Thing #12: Rollyo

Rollyo: Easy to use, Possibly Encyclopedic, Straightforward, Time Saver, Efficient... when it loads.

OK-- this is cool! I created a simple account in about 10 seconds--this site is a keeper!!!
Once again, I am using my own hobbyist and personal interests to drive the assignment and Rollyo is tailor made to help in my particular instance. Here's why.

Model building sites typically include product and kit reviews, photos of real prototypes and the associated models, commentary/threads about anything related to model building, and links to cottage manufacturers of kits and after-market parts. Hey, it's a whole little world out there, and incidentally, I am not including scale model railroads which is another mini-galaxy. Typically content at model building web sites is added in reverse chronological order and it simply keeps accumulating. From my experience over the past eight years, the built in search functions of these sites are not especially helpful because they lack precision or simply do not work efficiently. When you want a review of a particular ship kit for example, you have to separately search reviews and photos of built kits in two different areas and it boils down to simply scrolling, scrolling, until the eyes and determination wear down....always with a feeling that something was left undiscovered.

I did a Rollyo search for an author/expert and was delighted with the results yielded, though I want to eliminate the open web results if possible.

Of course Rollyo has OTJ applications, given enough to time to prepare. Imagine this scenario for a Civil War assignment. A student approaches you and says "I need information on the battle of XYZ, and the teacher said the sources cannot be books, they have to be from the Internet and we cannot use the Wikipedia." Yes, that would be nice wouldn't it :-)

Try a search here. Select Model Building Fun and search USS Ward or Titanic or Me-109. You should get articles about building a model of that particular prototype!

Select...Model Building FunSearch The Web

Search "USS Ward" and see what happens!