Structure

[Gary Lewis]

We need to think through the structure of the forum and any sub-forums.  (The way I understand Nabble's sub-forum idea they would be like Engines, Interior, Tires, etc.  But, there's a good discussion of that here.)

Man, oh MAN!  What I would give for the ability to create a bulleted list with indentions right now!!!!  But the way I'm thinking is we would have something like:

  Engines:
     300 Six
     Windsor (265?, 302, & 351W)
     335 Series
     Diesel
     385 Series
  Transmissions:
     Manual
     Auto
  Etc

But, we need to look around at other sites and see what we like of how they've done it.

[Gary Lewis]

I'd like to hear from y'all about the structure.  I looked around a bit and Fordification just has an Engines sub-forum where FTE has a loooong list of sub-forums by engine family.  Obviously we don't have the range of engine families that FTE does given their range of years.  But if we divide things up too much might we make it harder to manage, moderate, respond?

As for things like driveline, tires, etc, while Fordification does have sub-forums for them, on FTE we do that in General Discussion.  In fact, we do engine stuff there.  Yes, there are forums for the engines, interior, driveline, projects, etc, but unless we are looking for experts on specific things we handle them in General.  So, I'm wondering if we really want to divide things up very much.

But, others have categories that Bullnose FTE doesn't have, like Shows & Events, Trivia, and even a website and forum feedback sub-forum.  I especially like the latter, but any of it could be handled in General.

So, we need to think through how many sub-forums and of what type we want to have.  Yes, we can add later, but it would be good to start out with some structure, and if we think many of the recruits are going to be FTE'ers then perhaps we should make it feel like home?

Oh, and there are the stickies.  Chris - This is your opportunity.  

[Ford F834]

Gary, I believe This may be an unpopular opinion, but I do not see much reason to divide bullnose forum discussions into sub forums. The FTE bullnose board covers all engines and topics and does not, in my opinion, generate an unwieldy volume of threads. What I like about the sub forums on FTE is the ability to unite readers that otherwise probably wouldn't find each other's posts. For instance the straight six engine is in six different body style eras, but I wouldn't normally comb through all six F-series forums looking for prominent straight six discussions, and I wouldn't post in all six to get a question answered. The straight six sub forum is therefore an elegant solution to reach a diverse audience. However, if this group is like Fordification in scope (one body style), then a post in a sub forum will not reach anyone who is not already reading the general discussion category, no? Would a bullnose three-on-the-tree sub forum reach any more readers or generate any more replies than posting in the general discussion section? Unless the forum grew and the scope was expanded to other F-series generations I don't really see a benefit. I guess from a browsing/archiving standpoint categorization helps you to find things, but from a user standpoint I might miss things if I had to open up several sub forums to check for new activity rather than just one central list. I'm sure there are other aspects that I haven't thought of, but these are just some considerations that came to mind.

Oh, and I am a huge fan of the FTE stickies, FAQ's, and linked tech threads/how-to threads. I use them often and I like to refer them to others as a quick way to give a thorough answer. This feature is a must!

[Gary Lewis]

Jonathan - Thanks for the clear thinking.  I believe you've stated the conclusion I've been coming to regarding sub-forums - that we don't want to have too many of them.  And what I've created already is probably too much.

Let me propose this:

• Bullnose Forum: This is the main part of the forum itself, and instead of having a General Discussion sub-forum the general threads would be in this forum, right below the following sub-forums - which are pinned to the top so they don't get lost.
• FAQ's & How-To's sub-forum: Chris has some ideas on this sub-forum having tried to re-organize the FTE ones.  (One of his frustration points with FTE.)  But, while we do need the sub-forum I'm not sure what will be in the sub-forum.  I say that because one of my realizations is that the interactive nature of threads is not a good way to document, but a web page is.  So, I have some how-to's in the other part of the web site and would suggest that is where they belong.  It is much easier to lay out a web page with pictures alongside the text, tables, etc on a web page.  So, maybe the FAQ/How-To sub-forum would be a list of links to the true FAQ's and how-to's elsewhere?
• Garage/Shop & Tools sub-forum: Do we even need this?  Guys could start a thread about their own shop, as Bill/Lebaront2 has done and that thread could be in the general forum.  Or, maybe better, it could go in a Projects sub-forum?
• Shows sub-forum: Would it be helpful to have one place where people list the upcoming shows?  Or, might we not do that initially and add it as/if needed?  How many shows are there going to be?
• Projects sub-forum: Fordification has a sub-thread on projects.  But FTE doesn't so I have had to keep my own external index on my many threads on Dad's truck or I have to search the general section to find my thread that I want to update.  However, if we had a Projects sub-forum where each guy could have a sub-forum within it we wouldn't have to keep track of where are threads are.  For instance, within the Projects sub-forum we could do it by user, such as:
• Jonathan's Projects:
• 1981 Manual Straight Six 4x4
• Short Bed 4-Door Diesel
• David's Projects:
• Gas Mileage Recipe - 4.9L/300
• Chris' Projects:
• Garage Redo Takes Over House!  😁
• Gary's Projects:
• Dad's Truck:
• Engine
• Interior
• Transmission
• Big Blue

Thoughts, y'all?

On Sun, Aug 6, 2017 at 10:26 AM, Ford F834 [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Gary, I believe This may be an unpopular opinion, but I do not see much reason to divide bullnose forum discussions into sub forums. The FTE bullnose board covers all engines and topics and does not, in my opinion, generate an unwieldy volume of threads. What I like about the sub forums on FTE is the ability to unite readers that otherwise probably wouldn't find each other's posts. For instance the straight six engine is in six different body style eras, but I wouldn't normally comb through all six F-series forums looking for prominent straight six discussions, and I wouldn't post in all six to get a question answered. The straight six sub forum is therefore an elegant solution to reach a diverse audience. However, if this group is like Fordification in scope (one body style), then a post in a sub forum will not reach anyone who is not already reading the general discussion category, no? Would a bullnose three-on-the-tree sub forum reach any more readers or generate any more replies than posting in the general discussion section? Unless the forum grew and the scope was expanded to other F-series generations I don't really see a benefit. I guess from a browsing/archiving standpoint categorization helps you to find things, but from a user standpoint I might miss things if I had to open up several sub forums to check for new activity rather than just one central list. I'm sure there are other aspects that I haven't thought of, but these are just some considerations that came to mind.

Oh, and I am a huge fan of the FTE stickies, FAQ's, and linked tech threads/how-to threads. I use them often and I like to refer them to others as a quick way to give a thorough answer. This feature is a must!

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[Gary Lewis]

Oh, and I forgot to respond on the "I might miss things if I had to open up several sub forums to check for new activity rather than just one central list."  I have a box checked somewhere such that I get an email for every single thing that happens on the forum.  So, I don't have to look for anything - it comes knocking on my inbox.  That will surely become too much if/when we go live with other users, but it sure helps now.

My guess is you don't have that box checked.  I'm thinking I checked it at the Bullnose Forum level so I'll get everything regardless.  But, it looks like you can check it on a by-forum basis, so you could pick and chose which ones you want emailed on.  And, you can chose to get an email for every individual thing, or a roll-up at the end of the day.

[Gary Lewis]

And, here's what your inbox can look like after having created those project forums I suggested.  

[Ford F834]

Gary, the email notification thing is too much for me. I used to have it turned on at FTE but as I became more active it overloaded my inbox and I had to turn it off. However, it looks like Nabble may allow you to check the email notification box on a thread by thread basis? If this is the case, that is an awesome improvement over FTE's all or nothing email-on/email-off format. My life is just too busy to deal with that many emails, even if it is just to glance through them as I clear them out, and reminds me too much of being at work. This is especially true when an active thread can generate 20+ emails for 20+ new responses in one day. I prefer to just browse the forum and see which threads have new activity.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, you can subscribe at any level you want. Just go into the level you want and click on Options/Subscribe via Email. So you can subscribe to a topic/thread, or the forum it is in, or the forum above that or,,,, all the way up to the main Bullnose Forum.

[ctubutis]

I agree, keep the number of "subforums" minimal - zero would be my suggestion, create new ones based on user demand. Along the lines of FTE, there are (were?) moderators who felt that all engine-related problems need to be in an engine forum, transmission issues in said specific forum, etc. I really don't like splitting stuff out like that, and I rarely go to any other (sub)forums and hardly have time for what I have already. Point being, the initial audience is going to be SMALL and I don't want to regain carpal tunnel or repetetive stress or whatever you want to call it to click around just to read peoples' questions that are in a "proper" category/location. Besides, IIRC this Nabble thing is really underpowered and doesn't allow us to keep much stuff "live" before it becomes archived (or something similar as I recall, read it real fast). ~~ The FAQ/Howtos forums... Yes, web pages are LOTS better than what I could do on FTE subforums. I like Franklin2's initial idea - make a searchable/scrollable index at the start - like a Table of Contents in a book - and provide the necessary documentation below that. Some of my stuff on FTE subforums is dedicated documentation, some is just threads with good information, some is links to multiple places offering different views/aspects of the same information. I spent about a year putting that stuff together, it's all based on the Sticky organization (which I got from a former Mod named Scott (Horsepuller) the guy who pulled me into FTE mod-dum to begin with). But I digress....

[ctubutis]

I am NOT going to go fix that huge block mess, *it* did that, I created properly-spaced paragraphs but something about making messages in HTML does that.

Annoying. Very.

[Gary Lewis]

LOL!  Yes, there are oddities in the the editor that I haven't figured out yet.  So, I don't check the HTML box on messages.

As for the FAQ's, et al, I think we are in agreement.  I'll take on the task of creating the links, but I would like help in what links we should have.  So, if any of you know of good info that we needs links to, please post them.  And I'm going to do them in the description field, unless it can't handle the length this will get to or if it isn't searchable as the posts/topics are.

Also, let's use the other part of my web site to document things, like how-to's, FAQ's, etc.  But, we need to find a balance between placing a link to everything on my web site in the FAQ's, and not placing a link to any of them.

On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 12:10 AM, ctubutis [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <[hidden email]> wrote:

I am NOT going to go fix that huge block mess, *it* did that, I created properly-spaced paragraphs but something about making messages in HTML does that.

Annoying. Very.

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