Forum Additions and Enhancements

[Mark E.]

Re: Forum Additions and Enhancements

btt. Would be great to hear from someone (NCRS) on this in the near future..someone who can help make it happen. I can't think of anything that would come remotely close to benefiting the entire membership by providing basic communication tools. It has been said the officers understandably have such a tool. How about he membership they serve? no? I am offering my experience and time to help with this. I see it as nothing short of dramatically changing the entire organization for the better. Is that of interest?
Kind regards,
Keith

I know virtually nothing about how decisions are made by NCRS leadership, but discussing this with your chapter president and regional director may be a good start. If they're supportive they can advise the best way to turn this into a presentable motion for the board.

[Mark E.]

Re: Forum Additions and Enhancements

While we're brainstorming...

What if the extensive wisdom in the TDB was organized and easily viewed using a detailed, structured set of categories (similar to a table of contents in a service manual, or the RockAuto category tree)?

An existing example: The Ford Model A Club has a "Technical Q&A" section organized by topic (engine, chassis, paint,...). Content comes from common questions in their forum.

One approach: Standardize and expand category taxonomy with more granularity and levels (for example, Engine ==> Small Block ==> Valve Train); categorize the most popular threads with consistency; then create the ability to view threads by category.

The result is a wealth of existing information organized in an intuitive, easy to browse way.

I'm not an IT guy but this seems like a low budget project, but would take some labor. My guess is a handful of volunteers could do this in a few months working a couple hours a week. This would involve defining the category taxonomy, labeling the most popular threads, then updating TDB so content can be viewed by category. Maintenance would involve making sure new threads are properly categorized (this could be an ongoing role for moderators).

Do you think members would find this of value? For me, the information buried in TDB is invaluable and exclusive to this site. It deserves to be more accessible. (As a benefit of membership, maybe make this TDB feature available only to members logged in.)

[Owen L.]

Re: Forum Additions and Enhancements

Do you think members would find this of value? For me, the information buried in TDB is invaluable and exclusive to this site. It deserves to be more accessible. (As a benefit of membership, maybe make this TDB feature available only to members logged in.)

Anything that makes searching easier and more intuitive would be a huge benefit. My search efforts always turn up vast quantities of info I don't want and little of what I do. I've read the how-to search document a number of times but it is still clunky and non-intuitive when forming the search query. I generally resort to using Google's site: search but that method isn't great either.

[Ray M.]

Re: Forum Additions and Enhancements

Far too many whistles bells and bacgground computer type gibberish. Alot of smart folks here very detail oriented which is reflected un fine restorations etc. No disrespect intended buuutt.. some dont wish to invest in a semester learning to navigate. Way over thought.
Frankly most info can be found much more readily by a google search. Ive spiken with several guys who have been pur iff by
site and dropped out. As info I was a member back in US mail and phone call days and I found it pleasant.
Slower paced maybe but less frustrating.