How can I contribute at KitMaker?

General Discussions Site Talk
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Okay… so I have been super busy working another job for the past 5 months or so and not been able to look in on the content side of things as much as I was when the new sites were being launched. I am carving out what time I can (Wednesdays for the most part) to try to work on all things KitMaker, however for me that is usually dealing with advertisers, campaign awards, technical updates, and staff issues. I don’t have much time to work on content. That is where YOU can help. This is a community after all and without the staff and contributors helping out we wouldn’t be where we are today. That said though content is KING and without content we shrink. That’s just a fact. Facebook has been the largest driver of a loss of content since it became popular with some modelers. And of course I understand the appeal of a system that allows you to post directly to your friends, followers, and fans. That is one of the biggest reasons we switched to the forum and content management software for the sites that we have now, easier posting of content. But thus far we haven’t seen many of you submitting content via the content sites. Perhaps that is just because you don’t know that option is there. So… here is a post telling you that option is there! :slight_smile:

In short we need your help posting news, reviews, photos, and feature articles (text/photo based) to the sites. That includes ALL the sites. The network has seen a burst of new features submitted by Addie Roberts in his “Inspirations” series and they are great. But they are not the ONLY features we can publish. They were suppose to help show off the features area and get more of you to submit your work but it seems to have had the opposite effect.

So give me some help here even if it’s just in the form of feedback.

Did you see a post with some interesting news or information on the net or social media today? Did you think about sharing it on one of our content sites?

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Well on the old site it was common enough for staff to directly contact a modeller in, say, a build log and ask if they would like to turn their work into a feature. I haven’t seen that happen here.

I also remember seeing on the old website a body of text, probably in the ‘Reviews’ area, that said something like ‘Anyone can submit a review and/or a feature even of a subject or kit/equipment/tool etc that has already been looked at.’ Well it was something along those lines but I felt the message was good- i.e anyone can take a crack at some content. Obviously if it was not up to being published then it would serve as a learning opportunity for the modeller and would encourage them to try again.

Just another idea would be a ‘Campaign Roundup’ Feature- say once a month detailing those that have finished, those ongoing and those upcoming with a few of the builds featured.

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All good ideas! Thanks for that feedback Karl.

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I see some amazing work in the forums. We follow some of the build threads that end in great work or where some one posts a couple of their better works in a thread. A moderator or leader could copy the finished kit photos and post them in a Forum Feature of posters work and post the link to the thread. That way you could see 4 or 5 images of a build that interested you. Then you could hit the link and go right to the thread to follow it from the original post. You could even message the builder if you had questions about the build.

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Jim , I for one am not good working on the computer.Even worse from my smart phone. I have taken pictures of several pieces of my work but, don’t know how to post or forward them? I always liked Armorama ,but sadly I lost that too. It was the internet version of Finescale modeler…
I feel that after this pandemic we may see a resurgence of model builders and sites like this will be invaluable. Keep steady. There will be those that want to contribute.

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For me personally, this is the one aspect of the new site I do not like; the “Site Content Discussions”.
Post for them showing up in each of the forums they belong to as opposed to a general (Site Content) area seems a better way to me.

I had written this earlier:

I like the old way we did it with the News, Features, and Reviews tabs/sections, which were searchable (by manufacturer) and had a chronological list of submissions. I also found the old way to submit these (a from and uploading pics) was easier/better.

But, going to the Armorama home page (which I don’t usually go to) shows most of this functionality is still there. I guess it is how they display when you go to Forums that is the issue for me.

Now, you can see all the latest Kitmaker Forum topics mixed together as opposed to being segregated by site (Armorama, Aeroscale, etc…). I think this is better, but don’t like the Site Content forum and how it shows or displays the topics. It seems more intuitive that people would see them more if they were placed into the forums the subject is talking about (Armor, Rotary Wing, etc.). I for one don’t usually look at the Site Content forum. I only see the Reviews or other Site Content topics when I click on the Scale Modeling Forums overview tab and see them listed there. However, many of them I do not click on because of the convoluted titles that they are usually listed as. Also, the News, Reviews, Features tabs are no longer there when you go to the Forums. Maybe still having these tabs would make them more accessible and noticeable, thus driving more content.

I guess I just think it would be better to put reviews, features, or news on tanks, AFVs, etc. in the Armor/AFV forums. Reviews, features, or news on airplanes, helicopters, etc. in the Aeroscale forums, and so on and so on.

Just my 2 cents.

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Additionally, it is not intuitive how to submit news, a feature or a review now.

Case in point:

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Gino,
This is obviously a fundamental issue, but from the increased posts we have seen in all the forums since removing the content posts, it’s basically not going to go back to the old way of doing things. For Armorama is wasn’t as big of an issue, but for the other sites, the content posts were 90% of the topics. Now if you look at most of the forums like Aircraft, Ships, and Automotive the level of new topics and active posts is much higher.

I am still fairly convinced we need content to drive people to the content sites, and conversations to make people use the forums. It’s just the way the internet seems to work. I don’t make the rules. :smiley:

Cheers,
Jim

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I think Gino has a very valid point about how to submit content. The process seems convoluted compared to how it used to be.

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I would contend that it has nothing to do w/the content posts removals/regrouping but more to do with people becoming comfortable w/the new site and using it more.

You do make the rules here as far as how the site looks and works.

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That might have been true for the old sites, because I wrote most of that code myself. Not so with the new forums and the new content sites. I have to work with what we have available for the most part in terms of how those are structured and written. I can make some minor changes to the content sites, but other than settings changes for the forum I have zero impact on how it functions.

That wasn’t the point I was trying to make however. If people want to use the forums as the primary means to finding content, they CAN do that, but that is not going to give them the best means of finding content on the various sites. That is true for this forum and it was definitely true for the old forums as well. You might not remember this but I had ‘site content’ posts turned off from displaying on the Latest Posts page because of this exact same issue. You had to re-enable that feature to get them to show up. Of course here they are showing up on the Latest main page, but not in the individual Armor, Aircraft, Ships, etc discussion groups because they have been segregated off. And that is why.

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Jim,

The old site had a recent set of documents on how to submit content and how to write a review. I haven’t found that with the new site. I have done a couple of reviews on the new site; but, had to figure out how to do that by trial and error. A how-to would help.

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https://forums.kitmaker.net/t/tutorial-videos-on-adding-content-to-new-sites/4393/5

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Hi Jim,

It seems like you’re worried that you can’t give the Kitmaker Network (KMN from now on so I don’t have to keep typing it) the time it needs and that it’s going to slowly die as a result.

Here’s a view from a frequent ‘lurker’ and sometime contributor on the Forums. First, I should say that I don’t use Facebook, so the impact it has on web-sites isn’t something I can help to understand. Maybe I’m missing out.

I love KMN and I come here almost everyday. I like the format, the combination of reviews, builds news and chat. I don’t get that mix from any other place and it keeps me going back.

Now, I’m going to say something that might feel challenging and possibly even make you angry Jim. As the KMN owner, if you don’t think it is worth as much time as other things in your life, then it’s not a great signal or motivator to me, at least. I think we need your energy and time, even as we do more. We need you Jim!

Having said that, and worried about the reaction, I’m going to offer some ideas, if I haven’t lost you already.

Idea 1. Invite more reviews of kits. I’m not sure how reviews are handled or who decides which people can submit a review. Each of us is constantly doing our own internal reviews of kits that we’re building or have in our stash, so perhaps with some guidance from KMN and a big open invitation you’d get a lot of content.

Idea 2. Build the community. I don’t know how KMN gets promoted or finds new ‘members’ but more traffic increases the chance that people will contribute. I do realise this is chicken and egg - more content gets and retains more people, and more people could mean more content. And, it means time.

Idea 3. Give us more reason to share. Could it be incentivised with give-aways, prizes, features or other things? We have all sorts of motivations for posting, from wanting to show off our work (perfectly legitimately) to seeking help to starting a conversation and even letting off steam when things go wrong. Posting takes time and effort, even when it’s fun. All that’s intrinsic, but could KMN raise the stakes and add to the rewards?

Finally, idea 4, is not really an idea, it’s more of a promise from me to try and keep posting even when it feels like a bit of a mountain to climb, because as you’ve experienced, life is full!

I hope that helps and maybe sparks some new ideas too.

With best wishes,

Steve.

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About Facebook: On the old site I once wrote something along the lines of: “I do not understand why every page of Kitmaker refers to Facebook; Facebook is not your friend, its the competition”. Kitmaker, with its large userbase, has contributed a lot to people moving to Facebook for modelling discussions. In fact, and perhaps a bit exagerated, Kitmaker itself showed the way.

A unique Kitmaker URL (You get such URL for as long as you contribute two articles a year?) for every user where the friends/fans… could find all the content made by that user on kitmaker could perhaps get some of that user base back to kitmaker.

About producing reviews/content: I made in total 20 contributions to Kitmaker on the old site. That is not many compared to some here. Half of these features/reviews were my own kits, half were of books/kits that i sometimes was not particularly interested in, but I reviewed because it seemed to be a problem for the site to find another interested reviewer. I stopped contributing because a staff member was of the opinion that i was a profiteer because I did not want to pay for receiving a kit to review.

There is a ton of content on the old sites that is still 100% valid for the new site, and is fairly hidden under the “archived site button”. I wonder how many people ever look under the “archived site” to find content"?

I find it a bit dissapointing that all that work is “archived”. This is not a criticism to the new Kitmaker technical infrastructure, which is much better than the old buggy site, but the content of the old site wasn’t buggy and it would be very valuable for the site to merge the old content into the new site and gradually delete the archive.

That being said, the features/pictures on the new site are of supurb quality, I can’t match that making me hesitant to write a feature.

In addition, there was a time when I really felt a connection to Aeroscale and the staff there. Tedmamere, Steffen, Merlin, Jessy, mother … never met them and still, they appeared to be real life friends and I miss them, I really do. Saying this I don’t criticise any current staff members, it is just that somewhere the connection got lost and that is partly my fault as well.

Two different logins, one for forums and one for the rest doesn’t help, having a common user account would be a lot better to create a “belonging” to the whole site.

A “kitmaker academy” would be nice. A part of the site reserved for articles on modelling techniques, tools… The old (and new) forums contain tons of tips that could be the basis of many “how to” articles.

With the new site, many things seem to have stopped (or I am not aware how it continued); no more lists of kits for review, the Youtube channel seems to have died, …

Finally, any company/club/band… needs a driving force. Leaving the site alone (all respect for life intervening, of course) for 5 months ain’t the best of situations.

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In order to submit something for publication go to the specified site the item belongs on and at the top of the page select create. You then add your text and images, unfortunately you can only add 1 image at a time which is a little painful. then the editors can see it and do any needed final touches before making it live.
I hope that helps.

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Thanks for your comments, Jim should be able to reply with more details but meanwhile, I am afraid that there are a lot of technical issues for implementing some of your suggestions. It is not possible to automatically migrate old content to new site, you have to re-create it which, as you can imagine is a really huge work.
Forums and main site are different systems, hence the different logins. Unless you are creating content, you should not need an account -or login, for the case.

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Is it only my perception or does the message “you do not need an account unless when you create content” really sound like “accounts are mainly for staff”?

and yes, it would take work to migrate content (I am really not convinced that a lot of this work can’t be automated). It was also a lot of work to create all that content. Further, content does not get outdated considering the huge market in “second hand” kits, and maybe some of those old content providers could be prepared to help out?

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Not my intention, but apart from adding content on the main site, having an account does not have any other use there… Unlike the forums, where you can post, reply, send a message, etc.