My name is Mick and I love this forum, but I can't stop thinking that I spend from 4 to 5 hours a day in this forum and yet I never see a full house, I started a few threads to get people involved and to share our knowledge, but in the last few months I have noticed a decline in responses, are we getting sick and tired of this? or once we have made our projector, get all information we can from others waste their time by asking stupid questions. We no longer need anyone?.
Isn't it a bit sad that we as a human society behave like that, not even animals of their own kind do that, an yet we call ourself a superior race, shame on us.
I have been in this forum learning and trying to communicate with others but it's the same old story (we have become a society of users) once we get what we want the rest is history.
Well let me tell you guys, that is not me, because tonight I am doing something to break the habit, I never let my friends down, I think this place is a place where we have all something in common and that is we are humans, we should help each other, no one is saying with "money", just in case some of you think that I was talking about money!
Appart from been humans we have a common hobby. So, why is it that every time I log on here there is no one here?
Take it as a whinge or take it like whatever you guys want to take it! but Mick here has said his piece.
God Bless

Perhaps just a quiet period, it happends, but i've been lurking here for months and this forum is very active i check 3/4 times a day and always end up with stuff to read.

probably different timezone then others. i know i usually log on after i get home from work ( i work the night shift) so thats usually around 7:30am eastern. and usually browse the new posts.

so i would say alot of users are probably busy with work and family. the main thing is the posts get answered in a timely manner so the new members don't get all worried and lose there way!

what timezone are you in?

hey! Super_bob is on right now!!

I have have to agree with Super - I have yet to logon to the forums and not have some new posts out there. And as far as the vampiric taking of knowledge and calling it quits...well these forums wouldnt work if that was the case - there would be no innovation. try looking from the main list of the forums - if the blue dot is active then there are unread posts in there. Since I've been on I 've noticed that everything follows the hot idea of the moment - a couple of weeks ago it was the zoom lens thread..lately reflection has been hot... LED light source is seeing some activity..and there is always ideas and thoughts being exchnaged in the plogs

i can understand Purple Pilz as i always seem to be the only one connected when i visit the site but i gather most people in this community are from the USA and in a different time zone .
i've not been a member long and still gathering info so that i can decide which design / size to implement . Being married then time is monitored and the size of a PJ will be of utmost importance.
I do hope more people contribute with their ideas and projects to make this an even better forum of knowlege, i know i will be posting more when i eventually start my PJ project - probably screaming for help !!!!!!!!

Daytime in Australia does normally get less posts.. In the morning there are usually many, many posts for me to look over.. I think it really has to be timezones

talking about the amount of users posting and such have lead me to think about what would happen if the server that holds Lumenlab's message forums ever crashed.... i mean would we lose all these PLOG's and other great message threads?

Brain, is there any kind of file backup?

Heya Guys.

I'm in Australia too and while I'm not as active on the forums as I used to be I don't think the "scam and leave" ideal is something that goes on here. I still read every day but am biding my time before I jump into a HD capable small footprint PJ.

For my standpoint I'd say there are a couple of very simple reasons why there are quiet times:

1. Australia is on the opposite side of the galaxy to anywhere else... There's never anyone about when we're awake.

2. I believe many people are waiting at present to see some results of both the 7" lilliput and the 17"+ folded designs..

A few months ago all we had was the straight up 15" and we all built and everybody discussed and the activity was enormous.

It was "easy" with a standard set of plans to build from. Nothing "standard" yet exists for these new designs and as much as you may understand and know the theory there are very few of us that would take it upon ourselves to design and build a new concept from scratch.

Once finalised 17" designs come out with completed plans/plogs and pics to back them up I'm sure you'll see far more activity than ever before.

Add to that the fact that the cost has risen with the new fresnels, triplet and to some extent the larger panels and I believe it's easy to understand a community wide hesitation.

The 15" only got us to near HD. 17" and beyond can take us past what is commercially available... I believe DIY will come into it's own in that respect...

Imagine having a uwxga PJ with a 15 foot throw for $1000. You can't even buy that in a commercial PJ yet and if you could you'd expect to pay north of $10000 for it!

I predict that big things will happen in the next 12 months in the DIY community, due in large part to Brainchilds efforts with both this site and custom hardware. Let's hope Lumenlab grows large enough to be able to get some custom controllers built for those lovely widescreen laptop panels

Cheers,
Arkay.

P.S. Purple, I see you post count is only at 52 when you started this thread.. One sure fire way of having something to read of a day is to start a topic and actively encourage it's discussion

Long time lurker primarily for educational purposes. I have not made my first cut of wood yet and it's been 5 months. After getting a grasp on the fundamentals, word broke of the pro lens. Now I just had to wait for that lens info due to the possibilities. I suspect newbs are waiting to see results of the pro vs standard prior to making purchase decisions. Brain could attest to this based on order entry trends.

I believe the smaller amount of posts is due to several things. Folks are back to school, folks are waiting for the pro lens, folks are collecting components as cash allows, folks are waiting on the pro lens vs standard before making a purchase decision, and as usual, work, cub scouts, boy scouts and family can regrettably delay our hobby interests.

I am now awaiting my donor monitor from Ebay and the pro lens is on the way. One thing left that I need information on, so I'll ask here.

I'm having one hell of a time getting a grip on the lighting packages. M135 this, the eye, the ushios, mag ballast, caps, etc. I can not find a cohesive description stating what goes with what. Maybe it's just me but here is what I would really appreciate some one taking the time to do. Assemble the lighting data into cohesive packages and place it in the pinned sources for lamps, fans and ballasts thread.

The Eye bulb, the XX magnetic ballast OR YY electronic balast, the AA mogul

The Ushio bulb, the XX magentic ballast OR the YY electronic ballast, the AA mogul

The whatever bulb with the whatever ballast and the whatever mogul.

I suspect you'll see a flood of new plogs in the coming weeks, including mine, now that the pro lens packages are in the field.

Look forward to sharing my experince with this venture.
Regards,
John

I don't know how the poster can make this claim for it has been my experience since joining that the indication at the bottom left of the page reads, more often than not, that I am the only member here as it is doing now. Note the time I am posting this, so I doubt very much if that is truly the case. Maybe Brain can vouch for the glitch in the program.

The list of members at the bottom of topic pages is just how many people are viewing the topic.. I've never once seen the active member list *on the forum index page* having only one person, though

I do often see 2+ people viewing a single topic, but it's rare, as people go through the forums at their own paces, some reply, etc, so people dont always have the same topic open

Mick

I am in Australia as I believe you are. I log on every morning and there are few people on because the majority of members are in the states and they are about 10 to 12 hours behind us so most are probably watching their projectors and getting ready for bed.

When I first log on I click on "View New Posts" and 1½ to 2 pages of new posts come up.

I usually log on again in the afternoon and click "View New Posts" and then I would be lucky to find ½ a page because most members are in bed.

I just had a look at how many were logged on now and it is 4:30 Saturday afternoon here in Oz and there is actually 9 guests and 13 members logged on.

During the day because I am retired I am working on my projector.

I also spend a lot of time on a Woodworkers forum in Oz at http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/index.php?

The initial comment in this thread was: "So, why is it that every time I log on here there is no one here?"

That's the comment I was referring to. I don't follow your "active member list" comment at all.

Each time I visit here I choose the "my assistant" route to view ALL the posts since my last visit. Naturally, those posts cover a wide variety of topics, and despite the range of topics, the indicator at the bottom left of the page remains the same: 1 member.............and that is me. It is the very rare odd occasion when more than one member is viewing the topic.

That being the case, I too could be making the same comment as the writer: "So, why is it that every time I log on here there is no one here?"

My point was that if you go by the "X User(s) are reading this topic" "X members: <you>, ..." part, that's only for a single topic.. Usually a forum will base this on how long since the user loaded the page (say, 10 minutes or so).. It certainly is quite rare for people to be reading the same topic at the same time.. Especially in protected forums, I think..

What I'm saying I guess is that:
"Note the time I am posting this, so I doubt very much if that is truly the case. Maybe Brain can vouch for the glitch in the program."

The forum script is more than likely correct in what it says.. Computers are rarely wrong unless coded badly Just means you're the only person in the last 5/10/15 (don't know the exact number this forum uses) minutes who has viewed the topic..

You are coming around to what I said initially. If you state: " It certainly is quite rare for people to be reading the same topic at the same time.." which is the reason why I questioned how the original writer could make the claim that he reasoned he was the only active member present.

True it might have been the case at that specific time, but does not necessarily mean that he was the only subscriber to have read that or any other topic. As I mentioned, my experience has been, for the most part, that I too appear to be the sole member reading any topic, if we are to accept that the count is correct. I personally don't, but it is after all immaterial to the pleasure and knowledge gained by participating in the DIY video user forums.

Forum participation has grown quite substantially, memberships and log-ons are at an all time high.

Ok guys thanks for your replay to my question, I love this place and you guys have prove to me that there is other members looking and getting involved.
thank you all for your kind support :-)