BIABrewer.info

Moderator Note: Please read this thread before contributing here.

The current site re-structuring and several recent threads have lead us to believe that brewing research is an area that deserves a category of its own on BIABrewer. The first step to enable this was to move, "BIABrewer.info Research," from the category it was under into it's own new category. To get things started we have created a few 'mock' forums and moved existing threads into these new 'mock' forums.

Much more needs to be done.


BIABrewer has put virtually no thought into this new, "BIABrewer.info Research," category. What you currently see is a very quick and poor lay-out of some ideas inspired by those who have written in this thread amongst others. A good category structure is very difficult to think through. This category is probably as hard as any other category we have here. At the end of the day though, everything needs to look simple and logical.

At the moment, in this category, we have a mess of ideas that need to be structured. There is no hurry to do this*.

What's the Difference between a Category/Forum/Announcement/Stickie/Thread?

Category: If you click on the home page of BIABrewer.info, you'll see that the categories appear in dark green. The first is, "Collect Your Site Keys Here," followed by, "BIABrewerBar - Pull up a seat and relax." The last category atm is, the one we are in, "BIABrewer.info Research (New Category - Structure still being drafted.)

Forum: If you have a look at the second category on BIABrewer, you'll see six forums starting with, "BIABrewer.info and BIAB for New Members," through to, "Your Feedback."

Announcements (Not in every forum): If you click on the forum, "BIABrewer.info and BIAB for New Members," you will currently see three announcements. The first is, "How Did You Find the Registration Process?"

Stickies (Not in every forum): Under the above announcement you will see, "Use this Thread to Convert Recipes to Suit Your Equipment."

Threads/Topics: What you are reading now is a thread or topic. An important thread can be made into a sticky. A really important thread can be made into an announcement.


As mentioned above, this category is currently a mess. For a start, there are too many forums, no announcements and no stickies. How would you structure it so as any user could quickly find something interesting to read or something to contribute to?

This is one of the few categories we can invite input from all members and structure publicly as there were so few prior threads. Hopefully some of you will enjoy the challenge and make some suggestions.

*It might take a little while but I'm sure you will come up with something great.

Cheers,
BB

NOTE: If you just have some general thoughts you would like to express, please use this thread.

Maybe, for now at least, we could manage on three forums and the help of moderators? So, three forums as follows...

General (Need a different name) - Basically a relaxed forum where a member can toss in ideas and work out how to test them. Have some 'Annnouncement' threads that might give brewers ideas on how to conduct experiments and equipment they can use.

Experiments On the Go - Not sure if any Announcements would be needed but perhaps you could stickie experiment threads that most brewers could contribute to. For example, the Mash Gravity Figures Needed for BIABAcus thread could be stickied. More advanced experiments or those just being initially tested by one brewer could be left as topics*.

Conclusions - In this forum, the conclusions of experiments could be posted. If an experiment has been done well enough or repeated enough so that the results are conclusive, perhaps these can be stickied or 'announced'? Less certain things that perhaps need further testing could be left as normal topics. (For example, let's say that everyone's gravity figures go up with a mash-out, one thing we still wouldn't know is whether it was the extra time or temperature of the mash out that made the difference.)

...

*I mentioned moderators above. I think their help would be critical in making sure threads were titled correctly. What I'm thinking here is that maybe the thread title can be prefixed with something that means Basic, Intermediate or Advanced? Can't think of quick, short labels off the top of my head however the point of this is a beginner shouldn't be worrying about complex mathematical formulas, for example, but would have a lot to offer on measuring their evaporation rate.

I think titling the thread so that the reader knows what to look at and what to avoid is the hardest thing.


PP

I think starting the thread title with "Basic", "Intermediate", or "Advanced" is a good option. Would look something like:

"Advanced: Crazy Water Experiment that Nobody Cares About"

or

"Beginner: Gravity Figures Before and After Mash-Out"

Thanks PP and BBH for the above. It's quite a difficult area to structure and today I spent quite some time on it hoping to pull your ideas together. You will see that a little progress has been made but nowhere near what I had hoped. The hope was to finalise it today but I now see that it will require quite a lot of hours to get right but any hours we have atm need to be aimed at the BIABacus's incorporation to the site so this category will have to take a backseat for now unfortunately.

I was going to write what I am currently envisioning for this category however doing so would take too long as it would have to include a long list of areas where what I currently see fails a little or badly. Fortunately, this category is not widely read for now and those that do read it should know that they can, for now, freely post in Research Ideas, Observations and Trivia.

Apologies for now and also a promise that this category will become a main area of focus once the BIABacus is pushed out the door.