Camaro Subforums

Hey guys and gals,

Your friendly AF admin staff would like your input on an idea we all had. (shocking i know) ;) anyway, from what i hear the camaro forum is a pretty active forum on AF with quite a bit of traffic, and so we have been getting some attention thrown our way. Im sure that you have noticed alot of newbies asking questions about often answered subjects, and not knowing how to search the forum for the answers they are after. Well, in responce to this kind of activity, and in a general attempt to organize the forum as a whole, the administrators and moderators have been discussing the idea of subforums in the camaro section. Some ideas for subforums have been engine, suspension, bodywork, drivetrain, and perhaps even a forum on restoration facts and figures, such as RPO codes, build sheet decoding, how to decode a VIN number, that kinda stuff. Also if we choose to do this, i will be willing to make a sticky and locked FAQ thread at the top of each forum to cover the most commonly discussed topics. However we would like input from the members on this in regard to what you thought of the idea. Naturally the general forum would remain unchanged, and we would still have the same community, but the subforums would do a great deal to organize our community into a more effective technical reference for people with problems that need answers. Feel free to post ideas here or PM me with comments or questions regarding this.

-Erik

Dont know how much weight a noob like me pulls but the forum are great but seem unorganized at times

sounds like a plan.

A subforum for FAQ's and commonly asked info and such (years, engine sizes horsepower, rpo codes, etc etc etc.. all the general info) restoration info would be great.. Somewhere newb's can go to get anything they need to know..

I dont think it needs to go as far as to branch off into different aspects like suspension, bodywork, drivetrain.. etc etc.. most questions asked on the forum are usually drivetrain associated, so you'd have a bunch of dead sub-forums, and than one or two sub-forums that looks like our camaro forum does now..

my 2 psi

A lot of other sites have sub forums, and it seems that if you post on one of them that isn't popular, you probably won't get an answer for like a week. I like this forum because when I post something I usually get an answer in about 5 to 30 mins max, and it's usually useful.

well what about just 2 subforums, Technical and General


Technical of course being tech questions, problem solving, troubleshooting, etc...

and General being basic camaro discussion like the opinion polls, "which car is faster" threads and so on.

i am with geno except add a rant/video section

yeah i agree with genopsyde. Sure sometimes this forum is cluttered but making too many sub-forums i think would be a waste coz i really think many of them will go unused. Having 2 subsections on the other hand is not a bad idea at all, I think thats the best option so far.

well what about just 2 subforums, Technical and General


Technical of course being tech questions, problem solving, troubleshooting, etc...

and General being basic camaro discussion like the opinion polls, "which car is faster" threads and so on.
:1:

aight guys, so what were saying is rather than specific sub forums, were looking at something along the lines of...

General
Tech info
performance mods
*rant/vid*

* ill have to see if we can get support for this from the other mods, ill bring it up but no promises, we dont want to in any way condone an *off topic* thread in the sub forums.

sounding niiice...
BTW this forum seems to have a better democracy than our country at times lol

i'd figure performance mods and tech in the same section.

General, tech/performance, FAQs, and the "rant/vid" if possible

i dunno, i love this forum, so many ppl that actually reply to ur questions/comments! its great knowning ppl r here to help, and in most times, have fun and joke around, me personaly i'd like to see the forums stay the way they are, i think their good! just have a sticky topic saying how to search for answers b4 they post about them.

but when I look and the entire front page is all new replies, well a little breakdown wouldnt be bad

aight guys, so what were saying is rather than specific sub forums, were looking at something along the lines of...

General
Tech info
performance mods
*rant/vid*

* ill have to see if we can get support for this from the other mods, ill bring it up but no promises, we dont want to in any way condone an *off topic* thread in the sub forums.

Looks like a good plan, I agree less sub-forums will be better.

Look at it this way if we try something and it sucks or doesn't work we can always change it back or improve on it now that we have an active admin.

Looks like a good plan, I agree less sub-forums will be better.

Look at it this way if we try something and it sucks or doesn't work we can always change it back or improve on it now that we have an active admin.


agreed




and happy bday by the way ;)

<begin thread hijack>
/\thanks but it sucked fought with the old lady all weekend.

<end>thread hijack :)

the fewer the better, im too lazy to read through multiple subforums. more important than subforums in my opinion is those threads that mods make that stick at the top of the list, maybe one or two of those explaining basic things, like posting pics, searching forums, or frequently asked topics, things along those lines...

The General, Tech, Performance sub-forums are a great idea but I would still sticky the same FAQ in all of them.

This is from a thread where I am batting around adding sub forums as well, do you think that the camero forum would work well with a setup like this?



Okay, from what I gather, it sounds like its best to do the following:

When you click on the DSM forum it will open up an there will be listed at the top the sub forums.

1. Performance (Engine/Drivetrain/Suspension)
2. Non-Peformance (Interior/Exterior)
3. Problem Diagnosis

Then below will be the regular posting area like it is now. Essentially we are turning the main forum into the newb talk, off topic sub forum. Then there will be the specific subforums.

What do you guys think?

-Jacob

Give it a go, we can always make changes as needed.

strictly out of curiosity, will the forum be down for any extended period of time during the restructuring?

There should be no downtime. The new forums will be created seamlessly and turned on when they are setup and ready to go.

good deal

Alright, I'll throw up an announcement about the new subforums before I put them up so everyone knows whats going one. But if you guys that have been posting in this thread, mods and members, can kinda point the other members towards using the new forums and to help avoid confusion that would be a huge benefit.

Thanks,
-Jacob

alright man, thanks!

We talked about this a few months ago and I still say once we (the camaro guys) do this we will be just like all the other forums out there. We'll have people replying go look in the FAQ's instead of just answering the question at hand. So what if someone asks a question thats been asked 100 times before, we've always answered them before and should keep things the way they are/were. Remember guys were the Camaro forum not all the rest, thats why were the best here in AF. Lets keep it the way its always been, its more user freindlly and fun that way .............................

you know, I never thought about it like that tardster, and what you said makes a lot of sense.

well, made this unsticky cuz we have the sub forums now, but remember guys, this is a trial run, if it dosnt work, or if the majority dosnt like it, we can always change it back.