A “random” button would be cool for the online articles.
BillieRuben
| Posted in General Discussion on
Sometimes I just want to browse around, I find it’s a helpful strategy to find the “things I don’t know that I don’t know”.
To that end, I reckon it would be cool if I could organise the online articles by “random”. Whereby it shows me a page kind of like the search results, where there is a list of options/resources only they’re just random articles, I haven’t searched for anything.
Maybe if we could filter for categories such as “design” or “finishing” that could be neat, but I’d honestly be happy just with entirely random to begin with. ☺️
Anyway. Thought I’d suggest it in case other people like it too! If enough people do, then maybe our beloved Ben can take it up with the right folk on the back end. *Wink wink nudge nudge 😁❤️*
Replies
Just got curious about what would happen if I typed "random" in the search box. The first six pages, of course was about random orbit sanders. There were a lot of sanding entries throughout. Then, there were pages and pages of book give-aways. There were some interesting articles sprinkled here and there, too. I used to just pick a word to see what kinds of articles would appear. It's interesting to see what will show up when you've got the time.
I have been dreaming of this for about 6 years. Sadly, I'm the only one who thinks it's a good idea every time it's brought up! Let's get loud about it! Let me know if you too think it's a good idea!
No way! How can anyone NOT think this is a good idea? Haha!
Hopefully we can get you your numbers! I would really really love this. Much healthier than doom scrolling. ☺️
I think it's a great idea too! When I type finewoodworking.com into my address bar, I'm usually looking for something in particular. But maybe I'd visit more often if I could come here for randomized inspiration as well!
I like the idea, lets get it up and working. . . .
Sounds good to me. Often I'm bored and looking for something to inspire - there's always something, especially the video workshops.
I have wished for this ever since I got my ultimate membership, I'd much rather browse the archives of fine woodworking than other chaotic websites.
Id use it. You never know where inspiration is, and sometimes something you'd never expect leads to a great idea.
Exactly!
I have a stack of old FWW magazines, from time to time I’ll grab one out of the pile and browse through it. It’s amazing how often there will be something applicable to the project I’m working on. A random button isn’t dissimilar and would be fun.
That's exactly how I feel too. ☺️☺️
It's a good idea for sure. Lately, I've been getting FWW emails to videos that are older. That's been fun. Also, even now and then I'm cleaning out an old box of stuff and find an old issue of FWW and end up spending a fair bit of time reading the old articles and really enjoying it. What you're suggesting is a great idea. During one of the more recent FWW anniversary years, they were republishing one old article. That was good and wished they'd do that more often.
We're actually going to be doing a "throwback" eLetter soon. We have someone working to dig up old forgotten articles and bringing them back online. I think it's going to be fun to see what surfaces.
You know what would make digging up old gems easier?
A random button. 😏😏😏
😁😁😁❤️❤️
True. But if they aren't online at all, they can't be in a random group of articles!
Hi Ben,
An idea for how to generate a random generator. There are programs for giving out prizes that allow you to spin a virtual wheel. We use on at work for those who attend the seminars. Someone has entered the names and then "spins" the wheel and it lands on a name. I'm willing to bet something similar could be done for the articles in which the name is a hyperlink to the article. A user spins the wheel and it lands on an article hyperlink and then you click on it and are taken to the FWW article. I'm not a programmer. Below is a link to give you an idea of the wheel. Hopefully I've rambled enough to make some sort of sense. Really the only hard part I think would be someone creating a data table for all the articles. Could see having separate spin the wheels for Shop Tips, Furniture Gallery, Videos, etc. Also, if all this data is entered into a data base that the wheel accesses, maybe you could even give some drop down filters so you choose date ranges, authors, etc. So, still random but if I wanted to find a random article in the 1980s I could narrow it that way.
https://spinthewheel.cc/
Ohhh I misunderstood, sorry. Gotcha! ☺️☺️
But it if it is indeed "random" you could never be sure that a gem would be dug up could you?...could in fact be just a dud. And more to the point just because one person found an article produced by a so-called random process enlightening...another person might find that same article to be of no value and an absolute waste of time.
Well. Ya. If anyone can tell me how to make content that everyone will like, I'm all ears!
Well Ben not to say that producing "content" ahem doesn't have its challenges. Any job has its challenges - and I respect that. But, to my point again. If the "random generator" produced something sadly along the lines of "how to make glass etchings designs" in a 3D drawing file with computer modeling software? Still trying to figure out how that will make my Woodworking...say... Finer.
How is this different to reading a magazine though. 😅
Even just a random button to start with would be awesome. Being able to vote on articles would be great in future though!
Because cabinets have glass. 😅 Just because you don't like it doesn't mean others won't. I think the periphery skills are really important in the construction of a beautiful item.
Awesome Ben! Thanks. All these "little" things really add value to the online subscription.
Good idea!
I'll second all the above. When I'm looking for something specific, it would be nice to not have to peruse the universe.
If there was a star rating that users could attach to articles then we could sort them based on which were best liked, or most interesting or most useful, or well written. Often such things are given zero to five stars, but I would suggest using a one to ten rating system. Though there is a risk that many of the feature articles in Fine Woodworking would get 8s, 9s, or 10s.
One way to get a version of this going quickly might be to track which articles are accessed most often and assign them a popularity rating. You may not find the hidden gems this way, but it would still be useful for the casual browser.
I really like this idea. I often find when searching I get Lotsa of advert/review articles when all I want is tutorials. This would probably help me filter those out too
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Late to the game, but love the idea of a random button! Don't like it, click again.