Amateur Free Reed Instrument Makers Facebook Page

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

Hello

 

After an exchange of ideas between me and Łukasz Martynowicz of this forum we thought it might be good to make a facebook group for amateur concertina makers in the hope that like minded individuals can share ideas, provide helpful feedback, criticisms and advice as well as document and display various projects. We thought that perhaps there were not many amateur concertina makers so I decided to call it the " Amateur free reed instrument makers " group. To attract more people, also it might create interactions, synergy and ideas that might not have happened if it was dedicated only to one free reed instrument.

Although the title is "amateur" professionals are of course more than welcome, anyone with interest is welcome to join really.

 

Want to make your own instrument? Made one and want to talk with like minded people? Come join the group! Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/882333518455395/

Jake

 

Edit: this is now a facebook "group" rather than "page" I have deleted the page, I am new to making this sort of group on facebook and it should work better now.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Jake of Hertford

[RAc]

I'd love to, but I resolved not to participate in Facebook. Wish there was a more decent way to establish information networks.

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

fair enough. I wasn't sure how else to do it short of creating a whole new forum

[Don Taylor]

I agree with Ruediger, I am not interested in using Facebook.

 

Could we use this forum, perhaps with a new sub-forum?

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

we could do but this is a forum for concertinas, I wanted to make a general group about free reeds, however a makers sub forum on this site would also be awesome I agree.

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

though its quite similar to construction and repair - perhaps people working on projects could keep them on construction and repair though also could join the facebook group if they are interested in such a thing.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Jake of Hertford

[alex_holden]

This is great. I have spent quite a while looking for a forum or mailing list along these lines without success. I found a musical instrument maker's forum at http://www.mimf.com/but I didn't join because it seems to be almost entirely about guitars and other string instruments.

 

I would suggest dropping the word 'amateur' from the title because it may discourage pro's from joining and giving us the benefit of their knowledge and experience. (Disclaimer: I'm in the process of learning concertina making in my spare time with the intention of turning professional at some point.)

 

If there was enough interest and people were willing to help out with moderation, I would be willing to host a free reed instrument maker's forum on my web server.

 

There are pros and cons to a Facebook group vs a dedicated forum (I am members of both). The biggest disadvantage of Facebook groups IMHO is that topics quickly disappear from the timeline and are difficult to find again. It's good for chatting but not so good for in-depth discussions that you might want to refer back to in the future. It's also easy to miss things if FB in its infinite wisdom decides not to display a particular post in your timeline. The disadvantages of dedicated forums are the difficulty in attracting new members and the greater administrative overhead.

Edited February 10, 2015 by alex_holden

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

We did discuss setting up a forum though decided to make the group on facebook as it would be quicker to attract new people as you say. A forum could be a slow grower but has the potential to be bigger and better than a fb group. It could be a really great thing.

 

I don't have any knowledge of setting up a website, is it particularly high maintenance or expensive?

[RAc]

<deleted>

Edited August 19, 2016 by RAc

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

 

 

Plus, what more and how much deeper can we get than the most recent excellent discussions on reed physics, by the way?

 

 

Well, this particular discussion, however deep and intensive it is, has very little to do with actual problems arising when building the actual instrument...

 

The "multi instrument" approach which Jake suggested and which is already prooving worthy on the FB group is the main reason why this here forum is not the greatest place for this group's existence. I can remember at least one thread about designing and building a "modern anglo", which was overhelmed by people trying to discourage any modification to traditional Anglo concertina. This, by definition, won't be the case on a forum/group not focused on any single type of free-reed intrument. Similiarly to what you said "I myself don't see attending several forums with roughly the same (or widely overlapping) contents." - so why would a melodeon, bandoneon or accordion maker/player be interested in a concertina forum which even conciders chemnitzer concertinas as "outside of the scope" of this site? And facebook makes it an "automatic" participation for anyone already using this page on a regular basis for whatever purpose they do.

 

[Ken_Coles]

Ruediger sums it up pretty well. Keeping up the software is an appreciable effort at times. I would add the paying for the on-line storage space for the volume of a busy forum is another consideration.

 

Ken

[alex_holden]

I have enough space to host a free reed instrument maker's forum on my web server. As I said I would need help with moderation (including dealing with spammers), and I would only do so if a number of makers were keen to use it. If people are happier sticking with the FB group or existing instrument-specific forums (or mimf.com), that's fine with me.

[Theo]

As one of the two people who run melodeon.net I would say that the main task for the admins is just to keep aware of the discussions as they develop, but you would want to do this anyway. There are steps you can take to deal with spammers, some technical some human. The software we use on melnet is usually straightforward to update, though I do depend on my co-mod for most of the technical stuff. I'm happy to share me experience if you contact me off the forum

Edited February 22, 2016 by Theo

[alex_holden]

Thanks Theo. The mel.net forum does look excellent (the only reason I haven't signed up is because I don't play melodeon! .

[michal anthony]

So I'm new to Concertina.net, having joined only about a week ago, but I tried to join this FB page last weekend and my application is still "pending". Is the fb group still active?

[David Hornett]

Hi Jake,

 

I think this is a great idea,a Facebook forum, but unfortunately I have made a conscious effort to stay away from Facebook. I hope all goes well.

 

What I would really like, given the limited megs for photos on Concertina.net, and the consequent need to move back and forth between this site an a photo hosting site, is a place on Concertina.net where all the good ideas for jigs and tooling and construction methods can be hosted in one place, a bit like clicking on Images in Google. For instance, I may need an idea of how to set up a jig to drill lever holes in buttons, so I enter the photo library and there the different takes on doing this are shown. This would have been of enormous help to me when i was nutting out my jigs.

 

A great idea with Facebook, Jake, and I am certain if will be most helpful to many, irrespective of what type of free reed they pass wind through.

 

David

[Stephen Chambers]

So I'm new to Concertina.net, having joined only about a week ago, but I tried to join this FB page last weekend and my application is still "pending". Is the fb group still active?

 

I'm afraid it seems to be dormant, the last post being one from Brendan Power on 11th August last year, but that could change if somebody started asking questions on it...

[michal anthony]

Stephen, thanks for the feedback. Like David above I try to avoid FB (only look at pictures of our kids that the wife shows me and joined only so that I could join the group in question) which means I'm not really sure how the thing works. Thing is, if my membership to the amateur free wind makers group is still pending I'm not sure how I can post any questions on it to get it up and active again.....