Project section?

Sandrew

Sandrew

Estonian XS rider
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Think it'd be nice to have a section under "the garage" where all the projects are stored. Sometimes just get the feeling to read someones documentation and see some shots of the action but there are too many QA and maintenance threats so it's quite hard too select out the "right" ones. I know about the "topics" section but it's not the same.

Just my humble opinion.


Sander
 
That's the problem with tags, it messes thing up, people aren't using them correctly. For instant I took a quick look at the "build" section and there was already a thread called "polishing". How is that a build? I get the feeling that tags are used to get more hits via search like in youtube.

But if there was a subforum where you manually have to enter your topic it would keep the trash away.
 
I think we just need to teach people how to use the tags. Maybe I could make the interface more clear? I just need to learn to program better.

One problem with adding more forums is that people put things in the wrong forums all the time... so that creates more work in moving things around (even this thread was originally in The Lounge). Another problem is threads are about more than one thing. Let's say there were a forum for build threads (projects), and also a forum for choppers, one for bobbers, and one for trackers, where would a build thread about a tracker go? The way things are setup, you can put that thread into both categories. It's not perfect but neither is creating tons of specific forums. I know you are only asking for one, but that might make things more confusing if most things were posted in the garage using tags to categorize them, and one or two things had subforums. :shrug: I like being able to put things in more than one category and the best I could come up with for now is using the tagging system to do it.

By the way, anyone with more than 3 posts can add and remove tags (even on other peoples' threads) and help keep things cleaned up on the site. Think of a thread's tags like the categories it belongs in. In my opinion, it should only have 1 or 2 of the main tags used in The Garage (I call them primary tags), and the rest (I call secondary tags) should be more specific about what the thread is about.

Have you read this? The Garage Forum Topics and Categories (Tags). There is some great information in there as well as in that whole section: Site How-To Articles

I'll try to go through and clean some of the threads up that shouldn't have the build tag and see if that helps.
 
I just took a quick look through the threads tagged with 'build', and besides a couple of stray threads that I took care of, that "category" looks pretty on-topic. :)
 
I run a couple of forums and am a member on several. I understand the desire to have the posters help cary the load of organizing. But honestly would much prefer a few simple categories instead of (or to supplement) the tag idea.

I think a "build" section is a very common practice and one that new users look for and expect to see.

Just my humble vote for a few of the "common" categories.
 
I tend to agree with travis on this one, you could create new forums all day long. Not to say this idea is a bad idea or anything though. Also if you look at some of the build threads they dont always start out as a build thread in the title so you would then have to move it over when it does turn into one.
 
Sure, no one wants endless categories but 3 or 4 would be nice. Again it seems the most common way of doing it so as a result most comfortable to new members.

I think tags are great if all you want to do is use the form as a research resource. But if you want to promote more of a community where people drop in regularly and check out what is new in various areas i think it hinders that. Most of the forums i go to, i do daily. And i "drop" in to each category that has new threads. If i see a category that does not have much going on, it can encourage me to contribute something. On here i just end up in "general" where everything is in in one big clump.

Funny i ended up in this thread because i expected it to be general "how to" posts about the XS...

Thanks again for a great resource.
 
I think I understand what you're saying. You like to see that last post column in the list of forums without having to click on each category to see which ones have new posts. Maybe a good compromise would be if I can figure out how to show the last post for each category we have now in The Garage. I just need a programmer to help me. Anyone want to volunteer their services?
 
drewpy said:
I just click on "new posts" and read everything that comes up. keeps me up to date!
Click to expand...

That is the opposite direction from what we are asking. That way the whole thing ia a jumbled mess. (geez - i never knew i was so anal...)

Travis - i think that would be a cool improvement.

Still i know we are picking nits. It's a great resource, even just as is.

Thanks again:thumbsup:
 
Totally agree with WT100, this is what I meant.
Build section, don matter if cafe, bobber etc, just one place for all the builds, for example dotheton.com (just without the subforums as we don't have that many builds as in there).
 
im liking this new idea for build threads. the problem i see is moving dead threads into there that havent reached 2 pages yet, and havent been updated in like 7 months. i may be guilty of the latter. but maybe leave it up to the community? if your thread is really your build thread, and if you want it moved into the new section, you can request it?

and as for the different threads that pop up under build, or threads that morph into build threads, XSchris's "build thread" started as his intro, and morphed into a 2 bike build thread. not really sure of where im going with that one, just stating an example of how threads can be completely different from the original post and/or topic
 
I'll toss in my $0.02 as a new member. My favorite part of every forum I'm a member of is reading build threads, the ones that go from start to now (or finish). It is discouraging to read through a build thread to find it was abandoned to start another thread because the guy finished working on the frame and started working on wheels, etc. When that happens it can be tough to make sure you're catching all the threads that would make up the whole build. Drewpy's build for example.

What seems to work well on a lot of forums is using user names in the subject of each build thread. For example, I might start "Evan's '78 XS400 Cafe build" or if I decide to name the project the subject might be "Evan's project 'Lucky Penny'" or something like that. What we would end up with is basically a collection of blogs that would give new members a really good idea of the challenges, successes and community support they should expect.
 

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