Feedback needed - Website changeup

[Mopar1973Man]

I know that there is the post a picture of your truck going on right now. It got me thinking about how to improve the interaction of the members of the site. I've got an idea of a changeup.

 

Like right now the Garage when a person creates a vehicle list it just drops into the garage forum that's the end of it. What if I broke down the Garage into the same layout of 1st, 2nd, etc Gen truck and then have the Garage drop the members truck in the proper forum. This way there is more focus on the member's trucks this way. 

 

Another idea I want to do is take the Articles do the same thing. So when members create new articles there is also forum post created by the article and members can now discuss the new article and maybe help the author on how to improve the article. This brings to mind @W-T and his wonderful ground article. I know others have spoken about needing improvement but its disconnected from the article. This would keep a connection between the members and the author and we can improve or article database with the help of everyone. 

 

Again... Do this same action with the classified section. Have the new classified ad post up in the proper forum. Again giving limelight to the ad and possibly get items sold fast for members. 

 

Now, what about current forums? Like the current Garage forum, I would like to merge back into the proper generation forum. This will keep everything all in one spot and members don't have to venture everywhere to read from this forum or that forum.

 

This change up will improve for mobile members being most people only read their generation of trucks typically. Then you can basically hang out in your generation forum and keep up with nearly everything. 

 

FEEDBACK... Let's hear from the members...

[Marcus2000monster]

Mike that’s a superb idea! Go for it! 

[Mopar1973Man]

Just done a test run on the 2nd Gen Classified area. If you post a classified ad it will create a forum post in the 2nd Gen non-powertrain forum. Then I prefix the thread title with "CLASSIFIED AD - " so now it stands out and the forum post no just lost as another random title. I can do this for Garage, Classifieds, and Articles. Just some sorting out of the garage and some other areas. 

 

 

[notlimah]

How about having a link to everyone’s garage (who adds to it) under their profile name when they post? 

 

For instance Mike right now I’m on mobile interwebs but I can see you put your garage in your profile which works but for those who want to keep their truck info in the profile that takes away that option. If there was a little truck symbol, or tire maybe in the upper right hand corner where the ‘flag’ & ‘share’ buttons are, that may be a good way to add a direct link so as people are browsing, see someone’s post or sig with all the work they’ve done to their truck they can just click a simple link and it takes it right to garage with pics and maybe more detail explanation of mods, or links to articles they’ve written or like. Just spit ballin.

[Marcus2000monster]

This is totally cool mike! 

[Mopar1973Man]

9 hours ago, notlimah said:

How about having a link to everyone’s garage (who adds to it) under their profile name when they post? 

 

It's supposed to do that currently. I've already submitted a bug report to the developer of the software. There is suppose to be a badge in the post bit under your name showing your garage link so people can visit your vehicles. I guess i might have to push to get the hack to get that fixed which the developer was willing to do I was going to just wait it out for the next release.

 

Speaking of that there is a new release of website software coming soon. 

https://invisioncommunity.com/release-notes/

 

https://invisioncommunity.com/news/product-updates/invision-community-43-r1055/

 

Last night @JAG1 (Board of Directors) and I were on the phone and discussing some of these changes and he's also in agreement with me and likes the ideas as well. The biggest thing is getting the Garage listing sorting into generations. Just time to look at years and sort them out.

 

Classified Ads is already in generations setup so I just got to add the forum feed for new post. There is also another cool feature to this which I'll turn on, Yes it will create a forum post of the new Ad being posted and allow the members to conversate and talk about it. Now if the poster deletes his ad from the Classified ads then it should delete the forum post as well. This keep SEO correct for the site and keep people from asking, "Did you sell that?" the forum thread will be gone as well. Keeps the site clean.

 

Articles is the same way. Except I'll remove the delete function from the members. I want to keep all articles no matter how small or not worth it. Every article is a seed to a better article. Kind of like in the case of me finding the AC noise issue and it spawning off now @W-T ground mod article. Who knows it might spawn out a fix for the AC noise issue.

[Ben]

I have one suggestion for the mobile version. 

 

Have a main/home icon always available.   

 

Its a pain to keep going back and back and back to get to home.

 

Other than that awesome!!

Edited April 8, 2018 by Ben

[notlimah]

Bring back the chat room!!

Edited April 8, 2018 by notlimah

[Mopar1973Man]

34 minutes ago, notlimah said:

Bring back the chat room!!

 

Sorry, Invision Power Board discontinued the feature.

 

https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/436946-chat-closes-how-many-of-you-have-found-a-solution/

 

I could consider purchasing a 3rd party chatroom add-on. How many people would us it? Is it worth the investment?

 

38 minutes ago, Ben said:

I have one suggestion for the mobile version. 

 

Have a main/home icon always available.   

 

Its a pain to keep going back and back and back to get to home.

 

Other than that awesome!!

 

Simple way hit the "Hamburger Menu" then hit "Forum" or another place like I tend to hit "Activity" and "Unread content".

 

I did have a plug for "return to top" but I've got to look back into that mod and see if the problem was fixed.

Like another conversation that went on last night to the wee hours of the evening. @JAG1 and I were talking about a crazy idea that currently no website offers to anyone. What if I hired a PHP coder to build a plugin for the Garage and it data logged all your maintenance and mods you install. So on the maintenance side you could program you to want a notification of oil change every 7,500 miles and 90 days. Then when the interval came close it would remind you this maintenance is coming due in PM and/or Email. Ok so like on the mod side you could make the entry into the database you install injectors at 87k miles on a date and then have it spawn a forum thread of this install and the entire site can discuss this. Putting the focus on your truck and yourself. 

 

This kind of software does not exist anywhere on the internet I've looked everywhere for a PHP / MySQL script that would do this. The only thing that stops me from doing is the cost of having to pay a coder at about $100 to $150 per hour to produce such a program. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Ok. Gang...

 

As of right now, the Garage Area is now bound to its proper forum. How it works. If you create a new garage listing for your Cummins it will create a forum post now in the performance / longevity forum of the proper generation. If you update you garage listing it should also update your forum thread as well. I've got to figure out what to do with the oddball garage categories that don't fit the Cummins stuff like old gasser and such I'll get these sorted out and bound to a forum very soon. 

 

As for the Articles I've got those bound for 1st to 3rd Gen already just got to finish up the 4th gen and general Cummins articles which again I'll have to consider where I'm going to drop the forum posts.

 

EDIT: Garage area is completed. All categories have a forum attached to them now. 

 

EDIT: Classified Area is complete and hooked to the forums. 

 

EDIT: again... Yeap... The Garage forum is now gone. It now merged into the different generations of Cummins trucks and the other vehicles like Chevy and ford when to their proper forum. Rv & Trailers and now filtered into the RV & Trailer forum. The oddball stuff like motorcycles and tractors were moved into the General conversation forum.

Edited April 8, 2018 by Mopar1973Man

[Mopar1973Man]

Now that I've completed most of that now. Basically now anything you interact with on the website it should create a forum post to continue the interaction. Post a vehicle in the garage area it should spawn a fresh thread now on the forum. Post a classified ad on the website it should spawn a forum post in the proper generation. Now there was some oddball stuff that doesn't exactly fit into single generation of vehicle so I've dropped that back to General Conversations and the forum post should be prefixed with Article, Classified Ad, Garage, etc. 

 

Now its just up to the members here to test drive this change of features and tell me if there are any issues. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Another change to the website. I've had bad experiences with email campaigns in the past and being blacklisted by Hotmail mostly. I've invested in a plugin that will now check for bounced email or email marked as spam from my email server. When this is detected the users account is locked and no email is sent to them. When the user returns to the website he/she will have to revalidate his/her email address to get back to the website. This can be done only once, then the user account is locked. 

 

This now allows me to start doing email campaigns again and send out newsletters and bulletins of then happening on the site and bring the traffic back to the site. 

 

The website software is pretty trick. I can filter down to select to a bunch of people. Like I did an email to 313 people today to members that have not been last on in one year and have zero posts. This now tripped off 5 email accounts that are no longer available. So now with the plug in the account on the site will automatically set back to email validation and force you to provide a fresh email account. 

 

Yes. I'm putting my best foot forward to keep the website moving forward...

[Killer223]

question on the email, why when i view emails from here on my phone it stays in desktop view, where is used to switch to a mobile friendly view. 

[Mopar1973Man]

1 minute ago, Killer223 said:

question on the email, why when i view emails from here on my phone it stays in desktop view, where is used to switch to a mobile friendly view. 

 

What phone are you using?

[Killer223]

iphone 8+

i'm not sure if it's the phone, or the email, and not every email is that way. some it scales and i can read it great, some the font is so bloody small i have to wait till on home to read them on a PC. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Let me dig I'll set up my account for email and play for a few days. I've got all email notification turned off on my own account. I'll also see if there is a phone thing hanging it up or is it a scrip thing on my side. 

@Killer223

 

Here is the results... Remember I'm Ubuntu Linux 16.04 Desktop and then Android LG G5 Cellphone.

 

 

[Killer223]

Two separate emails. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Bit different story I didn't know you are using a daily digest. So I'll run mine the same way and see what pops out. I should get a email I think in the morning.