Couple of Suggestions
Discussion
Ted,
Just wanted to suggest a couple of ideas that I thought might be nice/useful:
1) In the forums, would it be possible to show a little icon next to people's names to indicate whether they have a photo on their profile? I'm forever going to people's profiles to take a look at their motors only to find there's no pic
2) It's be really handy to have an area to record details, instructions, tips etc. for various jobs that might be undertaken on the various models listed on PH (e.g. replacing the lower steering column bearing on a S). These could be split into the same classifications as the forums, and would be open to contributions from all members. This would save having to search and read through loads of old postings (particularly when the job you're doing involves searching for a common term) and would also mean that you'd be able to print out all the details for the particular job and have them handy while working.
The example of the bearing is what made me think of the idea. Having done this job, I've submitted (hopefully useful) information about carrying it out, but this is spread across my profile and a number of postings. It'd be nice to be able to put this all in one, easy to find place ready for the next person who needs to do the same job.
Whaddaya think?
Richard
Just wanted to suggest a couple of ideas that I thought might be nice/useful:
1) In the forums, would it be possible to show a little icon next to people's names to indicate whether they have a photo on their profile? I'm forever going to people's profiles to take a look at their motors only to find there's no pic
2) It's be really handy to have an area to record details, instructions, tips etc. for various jobs that might be undertaken on the various models listed on PH (e.g. replacing the lower steering column bearing on a S). These could be split into the same classifications as the forums, and would be open to contributions from all members. This would save having to search and read through loads of old postings (particularly when the job you're doing involves searching for a common term) and would also mean that you'd be able to print out all the details for the particular job and have them handy while working.
The example of the bearing is what made me think of the idea. Having done this job, I've submitted (hopefully useful) information about carrying it out, but this is spread across my profile and a number of postings. It'd be nice to be able to put this all in one, easy to find place ready for the next person who needs to do the same job.
Whaddaya think?
Richard
I'll look into the photo idea. That's dependent upon the structure of the database.
The technical details thing is possibly served by the FAQ link in each forum. The forum moderators can make any thread an FAQ. Is that what you were thinking or would you like something more specific?
Thanks for the suggestions btw - I'm always interested in developing new features.
The technical details thing is possibly served by the FAQ link in each forum. The forum moderators can make any thread an FAQ. Is that what you were thinking or would you like something more specific?
Thanks for the suggestions btw - I'm always interested in developing new features.
I was thinking of something more specific than the FAQs. I guess it could be a link from each model specific forum to another area that might be structured in a similar fashion to the forum itself, but instead of a list of topics you'd have a list of jobs, and for each job you'd have a set of postings which could be instructions, tips etc.
To go back to my bearing example, when I was originally contemplating to job, I would've taken a look in this area and seen an entry for 'Lower steering column bearing' which would have provided all the existing pertinent information to read through / print off. Once I'd completed the job I might well submit any more pertinent info that I thought would be useful, particularly bearing in mind the variations you find within the 'same' TVR models. I've also subsequently realised the importance of a seemingly inconsequential (at the time) washer, and it'd be nice to contribute this nugget of info and know it won't be buried in some other topic etc.
Hope that makes sense?
To go back to my bearing example, when I was originally contemplating to job, I would've taken a look in this area and seen an entry for 'Lower steering column bearing' which would have provided all the existing pertinent information to read through / print off. Once I'd completed the job I might well submit any more pertinent info that I thought would be useful, particularly bearing in mind the variations you find within the 'same' TVR models. I've also subsequently realised the importance of a seemingly inconsequential (at the time) washer, and it'd be nice to contribute this nugget of info and know it won't be buried in some other topic etc.
Hope that makes sense?
Size Nine Elm said:The bible's always a great starting point, but I'm thinking of somewhere to collect together all the detailed information, hint and tips you normally get from trawling through the postings on PH.
Do you not just need a page which says things like
Look in the 'S' bible
Look in the Chim/Griff bible
Look in the Wedge bible
etc etc etc...
PetrolTed said:I think it could certainly have a very similar format to the forums, although I reckon you'd want to allow contributions (postings) to each job (topic) from anyone, not just the person who created the topic in the first place. This'd allow people to add hint and tips etc. that they might find when they do the job themselves; that way the information could grow and become definitive.
I'd love to create a resource like this. I'll give it some thought.
Perhaps it would probably be some derivative of the forums where you post up a note that doesn't have replies hanging off it...?
I would definitely see it as a place for answers/information rather than questions/discussion i.e. if somebody had read all the contributions about a particular job and still had a question they'd post that in the standard forum as they currently do. However, once they'd discovered the answer they might well post that as a contribution in the new section, ready for the next person who wants to do the job.
I guess you'd also want to have the area moderated in the same way as the forums to keep any irrelevant stuff out.
As I understand it, the FAQs are basically standard forum entries that've been 'tagged' so they appear in the FAQ section.
I was thinking of a completely seperate forum basically, probably with the same classifications, that would only contain contributions with information relating directly to the specified job (topic). There wouldn't be any questions, discussion, banter, O/T stuff etc. - all that would happen in the normal forum. There're definitely individual postings in this style dotted around the forums, but they're normally stuck in the middle of all the standard forum discussion stuff.
If I'm contemplating a particular job on the S, I'll generally do a search through the appropriate forums and then trawl through the results to find any pertinent information which I'll collate into a Word doc etc. as a single point of reference. The main concern with this (apart from the time factor if you get a long list of results), is that my search criteria may not turn up some threads that are actually relevant, or that in trawling through all the other stuff in a topic I may miss that crucial nugget of information.
I was thinking that this new area would effectively be a replacement for that Word doc i.e. the topic (job) would contain only information postings so that you could just print out the whole topic and have an information packed reference source.
When I've completed a particular job on the S, I like to be able to post the information on PH in the hope that other people will find it useful, but I'm always aware that people may never read it if they don't happen to come across the right topic (or maybe browse my profile) when they come to do the job.
In terms of maintaining the quality of the content, you could have the same moderators as the corresponding forums, but it might be better to let the person who originally created the topic own it and vet content; this'd also mean that you're not expecting any extra of your moderators who, I'm guessing, must already have quite a bit of reading to do!
I was thinking of a completely seperate forum basically, probably with the same classifications, that would only contain contributions with information relating directly to the specified job (topic). There wouldn't be any questions, discussion, banter, O/T stuff etc. - all that would happen in the normal forum. There're definitely individual postings in this style dotted around the forums, but they're normally stuck in the middle of all the standard forum discussion stuff.
If I'm contemplating a particular job on the S, I'll generally do a search through the appropriate forums and then trawl through the results to find any pertinent information which I'll collate into a Word doc etc. as a single point of reference. The main concern with this (apart from the time factor if you get a long list of results), is that my search criteria may not turn up some threads that are actually relevant, or that in trawling through all the other stuff in a topic I may miss that crucial nugget of information.
I was thinking that this new area would effectively be a replacement for that Word doc i.e. the topic (job) would contain only information postings so that you could just print out the whole topic and have an information packed reference source.
When I've completed a particular job on the S, I like to be able to post the information on PH in the hope that other people will find it useful, but I'm always aware that people may never read it if they don't happen to come across the right topic (or maybe browse my profile) when they come to do the job.
In terms of maintaining the quality of the content, you could have the same moderators as the corresponding forums, but it might be better to let the person who originally created the topic own it and vet content; this'd also mean that you're not expecting any extra of your moderators who, I'm guessing, must already have quite a bit of reading to do!
Morning Guy’s, again just a suggestion. What about a Questions Frequently Answered section? QFA's.
Lets say a general type questions comes up, that’s say 15 threads long. So you have to read them all. However podie's tossed in a couple of knob gages, and a couple more threads are non-descrpt. Now sitting in the middle of this lot is a peach of an answered that would benefit everybody who owns a TVR.
So would it be possible for a moderator to let’s say, copy and edit the post, removing the crud and just keeping the meaningful answer(s). Leaving the original post with knob gags in situ.
Of course I could be, and probably am talking B*llocks!
OH
Lets say a general type questions comes up, that’s say 15 threads long. So you have to read them all. However podie's tossed in a couple of knob gages, and a couple more threads are non-descrpt. Now sitting in the middle of this lot is a peach of an answered that would benefit everybody who owns a TVR.
So would it be possible for a moderator to let’s say, copy and edit the post, removing the crud and just keeping the meaningful answer(s). Leaving the original post with knob gags in situ.
Of course I could be, and probably am talking B*llocks!
OH
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