Maintaining coherence of subjects and discussions.

[coastalrocketeer]

I have noticed that many times people ask Karl questions about entirely unrelated ideas, or their questions reading these discussions inspire without regard to maintaining coherence of the subject matter of the commented upon posts.

If your question is inspired during the reading of a thread, but NOT related to the specific type of geopolymer binder or method being discussed IN THAT post you are commenting on, you should consider making that point or asking that question in a thread that DOES discuss that particular subset of geopolymer method or materials, or if none exists that seems suitable in it's subject and/or current direction of discussion, create a new thread to make your point, ask your question, and hopefully at some point share your own experiment's results.

One of the issues with gathering and understanding information on the various types of geopolymers each of us might wish to experiment with, is that discussions get cluttered with unrelated or tangentially related questions and info.

Some of this can be resolved by posters to this section of the forum being aware that there is a need, due to the EXTREMELY broad range of geopolymer source materials and applicable related methods, to maintain coherence of subject matter throughout each post, so that people trying to find info specific to THEIR currently chosen methods and materials can find all related discussion in one, or a few posts, and not spattered throughout the forum.

If it's a clay based geopolymer question, ask in a post about those, or create your own thread.

Same goes for each subset of materials and methods discussed. Zeolite binder, fly ash, ram-mass, additives, etcetera.

If you are trying out a specific combination of materials available to you and want to ask questions specific to your mix design and intended use, DEFINITELY create your own thread as a repository for your learning process, experimentation, developed recipe, and results, that we all may learn with you and from your reported experience.

Some methods are applicable to most or all geopolymer source material subsets and perhaps relevant info should be located in a post entitled "general geopolymer theory and advice" or similar.

I do NOT say this to admonish anyone as I have certainly been guilty in the past of asking my questions wherever I am when they come to me, and I think that this habit has hampered the usefulness of previous geopolymer threads.

Today I asked a set of questions of Karl that came up during reading his and other peoples threads, but I went to my own experiment thread to ask because none of them until they are answered could provide useful information to any one other thread. So I asked them in my thread, and if the answers as Karl provides them are applicable to other posts then I would share the applicable questions and replies to that thread to facilitate and promote sharing of information relevant to specific posts, types of geopolymers, methods, or ideas... And if interesting enough, some might get their own thread for further discussion.

In the furtherance of the promotion of logical coherence, and accessibility of information within this geopolymers section of the forum, and for easier learning and clarification of understanding for all, I ask that those posting here read through and attempt to follow these discussion guidelines in making comments to existing threads, and posting new threads.

Thank you all who are willing, for helping to improve and maintain coherence of of the discussions and relevant information in our geopolymer learning environment, in your posting habits here.

[pigbuttons]

I feel your pain and agree that too often threads get confusing due to thread drift. I think that as more of us start to get working recipes and methods applied to actual stoves it will begin to sort itself out. I second the plea to start new threads when you have off topic questions. It would certainly aid in the clarity of the topic.

[coastalrocketeer]

Jan 8, 2018 20:36:22 GMT -8 pigbuttons said:

I feel your pain and agree that too often threads get confusing due to thread drift.

Very true but an issue with geopolymer information has been that the range of available
Materials, methods, and processes are vast and some subsets of information only apply to single subsets of materials, methods, and polymerization agents. We want to try to clarify and organize in the way that we post.

In an effort to help organize information, earlier, I copied another user's question about quick lime and metakaolin, and Karl's reply into the post Karl recently created on making metakaolin for geopolymer binders from raw kaolin clay, as the question was asked at a reference to that main post in another thread.

If anyone else see's a specific informative post or received a specific answer to a query on a topic from Karl which increases their understanding of a specific thing and Karl has another post on that subject, that question and answer ought to be cc'd to the primary thread on that topic.

[pinhead]

Having been a forum groupie for going on 20 years now, I can say this is standard forum etiquette. Unfortunately standard etiquette is kind of like "common sense" - not very common.

Thank you, coastalrocketeer, for such eloquent ruminations.

This should be a "sticky."

[coastalrocketeer]

Thank you pinhead, I agree.

I think that if we can all help each other and the new/unaware, to improve our posting habits and thread policing for extraneous/off topic info, organizing and copying of specific info into existing related posts, we can GREATLY increase the learning potential for this forum's users in being able to learn and implement successfully the VERY broad range of materials, methods, and applications of geopolymers, with their sometimes very specifically applicable subsets of optimal methods, feed stock and aggregate materials , additives, and other techniques, that we know exist in Geopolymers as a whole and in our subset of refractory and other stove building applications focused on here, just based on what Karl has been able to teach us in the past within a much more cluttered and disorganized, and less "learning conducive" format of less "focus maintained" posts and discussions in the past.

peterberg... When you have a moment can you be our captain Picard and "Make it so" in terms of implementing Pinhead and my shared desire to make this post a sticky, if you (and donkey) have no objections?

[peterberg]

Done!

[coastalrocketeer]

Jan 10, 2018 3:12:17 GMT -8 peterberg said:

Done!

Thank you, oh captain my captain! ;-)

[coastalrocketeer]

If anyone thinks of more/other ways to help organize and improve the geopolymer learning environment here, including modifying or repealing any of my notions and requests above, please comment here in this thread and we can discuss, and then work to implement any that are deemed "more beneficial to learning than the hassle/work load they create costs those practicing them," and remove any that prove to be more cumbersome than beneficial.