Great work Cliff - it's good to see you back online!

quote Originally posted by Cliff Pennock: More Tech Sections I guess the general concensus is we need more Tech sections. My idea is this: L TYPE=SQUARE> Engine (this includes swaps) Suspension Cosmetic (Bodywork and Interior) Other (everything else)

I like these tech divisions... not too many (splitting each engine, etc is overkill)

quote Search Reading through here, I see that most people simply do not know how the search works. Try clicking "Help" in the search page. Yes, the search does support boolean operators, it's all in the Help.

Hmmm... I seem to do OK with the current search system although it would be cool to be able to sort the search results by date or username... Also, how about being able to search multiple sections at once (ex: current Tech & Archives)

quote Gallery I agree, the gallery is ooooooooold. We need something where people can submit their pictures themselves. But they would first be submitted to some kind of "waiting room" from which others can vote if they should make the gallery or not.

I like this idea as well...

quote Polls

No thanks... I'll pass on Polls - I just really don't see the need for them in regular discussions.

quote Events list I'm already working on something better.

I hadn't really thought about this before, but it would be great to have a nice "events list" - looking forward to seeing what you've got up your sleeve.

Beyond that, I also like the following submitted ideas: Editable Topic titles, "report this to moderator" button, being able to view user "reasons" (not the username though), email subsribe to threads, and the post-preview ability (I dislike trying to cut & paste mapqeust URLs only to find that UBB can't quite handle it and then I have to go back and edit the post).

Oh yeah... and I just noticed an empty "?" column on the topic listing page - what's that for?

------------------

Looking for Fiero posters?

[This message has been edited by MinnGreenGT (edited 07-09-2004).]

I love the way the forum is right now, and i cant see any way of making it better................but i kind of liked this:

quote Originally posted by Fierochic88: What about requiring everyone to read the "Code of Conduct" once a year? Like on the 1st day of their anniversary month or whenever they log on after that if they aren't on that day...some people need a refresher of the rules and it would be an automatic way of doing it. Also on the Ford Truck forum (which I landed on in a round about way) there was a "report this post to moderator button" maybe that would help you out Cliff? Jen

quote Originally posted by Phil-N: Could we have a corner for the Fiero drivers who do NOT want to modify anything? A restoration section would be, as far as I can tell, the only true restoration forum anywhere on the net...and I have looked plenty. Engine and body mods info abounds, but if anyone wants to put their car back exactly like it was when new, the specs are just about non-existent. I'm talking about underhood placards, correct color and printing for spark plug wires by year, correct color for mechanical components if they were painted, etc. If you want this kind of detail for Camaros and Mustangs, it's easily available, but if you'd like to keep your Fiero true to its origins, the most you can expect is a shrug and an "I don't know". There must be some resto gurus on here, and their input would be valuable to everyone.

YES! I like this idea.

Granted, I've done a convertible conversion on my car, but I want 99% of the details other than the conversion to be stock, or at the very least, 'OEM believable'. I think having a specific area for 'Stock' cars and info is great.

------------------
Patrick W. Heinske -- LZeitgeist@aol.com
1988 Red Fiero Formula Convertible

Ok, here's my take on dividing up the Tech section.

Engine swaps - I see many threads on any given swap on each page of the Tech section. I think a dedicated section on this topic would help a lot, for both engine swappers, and non engine swappers.

Suspension/brakes - This includes stock and upgraded.

Body(exterior)/Interior - Want to know the best way to fiberglass that broken body panel, or what size torx to use on those seatbelts? Ask here.

General Tech - This would be for everything else that doesn't really fit into the other sections, including electrical problems, general engine maintenance, etc.

Now I realize some threads may not be posted in the correct section, but that happens anyway. I do think that if any section was added, it should be an engine swap section. Everything else can be fit into General Tech. Look at the first page of the Tech section and count the number of threads relating to some kind of engine swap.
Another thing that may help is a bigger link pointing to ogre's cave. Furthermore, an explanation of what it actually is. A lot of people (especially new members) don't know what it is.

[This message has been edited by sqoach (edited 07-09-2004).]

quote Originally posted by mcaanda: Ability to alter the title (of your own thread).

Agreed.

No more moderators. Restricting speech is never an effective tool for peace.

Don't split up the tech section -- I'm personally against it for the same reasons as have been stated many times above. If it must happen, however, then I like Cliff's suggestions. Better yet are Roger Garrison's on page 1. Two categories - Mechanical and Cosmetic.

Search. How about adding exact phrase matching? Sometimes I can remember the exact title of the thread or a several word phrase in the thread. If I try to search on, for example, "This is the exact title" the search function would tell me that the words this, is, and the are too common. I'm left searching for exact and title which may turn up several hundred threads.

I like the idea of being able to change the title of your own post. It's annoying to submit a new topic then discover that you misspelled something and it's stuck like that for all the world to see.

Ratings. I like the idea of being able to see the reasons. For another idea, how about making ratings non-anonymous? People are generally more civil when they have to take accountability for their actions. Or as a compromise, perhaps a check box to allow us to be either anonymous or visible when we rate somebody.

All in all, keep up the good work Cliff.

------------------
Doug Chase
Chase Race
Custom roll cage and exhaust fabrication

quote Originally posted by Cliff Pennock: Events list I'm already working on something better.

Maybe a section where anyone can post an event, and you would type in a date of the event in a special field when creating the thread. The section would be automatically sorted by this date, the topic would remain visible until that date so the topic would not have to be bumped. When the date passes, the topic automatically starts to drop off.

i have two web pages of step-by step repair procedures, with lots of pictures.
http://www.mtsu.edu/~mkr2c/fuelpump.htm
http://www.mtsu.edu/~mkr2c/trannyseal.htm
i know buddycraiGG has more, and there must be others. i'd like to make them available to the forum for a faq or whatever. is there a way to do this?

First off, I want to make it clear that I would not split tech down. However, if I were to break it down, I would start by splitting it from one to two sections and see how it goes. It can always be split further down the road, but I see no reason going overboard with lots of niche sections right away because it will increase the number of posts in the wrong section, and it may leave a lot of half dead sections that end up not being very helpful or useful.

I would seperate them as follows:

Tech section 1: Fiero Maintenance and Repair issues: It would mainly be for stock vehicles, but I suppose others could post. Issues here could be engine, suspension or interior related, but do to mechanical failures and repair issues. My Fiero won't start. Whats the alignment supposed to be. Whats that rattle. How do I replace the heater core.

Tech section 2: Fiero Improvements: Here would be swap info, stock engine buildup info, suspension/brake upgrades, swapping out that interior.

I would run with these two for now. I do not see having a dedicated interior thread, mainly because I do not notice that many technical posts on interiors to really warrent an extra section. Also, you get more crossover. Does my lock cylinder failure problem go in maintenance or interior? Ditto the heater core, or the steering column, or clutch pedal, or HVAC, etc etc.

I also wouldn't seperate out suspension. Although there are more questions on it, you will then have crossover between suspension and other sections as well. Does a brake repair go in suspension or maintenance? Does changing the axles go in suspension or a driveline section? Etc Etc.

Also having dedicated bodykit forums, and other smaller areas are really niche items. Those forums won't see much traffic, and if they do not, they may not get the number of replies to threads that they really should.

I'd start off with a simple split from one to two sections and see how it goes. I can see further expansion down the road possible of both sections into four. Split maintenance and repair into engine class, I4 and V6. Performance could hacve engine swaps spun off. But I would hold on those breakdowns until a better handle at the kinds of posts are generated in each section, and how much traffic each section gets.

quote Originally posted by Fformula88: First off, I want to make it clear that I would not split tech down. However, if I were to break it down, I would start by splitting it from one to two sections and see how it goes. It can always be split further down the road, but I see no reason going overboard with lots of niche sections right away because it will increase the number of posts in the wrong section, and it may leave a lot of half dead sections that end up not being very helpful or useful. I would seperate them as follows: Tech section 1: Fiero Maintenance and Repair issues: It would mainly be for stock vehicles, but I suppose others could post. Issues here could be engine, suspension or interior related, but do to mechanical failures and repair issues. My Fiero won't start. Whats the alignment supposed to be. Whats that rattle. How do I replace the heater core. Tech section 2: Fiero Improvements: Here would be swap info, stock engine buildup info, suspension/brake upgrades, swapping out that interior. I would run with these two for now. I do not see having a dedicated interior thread, mainly because I do not notice that many technical posts on interiors to really warrent an extra section. Also, you get more crossover. Does my lock cylinder failure problem go in maintenance or interior? Ditto the heater core, or the steering column, or clutch pedal, or HVAC, etc etc. I also wouldn't seperate out suspension. Although there are more questions on it, you will then have crossover between suspension and other sections as well. Does a brake repair go in suspension or maintenance? Does changing the axles go in suspension or a driveline section? Etc Etc. Also having dedicated bodykit forums, and other smaller areas are really niche items. Those forums won't see much traffic, and if they do not, they may not get the number of replies to threads that they really should. I'd start off with a simple split from one to two sections and see how it goes. I can see further expansion down the road possible of both sections into four. Split maintenance and repair into engine class, I4 and V6. Performance could hacve engine swaps spun off. But I would hold on those breakdowns until a better handle at the kinds of posts are generated in each section, and how much traffic each section gets.

I agree with this... There could/would be a lot of crossover items, and that could be really confusing. I really like Boomtastic's idea of making your ratings show up as soon as you get one. I've been here quite a while, and I still can't see mine, and I've always been curious.

Other than that, I like the way it is now, but I'm sure that any changes that are made, will be well thought out, and useful.

------------------
Nic

Email me at my PFF username @hotmail.com

quote Originally posted by MinnGreenGT: Oh yeah... and I just noticed an empty "?" column on the topic listing page - what's that for?

Now there is a star in it, it looks like it might be to keep track of threads.

quote Originally posted by datacop: 5. Make rating reasons visible to the person being rated.. not everyone else. This would be helpful. Also, the total number of positives and negatives. If you have 100 ratings, it would tell you "20 neg, 80 pos" for example

I second this. This feature would be very useful for everybody. It would prevent frivious ratings, and could give people an idea on how to improve their posts and advice.

------------------
*~ Out In The West Coast Showin' Off My Bad Habits ~*

[This message has been edited by KingOfKings (edited 07-09-2004).]

quote Originally posted by FieroAddict: Now there is a star in it, it looks like it might be to keep track of threads.

And the rollover says "add to personal favorites" - cool!

being able to change forum title

Ratings:

Let people see the # of + and # of -. but maybe make it available only on the "My Ratings" page and not on the general page that everyone sees. Also make it available on that page from the start. It still may not show up on threads under 50 ratings, but people could go into my ratings and see if they have been rated, and how they are doing anyway.

Instant boot for members who consistantly start "OMG she looked at me....but I think she likes my best friend....But I think she is so hot....like what should I do?" threads.
I know sometimes people need relationship advice or whatnot, but spamming OT with this crap over and over is getting old.
Maybe a program could be made to dectect and delete those threads instantly..... Highly unlikely I know.

Other than that the forum is great the way it is.....

quote Originally posted by Fformula88: Tech section 1: Fiero Maintenance and Repair issues: It would mainly be for stock vehicles, but I suppose others could post. Issues here could be engine, suspension or interior related, but do to mechanical failures and repair issues. My Fiero won't start. Whats the alignment supposed to be. Whats that rattle. How do I replace the heater core. Tech section 2: Fiero Improvements: Here would be swap info, stock engine buildup info, suspension/brake upgrades, swapping out that interior.

I second this suggestion!
I agree with the reasoning given also...

Unfortunately I haven't had time to read all the suggestions, so this might have been mentioned. How about something like a common modifications "How To"... I used to be a member at this J-body site and this is what they have:

http://www.v6z24.com/howto/

Its pretty helpful and eliminates a lot of repeated questions. Hope that helps.

------------------
1986 Fiero SE

Alright, I get the message about extra moderators. But I still think it would be fun and entertaining to let Archie be "mod for a day". I'll shut up now, hehe.

The more I think about it, the less I like the idea of splitting the Tech forum. Splitting the Tech forum would also serve to segregate the people who visit, to some extent. Instead of one big dysfunctional family, you'd end up with several cliques who mainly keep to themselves (in their special section of the forum). I've seen this happen every time a forum that I visit splits itself up. The more the forum splits up, the more people tend to "pidgeon-hole" themselves.

I really like the idea of a Fiero "Hot or Not" style picture gallery. Some people are bound to get worked up because their "killer" Fiero didn't make the grade, but that's part of life. They'll get over it.

As far as search function vs FAQ is concerned, I personally believe they both serve a similar purpose, for the most part. As noted above, people will still overlook the FAQ section (and the search function, for that matter) if they aren't familiar with the website and/or are not paying attention. The most robust search function and most wonderful FAQ in the world won't stop people from being clueless. Am I trying to make a point? I'm not sure. But there ya go.

[EDIT] Hey, I like the idea of the "How To" forum.

I also like the idea of opening up the Club Announcements section for everyone. This will allow us to coordinate meetings and get-togethers, thus furthering the spirit of community.

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 07-09-2004).]

I'm curious. How many people posting in this thread about how to make this forum better have donated this month?

Put your money where your mouth is. For some people, that's a lot of cash!

Cliff, Thanks for the favorite thread stars. That's the one I always wanted.

Chris

quote Originally posted by lurker: i know buddycraiGG has more, and there must be others. i'd like to make them available to the forum for a faq or whatever. is there a way to do this?

thanks for the GGs,
i dont have too many but i'm working on more.

i like the events forum idea. it's dead in there now because you have to be approved to start a thread.
so no one goes there. people like me find it pointless to start a thread there because no one ever goes there and responds.
it's an evil cycle.

i like the rating reason idea

i didn't notice the smaller window to view the thread while relying. very cool

and no moderators. i know i couldn't be unbiased all the time.

quote Originally posted by Cliff Pennock: More (technical) sections I'm all for it. But keep it reasonable. I don't want Technical to be split-up in tons of different sections (like some other car forums do). Maybe 3 or 4 sections in total would be sufficient. Heck, even the workshop manual only has 5 sections. If people have a problem with their car, they shouldn't be spending an hour first to figure out in what section their question belongs. If we agree here we need more sections, I'll start another thread for it to figure out which sections we need. Ok, thoughts on this? Or any other requests/ideas?

Tech sections that are broken down into something like this.

Fieros with 2.5 engines

Fieros with 2.8 engines

Modded Fieros, engines and body.

88 Fiero tech or a general chassis section.... (ahh i duno but they are very different)

[This message has been edited by 84Bill (edited 07-09-2004).]

An Ignore Button ...it would add the persons name to your Ignore list.... then anytime they post you see nada!

reading a thread... oh noo my utmost unfavorite person posted... I must flame them..... wait a second there Sissy sally... hit the ignore button and you will never be bothered by a post from that person again...(untill you remove them from your ignore list)... Seems like it might stop some of the whiney 2nd grader mentality that has been running rampant here the past few days (wahhh he posted in my thread wahhhhhhhhhhhh)..

sorry Had a not so fun day with Midgets...and I wished I had an Ignore button

(I know I told some people at Wheatstock about this idea...hehe)

-Darius

quote Originally posted by Cliff Pennock: More Tech Sections I guess the general concensus is we need more Tech sections. My idea is this:

Sounds to me like this topic is divided where some think that more sections are needed and others think it will become more cluttered. Maybe it would be possible to have the best of both worlds where in the preferences we could select if we would like to view the additional tech sections or just see one big tech section.

quote <u>Search[/U] Reading through here, I see that most people simply do not know how the search works.

No disrespect to you Cliff but I think that those who know search engine basics still think the search function is lacking. It would be very convienent to have some extra functionality. I remember the old search engine and although it had it's problems I still miss some of it's added features.

quote Moderators

I'm with you 100% on this one!

quote FAQ I'll elaborate later. Events list I'm already working on something better.

You tease

I also vote for ...

• Advanced e-mail notification
  
• More Profile information
  
• Ability to delete/modify title of own threads
  
• "Rate a topic" - To see what people like and possibly identify threads which need to be closed/trashed.
  
• Post preview
  

Another thing that I would like to see is the ability to find photos which I have uploaded with PIP. I know that PIP has a history but whenever you have to reinstall it you lose your history. I have always said that I would save the links to my favorites but that never happened.

Edit: I could have used the post preview
------------------

[This message has been edited by Jefrysuko (edited 07-09-2004).]

I know this is an old subject, but lose the ratings bar. Couldn't begin to count the useless posts of people begging for ratings or upset because one person gave them a negative. The system is good, maybe make them so only the moderator can see them. Other than that I'm very happy with the forum.

For Ratings, I'd like an option to list the members we've rated. This way, we could remember who we rated & have a chance to change our minds.

quote Originally posted by CoolBlue87GT: For Ratings, I'd like an option to list the members we've rated. This way, we could remember who we rated & have a chance to change our minds.

We have this one! Just find the "My Ratings" button near the top left of the page. Its under the "New Topic" Post Reply" buttons, and next to the "Profile" button. That lists everyone you have rated, what that rating is, and any message you have left yourself. Cliff is ahead of you on this one!

Here's an idea: Nix the signatures and instead allow us to post pics in our profiles. No offense to anyone, but I find it mildly annoying when I have to scroll through a dozen sig pics just to read a couple paragraphs worth of text.

quote Originally posted by Blacktree: Here's an idea: Nix the signatures and instead allow us to post pics in our profiles. No offense to anyone, but I find it mildly annoying when I have to scroll through a dozen sig pics just to read a couple paragraphs worth of text.

nah i like sigs, they add interest to the forum i think..what do i know huh??

------------------

still plays with cars..

quote Originally posted by Blacktree: Here's an idea: Nix the signatures and instead allow us to post pics in our profiles. No offense to anyone, but I find it mildly annoying when I have to scroll through a dozen sig pics just to read a couple paragraphs worth of text.

While I dont say do away with sigs.. alot of people merely need to read and follows cliffs guidelines(rules as it is) for sigs.. Very rarely does ANYONE follow them.

------------------
1988 Aero 88 coupe.. 2.8l v6.. more mods to come.
Photo Gallery - Fiero Links

quote Originally posted by Kameo Kid: nah i like sigs, they add interest to the forum i think..what do i know huh??

I totally agree Kameo.

------------------

I had another quick thought. Email notifcation, I think they should be able to be set even if you arn't the person who started the thread.

------------------
1988 Aero 88 coupe.. 2.8l v6.. more mods to come.
Photo Gallery - Fiero Links

quote Originally posted by buddycraigg: so unless someone is asking for chip burning advise you'll overlook the thread???

WTF kind of question is that? What are you trying to say?