Dedicated Kitfox Build Log Site - what would you want to see

[tracstarr]

Just throwing this out there.... I'm considering designing and building a dedicated kitfox build site to go in tandum with this site. No promises, but I wanted to reach out and find out the key things people would want. What they find missing from existing sites and what would really make it usable.

I'd like to keep it free in the long run, so would also be looking for sponsors to help pay for hosting etc as well as some design work if I decide to go forward with it (if it's the right thing given what everyone here thinks).

Or, if you think it's a futile thing to bother with... would like to know that too.

[rv9ralph]

I believe that there is a feature with vBulletin 5.0 that allows for blogging (the Forum is currently powered by vBulletin (https://www.vbulletin.com/) version 4.2.5). If Steve wants to go through another upgrade and activate that feature, we can keep everything in one place. If cost is an issue, I think the members here that want this feature to be added, there would be enough motivation to push some monetary support towards making this happen.

Ralph

[jiott]

I would hate to see this excellent site split up into two sites. Its bad enough already with some folks using Facebook instead of here.

[jrevens]

I have to respectfully agree with Jim. It's probably a poor analogy, but this sort of reminds me of having a small business, as I did for 21 years, teaching, training, and exposing an employee to all of your customers and contacts, and then the guy goes out and starts his own business, taking customers with him. I think that the builder's "logs", if you will, are an important and relatively large part of this forum - one of the most interesting aspects. I wouldn't want to see what has been a great asset to me and many others be harmed if the volume of posts diminished, possibly resulting in the loss of sponsors. I don't have any other dog in this race other than, as a user, I'd hate to see anything happen that would harm this site. I appreciate the work that it undoubtedly took to start it and make it into what it is today. In all fairness, I'm also sure that many of the builders starting out on the old Matronics site felt the same way when this site started becoming successful. Anyway, I hope my comments aren't out of line.

[tracstarr]

I don't disagree that fracturing things can be more frustrating, that's why I'm asking. Here' my thing... I love following builds, but with all the extra chat and questions that happen in those build threads it's often difficult to actually follow the build and even more difficult to pin point the bits you want to look at. Specific parts of the build. My thought is that if there was some structure it would be easy to say " Hey I want to see everything about rudders" and find it no matter what order it was done in.

Forums are great, but they are not designed for tracking progress of projects and easily allowing (especially new people) the ability to review what others have done. For example, I know several build threads have bits and pieces of Oratex covering. Even with the search feature you're still clicking through pages and mixed search results to find those.

I'm not out to make more work for myself - I have enough of that. Nor am I out to make any money. I just want a better experience for getting build information.

My 2 cents.

[bbs428]

With regard to a dedicated build site that is separate from this one would not be beneficial imho.
I would not support that. Anything that splits this site would be in error and would decrease the
traffic and undermine this site.

I would be for and propose a sub-forum titled "builds" or "current builds" or something similar.

In regards to searching or difficulty in searching for specific content, it is a challenge, no matter
what your looking for, to word your search correctly so the search engine can pull up the desired
information.
In my case I have always found what I was looking for, even though it took me numerous attempts
at the search wording. Frustrating but not impossible. :D

[Suprdave]

I think a sub-forum here would be sufficient? We just need a place all the builds are together without searching.

[Dave S]

Keith,

My position in the food chain here is simply a builder and flyer who wanted a place to land for information sharing about Kitfox aircraft. Just like John and JIm.

Teamkitfox has, above all, been a stable platform which provides a place for kitfox builders and flyers to share the full breadth of information and tribal knowledge that is so useful to completing a build and connecting people.

lists of various types do not historically have the stability which Teamkitfox has had. That historic stability is a hallmark of Teamkitfox; and, is not all that easy to achieve in the long run. To be useful, an entity has to be there in the long run. Teamkitfox has done that.

Maybe this is a little tongue in cheek, but possibly a store down the road from me which sold general kitchen supplies was criticized by an individual for not specializing in left handed corkscrews specifically to be used for opening wine bottles only under the full moon. Let's say a corkscrew shop opened up next door - which store do you think is here today?

It might be useful to recall that aviation interests in general are a pretty darn small part of our society, splintering what we have is not likely to increase and expand the general good.

The administrators and advertisers on Teamkitfox have, over a fairly long period of time, carefully constructed a very useful and functional site while guiding list members down the path of constructive information exchange.

We have a gem here in Teamkitfox.

I'd say practice with the search function a little, read your aircraft build manual, connect with your local EAA chapter, be active in your local airport and that will best help a person get their plane built.

If you think the List is missing a something that builders need, maybe a suggestion to the administrators about adding a function to this site is appropriate.

[tracstarr]

I'm not trying to bite off a piece of this site... maybe it could be a dedicated section, but I disagree an open forum style of build log works well. Searches in forums are notoriously terrible and don't take advantage of any of the latest and greatest technologies. I know how to search, it's that results are terrible. There's also many of us that don't have EAA chapters anywhere close or local airports or any knowledge of anyone else local building as well. Nor do many of us have that kind of time on top of everything else. Often the internet is the only way to get answers - and it bothers me that it's so difficult when I know that info is here already.

Maybe there's a way to create a plugin for this forum that would allow a dedicated build log architecture. Then a build post could easily link to discussions in forum topics without cluttering up the build log itself.

[kitfoxrk]

I agree with everything that has been said about splintering off the build logs. The thing that I hate most about the internet is having to go to multiple sites to find the information I am looking for. While the search function within Teamkitfox may not be the greatest, it works, and everything is in one site. If what you are proposing could be done within the framework of Teamkitfox, I would agree that it could be beneficial. Otherwise, I believe you would be un-intentionally diminishing this site.

just my 2 cents

Bob Krause

[jiott]

I have always been able to find what I want with the Search function; yes maybe several tries but not "terrible".

[littlecricket]

It’s awesome reading through everyone’s builds, but it’s a pain when you have specific questions. I’d like to see threads on specific tasks and subjects... Like windshield, elevator covering, etc.

I do find the search function to be not user friendly.

[aviator79]

I think it makes a lot more sense to open a new sub-forum here for build logs. I think they are a different type of thread that would stand on its own just fine.

[HighWing]

I find this a very interesting discussion, especial from a historical viewpoint. My first Kitfox kit arrived in March of 1993. At the factory fly-in later that year, I learned of an e-mail group where we could share, learn and commiserate when appropriate. What I liked most about it as there were no categories (threads) and I read every post - a very valuable learning experience or me. Back then, I knew a ton about Is, IIs and IIIs, the Rotax 582 and the NSI Subaru Ea81 conversion as well as my choice the 912. This list had gone through a couple layers of administrators when Matronics picked it up. Then RandyL posted a few times on Matronics - as I recall, posts similar to tracstarr's. Soon after, TeamKitfox came to life and the Kitfox section of Matronics began to dwindle in activity to virtually nothing today. As for myself, while building, owning and flying IVs - and hanging out with IV guys, quite honestly, this forum already has a diminishing attraction to me as it is clearly dominated by everything latest - SS, STI, 915 etc. - sort of like riding a dirt bike and the vast majority of the talk is of Chieftons, Vulcans and Gold Wings. In my mind, this very clearly explains the Avidfoxflyers and more recently the Kitfox Aircraft Owners Group on Facebook. Since I am not "considering" a new build, taking the build logs off site or putting them in a new topic section would have very little impact on my continued participation, but....