Official Luthiers Forum!

I remember being invited to join and I did but it died out pretty quickly and I can’t remember why.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I still enjoy this Forum.

I just posted a question about the mini table saws and I got some "real world" intelligent answers and tips that helped me in making a decision on wether or not to buy one and some alternate ways of doing what I needed to do.

I am on a bunch of "groups" on facebook and at this point I get a kick out of the great comments people make more than anything...... not learning anything there

I guess what I am trying to say is people seem real on this forum as opposed to a bunch of trolls.

I agree with Brad. I try to participate even though I don't have too many questions anymore but the questions I do ask usually get me some well-reasoned thoughtful replies and I try to return the favor. Definitely a huge step up from FB or any of the other social media sites.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Same sentiments as Brad and Steve from me. I get a lot of value from the discussion forum format. Facebook and Instagram are places to either poke your head up and try to get attention for a nanosecond, or to scroll through and pay attention for a nanosecond to someone else.

I previously offered a "mixed bag" opinion of The Looth Group, and after spending over 2 hours watching another video there yesterday, I hereby double down on that. There is definitely some value in watching someone do something in painstaking detail on a recorded Zoom meeting, but there is also a price to be paid. If the way they hold their wrist or the tool or the workpiece is something that is hard to convey in writing, the video helps make it clear. But you also have to watch them fumble with the camera, or try to get the bottle open or the tape off the dispenser or whatever they are doing, because there is absolutely no editing of those videos going on over there. Gotta take the good with the bad, I guess, but it is such an investment of time that I have to limit my consumption.

I think this is a good thing to examine and I appreciate David bringing it up.

To play the “first thing that jumps to mind” game:

OLF - tradition
Loothgroup - innovation
Facebook - circus

It’s not true 100% across the board and I’m not talking at all about the UX differences between an antiquated PHPBB and a more modern Wordpress site or a site like Facebook.

I’m thinking abut the content.

If I had one shot to send a new builder somewhere to ask a question about, for example, the different ways to approach bending sides - I’m sending them here. What they will get is tried and true feedback from builders who have done it, not people who are just “like” and “heart” farming (Facebook).

I love the OLF and it’s been my primary source for learning and building relationships in luthiery (and beyond) over the last decade+.

I will tread lightly on this next comment - there is a tendency here to look at things as “settled law”. New ideas are often treated as “you’re wasting your time, we’ve already been through this”. It can stifle conversation.

Now, I totally understand, or think I understand why this happens - the OLF tends to try to supply guardrails to success. It’s one of things I love about it. The reason for the “we’ve already been through this” approach is because it’s true! The folks here are builders and are trying to save the heartache of something going wrong, people getting discouraged, stalling out, or worse quitting altogether.

It’s also the nature of a forum like this vs something like the Loothalong. Here it’s hard to be nuanced without writing paragraph after paragraph which involves a lot of effort by the members. The Loothgroup you can just join the Zoom, ask a question, get some feedback.

The platform the OLF is built on does stifle this for sure. There is no reason in 2025 people should be doing gymnastics to get images uploaded, get their password reset, have an SSL site.

Going to stop now before I get worked up and say something I’ll regret.

Love you guys! For real.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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