Where's the FAQ?!

JakFrost

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Joined
Aug 8, 2004
Messages
6
Where\'s the FAQ?!

I've been reading the posts in this forum for a week now I'm nowhere near in understanding flashlights at the level that is being discussed here. A well made FAQ would really help out all the new people that come here and want to learn.

Please, put together a good and lenghty FAQ, it would really help everyone. I can recommend some topics to put into the FAQ right at the beginning to answer many of the questions that I have along with most of the new posts by various people.

- Types of lights (LED vs Incandescent) and the differences.

- Recommened / Favorite manufacturers and flashlight models for various functions (e.g. Surefire E2d for EDC, Arc 4+ of whatever, Pila G2 for Rechargable Needs, etc.)

- Power sources for flashlights and average expected usage durations (eg. CR123A, Pila 150A, AA, AAA, C, D, etc.)

Lots of pictures and links to manufacturer web sites would help along with a lot of explanations of very basic thigns like the difference between Flood vs Throw, and brightness vs logetivity, etc.

Reading through thousands of posts is really time consuming, especially when you're just learning and don't know the questions to ask and the answers to search for.
 

Mgz

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Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
59
Location
Alberta, Canada
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

Throw vs Flood - http://www.candlepowerforums.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=362698&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

LED - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/led.htm

A FAQ would be really neat, virtually everything is answered and buried deeply in the forum. We just need someone to organize it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

/edit
JakFrost, welcome to the forums /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif ...hope your checkbook is ready /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif
 

StEaLtH_

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Apr 15, 2004
Messages
290
Location
The Netherlands
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

Welcome JakFrost, yes reading through a lot of topics is time consuming but the more you read, the more you learn.

It takes some effort to learn about the most things about flashlights, use the search.. a lot.
And if you really can't find what you were looking for, you can always post a topic and ask.
 

sidespill

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May 20, 2003
Messages
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Location
above sea level
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

A lot of your concerns could be adressed by going to review sites like flashlightreviews.com or theledmuseum. after you've exhausted those resources you can come right back here and ask more specific questions. I'm not in any way trying to brush you off just sharing info. on how I came here to CPF and how much easier it is to navigate these forums after visiting those sites. Also you might want to look over the acronyms used here. Helps out a lot.
 

KevinL

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Jun 10, 2004
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5,866
Location
At World's End
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

CPF has everything you need, you just need to look for it.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I myself spent about two months reading before I felt confident enough to attempt my first mod.. before I even registered. I'm thinking that a FAQ would be nice but at the same time I realize that to consolidate all we know into one gigantic FAQ would be in many ways a superhuman effort.
 

B@rt

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Nov 21, 2001
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Land of Tulips and Philips
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

Anybody who wants to put together a decent FAQ that adresses basic questions and knowledge for the beginning Flashaholic, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hahaha.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/whoopin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif please /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif feel free to do so, I will gladly make a sticky post about it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Oops...
welcome.gif
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 

greenLED

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Mar 26, 2004
Messages
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Location
La Tiquicia
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

Do as sidespill says. It worked for me. Then play a little with the search funtion to find what you "really" want. While browsing those other sites you may decide that your flashaholism is better served by collecting lights, or by modding them, or both!

There's no single FAQ 'cuz so many people are talking about so many different things at the same time. Plus, there is no centralized "owner" of the list who would get paid to do it. I guess the admin/moderators for each topic could get assigned to it... but, again, there is soo much ground to cover...
 

JOshooter

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Oct 21, 2002
Messages
544
Location
Alaska
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

That's quite a task! I don't really know if it would be feasible though, with all the different people that are members to this board, we all have different preferences. The only sure flashlight I can think of for an EDC is an Arc AAA.
 

B@rt

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Messages
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Land of Tulips and Philips
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

[ QUOTE ]
greenLED said:
I guess the admin/moderators for each topic could get assigned to it...

[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif
 

jayflash

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Oct 4, 2003
Messages
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Location
Two Rivers, Wisconsin
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

Welcome, JakFrost, and just keep reading. After a while everything will make sense. BTW, are you good at budgeting your money? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 

JakFrost

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Joined
Aug 8, 2004
Messages
6
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

Just to answer a little bit, I'm not planning to become a "flashaholic" or buy more than maybe one or two flashlights, I have other hobbies to spend money on and I don't see myself with a collection of flashlights. As a matter of fact, I came here from one of the other message boards for my own little hobby, guns, so that is where I'm planning to focus most of my money and effort. Although I have to say that I'm not planning on buying too many of those either.

Anyway, I think that this board really needs a FAQ. All this about too much to cover and so much information posted by so many people is just rubbish. One person with a bit of time could write up the FAQ and copy the information that was pasted in the posts and link to various web sites for sources of information. What about one of the frequent posters or admins? You could even setup the FAQ one of those niffty Wiki's so that different people could update it all at the same time or people could be responsible for their own sections. You can start slow with a simple FAQ then make it grow overtime. At least you could answer some of the basic questions that get asked every week "Hi, I'm new, what flashlight should I buy?".

As for myself, I still have no idea what I am planning to buy but judging from my past purchasing experience I will end up spending a bit of money to buy the top quality product that is quite popular and performs very well, like I usually do with my purchases. Then I'll probably end up branching out into a purchase of a top performing product or one with a uniquely useful design.

So right now, I'm leaning towards Surefire but one or two posts that mentioned the Pila flashlighs with their rechargable Lithium-Ion batteries have sparked my interests. I still haven't decided what kind of a light I should be shooting for since frankly, I don't really use an flashlight for anything all that often since I live in a big city where everything is very lit. So this flashlight will be more of a tech toy than anything else. But since I like such things it'll be one of those expensive ones. I'll probably play with it and blind all my friends for a while until I get bored and just end up carrying it in my backpack and use it every so often.

As for my current light usage I do have a little CatEye HL-500II 2.4 Watt Halogen bike light that I use almost everyday when I ride my bike to the gym. I use it along with some Maha PowerEx 1,800mAh AA Ni-Mh batteries with a nice Maha Power MH-C401FS smart charger with that negative Delta-V power charging sensing chip technology doo-hicky thinga-maging. This setup is good enough enough for me since the light is primality for motorists to "See Me" and not for me to see the road (it's bright enough for bikes where I live 24-hours a day). Oh and I'm not really intested in any type of HID type of light for my bike since it wouldn't be practical or necessary for my lite bike usage. It would also get stolen faster than I could blink an eye.

Other than that there is my 3D or maybe it's a 4D Maglight flashlight that only gets taken out of the closet once a month and a little cheapo pen light that I use as a bore-light when cleaning. That's about it for me and flashlights.

I also bought a Inight Technlology M3X gun mounted light a few days ago and I'm waiting for its arrival. I was down to choosing between that one and the Surefire X200. After two weeks of research and numerous posts I went against the X200 due to the number of complaints about its finicky switch, lack of side lighting, blue tinting of the beam, the ring of light that it throws off, the sometimes misaligned diamond shaped hot-spot, and the a few other things that I'm forgetting. In the opinions of other posters there were just too many little things that were not right with this light, so I went with the other alternative. The M3X is made by the same company that made the M3 which is largerly popular and this light is bright and has very good side lighting.

So... that's about it. Now back to wading through all these posts to figure out if there is an alternative to Surefire's that would be worth the effort of trying to find it and getting it. I'm primarily looking for a small EDC (Everyday Carry Light) that I can just keep in my backpack and use it so often. (If I can't find anything, I'll just pay the high prices for a Surefire and call it a night. That is if I'll even be able to decide which one to buy, E2e, E2d, G2, G2Z, Z2, C2, etc... or maybe plunge into the expensive LED world and try the L4?)
 

Greta

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Joined
Apr 8, 2002
Messages
15,999
Location
Arizona
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

There is a link up in the menubar that says "Sticky Threads". You could go there and you will probably see some titles to threads in forums that you can't see in the threads list because they haven't been posted to within the default "show threads" time limit. I'm sure you will find quite a bit there. As far as dealers and such, just go to the Banners forum and you can see all of the banners for the dealers and manufacturers who support CPF. That should help you out alot too.
 

greenLED

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Mar 26, 2004
Messages
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La Tiquicia
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

Try this link from our own Quickbeam. A neat intro to flashlights, their materials, beams, sizes, switches, etc.

I forgot, try the "Q&A" section too! That might actually be a better place to start to get the basics down.
 

HarryN

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Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
3,976
Location
Pleasanton (Bay Area), CA, USA
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

[ QUOTE ]
JakFrost said:

Anyway, I think that this board really needs a FAQ. All this about too much to cover and so much information posted by so many people is just rubbish. One person with a bit of time could write up the FAQ and copy the information that was pasted in the posts and link to various web sites for sources of information.


[/ QUOTE ]

At work we have an unwritten rule - something like - "If you really think it is important, you are welcome to do it" I don't disagree, there are a lot of repeat questions and answers. (some of them are mine)
 

Spacemarine

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Jan 6, 2004
Messages
323
Location
Germany, Karlsruhe
Re: Where\'s the FAQ?!

I think it would be best to make something like a wiki. If you don't know what that is, you can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

This way it would be very easy for everyone to add and correct the information in the wiki, thus encouraging a lot of people to participate!

What do you think?
 
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