Seripedia.org

[Evo]

Ok so some of you might remember that I started a wiki sight called Seripedia. It is basically (supposed) to be an encyclopedia specifically about screen printing. I would like to finally spend some time developing it.


Right now it's a mess, because some people have no sense of respect, I had to delete and/or lock much of it.

http://seripedia.org

I have not touched it in awhile, as I have been thinking about how to proceed with it. I am not even sold on the particular wiki software that I have installed, (mediawiki) so I am looking into other formats.



So here is what I would like to do going forward - in this thread, I would like to discuss the structure, direction, content and administration of the site. I want to make it a true community endeavor.

Once the structure is in place, I would like to maybe hash out the topics here, then finalize them (with consensus), then post them to the site.


What I am hoping to achieve is to have the site be a definitive resource for...







wait for it.......









UNIVERSALLY AGREED UPON SCREEN PRINTING INDUSTRY STANDARDS.

I know. Crazy, right?



With the many professionals that I am seeing joining this site, I think this can work out to be a truly valuable asset to the industry. It would basically take the discussions about particular topics posted to this forum, (and others) and distill them down to a user-friendly reference.

Not to take away from the forums at all, but to be an agreed upon summary of what is discussed. For example, this would be especially helpful when you want to learn about a particular method or technique to achieve a desired effect with a print but you don't want to wade through multiple pages of posts and threads.


I welcome any thoughts, suggestions or comments.

[alan802]

I really love this idea.  UNIVERSALLY AGREED UPON SCREEN PRINTING INDUSTRY STANDARDS will be very hard to hash out.  There might be a few of the several hundred variables that could be agreed on, but the majority of them will likely be argued till we're all dead.  I for one have tried many different techniques and have played with most all of the variables to some degree and we have always settled on what we think works the best.  I don't subscribe to the notion that you tinker till you find something that works good, I have always been in search of what works best.  I know my guys get tired of me changing things but until we have it ALL figured out, we're always going to be tinkering.  I guess my point is that site could be very fluid and will change so much over the years, but I for one welcome something like that.

[Evo]

UNIVERSALLY AGREED UPON SCREEN PRINTING INDUSTRY STANDARDS will be very hard to hash out.

No doubt. It's a bouncing ball to be sure. I think there would be several types of pages that would be somewhat static, and others that would change often, and some pages might be more "article" based.

Some things come down to preference for sure.

Other things can definitely be agreed upon though. For instance, for high quality stencils a metal halide lamp is better than banked fleuro tubes. No one in their right mind would argue against that. Easy to go from there.

That is just one tiny example but I think with the right people addressing each topic there can be some very solid info hammered out.

[alan802]

I'd love to compile every screen printing variable and then list how to control it (if possible), what the variable does, and anything else we could think of.  I've often heard there are several hundred variables all together, but I sure as hell can't list them all.

[TDunham]

Evo,

I really wanted to do the same thing a couple years back.  Then I got scared out of it by all the work that would have to be put into it in the beginning.  For me, I couldn't justify the hours/days/weeks it would take to get the basic frame in place.  It would have to be done during working hours(I have zero free time because of kids in sports) and I knew that wasn't going to fly.

I think it is a great idea if you can figure out how to keep opinion out and fact in.  My fear was always that somebody would take it and try to make it a place for them to promote themselves(much like what happened at screenprinters.net & digitsmith) and hijack anything they could within the open fomat of a Wiki.

I am all for it and if I can help, let me know. 

[Evo]

I'd love to compile every screen printing variable and then list how to control it (if possible), what the variable does, and anything else we could think of.  I've often heard there are several hundred variables all together, but I sure as hell can't list them all.

There could be a section with accepted, static standards, and then a section about variable parameters and how they affect the final outcome. Etc etc.


This is why I wanted to start a thread about it, with a good core structure to the site the info can be organized in a way to really benefit all printers, from noobs to old vets.

[Evo]

Evo,

I really wanted to do the same thing a couple years back.  Then I got scared out of it by all the work that would have to be put into it in the beginning.  For me, I couldn't justify the hours/days/weeks it would take to get the basic frame in place.  It would have to be done during working hours(I have zero free time because of kids in sports) and I knew that wasn't going to fly.

I think it is a great idea if you can figure out how to keep opinion out and fact in.  My fear was always that somebody would take it and try to make it a place for them to promote themselves(much like what happened at screenprinters.net & digitsmith) and hijack anything they could within the open fomat of a Wiki.

I am all for it and if I can help, let me know. 

I've thought about that too and this is why I stalled on it after I first put it up. First reason was many folks decided to make it a flame platform and that is the opposite of what it's about.

The second thing was with an open platform where anyone could edit, I (and any other admins) would be constantly cleaning up and fighting general spam bots and other garbage.


So I am thinking that the format and content could be hashed out first via this or other forums, then the content could be posted with limited editing allowed, if at all. For individuals that have large amounts of relative content to contribute, it may be posted in more of an article style and they would be credited appropriately. Sort of an encyclopedia with a blog/e-zine front end to it.

This would allay some of the basic fears many industry vets have about posting to a wiki - they don't want to put in the time to have their info butchered or vandalized. They can post a proposed article or topic to the forum, take suggestions and discuss the article, edit or embellish as required then it could be included in the site.


Thoughts?

[alan802]

Maybe we could all agree on 10-20 of the more important variables that most of us deal with everyday, mesh tension, mesh specs, off contact, stencil thickness, stencil rz value, substrate/garment type, coating procedure, proper exposure, ink characteristics, emulsion types, squeegee duro, simple print parameters (angle, pressure,speed,fill/flood pressure, etc.), film output, art requirements, simple separation speak (I'll leave that to others, I know good art when I see it on press, that's it), halftones, flash uses, underbasing techniques, garment cure, damn there's a lot of stuff that goes into this, and I know I forgot to mention some important ones. 

I'm a nerd when it comes to the science behind what we do.  I'm not artistic at all, I have to have concrete numbers and analytical information to do this.  I am envious of those of you who have that artistic side, and I think the majority of our industry is very artistic, you lucky bastards.  I'm pure mechanical, analytical, calculating.