Volunteers needed.

Money~Bunny_3

Mods: feel free to move/save this elsewhere if it's just too huge It's as complete as I can make it.

I hope no-one takes my notes as criticism - I've just been noting down what occurs to me as I assemble a 'Contents Page'.

Based on the Indexed Collections page.

Main
Our Old Style Recipe Collection - Divided into Starters & Soups, Main Courses, Snacks & Cakes & Biscuits
& Nibbles & Preserves, Vegetarian

Our Slow Cooker Recipe Collection - Links to slow-cooker buying advice, & uncategorised list of recipes

Breadmaking - Hints, Tips, and Recipes - Up to Date

Save Zillions on Cleaning - This is similar to the cleaning section on the Mega Index page - merge?

The MEGA Index

'Collections' (unsure why these are boxed off from the above list)
HM gifts & Celebrations - Has links to threads on Homemade Christmas Gifts, DIY gift wrap, Christmas Hamper, Skinflints Christmas challenge, Wedding gift - help?, Household notebook, Fathers day gifts (could add other topics from the Misc section of the Mega Index, e.g. topic on Bonfire Night and from the Craftwork section)

Our Collections ( links to a sub-index with links to 2 threads, one on Practical Shopping Tips Collection, and another long thread on Menu Planning Tips. I'm not sure why these are separated from the other collections)

Organic Threads Collected - these threads are divided into Buying Organic, Growing your own (could be expanded from the section on gardening in the Food section of the Mega Index), Chickens and eggs (ditto)

Hints and Tips Collected - surprisingly short: links to three threads Great ways to cut back hunt, Double Duty, Great Tips - one liners

Old Style Diary Archives - just needs updating by a couple of months, which should be dead easy

* * * * *

The Mega Index

The MEGA INDEX thread - a simple table of contents could be moved to the main Indexed Collections page, so you don't have to follow a link to 'The Mega Index Thread'. At the moment it is split into:

APPLIANCES
Dishwasher
Freezer
Refrigerator
Tumble Dryer
Washing Machine

CLEANING
Too many categories to list - however
This could be divided into
1. ITEMS needing cleaning (fishtank, bedsheets) and
2. CLEANING AGENTS, e.g. Borax, Vinegar, Stardrops, etc, etc
Making it easier to navigate.

COOKING AND RECIPES
I started to make a list, then realised it would be *huge*. I think it could be sub-divided into two or three areas:
1. general advice, containing threads such as Conversions, Cooking for One, Basics, Diet cooking, Buffet Advice, Caravan and Holiday Cookery
etc.
2. Food Threads, containing recipes, 'ingredient' threads, etc.
I think a collection of those general cooking advice threads separate from the Food threads would be hugely helpful.

CRAFTWORK
Christmas
Dressmaking
Knitting
Playdough
Repair
Sewing
Websites
(+ individual threads on a variety of topics)

FOOD:
Main Areas:
Chickens (keeping them)
Food for Free

Grow Your Own and Gardening [subcategory containing the following topics]
Compost
Herbs
Mushrooms
Pests
Potatoes
Tomato
Weedkiller
(+ individual threads on a variety of topics)

FOOD Continued

Hygene and safety [with subtopic Chicken]

Misc Food Topics [with subtopics Beer and Winemaking & Milk]

Storing Food
Organic Box Schemes and Suppliers
Websites

GETTING STARTED
Collection of assorted threads, uncategorised

INSECTS AND OTHER PESTS
Ants
Flies
Mosquitos
Wasps
The Rest

KITCHENWARE
Basic Kitchen Items and How to Use Them
Breadmakers
Discussions (eek! everything's a discussion, really think this should be re-labelled)
Food Processor
Kenwood Chef
Knives
Pressure Cooker
Remoska
Saucepans
Slowcooker
(+ individual threads on a variety of topics)

MAKEUP AND BODY CARE
Bath
Cosmetics
Face
Feet
Hair
Hands
Skin
Teeth
Vinegar
Websites
(+ individual threads on a variety of topics)

MISC TIPS (some of these might be worthy of their own proper section now!)
Barbecue
Birds
Books
Central heating
Clothes
Days Out
Drinks
Getting organised
Laundry
Recycling
Rubber gloves
Shoes
Socks
Students
Tea
Tips (eek as above)
Toilet
Water
(+ individual threads on a variety of topics)

PETS
Dog
Fur
(+ individual threads on a variety of topics)

SHOPPING
Asian supermarkets
BOGOFs and reductions
Budget
Buying in Bulk
Comparison sites
Supermarkets, best buys, own brands
Supermarkets general

squeaky

Wow! Thanks a lot


Edit: Actually, the MEGA Index was intended to gradually incorporate all the earlier collections as I caught up with them, but I'm wa-a-ay behind at the moment.

In a sense that's turned out to be a "good thing" because I've realised that having members maintain collections on our most popular subjects has allowed me to have just a single link to a "Complete Collection of whateveritis".

There's also a slight difference between types of index.

We have four main threads (Breadmaker, Recipes, Slow Cooker, and Cleaning) that aren't collections of threads - they're simply a great long single thread full of individual posts all jumbled up and, because they are difficult to find things in have been indexed as "one off" single thread indexes.

What the "Complete Collections" do is to list that single thread and its index first and then go on to add a list of all the other threads that we have on the same subject.

This seems to work very well and so I'll be looking to help set up newer indexes the same way and also to revamp some of the earlier ones to follow the same general format.

Eventually, when everything is set up and organised - in much the same fashion as you've just listed, we should finish up with a "One Stop Shop" that quickly lists all the main places and subjects that we have on Old Style.

You're right - everything is a bit of a hodgepodge at the moment, and it takes time to go back and rework all these things.

With help from you guys this is all going to go a LOT quicker

Money~Bunny_3

That does make sense now - as I was working through it I wondered what the method(s) were. I'm still up for veggie food organisation, plus (thinking about it) any of the collections of 'Where to Start' posts. I'd enjoy that and learn OS tips as I went along

Edited to say: My preference is for the 'Getting Started' section of the Mega Index. If not, I'll happily do the Vegetarian section of the OS Recipe Collections.

squeaky

Right - as you may have noticed I'm busy compiling the tutorial right now (unlikely to be finished tonight btw) but will sort out the list of authors and indexes in the first post some time tomorrow morning.

I'd suggest that you each pick your "most interesting" subject as a starter and get that one up and running. Once you've got a good idea of how much time that's going to take you, you can then by all means offer to take up a second... and a third... if you wish.

So if you've offered to do more than one already - could you please post which one you'd like to do first.

Oh, and...

Thank you all very much

jessicamb

Hi Squeaky

I'll gladly volunteer to update an index - just let me know which one you want me to do. Something along the lines of make-up/bodycare would be great if thats free

bluemoon_3

I'll volunteer too.

We don't need any specific expertise on the particular subject, right? It will just be collecting and arranging links?

I'm flexible, but to make allocation easier I'll volunteer for 'Buying Organic' (part of the Organic Threads Collection), including box schemes, but not gardening topics.

Do you think the gardening/grow-your-own topics will perhaps require some discussion as to how they should be handled, since there's been a lot of call for a seperate gardening forum recently?

squeaky

jessicamb wrote:

Hi Squeaky

I'll gladly volunteer to update an index - just let me know which one you want me to do. Something along the lines of make-up/bodycare would be great if thats free

Sure

I'll sort out a list tomorrow, thanks.

squeaky

bluemoon wrote:

I'll volunteer too.

We don't need any specific expertise on the particular subject, right? It will just be collecting and arranging links?

I'm flexible, but to make allocation easier I'll volunteer for 'Buying Organic' (part of the Organic Threads Collection), including box schemes, but not gardening topics.

Do you think the gardening/grow-your-own topics will perhaps require some discussion as to how they should be handled, since there's been a lot of call for a seperate gardening forum recently?

No expertise needed - just collecting and arranging links thanks

I'm aiming to hold off on gardening for a while since it's possible that the strong support for a gardening forum might bear some fruit. Or some vegetables

RacyRed

Ooooh!!! Fantastic!

errrrr.... <Racy hangs head in shame and 'fesses up that breadmaker has gotten just the teensiest :whistle: bit behind lately... but I'll catch up>

For anyone wondering, doing the collections isn't at all techie (and once you have the hang of it it is really quite easy. I love working on "breadmaking" it doesn't take long and is one of my favorite forms of relaxation. (Plus it ensures I don't miss any good tips about something I love doing.)

A tip for keeping up to date once you have your collection built.

Create a favorites or bookmark in your browser especially for your collection.

Then as you browse through OS just pop any relevant threads into your folder.

When you want to update your collection you have all or most of the relevant threads all ready and waiting. A quick search usually turns up any that have been missed.

Easy :cool:

Even though I'm a bit behind with "breadmaking" just now, I've loads of threads stashed in my folder ready to be added to the collection. So once I get a bit of "me" time to do the update most of the threads I need are ready and waiting, the job is already half done
I'm sure you will enjoy it once you get started :T

Jill xxx

jcr16

i'd love to help. but not sure if i'd be good enough at doing it. i've read through the begining of this post and it seems really hard to do. is it ?