Too Spread Out!

Igor,

I think this is a fabulous sight, but I also feel that it needs concentration. While I like that you have created different 'rooms' for each car company, I think this discourages a community feel. By eliminating all these categories, or at least making far fewer by creating categories, this would make each thread get more replies and more views. Then people would get to know eachother more, would be more inclined to come back, and you would get more traffic.

I am mainly interested in German cars, so I never go into the Honda or Ferrari areas. I am sure, however, there are some very interesting people in there. By making a category like "performance cars," and in there would be BMWs and Acura Type Rs, then I would be more likely to interact with the whole AF community.

I get this idea from an unexpected place: The AppleInsider.com forums (forums.appleinsider.com). I'm by no means a computer techie, but I stumbled into these forums. They have an awesome community going and have thousands of members. What is so appealing is not only the topic (computers) but also the people. In your forums I don't feel like I get to know people. I suggest that you concentrate your categories to encourage more interaction.

-Pook

ps- I just checked forums.appleinsider.com and they seem to be down. Check back in a day or two, as I know they are going through a server upgrade at the moment.

While your suggestion may seem feasible, this layout serves a purpose more specific. Too many sights have grouped up there forums. This leaves out individuality which I believe, Igor, was going for. While there are many rooms in here, there already is a group that bands together and whores the coffee area. I've already made my presence felt, which is why I speak. Now, you're into german cars. I like them too. So post a few things and maybe we can start a convo and get people interested in talking. I currently own a honda but I am seriously looking into buying a GTI VR6. Holla!

But then if you want to talk about your brand new ferrari, and how great it is, you get punks with their riced-up civic saying, yeah yeah, so what? I could beat you off the line.

Originally posted by verboom
But then if you want to talk about your brand new ferrari, and how great it is, you get punks with their riced-up civic saying, yeah yeah, so what? I could beat you off the line.

But then you respond with "Who the fuck asked you or cares"!:D

Yeah, but it's still annoying.

no bitchin allowed at AF . . .

not unless you post it in the "Stress Release" forum . . . I'd say more, but you get the idea

"Post, or be ghost!"

I see nothing wrong with a Civic owner telling a new Ferrari owner that his car is superior. In fact, I think that's what forums should be all about. With that, some lively discussion could begin. Sure, it would start as simple flaming, but from there could actually have some interesting debate.

Separating people has never proven to be a wise choice. Why start here?

(yeah, maybe that's taking it just a "little" far!!) :)

You're idea is good, but there are certain concentrations of interests where people have migrated from other boards (the one that comes to mind fastest are the G20 kids!). It seems to me that it will take a while for those folks to break away from these cliques, and start looking around at the other areas AF offers. The highly categorized structure of AF lends itself to both general discussions and specific inquiries.

In the meantime I don't go anywhere near the G20 forums, even though I like the car itself. Everybody in there seems to be asking about the best lowering springs, or where to get the body kit that Joe So-and-so has on his G20.

BTW, welcome. I really like your sig.

Silver S2000,

Thank you for your comments. Before I appropriately respond, however, I need to know who the G20 kids are! As you can see, I'm new around here so I guess I missed that drama.

Just to further my original point, I just checked the BMW forum to find only one new post. I simply can't believe that in a forum full of car nuts, no one is interested enough to talk about a BMW. We are all here because of our shared love of cars- we like to talk, to speculate, and to compare. The layout of AF is such that this cannot occur to its full potential. Granted, I could go to the Porsche, Mercedes, and VW rooms and started individual threads all about the new 7-series, but I don't want to do that. I want to go into a German Cars forum, start a thread about the new 7, and hear what people off all different interests have to say!

That there are so few responses to most threads in the rooms is evidence enough that something is not working correctly. There are over 1000 registered members here; it should be easy to find a thread with more than 10 posts! It's just that there are too many places for people to go, and as a result very few of the members ever get to interact with each other.

Bring the members together! Let us hear each other's voices! I feel like I'm in a game of hide and seek to find people to talk to!

Please don't take my comments as excessivley negative. I love the site and its content, I just want to hear more voices and have more lively discussions.

-Pook


ps- Silver, I'm hapy to hear you liked Fight Club. What a cool movie!

In order for things to happen, you need to start. Clearly there is no activity because no one has anything to say. I suggest talking to friends that you may have that have those cars to sign up and start chatting. I know a little of BMW to continue a conversation. Only reason I haven't contributed is lack of time. So let's all help out where and when we can. Also understand that this forum is up and coming. Members are registering on a daily basis. I'm sure as the membership grows, so will the topics and threads.





I need a drink!!:cool:

I thought the same thing at one point, so I tried to prove myself wrong . . .

I purposefully went into every category, and tried to start a thread or make a comment or two about one of the vehicles under every marque.

It's cool, cuz anybody interested will respond. The responses aren't only from the owners of each car, but like you mentioned, from people who have anything to say about the cars.

The people who want to will post regardless of the format . . . those who don't want to, won't . . . regardless of the format . . .

It works like this . . . If you have something to say about the new 7 series . . . post it in the 7 series forum . . . and then you will receive replies from whoever has commentary in reference to your post.

It works if you work it . . .

Have fun . . . I am . . . ;o)

First of all, thanks for sounding your opinion,
I have 2 words for you:
PATIENCE and EFFORT.

AF.com is less than 6 months old :)
We already have almost 20,000 posts and almost 1300 members. That is good.
There are over 800 forums for each make and model, plus some misc ones. The reason I started this site in the first place is because of my love for cars and I wanted to see if this concept would work [have you seen a site anywhere close to this one as to the content it covers?]
Still many forums remain empty, but we are growing at a tremendous pace, around 300-400 posts per day. I hope that soon, we will have many many more members participating and the forums will be getting filled with new posts every minute.

Please, give it some time, and we will see how it works:D

Regards,

Igor

First, I'm not picking on anybody in particular with the remarks about the "G20 kids," it's just that that particular section has so many members talking about specific traits of their own G20s, that I'm just not interested.

It seems obvious that people will want to talk the most about the cars they like, and odds are that they like their own car best. Figuring from that, I'd think that many AF members have G20s or Maximas, and a lot have Civics and Preludes. I'd like to talk more about NSXs, but I'll bet that not many of us own one, so the only responses I get are from people like DVSNCYNIKL who made an effort (thanks, DVSNCYNIKL!) to go seek them out, because he also like NSXs, or because he was just looking for something to talk about.

It would be great if I wanted to buy a G20, because I would have plenty of G20 owners to answer my questions. But, I want to buy an MR2, and nobody's posted anything in there since 04-28-2001, so who do I ask? It's discouraging to post questions that never get answered.

I like the way everything is categorized here, because it would be super hard to find anything otherwise, but I can understand your concerns that it is over-categorized.

As for myself, I'm sure I'm missing out on something in here I'd be interested in. When I log on, I open my own profile and scan my own last posts to see if there are responses. Then I usually go to the 'View new posts' item on the index page and look for any hot topics I'd be interested in.

I would like to make a couple of recommendation to aid in navigating around AF. I'd really like a pull-down combo-box menu at the top of the message pages, maybe with all the top-level categories listed, so I could quickly jump to the, say, Honda section index. I'd also really like links on the message pages that go to the next and previous threads in that category. I think those two things would help me burn through reading the treads on here.

Hit me back with your own suggestions and comments, and let me know what you guys think. ;)

S2K

(BTW: the spell checker wants me to change "G20s" to "G-string!" maybe then I'd go post in there! ;) )

Originally posted by Silver S2000
I'd like to talk more about NSXs, but I'll bet that not many of us own one, so the only responses I get are from people like DVSNCYNIKL who made an effort (thanks, DVSNCYNIKL!) to go seek them out, because he also like NSXs, or because he was just looking for something to talk about.


S2K

(BTW: the spell checker wants me to change "G20s" to "G-string!" maybe then I'd go post in there! ;) )

No, Thank you! My only suggestion to you is, post something, I know a little of everything. I am always reading(what a loser) and find interesting things constantly that have questions. Plus I am eager to learn more. What better way than to jump in a convo I know nothing about and just ask away or run the mouth. I always help out when I can. I have general know-how on cars, general knowledge on most cars, and what I don't have, I have books on and can reference them to answer any and all questions. I am an avid car enthusiast. I like all cars no matter what the critics say. So if NSX's is your thing, post away, I'm sure you'll get a response from me, good or bad, and we can get more people involved. By the way, you might want to check what I wrote in the MR2 forum. :uhoh: