Argggh, I remember hunting this one down a few years back. I wanted to find a copy with the other (Mark Bailey 😂) cover as it looks a bit better but wasn’t able to actually find one. Perhaps that cover was under consideration but never used? 🤷🏼‍♂️ 

Overall it’s an excellent book with lots of color photos (I’m looking at you Martin Koch) but don’t bend over backwards to get a copy as there’s really nothing in here that’s not available anywhere else.

I wanted to find a copy with the other (Mark Bailey 😂)

Hey @mattbeels. Surely there's only One Mark Bailey. 😱🤣 

🎸🙏🎶🙂 

@russ

Yeah, let’s hope so! 😂

I meant to say that I wanted to find a copy with the ‘Mark Bailey cover’ as that was supposed to be funny but re-reading it I guess I failed. Ooops...

I meant to say that I wanted to find a copy with the ‘Mark Bailey cover’ as that was supposed to be funny but re-reading it I guess I failed. Ooops...

@mattbeels You need to learn how to spell as well. It’s “colour” 🤣

That’s kind of a funny one. It’s an ebook, right?

Would it be helpful to have a little write-up on these books, rather than just a screen shot of the cover? 

Are they worth hunting down (some are out of print and a little hard to find) or not?

Also, perhaps a single consolidated post with them all included (just as a list of titles, perhaps with a link to the write up) rather than each in its own post?  That might make it easier to see what's out there ...

Can we link here?

@tv101

Good idea, I have several of those books plus a few not listed and am willing to give an opinion on them if that helps.

Would it be helpful to have a little write-up on these books

I think book reviews such as are being suggested warrant a forum section all of their own, its just too easy to lose the links in the general postings. Then, each title could have its own thread and members post their opinions. This may need to be organised by M&C when they are able as I am not sure members can create this level of forum heading. Thoughts?

@darrenking

I think you’re correct about organising forum headings, it usually needs an administrator to create meta data headings which are like sub headings on a main topic. It’s a bit like a family tree or pyramid flow chart.

@darrenking

I’ve just noticed you stay up nearly as late as me. Been fitting an ebony fingerboard on a violin until an hour ago. Lockdown has been strange with no pubs, I keep working till I’ve finished the job.

@darrenking

We certainly can't create new forum sections (etc).  Which is probably a good thing.  Imagine the chaos if we could all do that ...

To get around the lack of an edit button I was thinking;

• Create a document to hold a master list of books/resources.
• Hold that document in a shared/accessible location (eg Google docs / dropbox / etc).
• Create a new topic called something like "books & reviews".
• First post in that topic is either a link to the shared document, or an embedding of that document.  Because that document isn't held on-forum, it can be updated (edited) whenever necessary.
• Each time someone adds a new review / reply to the "books & reviews" topic, the new book is added to the list, or the new review is added as a link within the document.
  (We can link to specific posts within a thread - that's why I tested that functionality earlier).

I think in fact what we need is a database. Any IT bods here who could rattle together a quick Microsoft Access database? 

Why? 

Because it’s searchable and it can be attached to the website, it’s faster to find what you want rather than reading through a load of text in a document. A document may be small to start with but it will soon grow and become cumbersome to handle. There are people who are suited to reading through a lot of text but there are people who are not, like me with dyslexia, so a searchable database would be a big help for everyone. 

Yes, someone would have to be an administrator, maybe a few people.  

I think in fact what we need is a database. Any IT bods here who could rattle together a quick Microsoft Access database? 

I could "rattle together a quick Access db" quite quickly @Boo.

But I think it might be OTT for a list of books/resources and reviews.  Also, the content would then (probably) be held outside the forum, which is taking activity away from the site, plus it introduces a dependency on someone/s to admin the db and upload new content as its produced.

Searchability shouldn't be an issue.  You can easily search a document/spreadsheet/webpage too (F5 / Ctrl-F).

How were you thinking that the db would be attached to the website?

When I get a few moments, I'll try creating the list and structure that I mentioned above and create a new topic here to trial it.  We can always delete the thread/comments if it doesn't work.

It could become a multi-faceted resource.  So, book reviews, hardware reviews, resource lists, etc.  But the document would work as an index only.  All the content would be held here, with links from the index to the relevant posts here.

How were you thinking that the db would be attached to the website?

@tv101 Surely Mark’s hosting company can offer an SQL link to a database on the back end, which would also be hosted by them, keeping everything in-house. 

A handful of trusted community members could be database administrators with a login (not for the website, just the database). CRUD permissions could be set and a front end input form could be displayed so new information can be entered. 

For the end user, a simple web form can be the front end so we can enter our search criteria and the results would be displayed on a results page. 

@Boo

As an old head of dev once said to me, "it's software, anything's possible, it's just a case of time, money and skill".

Given that we can't get a functioning Edit button, there might be a constraint one or more of those factors!

I still think what you suggest is a way OTT solution, but will gracefully withdraw and leave it with you.

Given that we can't get a functioning Edit button, there might be a constraint one or more of those factors!

@tv101

Nice and subtle, I like that...

😆😆😆

p.s. It should be noted that I had to delete my original post so I could 'edit' it! Oh, the irony!

Given that we can't get a functioning Edit button, there might be a constraint one or more of those factors!

@tv101 That is true and very funny. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I still think what you suggest is a way OTT solution, but will gracefully withdraw and leave it with you.

When have I ever done anything OTT? 🤔 

And..... Thanks for passing the buck! 😳

When have I ever done anything OTT? 🤔 

And..... Thanks for passing the buck! 😳

@boo

😆😆😆