Topic: Forum Suggestions and Problems

[Hitman]

Well, the search member function is there as an Admin like me, but I am trying to get it to work for everyone.  As far as how is online, right now you are the only one who has asked that, so we will see what it looks like on top when I move it...... but I like all the stats at the bottom.

[784mula]

Thanks Brett. Short of me opening all 1000 members, is there any way for you to get me a list of Michigan members in your spare time, say in the next month or two? Reason being, I would like to organize a gathering in the future.

[Hitman]

Here are the Michigan People who have listed where they are from:

xx79transamxx
TA Nut
snookmes
Prettybird81
Pontiac Warrior
pointman
orioncanam
MrMojoRisin681
matt1987
junior_8
JrBanditfan
IwantmyTAback
hesster
golfiscool
DetroitTA
cobray
chris
cglenn
and........
784mula

[784mula]

Here are the Michigan People who have listed where they are from:

xx79transamxx
TA Nut
snookmes
Prettybird81
Pontiac Warrior
pointman
orioncanam
MrMojoRisin681
matt1987
junior_8
JrBanditfan
IwantmyTAback
hesster
golfiscool
DetroitTA
cobray
chris
cglenn
and........
784mula

Thanks, thats a start.

[Magnum]

help! how do I get the post to go in order? or can I? before i get logged in, the first posting is at top, after I log in the last post is at top. looked at my layout, but what i tried didnt work. I dont mind the way it is, just hate not knowing how to change it.

[Joker (§ir£Ğragon)]

Well, I was going to say to go to your profile page and click the "Look and Layout" link. On that page there's a box that says "Show most recent posts at the top." Checking that box should do what you want, but I just checked mine and it's not checked but I still have the newer posts at the top. Very confusing.

[Hitman]

You should have the oldest post at the top and the new ones going down the page.  It should be set like that for everyone.

[bandit nz]

My latest posts are always at the top too, I had a bash at changing it, but no joy 

[Hitman]

You have it check marked to show the most recent posts at the top.  Is that the way you want it?

[bandit nz]

In thinking about it, I think having them run down the page works for me, as I can drop down and read up.
It means that if I havent been to that post for a while, I dont have to work out what the latest post was.

[P-Js_BLKBRRD]

I'd like to suggest breaking out the Tech forum into subforums, like chapters in a repair manual.  I am a moderator/site admin on a Corvette club site and we did that a few years ago.  It makes looking for help in a particular area a whole lot easier than sifting through one big pot of threads.  It was a bit of a pain to reslot existing threads but going forward it has worked out great. 

[Hitman]

I think that the Forum is disected pretty well for the amount of traffic on here.  On some other boards, it takes me about 20 minutes just to find new posts because the posts are burried down in a child board, down in another child board, down in a sub topic.  Now I know this makes sense for having things broken down into sections, but sometimes it is too complicated to try and find something because you have to drill down through so many sections just to get to a post.  If you look at www.thirdgen.org , you will see that there is alot of sections there, but they need that many sections because because there is on avergae of about 500 people online at any given point in time.  With THAT many people on there posting, you need to have all of those sections or else your post would get burried too far down the list within a minute.  So, having alot of sections there makes sense.  My site that gets 130 posts a day and TAC which gets about 300 a day, has a simplified section list that it is easy to find posts and keep track of what is going on.  On some, there are way too many sections and sub-sections, and more sub-sections, that it takes alot of time trying to find a post.  The amount of traffic should designated the amount of boards to post in.  Now, I am not saying that a change is not in order..... but maybe as the site grows that will change and more boards will be added. 

[P-Js_BLKBRRD]

Point taken on the number of posts made.  But I'll offer this up - on the Corvette site we have a couple of quick ways to find recent posts.  There are about 1,000 active members scattered around the globe with an average of about 200 visits per day  (not high volume when compared to Corvette Forum, Ford Truck Enthusiasts, and other big sites that have general level topic forums).  Several members, myself included, do not have access to high speed internet connectivity so both of these pages are real time savers. 

One is a page that lists all of the posts made in the last 24 hours (most recent at the top of the list). 

The other is an active topics page that has a drop down list of time frames that can be selected from (1 hr, 2 hr, 6 hr, 12 hr, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 1 month).  Posts made within the selected time frame are broken out by forum with the most recent post at the top of each forum. 

Also the 'Search' function lets you look at the entire site or just selected areas.  Again a time saver when you need it.  I have to admit I haven't checked out the Search function here yet but assume it is as rich in functionality.

Food for thought.  I enjoy having another resource for information specific to the car.  It saves a lot of time in the long run.

Thanks!

[Hitman]

So, if I broke down the technical section.. would it be something like:

Engine
Transmission
Suspension
Brakes/Wheel/Tires
Electrical
Interior
Body Work

[P-Js_BLKBRRD]

I don't have my Firebird repair manuals here at the house to look at the table of contents, but that's a good start.  At the Corvette site we looked at the TOCs of the Haynes and Chilton's manuals (amazing how close they are to each other) to come up with our break out.  We don't have too many problems with posts getting in the wrong place and the moderators do a pretty good job of keeping things sorted out.

The site is www.C3VR.com (C3 Vette Registry) if you want to take a look (you can log in as "Guest" to look around).  Here's what the tech section breakout looks like:

C3 General Discussion
     - For general discussion about C3 Corvettes 
C3 Engines
     - For discussion of Engine issues
C3 Electrical
     - For discussion of Electrical issues
C3 Body
     - For discussion of Body issues
C3 Interior
     - For discussion of Interior issues
C3 Driveline Components
     - For discussion of Transmission/Clutch/Rear Axle issues 
C3 Cooling and Heating Systems
     - For discussion of Air Conditioning/Heater/Radiator issues 
C3 Fuel, Emission Control, and Exhaust Systems
     - For discussion of issues related to fuel, emission control, and fuel and exhaust systems
C3 Handling Components
     - For discussion of Brake/Steering/Suspension/Tire/Wheel issues
C3 Car Care
     - For discussion of Car Care issues