fan of being 'shown' how to do something as well as having it
explained.

Has the group ever considered or discussed the possibility of
introducing short video clips to cover some of the FAQ material?. I
think this would be an invaluable addition to what is already and
excellent source of information. In keeping with the community aspect,
anyone could contribute to site and most importantly everything would be
free!

Some examples of a short vid clip could be:
1) Adding extra sockets
2) Mixing plaster correctly
3) Installing down lighters

One problem I foresee is that perhaps all videos may not be considered
as demonstrating 'best practice' - so a peer review\feedback system
could be introduced so that other could grade the accuracy of the info
in the video

Looking for constructive debate on this - thoughts?.....

Splendid idea. However it's difficult enough to get written material
donated for the FAQ. Others have covered practical issues of hosting,
but its all very well suggesting someone else produces videos (or any
other material for that matter). If someone does offer a decent video
that would be a basis for looking into how/whether to host it. Someone
mentioned editing issues - I would be surprised if we don't have a
video-editor expert lurking nearby.

On a practical point, I have altered the title to give the thread a
better chance of being seen by interested parties. This group is so busy
that many only bother to read articles that they can immediately see
from the title are of interest to them. I'm one of those - that's why it
took me so long to reply, and I very nearly zapped the thread unread.

Including "FAQ" in the title will ensure that my newsreader flags a post
for me to read.

Phil
The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/
The Google uk.d-i-y archive is at http://tinyurl.com/65kwq
Remove NOSPAM from address to email me

"Jonni" wrote in message
.. .

Has the group ever considered or
discussed the possibility of introducing
short video clips to cover some of the
FAQ material?.

You have got to be kidding. All the blood on the tools?

Videos eh? Very daring. Brings a new concept to DIY.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Doctor Drivel wrote:

"Jonni" wrote in message
.. .

Has the group ever considered or
discussed the possibility of introducing
short video clips to cover some of the
FAQ material?.

You have got to be kidding. All the blood on the tools?


Black & white would be ok! g
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.