An extension (pun intended) to this group..........

[Jonni]

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

[<me9]

Sounds like a wiki may be an idea.

[John Rumm]

Yup, that can be good.

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.

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

Yup, could be worth having as video.

as per 1

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 ;-)

My starter for ten.

[meow2222]

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

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

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

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.

[Phil Addison]

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

Google uk.d-i-y archive is at NOSPAM from address to email me

[Doctor Drivel]

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

[bob]

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

[Set Square]

Black & white would be ok!