New to WoodenCRATES.org or the Crating Industry?

We have everything you need to find products and services, and to get the information you need!

WoodenCRATES.org is a web community that's designed just for crate makers and crate buyers. For years, there have been communities for other industries and interests but none for us... until now!

If you use the internet a lot, no doubt that many features you will see here will be familiar to you and you will find them easy to navigate. If you're not an avid 'surfer' than much of this can seem foreign. DON'T FEAR! It's all pretty easy to use (if I did my job right!) and I'm here to help make it easy for you.

Here's a few basics that will make everything easier to understand;

WoodenCRATES.org has two different areas:
- The Main Site
  This is where you are now.
  Identifiable by the menu on the left.
- The Forums
  A place to have discussions about crating related issues using a bulletin board type interface.
Learn one thing at a time - You didn't learn crating in a day. Take your time to become familiar with one area of WoodenCRATES.org then come back later to learn more
Visit regularly - This is a dynamic community so content will change. It's always a good idea to visit the forum regularly. For some people, monthly will be enough but many community users will stop by every week or two. For even the most successful online community, it can take over a year before it starts moving. If you don't see many changes, don't give up! We'll still be here and we'll still be working on growing the site.
Enjoy yourself - WoodenCRATES.org is intended to inform you and hopefully entertain you a bit. In either case, consider it a place to meet with friends and allow yourself to be a part of things. The forum is a place for YOU (not just other people) to chime in and say what you think. Get in there and say hi.

Are You a Crate Buyer?

What's in it for you? Use WoodenCRATES.org to keep up with crate makers in your area. Do a search for craters in your area and bookmark it, then check it regularly. This way you can identify when a new crater sets up shop in your neighborhood. If you're a crate buyer, then you probably also use transportation and maybe rigging. You can find them here too.

Learn a little more about crating. Many crate buyers have never had the resources to learn the fundamentals of crating. Here you can learn that and more! Use WoodenCRATES.org to become a more informed crate buyer and to assure you are ordering and receiving the crate style and construction that's right for you.

Keep up with Regulations and Standards changes. Our content here is all about crating and you'll find much of what you need here to help you stay informed about the latest trends and regulations.

Everyone; buyers and sellers are welcome to use all parts of our community. Be sure to get involved in the Forums!

Are You a Crate Maker?

In addition to all the benefits that a crate buyer will get by visiting us, we hope you will find everything you need here to help you with your business. Here's some more detail about WoodenCRATES.org

The Forums - An online forum is a bulletin board system where people can post message. It's not a real-time chat room and doesn't require you to be put on the spot. Anyone can read posts in the forums but to post a message yourself you need to register. Registration is required so we can keep the forum clean and make sure nobody gets insulting (this doesn't happen often, but it does happen). Since it's not real-time, you can take your time to word your questions just right and you can answer others when and if you feel you can help them with their challenges.

Posts can be questions, comments or answers to someone else's questions. Some people are brief and others are very outspoken and verbose. When you are ready to make a post, be yourself. Technically speaking, there are many rules to the forum, but you can sum them up by saying be nice, don't try to sell stuff, don't go against the community and be on topic. If a person posts a question like "What are those donut things under crates?" and your company makes them, you can respond "They are to replace the skids. I work for [say your company] and we make them. You can see them on our website at www.skidthing.com." This way you have answered the question and directed the person to a more complete answer without making your post a sales ad.

When I say "don't go against the community and be on topic." that means don't direct people to another community and don't talk up plastic only solutions (just for example). Building a community like this is done to make a profit (although it typically takes 107 years to produce a return) and is intended to support WOODEN Crates.

Over time the Forums will grow and although some information will become old, it may still be valuable (kind of like the 601 spec!). If there's something you've seen here before, it will always still be here. Over time there will be an Archive section where some older information may be moved to..

Above all, understand that the Forums are a product of all the visitors and not of me. It's up to people like you to post messages and responses. My personal rule when I visit a forum looking for an answer is that I will also try to answer one other persons' question if I can. I can't always do it, but that's how I try to contribute to the community. But don't feel like you have to answer someone else's question just to ask yours. Nobody keeps track.. That's really all there is to the forums! Everything else is just extras that you can learn to use as you go.

The Main Site - This is where you'll find all kinds of information. Unlike the Forums that grow as a result users like you, WoodenCRATES.org is managed by me, the Administrator. It's up to me to assure that information on this site is useful and that the content grows. I won't explain too much about what content is here because you can see it pretty clearly just by looking at the links to the left and on top of this page.

What you may not know is that even though I need to assure the content here grows and is useful, I still rely greatly on help from contributors. Feel free to critique the content and scour for errors. I've been around the crating industry for many years but also have not made a crate for many years (and at that rate I haven't made many of them either!)

Feel free to help with content as well. If you have a subject you would like to write about, please let me know! Writing an article for WoodenCRATES.org helps me, it helps others by educating them and it helps you by giving you exposure. People notice your name and company name on the article.

There's one more important part about WoodenCRATES.org to know. Be sure to hang your sign out! That means advertise. Upgrading your listing on our site (you have checked to assure you are listed right?) is a dirt cheap way to get your information to your prospects. The navigation here at WoodenCRATES.org is designed to assure prospects can zero in on craters and other companies in the area they need them. Don't miss the boat.

Where to go from here?

Just click! Pick an area that interests you and start looking, reading and playing. What's most important to us is that you feel at home when you visit us. Our doors are always open, day-and-night, and you can visit anytime you like.