It may of course be a silly idea, but I
I think its a great idea and could could end a great year for the Society on a high note.
I dont know about the publishing medium you mention but self-publishing is more practical now than it has ever been. I would love to add a chapter (or paragraphs) about HOn30 and items built from S ales Stand purchases and would be prepared to part sponsor such a book if some of the more prolific contributors on our forum would participate
Next year could be even more noteworthy for 009 if promised rtr arrives and Minitrains seems to be making a determined effort as well, not to mention 3D printing
A modern well-produced and realistically priced book could be a winner for us
Peter Smith
Splendid stuff but................................ who is going to do it?
Once that part is sorted, then the volunteer/s need to submit the proposal to the committee via the Secretary.
Good ideas should always be considered seriously - which is simply my view as a fellow member. As this sort of thing regarding producing Society publications/handbooks has been a need for years and has been often discussed then I can't imagine that, if the idea is practical and workable and there is someone willing to put in the time and effort to coordinate it, then there would be any reason to dismiss it out of hand.
I hope it goes well!
Mick
A superb idea indeed. I've got a previous 009 Society Handbook, but an update would be great.
A few years ago I posted a question to the secretary as to the possibility of back issues being made available on CD's or PDFs. Nothing came of it as there were a few issues over the copyright of article contributors. Hopefully your idea is acted on - I vaguely remember hearing an updated copy was in the pipeline ?
Len
Work is in progress for an updated Handbook, a more definitive announcement will be made in due course, probably at the 2014 AGM.
Garry
My brother-in-law has his own publishing business and is a P/D. The two big advantages are that he doesn't have his garage full of boxes of books waiting to be bought (hopefully), and, even more importantly, he doesn't have to spend money printing books which may never be bought, i.e. money doesn't need to be tied up in stock - he prints on demand. So potentially ideal for a small concern like the Society.
David.
Quote from: garrywhiting on November 20, 2013, 10:09
Work is in progress for an updated Handbook, a more definitive announcement will be made in due course, probably at the 2014 AGM.
Garry
Garry, that's good news, I wasn't intending to step on anyone's toes by raising this - I hope some of the points on this thread will be of interest/use to those involved in the update.
Paul
The subject of a handbook came up again recently on the 'This Forum' thread.
I suggested "the best format / forum / platform for a 'handbook' would be an interactive Wiki approach" and offered to help.
Chris Ford kindly noted my offer and very very wisely suggested we move the subject somewhere else if the subject were to be discussed further. Therefore....
Would anybody else like to chip in with thoughts? Are any old editions of the hard copy available? What do people think of the idea of a Wiki that we can all contribute to and improve? (Note this would not preclude periodic outputs to a static .pdf or paper edition that could be sold to people who preferred it.)
Here is an example of the kind of thing I mean:
https://dccwiki.com/Introduction_to_DCC
I'd be very keen to hear what people think.
Tom
I'm not sure The Society would buy into a 'free to edit' platform. The possibility of abuse and litigation would be too high. However the basic idea is sound. Who would the long term maintenance fall to though?
The opening post here mentions print on demand. My money is still on a dual paper/online pdf format that could be updated at regular periods. After all the last update was 1989 so this is obviously flexible.
I have a second edition dated 2000, which I guess may be the latest one printed?
Oh you're the one!
No, my notion is not like Kindle (Amazon's electronic book devices and software); it is much more like Wikipedia ("The encyclopedia that anybody can edit").
I am proposing that any interested society members write, edit, and improve an on-line public encyclopedia of OO9. While there would be a coordination role the main added value would come from whoever wanted to contribute.
It could start off with pasted articles from earlier handbook editions. Then any member could make updates. Then imagine, for instance, it had no article on 'Turntables in OO9'. Whoever was interested could start one. Somebody else could expand it, and then somebody else would make a small correction, and so on. It would grow as quickly or as slowly as those who were tempted to edit wanted.
I don't know who runs the DCC Wiki (https://dccwiki.com/Introduction_to_DCC) but it works the way I'm trying to describe.
Perhaps I over-emphasized the bit about publishing to .pdf and so on. That was to indicate that it was a possible output, but the main value would be the dynamic online version.
The actual web platform would be any of several free thingys that exist.
Quote from: Tom Haythornthwaite on October 30, 2018, 18:50
No, my notion is not like Kindle (Amazon's electronic book devices and software); it is much more like Wikipedia ("The encyclopedia that anybody can edit").
I am proposing that any interested society members write, edit, and improve an on-line public encyclopedia of OO9. While there would be a coordination role the main added value would come from whoever wanted to contribute.
It could start off with pasted articles from earlier handbook editions. Then any member could make updates. Then imagine, for instance, it had no article on 'Turntables in OO9'. Whoever was interested could start one. Somebody else could expand it, and then somebody else would make a small correction, and so on. It would grow as quickly or as slowly as those who were tempted to edit wanted.
I don't know who runs the DCC Wiki (https://dccwiki.com/Introduction_to_DCC) but it works the way I'm trying to describe.
Perhaps I over-emphasized the bit about publishing to .pdf and so on. That was to indicate that it was a possible output, but the main value would be the dynamic online version.
The actual web platform would be any of several free thingys that exist.
I like your idea Tom.
I'm quite a fan of Wikipedia and have a vague idea how it works. How useful any article is depends, presumably, on the motivation of people with knowledge to actually post a contribution. Whether people are keen to show off their erudition or just feel they have something useful to contribute probably doesn't matter. What I'm less clear about is what happens when there is a difference of opinion on a topic, e.g. someone says "A. Hitler was a homicidal maniac who ran his country into the ground" only for some neo-Nazi to post "Herr Hitler was an inspirational and much misunderstood leader who very nearly founded a magnificent thousand year Reich". Maybe both views are allowed to stand side by side? Who makes the call?
Hopefully the sort of factual material which a (new) Handbook would contain would not throw up major differences of opinion like that. (We may sometimes - mildly, of course! - disagree here on the forum about some things but hopefully not about static grass and the like.)
Whether it's a document put together by a group of individuals or a wiki-style resource I presume it would still need someone to at least put together a structure - topic headings and the like - under which articles can be contributed. In other words, an 'editor' of some kind would be required either way.
David.
P.S. Maybe this thread could helpfully be renamed now - something like 'The Society Handbook' - to make its content more obvious (is Paul C, as the initiator, the only person able to do this?)
Thanks George!
And thanks, 'Clayliner'. I think Wikipedia has methods of editors voting out troublemakers but the main principle is that anybody can edit and sensible perspectives tend to win.
I hope and believe it wouldn't come to that for us.
I suppose if somebody wrote that "DCC is the only proper means of control" somebody else might respond with "No, DC is" but at the end of the day we would probably be able to read "DCC and DC are control systems that both have adherents and successes, and advantages and disadvantages" or summit like that.
By the way - I just saw some interesting and completely non-OO9-related trivia: Adolph Hitler was born four days after Charlie Chaplin.
Wow! Just noticed that my thread has been unearthed.
Things have moved on a lot since I posted this. I wonder whether we need to re-consider what we want a handbook to achieve or even whether it is a handbook as such.
An on line resource, available to members and covering various aspects of the hobby - topics like: turntables, DCC, coupling systems, etc. would be a useful resource for members and a wiki (subject to all the caveats about wikis) may be the way forward. This would probably reflect the original purpose of the old handbook (?)
What about the
I'd like to offer my services to help with whatever approach, if any, the society chooses.