new thread
I have a suggestion for the hyperboard board to consider.
Could we start a new permanent thread that organizes itself by subject line, alphabetically? This thread would be labeled “Hair Product Info”. Inside this root thread we could have two (or possibly more) threads. The first thread would be labeled “Organized by Product Type” and the second would be labeled “Organized by Hair & Routine Type”.
Posts in the Product area would, in their subject line, list the product brand name and product name, such as: “LUSH: SOLID SHAMPOO: NEW”. Non-brand named products could be listed as “JOJOBA OIL”, “HAIR CUFFS” or “HENNA”. Then the message would give information about their hair type (ie: wavy and oily) and routine (ie: shampoo daily) and a critique of their product experience.
Posts in the Contributor area would, in their subject line, list the contributor hair type, and product brand and name like: “HAIR 5-6/ROUTINE 10: LUSH: NEW ”. Then the message would give information about their routine and a critique of their product experience.
Standards for hair typing would have to be set. Perhaps we could use some form of rating system to list hair types: “Oily 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, or, Curl 6, etc”. And standards for routine typing would have to be set: “Routine 10 means I'm excessive in my routine: washing daily with shampoo, etc.”
The point of the new permanent thread would be a “Database” from which we can look up information about products to see how others with similar hair types have experienced the product. So, if you run across an experience that was really bad for you (made my hair fall out!) or really good for you (my hair felt like spun silk) you can list the product for others to view. Viewers might have heard that Lush: New was really good for your hair, but want to find out if it’s good for Oily 1/Routine 2 hair. They can look it up by product or by hair type to find out.
What do you guys think? Any suggestions to add to or take from the idea?
Banana
Seems like a logistic nightmare if you understand the architecture of the site...which I do not fully. The Hyperboard is very simple in construction and that is why it works so well. Pretty much the best solution would be for someone to construct a site like that and have the Hyperboard provide a link to it via the links page.
If you yourself know how to make it work within the framework of the site without messing up the site, contact the tech people. Perhaps they might know how to do it as well and perhaps they can have you write code for them to insert. Or something.
But pretty much this site might be too simple (in a good way) for your idea.
Ideally, Mr. Banana, it's sounds like a good proposal, but Antesse's comprehension (and, maaaaan, have ya gotta lotta THAT, Doctor!) would render it redundant.
We oughta keep it simple. But here's a repeat posted pic fr. a couple of mos. ago. An all-natural boar's bristles brush and a generous supply of Mane 'n Tail shampoo AND conditioner always seems to do the trick for MY longer-haired tresses.
Yours in longhaired maintenance camaraderie,
Quenyan
P.S. ~ Oh, Antesse, your literarys style reminds me of a hybrid of Robert Graves, C.S. Lewis, as well as the poet Walter de la Marr, if comparisons to your excellent gift are warranted.
Yeah, Banana, here's the pic I hadda go diggin' for. When're they gonna have Tee-shirts? Mr. Bubbles does.
~ Quenyan
I say if it isnt broke, dont fix it.
peace
clayton
Not a bad idea as we get a lot of questions concerning products and care, however echoing what Antesse said it may be difficult. As much tech knowledge as I have I couldn't really say it's doable that would be Bills area. I'm not familliar with the finer workings of the site yet and it's different than another board I worked on
ages ago.
Also we have to consider user sentiment, is there a demand for it.
I do want to say thank you for the suggestion and urge you and anyone who has ideas to please do let us know. Although we may not make changes in every case you never know.
Kevin
The problem with what you suggest is that the board is inhabited by humans, and it is human nature to change the topic of conversation or to talk about two or more things at once. The reason for our having all of the threads together and allowing them to go several levels deep is to accommodate just what I said.
A guide to hair care products would be best organized by someone who serves as editor. The editor would sort all of the input to prevent the mixing of it as described in my paragraph above. He could invite his readers to e-mail him with any comments, and he could work them into his updates.
This would be best done on his own web site and we'd then provide a link, as we have done with the other information pages. You have an interest in this, so of course, you could volunteer!
Bill
Not your ordinary socialist, I think it would be desirable to extract a fee to support our board from mnufacturors of products which are endorsed by participants in the Board. The Job of coordinating and marketing this, I do not want, but isn't there a possibility of simultaneously collecting product evaluation data and getting some revenue from it as well?
Cal
Becoming a commercial site, instead of our present situation as the site of a not-for-profit association, opens a very large can of worms. The legal and taxation obligations of the two are very different, and in every case they are far more complex for a commercial site. Users chip in enough now to keep the site going on a not-for-profit basis, so we don't need the money, and the first question many would ask is, "Why bother?" The second question if gotten past the first would be, "Who wants to do all this work?" Looks like YOU don't want to! [grin]
Also, the minute we'd start slapping ads for hair products on the site, many would rightfully question whether they were getting unbiased information here. That, I don't think any of us want.
Bill
Bill, You convinced me to stay non commercial, and out of gratitude I have made several significant contributions to the Board. Thanks for what you have accomplished.
Cal
I brought this up some time ago. But we could possibly compile a list of links on some mlhh.org page. So, instead of going to "Links" or "FAQ" you could go to a new page "Products" which would have a list of links to sites like LongLocks and Mystic Caravan and Tail Cuffs and Lush and Herbal Essences. This could be under "Links" or possibly as another link on the main page along with the links at the top (or across from the gift shop link). This may be doable but would still be rough in form and without fancy self-organization. Of course, I still do not know. Perhaps we can discuss the possibility with the tech guys.
In theory, I agree you have a good idea there. In practice, however, I got exhausted just reading and thinking about all the work hours that would be involved in order to accomplish half of what you said.
I admit it: I am a lazy bum. Any work I don't have to do, I gladly DON'T! Fortunately, I do not have one iota of computer-smarts (as I see my other fellow moderators gladly nodding their head yes - lol), --- so, I can legitimately plead, "too much blonde ditziness" to take on a volunteer project like that (unless someone wants to pay me big $$$$... in which case, they'll find out they made a BIG mistake - lol)....
I don't want to squash (zucchini?) your enthusiasm; BUT....
This is not the first time we've gotten Hyperboard suggestions that basically *sound* really cool... only to end up adding a HUGE new workload onto the shoulders of the MLHH Tech Crew and/or the Moderators (who already put in plenty of volunteer hours here as is). I see one way and one way *only* for you to have your suggestion here fulfilled, and that is: go ahead and pursue this idea yourself!!!
Respectfully Submitted,
Ken
Indeed, we have a links page because Jason felt we needed one, so we said, "Go for it!" We have T-shirts because Ladworth felt we needed them and was willing to do the work. We have pages on how to tie bandannas and lots of other stuff linked on Jason's links page, and everything listed there exists because some one was willing to do the work.
Serious information will be pretty useless if it is thrown together by a crowd while not under the caring hand of an editor. An editor verifies the truth of the material, organizes it, removes redundant pieces of it, and discards mostly irrelevant chunks of it, all so its readers can get to the meat of the information they are seeking. If we just rely on the creation of material by committee, you will get something like this board, and you started this thread for the very reason that you felt that approach was not working.
The "web board environment" is great for getting support and for getting quick answers to problems. It also is great for building community. It is not the best format for assembling substantial information in an easy-to-use format. You'll need to crank out some serious prose, dude.
The Internet is a give-and-take hobby - we are all free to read the web pages of others, and we are all free to give back to the community by making pages of our own. If you feel there is a need, as we've said to others, "Go for it!"
Bill
I'm hoping to write some "Glossary Software" with a few of creating an on-line reference for Web Hosting Terms. There are other such resources out there, but I figured it would be a good way to generate new visitors to my web site by increasing the range of my content on my business site.
There is no reason why such software, can't be used for just about anything with an alphabetical listing. Drop me a line, I'd be happy to discuss the requirements.
Banana, one resource you might find helpful is The Long Hair Community's product review board. They have a large number of participants who like to fiddle with many hair products. Members often include hairtype information on display with their name so you can pay attention to reviews by people with similar hair.
Elizabeth
The problem with such a list is that each person's hair can be different and will react differently to different products...not to mention other differences in hair care routines and how hair can react differently to different products as it increases in length (whew!). Much of it would be opinion and may not work well for some or many.
This is why we tell people that they have to just try various products in their long term hair journey to find what works best for them. We can give some suggestions along with knowledge about some of the products that we've picked up over time but it's really not that mysterious.