THE CHALLENGE: Inject new life back into CPF!! Throwing down the gauntlet!!

Alrighty boys and girls, here goes nothin'...

In light of a recent discussion thread in the Cafe, regarding lack of content and some of our feelings about the current lackluster state of CPF...

...I'm launching this thread as a sort of kick-off or challenge to inject the life back into CPF and try to recapture some of the spirit of "the good ol' days"!!

Apparently there are several of us like-minded folks who want things to improve, so let's take the initiative and start contributing content! Anything that's interesting, stories, useful tips, observations, etc. Share photos! Share stories! I'd expect most of it will be light related, but it doesn't have to be; variety is good!

The trap to avoid, however, is: don't make one-liner posts of something you did! (See the "what did you use your light for today?" thread for many, many examples of one-liner posts)

A one-liner post, such as "I used my light to walk my dog" is not interesting. It's a mere statement of a fact without any story. However, if you were testing and comparing two different lights while you walked the dog, then share details! Talk about your impressions! Take photos and share them! That's the difference between a one-liner post and an actual story.

Keep in mind it doesn't just have to be stories only. Like I mentioned above, share tips, observations, new ideas to ponder, etc etc.


***One note: I've put this thread in the Cafe on purpose because (1) I want the new content we're trying to generate to be broad in scope so people don't feel they're limited (2) the General Flashlight Discussion board tends to be a little more tech oriented and also is always full of fluff posts like "which light should I get", "has anyone seen this light?", "what did you buy last month", and "NEW MEGA-MAGNUM-SUPERNOVA-FIRE FLASHLIGHT OMG! LOL!!!"
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(okay, I'm exaggerating a bit on that last one, but you know it's not far from the truth! )


***Now, you guys don't feel like you necessarily have to post your stuff in this specific thread. You can if you want, of course, but if you've got something that you think will be better as a stand-alone thread, then by all means go for it. I still think such threads should go in the Cafe (for reasons stated above), but of course, if you want to post elsewhere then feel free.


Now, I don't have any topics of my own at the moment that are wildly interesting, but I'll post a couple of things just to get the ball rolling. Hopefully as we go, we'll benefit from mutual inspiration.

No lanyard hole? No problem!!


Some lights, and Mags in particular, don't have a hole or anything to attach a lanyard. So, what do you do when you're in a power outage or out camping, and you want to hang your big 'ol Mag up high somewhere to light the room or other area?

If you've got some paracord or similar rope, you're good to go. You can tie a "strangle knot" around the body of the Mag that will grip it tightly enough that you can suspend the light without it slipping and falling.

Check out this website for knot tying. It's an excellent resource!

"http://www.animatedknots.com/strangleend/index.php?Categ=various&LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com"

Now granted, if you shake and jostle it enough, the light will end up sliding through the knot, but it's pretty secure if you can just leave it undisturbed. The video in the link above shows only a couple of loops in the knot, but it'll be more secure if you make many loops to the knot. It's like tying a fisherman's knot, except you're looping the cord around the body of the light.

Pics below provided for illustration. I show it hanging from a doorknob but of course you'll want it up higher to cast light in a certain area. You could hang it from a fan or some overhead fixture.






Close-up of the knot. Neon Orange paracord bought through Lighthound. The trick with the knot is that the "entering" and "exiting" strands have to tighten against each other in a half-knot, below all the other loops. The loops tighten down over everything. Keep the loops in order and don't let them cross each other.






You can hang the light up high over a door like so; in this case I did it with a Streamlight lantern. The other end of the cord ties to the doorknob on the other side. Quick and easy way to hang a light up high for general room lighting, and the gloss-white door behind it will also reflect light into the room (if your doors are white that is!)





One caveat: the knot is fairly secure on the Mag, but it CAN slip off. I wouldn't hang it from a running fan or anything that moves/vibrates. Don't hang it over your head while you sleep. Don't hang it over your baby's crib. In other words, hang it somewhere that if it falls it won't hurt anything.

Have fun!

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A few photos from a walking path at night.


Here are some shots of a night-time walk with a Quark Turbo-X, neutral version. Sorry these are so blurry. It was foggy and cold, and I was shivering slightly, so it was hard to hold the camera steady. Also, these were taken with a Sony Cybershot that's over ten years old!


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This is a shot of a lake that has a fountain in the center. I aimed the Turbo-X at the fountain, since otherwise it wouldn't show up at all in the photo. The red lights on the water are taillights from cars going by; you can see the horizontal streaks from their headlights. Distance is about 50 yards between me and the fountain.



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Same as above but without the cars in the background.
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On the path; it's about a 5ft wide paved walkway. On the left are several steam pipes that run parallel to most of this section of the path. The light at the far end of the path is from buildings in the distance. For size reference, the top steam pipe is probably about 2ft in diameter.

The only thing I don't like about walking on this path is that the steam pipes are always making random creepy noises! Creaks, pops, hisses. It can really startle you when you're all alone in the dark!

On one of these walks, I shined my light back behind me the way I had come, and saw a pair of glowing eyes close to the ground, way back maybe 150 yards or so. I walked on a minute and looked back again, and found that the eyes were following me!!

I kept looking back as I walked and whatever it was kept pace, but it never got close enough that I could see what it was. I figure it could've been a curious fox, or maybe a possum. There's all kinds of wildlife out there... coyotes too!


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Further along the path facing the same direction as above. In some areas like this, the woods have been cut back away from the path for maybe 25 yards. Some section though the woods come right up to the path. It's kind of claustrophobic with the woods right on one side, and the steam pipes on the other (which are large and up high enough that you can't really see over/around them).
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I've also included some shots from the same walking path, but a different night, with my Fenix PD31. It was foggier this night than the photos above; you can really see the mist in the beam below. .




Despite being a relatively small light with a small diameter reflector, the PD31 throws pretty well (R5 led).
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Lots of reflection off the fog here!


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That's all I've got for now.

Whatta ya got??

Bring it on!

Good luck on your quest but i feel you are on a hiding to nothing,personally i am fed up of "I am looking for a light for" which means " I cannot be bothered to look myself so you muppets look for me and i will buy the opposite just to wind you all up" and it goes on and on.

The trouble with many hobbies they are scrutinised to the enth degree and end up being pointless and many on hobby boards suffer from OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder)

By all means enjoy your flashlight but when you read that many members walk out the door armed to the back teeth with an edc then a back up edc plus a light in there pocket another in a holster i think omg.:shakehead

Another favourite is "I am thinking of buying a AN Other and would like your experiences please",great question let us help the guy then you get the first spanner who tells them he uses a completely different light but the op only wanted to know about AN Other.

mcnair55 said:

Good luck on your quest but i feel you are on a hiding to nothing....

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Um, thanks but what does it mean to be "on a hiding to nothing"?


Don't British people speak English?? (( kidding! That's a quote from an episode of Teen Titans where the bad guy turns the whole city British and the dialog is giving the character fits ))

Umm, tonight I used my SunDrop with DatiLED 219 LE to find my way from the sofa to my bedroom. That is all.

Haha.


Actually one thing I often think is funny is how long it always takes me to pick a light or two to carry when I go somewhere. I mean really, any one of my lights will adequate for anything I am likely to need it for. But I have to think about where I am going, what might I encounter, will I need more lumens or good color rendition, how much pocket space do I have, does UI matter, etc. It takes me longer to pick a light than my outfit! I'm sure I am not alone. :nana:

I was 12 years old when I first signed up on CPF, 21 now. I remember the day I joined, the Arc Flashlight company had just gone out of business and all Arc products were selling at ridiculous prices on Ebay and such. Interesting how an Arc AA will fetch so much less today than it would have back then. Oh and the Nuwai Q-IIIs were the hot light of the day, providing excellent efficiency, useful beam pattern and decent quality while boasting the hottest emitter on the market, the Luxeon III (I think the lumen per watt was somewhere in the several dozen lol)

The family ditched me for the rest of their school break and I had some spare time to fool around. I have a PO, AO and DQG (split ring with magnet). Decided to put the magnets to use. This was just for fun, but there were enough useful places to put the lights to make this realistic. Took a lot of pictures and different set ups. I like this one because you can see the lights. Of course there is almost nothing plastic in this engine bay.

Norm said:

Half a dozen or so posts have been deleted as per rule 8, everyone of you agreed to abide by the rules when you joined, don't start bitching about them retrospectively.

As far as "adults bantering as adults", as you all know CPF is family friendly and not all members are adults as mentioned up the page. Adult content deleted. If you wish to post adult content go to underground a forum especially for those who feel they must.

Instead of attempting to bring life back to the forum as the OP intended, most posts have been have been off topic. - Norm

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You were on the ball Norm. btw what is underground forum sounds fun.

mcnair55 said:

You were on the ball Norm. btw what is underground forum sounds fun.

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The Underground You will need to sign up.

Norm

Norm said:

The Underground You will need to sign up.

Norm

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Cheers Norm signed up and just made my first post.

Underground not on tapatalk?
As a long time lurker before signing up, there is a lot of good info exchanged here. Yes the tech has changed quite alot over the years and like many have said so far I think the build threads have dropped off because people are more cautious to put info out only to have it ripped off. Plus look at the amount of stuff on you tube now or other parts of the Web.
I do enjoy reading what is here and it makes for a nice escape from the grinds of the day.

Speedfreakz said:

Underground not on tapatalk?As a long time lurker before signing up, there is a lot of good info exchanged here. Yes the tech has changed quite alot over the years and like many have said so far I think the build threads have dropped off because people are more cautious to put info out only to have it ripped off. Plus look at the amount of stuff on you tube now or other parts of the Web. I do enjoy reading what is here and it makes for a nice escape from the grinds of the day.

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Must admit I use YouTube often for the light reviews prefer it to reading about it and a couple of the best reviewers also post here but YouTube is badly let down by the complete morons who buy a light and do a review without knowing what a candle is let alone a flashlight and they fumble through, must admit I leave the most obnoxious reply I can muster up for those very sad wannabe film makers.

mcnair55 said:

Must admit I use YouTube often for the light reviews prefer it to reading about it and a couple of the best reviewers also post here but YouTube is badly let down by the complete morons who buy a light and do a review without knowing what a candle is let alone a flashlight and they fumble through, must admit I leave the most obnoxious reply I can muster up for those very sad wannabe film makers.

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I know what you mean, but I figure that they are TRYING to be helpful, and, just like babies that babble at first, and then one day run companies, etc...they have to start SOMEWHERE.

Constructive criticism that they have a way to act upon, maybe later, might be more productive than just punitive revenge for wasting your time....as the time is already wasted and you can't get it back.

Even if THEY don't take heed, some other would be wanker might read your constructive advice, and when he makes HIS foray into a review, he might take your advice.

Norm said:

Half a dozen or so posts have been deleted as per rule 8, everyone of you agreed to abide by the rules when you joined, don't start bitching about them retrospectively.

As far as "adults bantering as adults", as you all know CPF is family friendly and not all members are adults as mentioned up the page. Adult content deleted. If you wish to post adult content go to underground a forum especially for those who feel they must.

Instead of attempting to bring life back to the forum as the OP intended, most posts have been have been off topic. - Norm

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Thank you Norm.

I should also state (reiterate?) for the record that the intent of this thread is NOT to ***** about how CPF currently sucks. This is intended to be your chance to make CPF not suck by posting good and interesting content, either in this thread or your own thread in the Cafe (preferably).

Everybody with me?? EXCELLENT!! Carry on! :thumbsup:

By the way, due credit for this whole idea should go to calipsoii for hitting the nail on the head in the first place in his post in the other thread here:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...oring-Lately&p=4350933&viewfull=1#post4350933

TEEJ said:

I know what you mean, but I figure that they are TRYING to be helpful, and, just like babies that babble at first, and then one day run companies, etc...they have to start SOMEWHERE.

Constructive criticism that they have a way to act upon, maybe later, might be more productive than just punitive revenge for wasting your time....as the time is already wasted and you can't get it back.

Even if THEY don't take heed, some other would be wanker might read your constructive advice, and when he makes HIS foray into a review, he might take your advice.

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Generally they reply back with "If you can do better",i then point out there silliness like how they cannot open the box because they never prepared with a knife to hand to cut through the tape,they then cannot find the battery as they forgot where they placed it.They spend the next 5 minutes trying to read the spec off the box,they really are the biggest bunch of tools you can find and to top it all you get these spanners by the thousand doing an un-boxing video,that has to be the daftest thing i have ever watched some numbskull un-boxing something and making a complete prat of himself.I could not give a flying fish about the box.

Stress_Test said:

I should also state (reiterate?) for the record that the intent of this thread is NOT to ***** about how CPF currently sucks. This is intended to be your chance to make CPF not suck by posting good and interesting content, either in this thread or your own thread in the Cafe (preferably).

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IMHO if and when we want to make CPF a more interesting place, we should mostly do it in other subforums. We should post thoughtful reviews and new comparisons in different Flashlights sections, we should create interesting new lights in customs & modified sections, we should discuss new and innovative concepts in beyond flashlights sections and post beautiful and informative photographs everywhere. Think differently. Respect other members and read what they say. Educate others and learn ourselves. That is how we make the place more interesting. And then, once we have done that, we can come to the Cafe, have cup and chill with other members every now and then, and return back to those other sections to do what we can do the best.

That's how we do it. :thumbsup:

218k members, 994 people on line, 223 are members as I type this. 700-some visitors. That's a pretty robust community. There are a bunch of highly creative, articulate and talented folks here. New life and interesting content are out there, all spread out among the subforums as was pointed out. Hell, there's a whole thread dedicated to mods for Zebralight headlamps! Whoda thunkit??? I go into places like Special Application lighting, Transportation lighting, The Dark Room, etc. and find user names that I've never seen in my five years here. Some with more time here than I have. Maybe the idea is for us to branch out within CPF a bit? I'm guilty- I peruse BST, General, LED lights, the McGizmo, Cool Fall and Oveready subforums, and the Café... Occasionally into Incan, over to the Marketplace. Done. Maybe I need to branch out a bit???