Seperate section for "dedicated" threads?

[oldcorollas]

you are a funny bunny
this is not personal at all.
you asked what i would refer to as chit-chat, and i opened a random page in one of the dedicated threads, and there it was... an example... nothing personal about it.

i thought the whole point of this thread was that the dedicated threads are effectively stickied, because people repeatedly post in them, however many of the posts are just off-topic. the result of this is threads that are approaching 10,000 posts, and no-one, especially not noobs, will bother to look thru each page to find information. yes you can search, but as you yourself said, noobs and most people will not, because they just want what they need and don't want to learn.

ideally, there would be a mod who would take the time to go thru and delete the useless posts, and filter out the technical information, which will benefit the wider audience, as opposed to being stuck in a thread no-one reads back on..

i still vote for them to be moved to a single subsection when they reach epic proportions (ie, 500posts or so)
but hey, deletion is not bad either

Andrew, perhaps you could go back through the 7,700+ posts of the 162 threads and summarise the technical information for the rest of us?

[river]

Hi,

Andrew, perhaps you could go back through the 7,700+ posts of the 162 threads and summarise the technical information for the rest of us?

I tried this on the Classic Celica thread. I also asked in the thread for some assistance as it's a very long thread. The only person who bothered to assist (for which I am grateful) was DQIKST.

The biggest issue was the smattering of "chit chat" amongst the threads and some information was border-line. That is, to me it could be deleted but to someone else it may be useful. I guess what is one persons trash is anothers treasure.

I think deletion of the dedicated threads would be too draconian, and locking them would only start up another similar thread.

I still like the idea of moving them to a sub-folder within the General Car section where they can still be accessed and enable posting. This will keep them from cluttering the front page and will allow them to still be available for those that wish to peruse/contribute.

If moderation of these threads is a concern, then I'm more than happy to assist in this area.

seeyuzz
river

[Andrew162]

well I thought river was doing that as an example in another thread?

I've been with the 162 thread for approx. 5000 posts (not sure what exists before page 109 on a 20 post-per-page basis) but for the most part, there is good info in there including DIY's and some complete projects too, not endless incessant ramblings. as I said before, comments made off-the-cuff (and off-topic) are the nature of the beast, you won't stop them unless they're moderated as you said. then we start looking like Nazi's... but is there a happy-medium?

edit: bloody river, beat me to it.

[horse]

yeah but there is the other side of the ball Andrew, where by good tech info is getting lost in there. take for instance the st162 thread, now i dont own a st162 but i know that we share similar parts and for that point i can gain some information out of it. however there have been times where by some guys have asked certain questions that cant be answered quick enough or generate enough response, and they bring it out of the dedicated thread. this allows for the greater toymod community to reply to their problem.

however, this doesnt always happen, and that i guess is no loss to you or them but i believe that sometimes, the collective knowledge of the forum should be used for the seeking of generic knowledge. specific inquiries can reside in the dedicated thread as that is the whole ideal behind them.

not taking things personal, but lets take for instance the parcel shelf you made recently, i'm not sure why you didnt bring it outside to the general subforum so that:
1. we could all discuss it and you could get collective ideas on it,
2. so we as a forum could benefit from the write up and perhaps assist someone who was searching for such a write up later on.

i dont care about the ramblings, unless there is too much, but for what its worth, its not that bad yet.i've already started to scan the thread and index the information, i'm not fussed about its size as i've been there since day 1 and have read it all before

[oldcorollas]

well I thought river was doing that as an example in another thread?

there is nothing stopping you from doing that for "your" thread also
just think of how you will help the wider toymods community
it shouldn't take long, just delete the crap, and copy and paste the useful bits of info into a document, and then post it as a thread later

i agree with River, but i don't agree that all threads need to go offtopic.. then again, post whores will be whores, and will post shiot wherever it is tolerated. the questions is always, where do you draw the line for whoring?

anyway, my stance is that if these dedicated threads are so useful, then surely it is easy to summarise the information as a tech reference/database of sorts.

it takes people like YOU to do that tho.

so.. start summarising

edit: i agree with Mr Horse... however, somtimes i'm not sure these "blinker fluid" tech write ups are always so useful


edit2: LOL @ represent good to see you sticking up for.... anyway

[warrior]

hi

I think its a great idea to have a sub-section for the dedicated threads.

I have to agree when it comes to the chit chat issue though, use email or MSN or what ever.

however. I feel that genuine toymodders are here in good faith and as a form of escapism where they can share simular thought with people who share a common hobby, their cars. the threads in question have brought together a lot of people who never in their right mind have ever been brought together, if it means that people are socializing and talking about cars and contributing to events and just having a chit chat. so be it. I have met quite a few people at events that i dont even know on a 1st name basis. if the threads are not causing too much heart ache and pain, then let them be.

Karl

[CrUZida]

Just to fuel the fire on this.

The ~9 dedicated threads are accountable for about 50% of the total number of posts in the General Car Talk section

[river]

Hi,

But if you set your system to display 100 posts per page, they only take up less than 10%.

seeyuzz
river

[CrUZida]

No, not the threads displayed, but the total number of posts in the General Car Talk section.

There are just over 100,000 posts made in that section, of which just over 50,000 posts are from these 9 or so threads.

Can anyone say 'post-whore central' ?

[river]

Hi,

Ahhh, k... I see what you mean now.

Can anyone say 'post-whore central' ?

.... err Kingmick and Rona....

seeyuzz
river

[oldcorollas]

any more on moving the whore threads?

i was thinking today.. perhaps if people had to click twice to get into the thread each time, then there would be fewer 1 line replies

even if just the 4000+ reply threads were moved... since they are always at the top..
hopefully from the front page then they will not always be the "latest post" thread...

122,000 replies
1. AW11 whore thread 13400
2. ST162 whore thread 10100
3. Z10/Z20 whore thread 9200
4. GT4 whore thread 7550
5. MA61 whore thread 6600
6. classic celica whore thread 5500
7. KEcorolla whore thread 4550
8. XA70 whore thread 4050
9. corona whore thread 450
= 61,000 posts = exactly half of all replies in general...
almost a 1/4 of all posts on forum...


even ACT spotted is 1560 replies!! (who would have thought there were so many car spotters in canberra )

perhaps there is a lot of tech in the threads which is model specific.... but they sure do generate a lot of bandwidth

maybe once a thread reaches say.. 4000 or 5000 posts, it should be the responsibility of the dedicated thread posters, to make a summary of the info, so then the threads can be locked/deleted to save database space? (and to stop ppl whinging about all the good information being lost.... each person can then save the summary conveniently on their hard drives )

[river]

Hi,

even ACT spotted is 1560 replies!! (who would have thought there were so many car spotters in canberra

There isn't that many cars. But the roads are circular and the locals have short-term memory loss issues. So, when the same car comes around the circular road again, it's spotted and reported!!!

It's like that old TV add, with the fish swimming a bowl, and there's a castle in the bowl. Each time the fish swims past it says "Wow, there's a castle!"

seeyuzz
river

[oldcorollas]

LOL, touche!

Hi,
There isn't that many threads. But the thread topics are circular and the posters have short-term memory loss issues. So, when the same question comes around the thread again, it's replied to again and again!!!

It's like that old TV add, with the fish swimming a bowl, and there's a castle in the bowl. Each time the fish swims past it says "Wow, there's a castle!"

seeyuzz
river

fuxed

[kingmick]

Hi,

Ahhh, k... I see what you mean now.



.... err Kingmick and Rona....

seeyuzz
river

Rona and i have made it our duty to increase the post numbers to world record levels! or is it that we are both bored, because of our super human multi-tasking abilities!
More posts means more exposure!hehe

[Cuzzo]

If it aint broke... why fix it?

If we freed up all that bandwith would it cost toymods less or make the site "that much" quicker?

I say its still better than a new thread getting created and asking the same question, were it can be asked in the dedicated forums. Sure it is slightly post whored but wouldnt that be the users problem?