Issues with new site?

[Antoine]

Yeh, if you look at that other forum, you'll see it's likely vBulletin, same as our old one was.

It's no big deal. If I never had it I wouldn't even think of wanting it...

I know what you mean and it's an option but in an effort to make the most of our new notification features (like push notifications) as well as keeping content in one place and also to encourage more activity on the site itself...Email notifications will not contain message content at this time.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

Thanks for the reply.

It's good to know that this platform has that feature, just for my own edification.

Regarding generating more traffic, the one obvious thing you're likely always doing is finding related websites to have MAZDAS247 links posted on. I'm sure they have lots of folks knocking on their door, just as you have folks knocking on ours.

The other thing we might do is to ask members to include MAZDAS247 in their signatures when posting on other related forums, parts websites comment sections, etc.

I don't know if there are enthusiast groups you (or forum members of those groups) could reach out to to let them know of us.

One suggestion I have would be to come up with such a list of suggestions for existing forum members and then make an event out of it. In other words, "Do this as you think about it" is not actionable, while "March Is Find-A-New-Member Month!" is focused.

 

[Antoine]

The other thing we might do is to ask members to include MAZDAS247 in their signatures when posting on other related forums, parts websites comment sections, etc.

One suggestion I have would be to come up with such a list of suggestions for existing forum members and then make an event out of it. In other words, "Do this as you think about it" is not actionable, while "March Is Find-A-New-Member Month!" is focused.

Nice...Thanks for the suggestions! Your "March Is Find-A-New-Member Month!" idea is really interesting...It could be applied to increasing activity as well with for example..."June is Post-a-How-To Month" or "February is Post-a-Resource Month" etc...Hmmm.

There is a Trophy system that is currently disabled because it doesn't seem very useful in its default form but perhaps it could be adapted for something like this...Hmmm.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

There is a Trophy system that is currently disabled because it doesn't seem very useful in its default form but perhaps it could be adapted for something like this...Hmmm.

Yeh, I was gonna mention the possibility of some Mazda swag for the member who got the most new members in a given time frame. Maybe a hat or something. Not sure how you'd work this from Japan. Maybe mods here could support it.

Getting more traffic might be important enough to do this for. The other stuff could be supported by that trophy feature. It would only be once a year...maybe twice if it is a success.

 

[7eregrine]

While we are discussing ways to improve the site, the Model Lounges need to go. Yea, yea beating a dead horse. 'Here he goes again' lol I won't bring it up again but it is REALLY bad for the site to have a lounge in every single model forum. You fragment the entire site and it's a big part of why this site seems at times to be CX5-247.com

 

[Avoidin Deer]

While we are discussing ways to improve the site, the Model Lounges need to go. Yea, yea beating a dead horse. 'Here he goes again' lol I won't bring it up again but it is REALLY bad for the site to have a lounge in every single model forum. You fragment the entire site and it's a big part of why this site seems at times to be CX5-247.com

Where would those be?

I see a top-level (universal)_ Lounge under All Mazdas, but there's no Lounge in the CX-5 forum or any other model forum.

 

[7eregrine]

Aha. I see it's been renamed on this new site?!? It's now GENERAL. Used to be LOUNGE.

 

[sm1ke]

While we are discussing ways to improve the site, the Model Lounges need to go. Yea, yea beating a dead horse. 'Here he goes again' lol I won't bring it up again but it is REALLY bad for the site to have a lounge in every single model forum. You fragment the entire site and it's a big part of why this site seems at times to be CX5-247.com

I think I agree. If we got rid of subforum lounges/general areas, and added prefixes for all models in the Lounge (currently the only prefix is "Offtopic"), the Lounge might see a lot more use. It might also make it easier for mods to move threads from the Lounge to the correct subforum, if necessary.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

But there are tons of CX-5 specific topics that don't fit in the other forums. Most sites have a "None of the above" area. It's not a Lounge or an Off Topic area. "General" is full of legitimate questions and discussions.

The CX-5 "General" area is over 300 pages. If you combine the General area from every subforum, it's gonna be so cluttered it will be useless.

 

[sm1ke]

But there are tons of CX-5 specific topics that don't fit in the other forums. Most sites have a "None of the above" area. It's not a Lounge or an Off Topic area. "General" is full of legitimate questions and discussions.

The CX-5 "General" area is over 300 pages. If you combine the General area from every subforum, it's gonna be so cluttered it will be useless.

The issue with the way the General forum has been used in the past is that people do not always post CX-5 specific topics. Sometimes people post there just because there is more traffic. Combining all of the General forums into the Lounge provides more incentive to use the Lounge for discussion. It would create more clutter, for sure, but the use of prefixes could help with that.

Further, it seems that the clutter added from the other forums would be minimal. For example, the CX-9 General forum has less than 15 active (posted/updated within the last week) threads. CX-3 has 2. Mazda3 and Mazda6 have 1 each. Miata has 3. Meanwhile, the CX-5 has over 25.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

The issue with the way the General forum has been used in the past is that people do not always post CX-5 specific topics. Sometimes people post there just because there is more traffic. Combining all of the General forums into the Lounge provides more incentive to use the Lounge for discussion. It would create more clutter, for sure, but the use of prefixes could help with that.

Further, it seems that the clutter added from the other forums would be minimal. For example, the CX-9 General forum has less than 15 active (posted/updated within the last week) threads. CX-3 has 2. Mazda3 and Mazda6 have 1 each. Miata has 3. Meanwhile, the CX-5 has over 25.

Gotcha.

I don't really have a quantified dog in this fight, since I'm comparing what things are to what I imagine things will be.

 

[Antoine]

Very interesting thoughts...Thanks for sharing...Hmmm...I see what you're saying but from experience I also see other POVs.

Currently each model-specific section is like its own forum site and that's intentional because that's how most forum sites are (except we're like a Family of model-specific sections)...If we combine the general forums into one and use thread prefixes, it might look something like this (currently)...

CX-5: .....
CX-5: .....
CX-5: .....
CX-9: .....
CX-5: .....
CX-9: .....
CX-5: .....
Mazda3: ....
CX-5: .....
CX-5: .....
CX-30: .....
CX-5: .....

We would have to force prefix use to maintain some sort of organization and the more I think about it, the more I think it would REALLY be cluttered and or unbalanced...

I like the idea and thought process here, makes me re-think things but it may not be the ideal solution.

On that note, I am thinking of merging the All Mazda Forums into the Lounge and the "All Mazdas" section would then just be for Support and the Lounge...After that, I will consider a News forum or portal perhaps.

 

[Antoine]

Update...Testing Trophy system with custom settings. I don't think I've got the hang of it just yet though...Still trying things out...

 

[Avoidin Deer]

You likely have seen this...XenForo has a User Forum.

Amazing how useful these places are to get ideas & help and share to experiences

 

[7eregrine]

Shameless plug for Saabcentral. I disagree that most places want the model forums to feel like separate forums. You should strive, imho, to make any car forum be the goto place for the brand, not just some models. To do that you need to inspire the community to hang out together, not try to separate them. It feels very separated here to me now and always has. I try to get stuff going in the lounge and it just dies. Every time. Because the CX5 people hang out in their lounge. If we could get half the traffic in the main lounge that we have in our lounge, that place would start hopping.

When SaabCentral was the place to go (its pretty dead now) the Off Topic lounge was THE place that hopped the most.

I like the simplicity we had over there.
If this site were configure like that one:

-CX5 Workshop (to get help)
-CX5 Mods, Upgrades, Accessories
-CX9 Workshop
-CX9 Modes, Upgrades, Accessories
And then main groups where we all fit:
Like the Saab ownerships section there on SabbCentral
-Audio Video Nav
-Detailing and Bodywork
-Wheel and Tires
and then the
-Lounge

I mean, what else do you need? I've never understood the 5 separate forum thing here. Especially infotainment... since there isn't really a whole lot we can do with that nowadays, it certainly doesn't need it's own forum. Maybe back in the day when you could actually relplace the radio. lol

I'm rambling now....

 

[sm1ke]

Currently each model-specific section is like its own forum site and that's intentional because that's how most forum sites are (except we're like a Family of model-specific sections)

Ah I see, so the intent is to have model-specific forums like miata.net, mazda3revolution, etc., but just under the same Mazdas247 umbrella?

When SaabCentral was the place to go (its pretty dead now) the Off Topic lounge was THE place that hopped the most.

I like the simplicity we had over there.
If this site were configure like that one:

-CX5 Workshop (to get help)
-CX5 Mods, Upgrades, Accessories
-CX9 Workshop
-CX9 Modes, Upgrades, Accessories
And then main groups where we all fit:
Like the Saab ownerships section there on SabbCentral
-Audio Video Nav
-Detailing and Bodywork
-Wheel and Tires
and then the
-Lounge

I have to say, I do like the idea of this. Acurazine and ClubLexus also have formats that we could consider.

I do like the idea of our forum breaking away from other formats, though.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

If we want to achieve what Ed has seen elsewhere, one thing that might help is to have a link to the Lounge (or to the AllMazdas area) in each of the model areas (edit to add: I mean more conspicuous than it is now, almost looking like a topic area).

I never even think about the Lounge, and when I do, I gotta ask someone to remind me where it is.

I threw together some #Message stats so as to quantify exactly what it might look like if the number of Topics were reduced/aggregated, both at the Model level and at the Aggregate Forum level.

I've always found it helps to look at real numbers rather than speak in generalities.



The other things to consider are (a) there are a lot of unique model-specific issues within each topic area and (b) any model commonality that currently exists may come and go as designs change. Once you aggregate, you can't pick the stuff back apart later.

edited to show the data w/o Past Mazdas:

 

[7eregrine]

You are next level nerd, Avoidin. And as a stat nerd: I LOVE IT!

 

[Avoidin Deer]

You are next level nerd, Avoidin. And as a stat nerd: I LOVE IT!

If I had access to the underlying database I could do more.

But the same two questions are always out there:
1-Who has the biggest checkbook?
2-What do they want the answer to be?

 

[Antoine]

Fantastic feedback, everyone...Much appreciated...Responses below...

When SaabCentral was the place to go (its pretty dead now) the Off Topic lounge was THE place that hopped the most.

I can see that, our OT forum was much more active before but it was mostly OT banter and not the sort of content that people care about long term...What gives a community its value, is the quality of the content and discussion. Just activity is only temporary, useful info has a much longer shelf life.

Our forums are set up to foster communities and encourage the posting and housing of useful information...Can we find ways to improve them and increase overall numbers, of course...This pursuit never ends.

-CX5 Workshop (to get help)
-CX5 Mods, Upgrades, Accessories
-CX9 Workshop
-CX9 Modes, Upgrades, Accessories

I am always thinking about optimizing our forum structure (while keeping our style intact). Streamlining model-specific sub-forums is an ongoing consideration. Note I’ve made many changes to our forum structure over the years in order to keep it relevant and will continue to do so...

I am considering merging How-To forums into their respective General forums and adding a “How-To” prefix and a posting prompt (to use prefix for How-To).

Ah I see, so the intent is to have model-specific forums like miata.net, mazda3revolution, etc., but just under the same Mazdas247 umbrella?

Exactly.

I have to say, I do like the idea of this. Acurazine and ClubLexus also have formats that we could consider.

I do like the idea of our forum breaking away from other formats, though.

Checking them out...True, our style can be one of the ways we differentiate...

The other things to consider are (a) there are a lot of unique model-specific issues within each topic area and (b) any model commonality that currently exists may come and go as designs change. Once you aggregate, you can't pick the stuff back apart later.

Exactly...