Bob Diaz - Mod for the HMC40 section

just sticky the FAQ.

Use Faqs to point to the first look, Hardware selection, and tips/tricks like scene file settings.

PC/Mac editing questions are really not an HMC40 issue, and covered in another part of this forum, as far as it goes. You could point them there in the FAQ.

I would NOT sticky the camera comparison because it is temporary, and because people who hate the camera would use it in a manner that could turn disruptive.

For example, if you are one of those people who would rather claw your own eyes out with a red hot fork than see the least bit of verticle skew from a rolling shutter, why come here? The HMC40 is and always will be a CMOS camera with a rolling shutter. I like a good TV show, but I DESPISE 'reality TV.' I don't read articles about it, study it, follow it, and I certainly don't waste valuable minutes of my life posting to forums about it. If you KNOW you hate this, move on. This camera isn't for you.

Now people need to make informed decisions, so in the FAQ, explain what rolling shutter is, does, and means to the user. Post an extreme example (whip pan across a picket fence), and minor instance (we should have one somewhere), and maybe a link to the newblue plugin that can fix it. Then say, "Look, the extreme example is a limitation of the camera. You'll have to shoot around this, just like you need to have enough light. " Also, point out t he minor case and say, "If this bugs you to no end, then you need to look at a CCD camera and that will probably cost more. Sorry."

This goes for a lot of things. If you absolutely cannot stand this camera and would never even touch it because of the T-handle, the button placement, the feel of the focus ring, the size of the LCD, or the fact that it is made by Panasonic, then you are in the wrong forum. Go to a camera you do like and be happy. Let us be happy here. Sorry, /rant off now.
 
I would NOT sticky the camera comparison because it is temporary, and because people who hate the camera would use it in a manner that could turn disruptive.
Click to expand...

I would recommend that having a single thread for vs. talk would be very beneficial to the overall organization of this section. Otherwise you run the risk of that kind of talk permeating threads that were not originally intended for such discussion. Vs. talk can be like a virus at times. It can be beneficial, but it also begins to spread around all over the place and fog up otherwise useful threads. It's actually something we're probably going to do for some of the other sections :)

later,
Jason
 
I'll take the item at the top of Bob's list and (hopefully constructively) look at it critically. An FAQ sticky could easily turn into a huge thread that winds up with what are indeed concise answers to truly frequent questions being very scattered, and essentially lost, in a sea of posts, even though the posts might be relevant to the topic. I'd almost bet on it. It seems to me, that an FAQ is more useful in the form of essentially an article (written by one individual, rather than what amounts to a very loose ad hoc committee in essence) - something that is indeed concisely to the point, with perhaps the ability to post comments on the FAQ.
 
To develop a really good FAQ, perhaps a thread could be started that asks what questions people would most like to see asked and answered in an FAQ. Then Bob gets to sift through the whole mess and actually write the FAQ, after there seems to be something of a good consensus on what questions really should be in it. Ain't it fun being a mod Bob?
:2vrolijk_08:
​
 
I ran a forum website a while back. Me and another guy wrote a 15 page, indexed Tips and Tricks document that was required reading before posting to the forum. The other users enforced this rule, we didn't have to. Something like that is a lot for us to ask of Bob. If I were you Bob, I wouldn't do anything that's going to eat up all your time. We want you to have time to play with your new camera too!
 
I sort of got inspired, and started drafting an HMC40 FAQ. I doubt it's going to be 15 pages(!), but I can put a few hours into it, and I'll be happy to let Bob use it here, if he thinks that's a good idea. I'll also be happy to carefully read everything that gets posted in the thread I started about questions (and answers) for developing an FAQ, in trying to make one that is truly a useful little reference for answering common newbie questions (which do tend to clutter the joint up).
 
I've received several massages form those who dislike more than one stickies and zero messages form anyone saying they like more than one stickies.

The most logical sticky is a FAQ/Master link page. Something of a "look here first" to find the interesting stuff. To avoid massive clutter, the one sticky thread is going to be locked, but if you have something useful to add to the FAQ/Links, there will be a way to have this added. The details of how to do this will be worked out later on...


Bob Diaz
 
Do you want to draft the FAQ yourself Bob, or would you like me to take a good whack at it and put at least a few hours into drafting something up?

I'd be happy to plug away on this some more, but I don't see the point, if you would prefer to do it yourself.

(Right now I'm working on an answer for the what's an XLR adapter and what's it good for question - including hyperlinks and such.)
 
I'm going to make the articles in the FAQ/User Tips be open to anyone who writes something reasonable.

There are several ways I can do this:

(1) Sent the section to me as a PM. It would be a bit of work to copy it into the locked section, but this has the tightest control.

(2) Make the FAQ/User Tips separate from the Index and allow the FAQ/User Tips to be open with the understanding that non-FAQ/non-User Tips will be deleted. This may get out of control and need to be locked... Back to plan #1.

So one way or another others will be able to write articles for this section.


Bob Diaz
 
I got brainstorming on doing something a little bit more robust than just a simple page of text - a bit more interactive, with perhaps a list of questions (in a drop down menu possibly) that by clicking on a question, the appropriate answer is displayed in something akin to a frame (eventually with a few photos and/or illustrations and/or video clips maybe too). I've done websites in the past (although it has been years), and been considering getting into that again (specializing in video centric sites), and got thinking this could be good practice to shake off some rust and get back up to date on HTML, at the same time as somewhat indulging one of my most passionate hobby interests (HD video, and the HMC40 in particular).

After I've developed these ideas a bit more, I'll send you a PM sometime in the reasonably near future Bob.
 
I spent a lot of time thinking about how to best bring some minor improvements to the HMC40 Forum.

My first conclusion is that this section should provide useful information to users and interested parties. There is going to be some chaos in any large group of people, so a few things can help bring some order to this section.

The Quick Index seemed to be an easy way to provide the new user with some handy links to see, to help them find the information they might want. The only bad thing was that the choice of which threads to put into this list is very subjective. However, if you feel I missed something important, just send me a PM. I'm sure that I'll have to edit this list over time as new threads are added.

The HMC40 FAQ & Articles seemed to be another useful thing to add to the forum. By next week, the school semester begins and my free time goes to near zero. So, I' hoping that users will be willing to write FAQs & Articles as they are able to. My biggest worry was that this section could become cluttered with comments and non-FAQ/Articles.

The Comments & Questions About The HMC40 FAQ & Articles seemed to be the logical solution to encourage people to post comments in the thread beside the HMC40 FAQ & Articles.


I know that people did not want to see too many Stickies, but I'm hoping that with just three Stickies, people won't mind.


Bob Diaz
 
Dazed and Confused

Dazed and Confused

I thought the index was a great idea! (One nice, neat, tidy reference)

If somebody writes an article or an FAQ in a thread, or does one a little fancier on a dedicated webpage (like I've been working on doing), why not simply have the index just point to it, rather than having these extra stickies???

Wasn't that the whole point of the index???

Now it seems, there's both an index and then more stickies, that essentially the index was supposed to eliminate the need for in the first place. :shocked:

I guess this just doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense to me. Perhaps I'm missing something?
 
Robert,

You may have a point there, one could write an Article or FAQ, post it as a thread and I add the link the index. That way comments are all sorted out as after the article.

If people don't like the current system, I can still make changes.



Bob Diaz
 
Having a single index, that's closed, where folks send you a private message if they think something should be added, really is the only way it won't just turn into a dead weight at the top of the page.

An articles and FAQ type thingy by a committee (in essence), especially including anyone that casually drops by and just feels like jumping in for a giggle, will never work well. For goodness sake, let's not have one at the top of the page.

I strongly suggest unsticking those new stickies, and just keeping the index one (and keeping it closed).
 
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