Forum & Website Suggestions

[Gary Lewis]

This topic is to capture suggestions from users for either the website itself or the forum.  Let's see those ideas!  

[Gary Lewis]

Just a few thoughts to kick off this thread. We need to consider a picture album capability for the users. Nabble has one so I'll have a go at it in a day or so, but need to think through where it should go. I'm leaning to it being on a different page than the forum, but....  Anyway, I'll see what it is like.

Next, you may have noticed that I've added Big Blue's pic to the top of the page. That's really just a placeholder for something, and I know not what. FTE has the outline drawings of two Ford trucks superimposed, but what if we had a logo of an outline drawing of a Bullnose truck?  WilleyJoe did one some time ago but lost it in a hard drive crash, but maybe we can get him to do another one - if we think that is a good idea. Thoughts?

What else can or should be done to make it feel welcoming?

[CountryBumkin]

I know a lot of people have saved links to Gary's Garagemahal. I've seen links and references to your site on other forums too, like the Full Size Bronco forum.

When I was trying to find this forum, I first went to the Garagemahal but couldn't find any mention or link to this forum.

You might want to consider putting a link there so others can easily locate this forum.

Another suggestion - at the bottom of each page there is a "Edit This Page" link. I was trying to edit my earlier post and click that button. It looks like one could mess up the page with that link. I think it should only be visible to Moderators.  But maybe no harm can be done - i didn't try messing with anything on the page.

[Gary Lewis]

Mike - Welcome to the Bullnose Forum!  

We aren't quite ready to "go live" so purposefully don't have a link in the navigation. As of now we have only 10 members, although two more (Don/WhatsAChevy, and Rick/Lariat 85) have been invited. And, if you know of others that can help us get things "right" then let's invite them.  But, when we think we have a structure that works and are ready to help others then we will put a link in the navigation menu. So, please poke around and tell us what we need before going live.

Anyway, we are working on how to organize, and even call, the folder of Resource Links. And the folder of Projects. So please jump in and suggest away!  

As for the Edit This Page link, I don't know what harm could come from that. But I'll ask the outfit that does the forum itself - Nabble.

Oh yes, links elsewhere to the Garagemahal. Yes, I know FSB and some others have apparently put links to it on their sites. I've seen referrals to my site start going up, and FSB is one of them.

[kr98664]

Does this forum have a mobile version? I do nearly all my surfing from an iPhone or tablet. The iPhone in particular has a lot of trouble, constantly getting kicked off, forcing me to sign back in multiple times.

[Gary Lewis]

KR - Yes and no. There isn't the very different mobile version that IB/FTE have that looks completely different and doesn't append the signature when you post. But there is a mobile-enhanced feature that is supposed to make things better for mobile users - and I have that turned in.

But, I'm not sure that what you are seeing is really a mobile-device problem. There's a known problem that is under investigation where you are signed on but it asks you to sign on again. You'll know that is the case when you see your handle in the upper right, meaning you are signed on, but it is also asking for your email addy and password. In that case you can usually click on Bullnose Enthusiasts above and go right on to the forum. Or, a couple of times that didn't work and I just clicked on my name and then My Posts.

Does that work?

[CountryBumkin]

I spend too  much time on the various forums (DIY, AV, Auto, etc.) and the setup I like is:

1)  the main forum is where the member's ask their questions. When you go to the Forum that is the first page you see.
2) Sub-forum for "FAQ and HOW TOs". Not open to post questions - just read only.
3) Sub-forum for "Everything Else"  (Things Not Related to Bullnoses) (place for member questions on forum issues, political discussion, whatever)
4) Sub-forum for "Wanted or For Sale" (optional if not too much trouble - as we discussed on FTE).
5) If you want, a separate sub-forum for "Member Introductions".

** On this forum, I would move all the introductions and non-truck questions off the front page (main forum) to one of the subforums.
 
I would copy some of the HOW TOs from the FTE site  over to here (or recreate them) but many of the FTE "How-Tos" and "FAQ" are not worth copying (as they have broken links, missing photos, and too many unrelated posts mixed in.  A "How To", IMO, should just be step-by-step instructions and not a copy of an entire thread where the instructions are mixed throughout two dozen posts. Of course its more work to have a clean thread. If you add a "How To" section, I would be happy to help by creating new posts for use here from the subjects/info from the old FTE posts (but leaving out the garbage).

[Gary Lewis]

Mike - Good info & suggestions. Let me see if I understand:

4 Sub-forums: We currently have 6 sub-forums, but I planned for the Startup one to disappear before we "go live", meaning make it visible in the nav menu and open the doors to everyone to see. But, what if Garage/Shop & Tools was turned into a thread called something like Tools, Tools, Give Me More Tools?  Or Tool Reviews?  Or Tool Discussions?  And, Forum Suggestions could either be a thread or at least un-pinned and float down the page until it goes to the back pages. That would actually get us down to three pinned sub-forums. Thoughts?

Intro's & Non-Truck: The intro threads that are currently there will naturally migrate to back pages as we have more threads, but I could delete them if they are a problem. I don't think there's anything important in them, so deleting them shouldn't be an issue.

FAQ's, How-To's, Etc: As discussed elsewhere, I'm hoping that forum can be just set of links to the actual How-To's because we can do such a better job of documenting on a web page than in a thread. The formatting on a web page is dramatically better. And the idea was to have a really clean set of links up top, which is the description of the forum, and then let the users suggest how-to's, and links thereunto, in threads. Then I'd move those into the clean set of links as time allows. But, if you are ready to do how-to's then let's get you a web page set up for each how-to, make you the editor, and go for it. Doing the work is easy on Weebly so, are you ready?

[CountryBumkin]

Gary,
The Garage/Shop & Tools sub-forum (as currently titled) is a good idea. I like that. i forgot about it when I was posting my thoughts. I don't expect here will be a lot of activity (i don't recall much Tool discussion on the other forums I frequent) but it may help someone.

I don't know how much space or bandwidth you have for this forum, but if you could have the important FAQs and How Tos residing on this forum rather than a link, it would be better, because then you can be sure the info is always available if the link disappears (you have no control over the info on the other end of the link). Point being - most of the FTE How Tos and FAQ seem to be broken.
But you can start with a "listing of links" and then just deal with issues and broken links as they come up.

[Gary Lewis]

Mike - Since this forum is on my web site any how-to's we create on this site will always be there.  But, the forum itself is only one page on the site, so the how-to's can't really be "on the forum" - if that makes sense.

However, since the forum is on my site and we have the navigation menu available when you are looking at anything on "the forum", we could create a page called something like How-To's that would shown in the nav menu, and then have each how-to under that page.

Hmmm!  If this site were dedicated to Bullnose trucks, then the nav menu could enhance or even replace some of the "stickies". Currently it is probably confusing that there are other nav items beyond our trucks. Yes?  Would or could that help?

[CountryBumkin]

I'm not sure what your saying - but I trust that you know the best way to get all these forum parts working.I was only thinking that if you only provided a "link" from this forum's "HOW TO" page to another place the internet, if that other place ever goes away, the link is no good and the info can't be reached.For example "How to swap in a 3G alternator" - that info could be in step-by-step instructions in a separate  on this forum (such as in a thread called "3G Swap" where you open the thread and everything is there (all the pictures, etc.). Or you open the thread and you see something like this "for doing a 3G swap click here  https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1120352-3g-alternator-swap-with-pics-parts-tips-and-costs-2.html " in which case all of the info is on someone else's site.Maybe it is not possible to have the actual step-by-step and pictures on the this site in a single thread - and it is just more efficient to link to someone else's site. I suppose as long the person gets the info the need it doesn't matter where the info came from.

[Gary Lewis]

Mike - Do me a favor, please, and go to the Resource Links sub-forum.  There compare the example bulleted list at the top with General and Body and Electrical to the first topic/thread below that.  To my way of thinking it is better to have a clean bulleted list up top and for the user to not need to open up any threads to find what s/he is looking for.  Yes, a user could create a thread or post in an existing thread to suggest another link to needed documentation, but at some point I would migrate that into the bulleted list up top and delete the threads as I think they clutter things up.

Now, for where things reside.  I suggest they be on my web site, which is where the forum is.  But not actually in the forum.  Here's an example - check out my how-to on making an ICVR or Cash's how-to on replacing the vent window vs the thread you linked.  Both of those how-to's are on my web site and are easily edited, updated, enhanced, etc.  And, you can see in Cash's how we used smaller side-by-side pics with pop-up captions.  And there are lots of other ways of presenting the information on a web page that are not available in a thread.

So, I think the how-to's ought to be done "right" and put on my web site.  (The forum takes up one of hundreds of pages on my web site.)  I'm happy to give anyone of you a page and knight you as editor of that page so you can write up a how-to - or 30.

However, as we are getting started I can see placing links to other web sites or forums that have documentation that we don't have.  There's no need to recreate the wheel if we find a good one.  Yes, that puts us at their mercy.  For instance, Bubba's site went away, as did that good site that had schematics - IJR?  But there are sites that capture images of old site, like those two, so the stuff hangs around.  Or, we can recreate some of it.

Does that make sense?

[CountryBumkin]

Yes. I get it now. The data will be on your website - so it is owned/controlled by you. Good plan

[Gary Lewis]

Yep!  I plan to maintain the site forever and, assuming it is good enough to do so, will put it in my will so someone(s) get it when I pass.  The cost is minimal and the usage is starting to grow, so apparently it is useful.

So, are you ready to write up a 3G conversion?  Mine the available info that is out there, and use some of your own, to make a better how-to than is available elsewhere?  If you look you'll see that there is a new page that needs a bit more than an "Under Construction" sign.  I can make you the editor for that page and then tell you how to make something happen on it.  What say?  

[CountryBumkin]

Sure. I'll do a 3G conversion write up.

Do I make one long post with step-by-step directions and photos, or do it as a bunch of separate posts, or some other method? Is there a preference?

Do I do this on my computer and upload when done, or do you have thread or post I should start in?

[Gary Lewis]

Since the ultimate goal is to have it as a page on the web site and not as a post in the forum, the easiest approach for you is to write it up in email and attach the pictures.  But that doesn't give you the ability to position the pictures, so you could put the pics in the body of the email, although most email systems won't give you the ability to do 2 or more pics side-by-side like the web page will.  But you could write it up and tell me in the body where you want each pic, maybe by saying "(Put pic XYZ here.)"

Or, if you are good with Word, you could lay it out as you want it in a Word document and then I'll transpose that into the page.  That's actually the better way as it allows you to work on the document over several days and come back to add, change, etc at will.  You wouldn't even have to embed the pics, just tell me where each one goes.  And speaking of them, please include the pics as attachments to the transmittal email as extracting them from a document doesn't always give the best results.

And, when I put it in a page we can have just one long page, or we can break it into tabs.  (Look at Exhaust Systems to see an example.)  For instance one tab could be something like Overview where you tell why to go 3G; and then a tab called Which Alternator where you tell what to look for at the salvage; and then Wiring (within which there could be a tab With Ammeter, one With Idiot Light, and one with 2G since I think some of the later trucks came with them) where you tell how to wire it for each scenario; and then Mounting where you tell how to bend the arm just a bit and how to "clock" the alternator if needed.

Anyway, those are just ideas to tell you what can be done, but how to do it is up to you.

[CountryBumkin]

Okay.
I set it up in a Word document, and you can add to your site.

[ctubutis]

OK, I'm real late here, it's been several days but that's OK.

Overall, I like what people are suggesting you (Gary) do here.

The FTE FAQs and HOWTOs, some are better than others... some are full-blown documentation efforts, other entries are merely discussion threads that contain good information but contain lots of noise & static (and broken links and pictures these days).

My general feelings are:

- Use the garagemahal site for documentation efforts, little danger of stuff breaking because of changes made by the service provider(s).

- I am not abandoning FTE in the least, I will continue there as I have all along.

But I hope to refer people to HERE for documentation on how to do one or another thing.

I have no intention of getting involved in Q & A, forum-type of discussion here, at least for the foreseeable future; we have that capability on FTE with an existing user base that I'm not going to try and move to anyplace else.

Despite all of FTE's problems, I am part of it's back-end staff and will continue that way, no way am I going to abandon it and all those people merely to come here and try to do the same thing using brand-new (relative term, new to me), incomplete, low-grade software hosted by a "free" provider who is going to inject advertising & user tracking/measuring... no, I'm not gonna go there, at least right now.

We have discussion capabilities and a large, international audience with FTE, I want to use that resource rather than abandon it to try and do "our own" thing, I have too much going on in my life to spread myself so thin. It will take years to get the number & variety of people as "regular contributing members" and there is simply too much other stuff going on to sit around and wait (or try and make it happen).

My feelings, for what they're worth.

[ctubutis]

Same stuff, stated differently...

I began my documentation efforts on FTE before I ever met you, Gary, the first thing I did as a mod is create the stickies (in 80-86, 335 engine, and Escape/Mariner forums that I have).

I was looking for a way to create step-by-step instruction sheets with pictures but using today's technology with hyperlinking to other resources in the world (how the name World Wide Web came about).

And the first time I met you, I showed you the subforums I was working on where my hope was to replace the stickies with those things.

Implementing those things took years, and I totally understand the frustrations in dealing with IB/FTE.

And stuff changed over time - security vulnerabilities that got covered up (not really *fixed* but merely removing certain functions from users keeps a lot of abuse from happening) and browser capabilities have evolved, we now have Ajax and HTML 5 for example.

But they eventually came online and they themselves were subsequently broken as stuff evolved, just like all such Internet-related resources will break as stuff evolves.

Jim mentioned listserv... gawd, it's been 20 years since I've used any listserv stuff, the WWW replaced all that push technology with user-induced, pull technology.

~~

Point being, yes, I see you're getting a little bit of forum traffic on your site (I forgot about those metrics, YouTube/Google does the same thing for me and my youtube channel).

But it's insanely small; come see me when you're getting a 1 million+ unique visitors per day and you need to manage all that stuff.

FTE forums have a large, established user base with lots of traffic... use that stuff for what you can, don't abandon it because of perceived personality difficulties with FTE/IB staff & business objectives.

[Gary Lewis]

Chris - I appreciate your comments.  However, I suggest we don't discuss issues with FTE here "in the open".  I have a lot of friends there and appreciate all of the work that goes on, behind the scenes as well as in front of it.

As for a "free provider who is going to inject advertising", I've already said I will pay the freight to ensure users of the Bullnose forum do not see advertising.  When my status was not re-upped on FTE I saw ad's that embarrassed me and I'm not going to allow that to happen here.