The "how would you shoot this" type questions are among those I enjoy the most on this forum. They provide a lot of good suggestions and ideas and (largely) avoid a lot of the "personality clash" kind of issues often found elsewhere. I know that a dedicated sub-forum for "how would you shoot this" kinds of questions has been floated around, though I don't recall a particular thread devoted to it (and no, I haven't gone back and looked). I'd like to renew the suggestion and add a few specific thoughts about how a "How Would You Shoot This" sub-forum should be done, such as:
1. Obviously, it should be named "How Would You Shoot This" or something equally descriptive. It should be featured prominently (maybe just under the Main Forum), but you could make a reasonable case that it should be near the Ask The Instructor sub-forum, although that puts it near the very bottom of the selections and people may not know to scroll all the way down to it. Either way, for folks who like such discussions, a dedicated sub-forum allows for a one-stop place to review several scenarios at one time;
2. Although it couldn't be set forth as a hard rule, users should, just as a convention, find a way to give their thread at least a semi-specific name such as "Cross-corner bank" or "What is the best sequence." If every post is entitled How would you shoot this" it becomes challenging to go back and find a particular thread. The most practical thing may be to just have each poster number his post in the title ("How would you shoot this, #43, "How would you shoot this, #512," etc.). This could also make it easier for people to refer back to older thread ("A similar situation was discussed in #213," etc.);
2. There needs to be a more efficient way to integrate the shot diagrams that people use directly into AZB. I've tried to locate the software and get the hang of it but I've had trouble finding it as the source seems to shift around. For a while, it seemed folks were referred to Onepocket.org to access the software and now there seems to be a "Chalky Sticks" watermark on the diagram people are using but I'm not sure where that can be found. We shouldn't have to go to a different site to find and work with the software. Additionally, I've had issues saving a particular diagram and then moving it to AZB. I'll admit it has been a while since I tried doing up a diagram (I've never been successful) and maybe things have changed but it seems clunky at best. I realize there may be cost or copyright issues or other logistical considerations involved that may complicate things but there should be better integration into this site. Even if my suggestion for a dedicated sub-forum is not adopted, someone ought to do a sticky on where to find the shot diagram software, how to save a diagram and how to move it to AZB;
3. However the shot diagrams are integrated, one thing that makes existing "how would you shoot this" threads a little frustrating is having to scroll back up six or eight posts or even to an earlier page to look again at the diagram and then scroll back to compare what is being suggested in a given post to the diagram. You seldom have the diagram and a particular post on the same page unless the subsequent poster has copied the diagram into his own post, which is not done that often. I have no idea if there is a way to automatically embed a particular diagram into each post or at the top or side of the current page so that the diagram always appears on the current screen but it seems like this could be addressed.
Anyway, just some suggestions for what I think could improve the forum. Comments welcome.
1. Obviously, it should be named "How Would You Shoot This" or something equally descriptive. It should be featured prominently (maybe just under the Main Forum), but you could make a reasonable case that it should be near the Ask The Instructor sub-forum, although that puts it near the very bottom of the selections and people may not know to scroll all the way down to it. Either way, for folks who like such discussions, a dedicated sub-forum allows for a one-stop place to review several scenarios at one time;
2. Although it couldn't be set forth as a hard rule, users should, just as a convention, find a way to give their thread at least a semi-specific name such as "Cross-corner bank" or "What is the best sequence." If every post is entitled How would you shoot this" it becomes challenging to go back and find a particular thread. The most practical thing may be to just have each poster number his post in the title ("How would you shoot this, #43, "How would you shoot this, #512," etc.). This could also make it easier for people to refer back to older thread ("A similar situation was discussed in #213," etc.);
2. There needs to be a more efficient way to integrate the shot diagrams that people use directly into AZB. I've tried to locate the software and get the hang of it but I've had trouble finding it as the source seems to shift around. For a while, it seemed folks were referred to Onepocket.org to access the software and now there seems to be a "Chalky Sticks" watermark on the diagram people are using but I'm not sure where that can be found. We shouldn't have to go to a different site to find and work with the software. Additionally, I've had issues saving a particular diagram and then moving it to AZB. I'll admit it has been a while since I tried doing up a diagram (I've never been successful) and maybe things have changed but it seems clunky at best. I realize there may be cost or copyright issues or other logistical considerations involved that may complicate things but there should be better integration into this site. Even if my suggestion for a dedicated sub-forum is not adopted, someone ought to do a sticky on where to find the shot diagram software, how to save a diagram and how to move it to AZB;
3. However the shot diagrams are integrated, one thing that makes existing "how would you shoot this" threads a little frustrating is having to scroll back up six or eight posts or even to an earlier page to look again at the diagram and then scroll back to compare what is being suggested in a given post to the diagram. You seldom have the diagram and a particular post on the same page unless the subsequent poster has copied the diagram into his own post, which is not done that often. I have no idea if there is a way to automatically embed a particular diagram into each post or at the top or side of the current page so that the diagram always appears on the current screen but it seems like this could be addressed.
Anyway, just some suggestions for what I think could improve the forum. Comments welcome.
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