Is ATARN.net (i.e. this forum) dead?

Arry · Post by **Arry** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:06 pm

Apologies for the blunt question, but there is not much going on here anymore. I check every few weeks and there are precious few new posts. Maybe it's because there is both a "Hornbowyers" and an "ATARN" Group on Facebook, and a substantial part of the discussion has moved from ATARN.net to there.

Peter, are you still working on an updated version of ATARN.net?

Maybe if uploading of pics was easier (imho main impediment of ATARN.net), more people would post their projects and observations here.

KenH · Post by **KenH** » Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:28 pm

I understand that Peter is (slowly) working on a new version of this site. You're right that the Facebook page has taken over a lot of the day-to-day posting, and ATARNet has become a still very valuable archive of information in detail (the long posts that Facebook just can't support.

jiao · Post by **jiao** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:28 am

china forums same case, they are in the group like facebook,but facebook can not use in china

lurz · Post by **lurz** » Fri Mar 10, 2017 8:56 am

Also hard to follow a thread, like a "buildalong" or other things needing an explanation over some time, on a facebook page. Worked much better here. Miss it.

pcoutin · Post by **pcoutin** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 1:55 pm

lurz wrote:Also hard to follow a thread, like a "buildalong" or other things needing an explanation over some time, on a facebook page. Worked much better here. Miss it.

Yeah...

KenH · Post by **KenH** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 7:05 pm

All we can do is encourage Peter to speed up the website revision, and encourage folks on Facebook to come here so their work can be saved for "posterity" -- I'm particularly thinking of Jason's Scythian recreations and Beau Vance's works, but others as well!

lurz · Post by **lurz** » Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:39 am

Second that!

Peter Dekker · Post by **Peter Dekker** » Tue Mar 14, 2017 10:08 am

Hi guys,

Yes, activity on the ATARN forums has sadly been dropping for a long time as the rise of several Facebook groups made it redundant to some.

I agree that there is still a place for a forum like this, as an archive of info. I fully second that better ways to share images would really help in that respect.

As for speeding up the process, I've found myself submerged in work since I switched from an office job to trading antique arms full-time.

I would love to speed up the process, but I could use some hands. The new site is all set up, but the old articles need to be manually converted to a new layout.

As for the forum, I'm open to modernize the whole structure. Does anyone have examples of forums that they really like, and that seem to cover much of the functionality that is needed here?

I'm all ears!

KenH · Post by **KenH** » Tue Mar 14, 2017 10:36 pm

Peter - what's involved in re-formating articles, I can probably help some in that department. [email protected]

I do a lot on www.everythingdulcimer.com, which like ATARN has become somewhat of an archive site. But it's mechanisms for adding photos, etc is much nicer than here.

pcoutin · Post by **pcoutin** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:10 am

KenH wrote:Peter - what's involved in re-formating articles, I can probably help some in that department. [email protected]

I do a lot on www.everythingdulcimer.com, which like ATARN has become somewhat of an archive site. But it's mechanisms for adding photos, etc is much nicer than here.

You mean than the forums or than atarn.org?
The search function in atarn.org is broken. Was Windows based...

I guess it'd be cool to improve image uploading or something. Or update the forums. ...

Seems like sharing images works okay here, though? Just needs some kind of click to expand thing like in the PA forums... or just a thumbnail, and clicking opens the full one in a new tab. But I dunno if in-line images would be much better.

More themes would be nice, this one is wide.. and green.

Does anyone have examples of forums that they really like, and that seem to cover much of the functionality that is needed here?

I guess the Primitive Archer forums (SMF), but maybe the structure could be a bit better. And I hate that images uploaded through the forums get pruned there.

I run one in punbb... slow development, fluxBB would be better. But SMF may be the best choice if you're going to go through switching forum software. Though it is a matter of taste, too. Probably would make the most sense to upgrade to phpBB3 if this is still phpBB2, I have no idea of what it is.

I could definitely help after I graduate...

KenH · Post by **KenH** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 12:57 pm

The Search function here works as well as it ever did -- not great, but not bad.

pcoutin · Post by **pcoutin** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 3:01 am

KenH wrote:The Search function here works as well as it ever did -- not great, but not bad.

Yes, on the forums, but this one doesn't. http://www.atarn.org/search.htm

And yeah, I've had too much trouble finding some things with the forum search function.. fuzzy search would be very awesome, basically no forums implement it AFAIK.

Not sure if we should allow Google to index the forum, too.

lurz · Post by **lurz** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:35 am

What needs to be done? I can see it it's something I could do. PM me for email

Bj?rn Sofeit · Post by **Bj?rn Sofeit** » Sat Jun 24, 2017 2:19 pm

FB has it's advantages, it's more fast paced and you get more pictures and faster responses, but it's no ideal.

There's definitely a problem in the FB group following different things and searching for something. You're not able to present buildalongs in a stringent fashion. It's always a jumble of different posts.

Forum threads have always been better at this, they're far more accessible. The search function here sucks pretty bad though.

Then there's the problem with FB not being available in China outside of using a VPN.

Judging from how frequent you see materials for bowmaking on Taobao, there must be alot of people making bows. Sucks to have these people not be able to participate without jumping through all the hoops to make FB work there.

jiao · Post by **jiao** » Tue Jun 27, 2017 5:47 am

if who can copy the atarn fackbook info(pics,words) to here , easy?

did we need say good buy or week up