Here's Your Chance To Improve The Site

Hey all, I want to crowd source some ideas here.

Essentially, what I want are some ideas thrown out of what I could Add/Change/Fix/Remove that would make you want to visit the site even more, or post more, or be more active. 

I know I'm potentially opening pandora's box here, but I'd rather do that and find out that some minor bug has been driving people up a wall.  It's either that, or let these little annoyances drive away people.  I think the internet has changed since this site was created, and people no longer visit forums as much as they once did.  I'd like to see what we can do to change that.  What can we do to make a forum not just a forum in your eyes.

So, here's your chance, give me ideas.  What would YOU all like to see this site have?

Off limits/already aware of/not going to happen:

• Ads (they've steadily paid for a quarter of the yearly server costs so far)

• Garage Signature Cards.  (Click here, then scroll down and click on "Get Garage Card" next to the signature area.) NOTE: If you are using a remote image for your hilite image on the garage, you will need to re-add the remote image as of today if you want a garage card. This is due to a settings change to make this new function possible.
• Tapatalk Android/iOS integration complete.  Install Tapatalk and search for Club-S12.org.  You can post images directly from your phone with this app!
• Garage bugs/glitches.  These should be mostly fixed now.  I spent about 8 solid hours modifying the underlying code until it all seemed to be much more smooth.
• "Show unread posts since your last visit" link at the bottom of the page

• Require Location Before Posting in Marketplace Section.
• Better image posting/hosting solution.
• Some sort of best of/worst of or karma system on posts.
• We need more stickied topics in tech sections

An easter egg that involves nekkid women. Hidden somewhere obscure.

Just because it's fun.

That said, I still have my stance on requiring a state to be chosen for posting a FS thread.

Jay, for the WTS/WTB threads, I've been considering implementing a setup that requires a zip code be entered.  This suggestion is on the table.  I'll edit my initial post here to include suggestions that we're looking in to.

thats a good idea. by entering the zip it will automatically put in the state? If so that would be a great idea!

Yep, automatically put in the city/state for the most part.

Just so I'm understanding this. It won't let you post until you put the zip in right?

Yes, that would be correct, if I can figure out how to do it.  There doesn't appear to be a mod that already does this, so I may be coding it myself.

cool beans sir!

Ive noticed the facebook clubs12 page is active. with the facebook app you can upload pictures on the fly. the hole photobucket upload then post on forum gets annoying after a while. and ive noticed the clubs12's chat box is active and both the chatbox and clubs12 fb page clear up alot of stupid question and shit normally would be asked on the forum over and over again.

What about something like craigslist has. you can flag... Best of, spam, miscategorized and prohibited post. then the admins can see what everyone thinks is junk and what should be a sticky without giving them super user powers.

even like how google has +1 and youtube has the dislike button and of course the "like" button on facebook keeps shit clean looking..

I like this idea.  The forum sort of has this already, in the form of karma, which I've always had disabled.  We could turn it on at some point or find something like what you're saying there, I'll add this to "under consideration". 

As for photobucket to forum posting, we understand but there's not much we can do.  I actually have been considering doing some sort of imgur API link in, that allows uploading directly to imgur and then showing up here, from the site without having to go offsite to do it.

but how would the karma system work I know other sites that have it and it's a free for all people add karma to posts they like even if its irrelevant and negative karma to post just because lol that really kind of destroys the karma thing if you can do it that way you know...

Very true, which is something we'll be considering when thinking of what to do with that particular one, or if we even do something like that.

Ahh gotcha

I have always wanted another "Show unread posts since your last visit" link at the bottom of the page.  It is a minor thing but when I read the new posts on a thread I am following I always have to scroll back to the top again to get back to the list.

Just hit home on your keyboard it gets you there faster than scrolling

Actually that's a great idea, and simple at that.  I'll get that put in soon for you.

We need more sticky's. Ive seen alot of good info while searching that should be sticky'ed.

ne2rk on 02:27:55 PM / 03-Jul-13We need more sticky's. Ive seen alot of good info while searching that should be sticky'ed.

Home button works great unless I am on my phone. Thanks Xano!

makes sense!

ne2rk on 10:09:54 PM / 02-Jul-13the hole photobucket upload then post on forum gets annoying after a while.

I have added the Show unread posts since last visit and show new replies to your posts links to the bottom of the page as well as the top now.

I am on my phone now and living this!

Holy crap! Because I've subscribed to this thread, it showed your response in my notification bar like a text message or email would show up.

you have to pay for tapatalk tho don't you?

Nope, it's free, at least on android.  They do have like a plus version or something, but I'm not entirely certain why its needed.  And from a forum admin perspective, its free to use, and may even generate revenue for us in some way (yet to be determined)

I'll have to check it out then...

i dunno if this has been mentioned but when i was on a suby forum one of the legacy ones they had this global map of all the members....that'd be cool if we had one

Romero on 12:48:57 AM / 06-Jul-13i dunno if this has been mentioned but when i was on a suby forum one of the legacy ones they had this global map of all the members....that'd be cool if we had one

Xano on 12:08:29 AM / 02-Jul-13Essentially, what I want are some ideas thrown out of what I could Add/Change/Fix/Remove that would make you want to visit the site even more, or post more, or be more active.  I know I'm potentially opening pandora's box here, but I'd rather do that and find out that some minor bug has been driving people up a wall.  It's either that, or let these little annoyances drive away people.  I think the internet has changed since this site was created, and people no longer visit forums as much as they once did.  I'd like to see what we can do to change that.

Redneck, we've banned exactly 3 frequent posters.  Jeffwins24, Asparagus, and Caraudiofoolery.   The first was a troll, no one can deny that.  The second one was prior to my time as a moderator or admin.  And the third one was due to constant insults thrown at moderators and admins, as well as other members on the forum.  No one else has been banned.  No one was "punished" for any comments on the layout, EVER.  I've ALWAYS outright said to give me input at every step of the way, and used that to improve in whatever ways I can.  In all honesty, we're more active than we ever were during the version 2 days (red and tan layout) even today, but slightly less active than we were in version 3 days (previous one just before this one).  And I don't recall the posts you speak of where you were vocal about not liking the new layout.  PM me a link to those posts so I can refresh my memory on your specific complaints about what you didn't like about the theme/site changes specifically.

As for more stringent moderation, we have been more strict, in the case of the WTS threads.  We've been more strict than back in version 2 when there was very very little active administration or moderation at ALL.  But that's a different conversation as well, because lawlessness wasn't fostering a good community anyway.

On the topic of S12silvia, it's never been "an alternative", it's a different site with a different purpose and direction.  You talk about it as though people can only use one, when people can and do go to BOTH sites regularly.

And, not to seem "too strict" but that is not what this topic is for discussing.  This topic is for people to give suggestions to us, suggestions that they'd like to see happen on the site.  (Notice, I'm not punishing you, just informing you that I want this thread to be for suggestions)

I'm one of the new guys here interested mostly in the how-to repair aspects of my latest problem or improvement plan. I've made a few contacts here and they have been quite helpful, but mostly, I poke around on my own trying to figure things out.  This site is overly complicated.  

 I find the site very difficult to search for specific repair procedures without reading page after page of useless posts.  I think this is because of the low number of sticky posts at the top of any given category combined with an almost non-existent FAQ  for any given category.  

The inability to search here productivly leads me to Google FIRST, which sometimes brings me here, but more often to European and especially Australian sites, your Facebook entity and YouTube... those being smaller, always less complete but better organized and easily searchable.  

I have put in my thousand hours reading posts here, of which maybe five percent are helpful and one percent are absolutely priceless... if you happen to stumble across them.  Even though I am quite sure this site contains the greatest overall information, it is tuff to find what you want when you need it.   An FAQ in all categories and more stickey posts with major information would help a lot in my opinion.

Second:
     If the map of member locations is too complicated, would searching for members by city or state be possible?  Those of us in the s-12 "boondocks" would find that helpful. 

Third:

The Garage...   Whatsupwiththat?   How is THAT  laid out?  It looks like it is the most fun of all if you could just scroll through it instead of a never ending list.  It's very confusing to me. 

Fourth: Why does selecting "updated" to see the latest post in a thread bring you to the first post in the thread which may be ten pages away from the latest post?  Frustrating!

All on all, a lot of great information in search of better organization to improve the search function. Good luck in your efforts.  I hope you find my newbie look at the site and resulting confusion helpful in your improvment plans. 

Hi Donintampa.  The FAQ idea has actually been something that has been in progress for a while.   We're slowly creating a tree structure where you select your year model/engine and component (ie suspension) and it'll have a bunch of helpful pages for that part of the car.

As for the search, there are actually two search functions here.  One is the built in SMF search that comes up when you click search at the top, and the other is the google custom search field near the shoutbox.  I've included both to try to give as many search options as possible, as unfortunately there really is no good way to "improve" on a search system.

As was noted earlier, I will be investigating stickying more topics.  I'll most likely start a new thread for people to post links to topics they think should be stickied.

As for the map, it's not that it's too complicated, it's just up to you guys to add yourselves.  If only 10 people add themselves, then it wouldn't be very useful.  Also on location searching, I can see what I can come up with.  The downfall is again, that field relies on you all to type in whatever you want in that field, so the location may not be written in the same way by each person.  I could make it a postal code/international post code equivalent field, but there is no standardized international post code, so other countries would be left out.  Since this is the international site, we try to avoid changes that would exclude other countries.

On the topic of the Updated button, I will definitely look into that.  It could be that I overlooked that during theme creation.  That link is also dependant on you having already visited the thread once before.  I'd also like to add a first post link under the "re: topic title" link off to the right, as I personally click that too often and then have to go back to the first post.

On the garage, it's a huge set of software, but I can see if that feature exists in it and make it more prominent.

Thanks for your input!  I hope my comments help explain some things on the stuff I cant really do much about!

The only search I see is between help & profile. Where's the 2nd one.
I agree more stickies would be helpful to help decrease reading time- but the more you read, the more you learn - what may be junk to me could be gold for you.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this club in my short 2 year membership.  I know more about my car in 2 years than I did the previous 23. I feel I have also been able to help fellow S12 owners which is satisfying for me. I have also made several "virtual friends" and even had one stay with me for a couple days.  The club is a nice place for me to escape to for a few minutes a day and see what you all are up to.
Thanks for all you do and keep up the good work!

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.   I really like the FAQ "tree" idea.   That may well make the increase in stickey posts unnecessary.   I know that in big projects like this many things are fixed and unchangeable. Nice to see a fresh look being taken as to what can be improved.

a sticky'ed sticky thread! haha

@rednucleus your really missing out. :) you need to figure out why you can't see that google custom search. its awesome. its a little box on top right of clubs12

I like both search's. the google custom search is easyer on the eyes for me and i seem to find info faster. the older search is still great but i only use it when i can't find the google custom search. I have noticed that the google custom search on the top right side don't always show up on my pc's. maybee i need to clean my cookies or history or something like that. It always shows up on my linux computer but not on my windows computer. It shows up on my office's win7 computer but not my win7 garage computer. im sure this is my fault because im lazy and need to redo my computer. It shows up on when i have a fresh install of windows7 but after few months of beating on my computer it no longer shows up. i just deal with that.

@donitampa i couldn't have said that better myself. "it is tuff to find what you want when you need it" that is so true.

"I have put in my thousand hours reading posts here, of which maybe five percent are helpful and one percent are absolutely priceless... if you happen to stumble across them.  Even though I am quite sure this site contains the greatest overall information, it is tuff to find what you want when you need it.   An FAQ in all categories and more stickey posts with major information would help a lot in my opinion." -donintampa

That's where it normally shows up (that's from IE10).  I'll test it out on a handful of other browsers to see what may make it not show up.

The google search shows on windows xp and seven using chrome or explorer.  It shows in safari using the latest mountain lion update. I think you have to log in first... Not just go to the site.

IT DOES NOT SHOW on my iPad (first model) or on my iPod touch (latest model and software). 

Hope this helps.

Definitely helps, however, no one cares about apple users. :P Kidding, I'll look for an iOS emulator to test it on.

Apple-haters gotta hate, I guess...  :-)    I downloaded the Chrome app for iPad and the top third of the google search icon shows up but does not function.  The bottom two-thirds seem to be covered up by something the same color as the background.

That does help, it's most likely a z-index issue of some sort.  I'll try a few things and find out. 

As for apple, it's not that I hate the products, it's that I don't like the fans who go drop 600 dollars on the newest model each release, and then look down at others who don't use apple.  I also don't think it's very developer friendly of them to NOT have any simulation abilities for developers UNLESS you buy a mac.  I can design Android apps and windows mobile apps without ever owning a device with the OS.  Apple requires not only the mobile device, but a mac PC to develop an app.  It's unfortunate, but when you lock out indie one man team developers like me by making entry cost prohibitive, you drive some developers to not like your platform very much.

A couple of things to keep in mind while considering threads to be stickied and/or FAQ'd . . . Go back through them and remove all irrelavent posts.  While clever whitticisms and random thanks are fun during a conversation they are a waste of time to parse through while my hands are greasy and my car is disasembled in the garage.  Also, I don't know what kind of server space we have but please consider hosting the images in the stickied/FAQ'd content.  Alot of them are no longer available and likely lost.

I was actually thinking of doing this just havent had the chance to bring it up to Ben. What do you think Ben? I have the spare time when Im at my other job to where I can delete irrelevant posts in tech sections so they just reflect actually findings, fixes and sloutions to problems?
Post Merge

Yeah, let me run the "delete unnecessary comments" part by arro, but dont hesitate to start getting a list of good tech posts in each section.

ok
Post Merge

Sorry Xano didn't mean to ruffle any feathers with my previous post. I should have worded it a bit differently. My main point I suppose was just that the site went through a big change in terms of moderation which most of the older members I think had a harder time adapting to so quickly. As a result it seems like a lot of these older members became less and less active as time went on because they had adapted to a much less moderated forum. The only reason I brought this up is because in your OP you were saying that forum activity is down and were seeming to wonder why so I figured I'd throw it out there.

Anyway, I feel I shouldn't have said anything as it seems this thread is clearly more for technical improvements versus the reasons why activity has seemingly gone down so sorry about that.

Redneck on 01:26:40 AM / 09-Jul-13Sorry Xano didn't mean to ruffle any feathers with my previous post. I should have worded it a bit differently. My main point I suppose was just that the site went through a big change in terms of moderation which most of the older members I think had a harder time adapting to so quickly. As a result it seems like a lot of these older members became less and less active as time went on because they had adapted to a much less moderated forum. Since these members made up a good bulk of the posting and forum activity it would make sense to me forum activity is down. The only reason I brought this up is because in your OP you were saying that forum activity is down and were seeming to wonder why so I figured I'd throw it out there.

Anyway, I feel I shouldn't have said anything as it seems this thread is clearly more for technical improvements versus the reasons why activity has gone down so sorry about that.

Well its not a list of threads persay(sp) Its all the tech threads and removing posts that have nothing to do with fixing the problem... Ill make a thread in the mod section.