He's been here for less than an hour and he already has a suggestion? Really...?

[gangs20003]

Yeah. I'm sorry if this is frowned upon, but I had a fairly good idea methinks.

On my introduction topic I was told that a lot of people just register, ask questions and then quit the forums. I'm guessing you'd rather they not?
Well my suggestion would cull this kind of traffic and possibly bring more potentially active members.

You could start a new section on the boards as a school/reference section?
With easy to access, real world/academic information readily available for whoever would need it. Kind of like an overkill faqs page.
Different topics for different subjects etc. The reference material could be for everyone and you could have a bit of a school section that would cater to only the membership. Suggestions and tests from experienced members for people appearing for various exams/orals. You already have an active question and answer section, this would potentially expand upon it and give it more structure?
I'm pretty sure I could flesh out the idea more if ya'll look upon it favorably. I'd be willing to work at this. Hell I'd probably learn a few things while I did.

I apologize if this has already been suggested/discussed, I've been on a couple of online gaming forums where I've/they've done something along these lines for their respective games.
But then again, those are games, this is real life, this would have to be quite a bit more expansive than anything on those forums.

Let me know what you think.

[GuinnessMan]

Not a bad idea for general stuff and something worth discussing with CD (site owner).

However, we can't go putting in actual current test questions and what not, but stuff from the past should be alright (maybe).

To be honest, best to go and speak with CD...

[CharlieDelta]

Ideas are always welcome, no matter where they come from!

n principle it's a great idea which we've considered before. We did, in fact, originally have a wiki which was a bit of a flop. There are a number of challenges:

Time to build and currency
How can we build and keep things up to date when we rely on volunteer input? The number of blogs that taper off after a few posts (mine included!) never ceases to amaze me and I can see similar happening here. People lose interest unfortunately.

Reliability
How can we make sure information is accurate?

Demand
Is there any demand for this? I'm not really sure.

We do "being a forum" well and the forum does cover a lot.

If we can address the issues then I'll keep an open mind.

[gangs20003]

Well as for time, I've worked on one of the laziest, most inactive, and laid back forums ever. If they could do it... I'm pretty sure anyone can. Just the one or a couple of members asking the right questions to experienced members, would quickly create a handy little collection of useful information.

For accuracy, one has to be a little flexible, but then hitting the edit button every now and then doesnt take too much effort. A general consensus from seafaring members should be enough to verify information neh? Even 3 or 4 of them.

You have a very big q/a forum filled with a billion repeats and ask and run people. This would actually help the mods drop a little bit of their workloads. And you DO do 'being a forum' well, that's exactly what's required.
Instead of getting a little frustrated on the simpleton questions that are constantly asked, and the same few people answering them repeatedly, over and over again. You might eventually find that you have a more interactive, better educated membership who snowball the knowledge unto newer members. Even if just a couple of guys who learn from you stick around, it kind of helps you in the long run when they spawn a couple of other educated members. Learning from institutes is good and all, but we all know that a lot, if not most of what is learnt is lost. Many people (like me) don't get any practical experience, which I've now learnt is the most important bit. You have quite a few new seafarers on your boards no? I'm sure they at least would appreciate something like this. Everyone needs easily available, understandable, and accessible reference. And for those who need a little more, there'd be the school.
All I know is that I learnt the most from active, serving merchant officers who visited our institute between their voyages.

[CharlieDelta]

To be honest, we like the questions. We'd prefer to give people a personal response rather than referring people to a static webpage over and over again. Most of our questions relate to changing or choosing career, which is a huge decision. While a few do ask questions that would be answered by a quick search, everyone has different personal circumstances.

What sort of knowledge are you talking about? If you're talking about the academic side of "being a deck/engineer officer" then I'm afraid that subject is bigger than any computer game. While I am considering developing some tools for learning morse/lights/shapes/etc... things like stability and navigation are really best taught at college. They are huge subjects, and they are taught differently depending on the college.

Practical knowledge? I'm not convinced that a website is the place to learn how to launch a lifeboat/moor the ship etc. These are potentially dangerous activities which require sound basic theoretical knowledge and practical experience. In the UK system, cadets get this experience quite soon into the cadetship.

There may be scope to revive the wiki to cover certain areas now that the site is well established and the membership has grown. I'll certainly have a think.

[saltydog]

There is already a website very similar to that of the request. I am currently in the final stages of developing it and I still have a few topics to cover, hence the reason why I am not releasing it just yet. PM me for more information if you so wish.

[Inland Pirate]

There may be scope to revive the wiki to cover certain areas now that the site is well established and the membership has grown. I'll certainly have a think.

Possibility of incorporating a port A to Z as I think Lewis originally suggested? Or a bridge too far in the current model?