Aaron
Senior Member
This may come off the wrong way, but why isn't every matching rifle that is posted added to the picture reference?
I think the biggest argument against it will be that it will clutter the reference section, but frankly the way it is itemized is as efficient as you can get. Simply using ctrl+F will give you access to whatever information you desire.
Another argument against it is the time and labor needed to accomplish this, I cannot speak to what process is needed for an admin to sticky a thread, but matching examples are posted so few and far between these days that I think it would be very easy to keep up with the ones posted.
Another argument against it would be that there is no way to control consistency in photos. This could be remedied by creating a template post and simply pinning it to the top of the forum where everyone would be able to take pictures in the correct orientation, order, and quantity.
I think the greatest benefit to this would to remedy the biggest crutch this forum has: being unable to search 3 letter codes. As we all know there is a character limit to search, and it conveniently is the same number of characters needed to find German 3-digit/letter codes. By pinning every matching example in the future, it would be far easier to begin your search in the reference thread.
Another issue is when trying to do a "case study" of say, a certain year or serial range, one has to find every thread in the forum with the search function (many of which you will miss due to keywords) before they can begin their comparison, which often means trying to find posts that are now a decade old.
Finally, I think the reference thread over the years has not been maintained as well as it could be (no offense to our great staff here who work completely free, for their passion in the hobby). There are stickies that contain very few or very poor pictures from the beginning of the forum days, and excellent examples with better pictures have been posted since then that should have supplemented or outright replaced these old pins. There are also plenty of rifles that could fill letter block gaps and many unique examples that for some reason or another, have not been pinned.
Just some thoughts on my lunchbreak, look forward to a productive discussion.
Edit: I'm not asking for increased permissions, but I'd happily put my money where my mouth is and contribute man hours into searching for rifles and helping update the reference thread.
I think the biggest argument against it will be that it will clutter the reference section, but frankly the way it is itemized is as efficient as you can get. Simply using ctrl+F will give you access to whatever information you desire.
Another argument against it is the time and labor needed to accomplish this, I cannot speak to what process is needed for an admin to sticky a thread, but matching examples are posted so few and far between these days that I think it would be very easy to keep up with the ones posted.
Another argument against it would be that there is no way to control consistency in photos. This could be remedied by creating a template post and simply pinning it to the top of the forum where everyone would be able to take pictures in the correct orientation, order, and quantity.
I think the greatest benefit to this would to remedy the biggest crutch this forum has: being unable to search 3 letter codes. As we all know there is a character limit to search, and it conveniently is the same number of characters needed to find German 3-digit/letter codes. By pinning every matching example in the future, it would be far easier to begin your search in the reference thread.
Another issue is when trying to do a "case study" of say, a certain year or serial range, one has to find every thread in the forum with the search function (many of which you will miss due to keywords) before they can begin their comparison, which often means trying to find posts that are now a decade old.
Finally, I think the reference thread over the years has not been maintained as well as it could be (no offense to our great staff here who work completely free, for their passion in the hobby). There are stickies that contain very few or very poor pictures from the beginning of the forum days, and excellent examples with better pictures have been posted since then that should have supplemented or outright replaced these old pins. There are also plenty of rifles that could fill letter block gaps and many unique examples that for some reason or another, have not been pinned.
Just some thoughts on my lunchbreak, look forward to a productive discussion.
Edit: I'm not asking for increased permissions, but I'd happily put my money where my mouth is and contribute man hours into searching for rifles and helping update the reference thread.
