SpudFiles

MrCrowley and I, along with a few others, are volunteering to compile a new FAQ page.

We'll be copy-and-pasting a lot of information from other parts of the Wiki, from the How-To section, and from other spudgun related websites (and crediting the author, and linking, when we copy from other sites, to keep everyone happy about copyright issues).

The objective of this new FAQ is to reduce the number of posts about very basic questions. We see at least 10 threads a week (in all reality, probably more...) of people posting simple questions that could have been answered with 5 minutes of searching. This FAQ will help to eliminate these posts and educate the forum n00bies.

Here's the current list of things we want to gather info on, or write info about.

Combustion How-To's:

Chamber Fans:
Installing Chamber Fans
What type of fans to use
Wiring up chamber fans

Propane/MAPP Metered Setup:
Making a metered setup(how to calculate volume,materials needed etc)
Installing a metered setup
MAPP or Propane?

Fuel:
Best fuel to use
Cheap aerosol's/good aerosol's to use
fuel injections(Different methods of fueling your chamber)
How much fuel to use

Barrels:
How long(C:B ratio's)
What diameter
Sharpening barrel tip(beveling?)
Ammo
Inter-changeable barrels
Breech loading

Chambers:
How long(C:B ratio's)
Diameter
Venting Methods(ball valves,clean out caps, latke style etc)
Installing fittings and placement(install fittings over two layers of pipe etc)

Igniting
Different igniters and methods
Placement
Best igniters
Installing
Making..

Handles and Grips:
Making a handle/grip
Placement
Diferent styles of handles/grips
Wiring electronics in handles/grips
Installing

Building & Materials:
What different kinds of pipe can you use
Identifying Pressure Rated Components
Solvent Welding and Priming
Building a basic combustion
Building a advance combustion

Troubleshooting:
My cannon isn't firing
My cannon is leaking
My igniter doesn't work
Spud only traveling XX Yards/Meters
Cleaning your cannon(gummy residue)
Pipe/fittings failing

Calculating distance/velocity:
EVBEC(sp?) & how to use it

Thats all we've got for combustions.

There will also need to be a section on pneumatics, and a section for hybrids. A separate section for bbmgs/strafers might be appropriate, too.

Here are some ideas we have for pneumatics:

How-to:
test for leaks
sharpen your barrel tip
setup CO2/HPA
solvent weld
mod a solenoid/sprinkler valve
make a piston(how they work as well)
make a diaphragm
vent your piston/diaphragm
inter-changeable barrels
charging your chamber with compressed air(pumps and what not)
buying pressure rated components
storing your gun safely(not outside/dont fire in snow etc)
build a basic pneumatic
build a advanced pneumatic
use GGDT
solder copper
installing fittings and guages
sealing threads
stop leaks(JB weld etc)

Obviously, this is a very rough draft of the list. This will be a big project and probably won't get done very quickly, but as I said, a lot of the information is already out there and just needs to be found and copied.

I'm asking all of you for input on what should go on this FAQ. Also, if anyone wants to volunteer to help gather information and/or write it, please let me know.

We'll be setting this up as a page in the Wiki. It will be stickied to all of the forum pages and linked to at the top of the page.

Thanks for your help, everybody!

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

Back in the day when everyone had low post counts, answering noobie questions was fine with me. It gave me a chance to provide some information, and all I really cared about during that time was contributing to the forum.

As of now however, the noob questions have really started to get to me. I see incoherent questions with simple answers too them... and often times the same question will be posted within the same week. There is no way to battle this off; no one who posts such a simple question is going to check the wiki, archives, or FAQ; its just not going to happen. Another problem is that other members who don't have any idea about the subject (not that this is necessarily a bad thing; everyone needs to learn at some point) will just post a wrong answer in an earnest attempt to be helpful. While it is done with good intentions, it really just exacerbates the issue, because it will undoubtedly cause more controversy and arguments in that thread.

Sorry if this post is a little offtopic; I do think that creating a new FAQ will be helpful, but more towards the members who have been here a few weeks and know how the forums operate. They will be more likely to check the FAQ's and wiki, while someone who "desperately needs to know how to fix this leak" will not.

I have actually considering writing a couple of paragraphs about my answers to common questions, such as how to fix a leak, why a piston valve isn't working, why my combustion isn't firing, etc. It would be pretty long, but it wouldn't be in question and answer format; I would just be writing a couple of paragraphs filled with random information.

Sorry for the randomness, and sorry if I offended anyone. I'm just in a ranting kind of mood today

I know that most of the people that would ask such stupid questions are also the type of people that would not check the wiki or FAQ.

However, when such a person asks a question like that, a mod (or even a member) could simply reply with a link to the FAQ and then the thread could be locked. It would, at the very least keep the forum cleaner.

I hope it will also be a significant contribution to the spudgun community. Such a page would be a wonderful introduction to spudguns to those that aren't familiar with the concepts.

Feel free to write a blurb to contribute. I'll try to get the Wiki page setup in the next day or two.

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

yup, thats two rants in as many minutes.

actually, i say its a pretty good idea. ide say that we just get a topic going where people can list simple questions that always pop up, to give us some sort of basis to go off of.

....or maybe give a member a little tick mark thing, and whenever a nooby question is asked they get one taken away! lol

EDIT: got down to the bold part. ide be willing to help write something up, or gather info. and ide actually capitalize my writing

*bump*

OK, so I've been gathering information from other sites (using a lot of stuff from AdvancedSpuds and BurntLatke, and crediting the author whenever I copy and paste) and starting to update/rework a few of the Wiki pages. It goes a bit faster than I thought it would.

Anyone have anything to add to our list above?

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

This will help also maybe haveing a pop up when a new member first logs on. this may help them know there are toehr alternatives to makeing these un needed threads.

I'd be happy to help with the reserch but when it comes to righting its like pulling teeth for me.

@Pyro,

Actually, one thing that needs a lot of work, but is very easy to do, is that our Wiki has very few images in it. If you want to browse through the Wiki, find a page that needs some illustrations/pictures/diagrams, find one, and send it to me, I'll upload it to the wiki That'd be really helpful and shouldn't take much time/work.

You don't have to do it if you don't want to, but I'm just suggesting something that wouldn't take any writing...

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

Mabee you could do somthing on posting guns i.e. how to compress photos and the like?

I think that a list of various calculators could be very helpful (i.e. FuelTool, RatCalc, SpudTool, etc.)

Having all these in one place could be very helpful to a first-time builder and an experienced builder.

I entirely agree with rmich on his views. I say that we not only have the FAQ in big bold letters on the front, but also have a way that if a noob question is asked, the link to the post is changed to a link to the FAQ, and the link will stay up for a day or two and then be deleted. This way, the person asking will be instantly be redirected to the FAQ, but the post will be deleted soon, removing some of the clutter (do we have clutter, I don't know)

Also, in the FAQ, I would include the videos from BCVids. It would be best if they were imbedded instead of linked.

Furthermore, feel free to use stuff off my site. It doesn't really contain How-to's, but I may include it. It also contains the history (under construction) for whoever wanted to know. If anyone has suggestions for my site, please PM me (everyone please forgive me for advertising my site here)

Potato Ballistics

@turbohacker,
That will go in the "forum how-to section", not really this new FAQ (which is more like "spudguns for n00bs"), but it's a good idea none the less. I'll try to get around to that.

@frocksie,
Also a good idea. Want to gather up a link to all the calculators, and I'll stick them in a page?

@mega_swordman,
I agree with you 100%. I'll see if PCguy can setup something like that, but I don't know if phBB is that customizable or not. We'll see.
I will use some stuff from your site, thanks.

Anyone else have anything to add to our list?

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

Pete Zaria,
I sent you a PM with the links.


The ones I included were:
RatCalc
FuelTool
SpudTool
EVBEC
GGDT


Can anyone think of any that I may be missing?

The Wikipedia spudgun entry?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun

It's not a bad article these days...

Ill do it pete.

also no one responded to the pop up idea any thoughts?

but also have a way that if a noob question is asked, the link to the post is changed to a link to the FAQ, and the link will stay up for a day or two and then be deleted. This way, the person asking will be instantly be redirected to the FAQ, but the post will be deleted soon, removing some of the clutter (do we have clutter, I don't know)

Issue with that is 1 what gets determinted as a "noob question". Say a "noob" asks a question, a reply is made with a link to the FAQ, then they have another similar question that isn't covered in the FAQ? Then they make another topic, making more of a mess.

No posts should be locked after answered for this reason. I'd say about 80% of the time someone will have another very similar question that isn't in the FAQ.

This will help also maybe haveing a pop up when a new member first logs on. this may help them know there are toehr alternatives to makeing these un needed threads.

Right now a PM is sent to every new user welcoming them. Info about the FAQ can be added to that. The FAQ link on top of the forum can also link to the FAQ page.

In case anyone was wondering, as stated before to the mods the FAQ should be a Wiki page compiled of links. In fact the entire Wiki is supposed to be a "spudding handbook" but a "Common Questions FAQ" section is what is needed. This way anyone can work on the FAQ at any time. The FAQ should be nothing more than a page of categorized links, linking to other Wiki pages, SpudFiles threads, program downloads, etc. Actual new content for the FAQ should be made on a new Wiki page, then linked to via the Wiki.

One thing everyone must keep in mind is that linking to information on other websites can be dangerous. One of the original reason SpudFiles was started years and years ago is because people would post pictures and information of an awesome cannon, then their hosting would expire or their images would be taken down or whatever... the information was unreliable because it could all vanish at any time for any reason. Due to this I got permission to post cannons on my website that other people built (I actually used to do all of the pictures myself, write everything about the cannon, etc). To this day, all of the very old cannons that I wrote about are still here in the Showcase section with their original images.

If information/pictures can be pulled from their original website (with permission from the site creator) then do so and put it in the Wiki... otherwise just link to the pages. I know that Latke's information is not to be posted here on SpudFiles, only linked to so don't bother trying to get a hold of him.