Do we need new forum/subforum - mechanical ?

I think we need new forum for mechanical related topics to find them easy. And for easier sharning our mechanical knowledge.

I think new forum/subforum could be started with topics below:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=715
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=937
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=956
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=339
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=520
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=690
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=924
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=887
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=788

First one should be:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=715

Because the components are fairly exclusive to the realm of electrical (motor, controller, battery, throttle, etc) or mechanical (components also normally found on non-electrical bikes), splitting E-bike Technical into E-bike Electrical-Tech and Ebike Mechanical-Tech makes sense. Where there's crossover (like perhaps electric-interrupt brake levers), if any part of the component or system of discussion carries electricity, I'd suggest putting it in the electrical section, else it goes under mechanical.

I think this forum may lose it's focus and spirit if we branch out too far into the realm of large electrical vehicles.

I've been thinking about the same thing. It's a balance between too many and too few categories. If one category gets too many topics, it probably needs to be split. We'll do something.

There also needs to be a easy to find place for all the newbie guides and resources. Like where to find a BMC hubmotor or discount duct tape.

The organizational structure should remain intuitive, logical, and easy to navigate. Limit the number of layers.

The forum is going through a period of tremendous growth right now, and I'd like to keep things running smoothly. Knightmb and I are looking at some interesting new ways to arrange things, but it will take a while. We also don't have a budget, so we have to make due with what we can get.

Changes like adding a new category are easy. It's kind of hard to undo them after a while, so I tend to be a bit cautious about adding things.
At some point I suspect we will need more volunteers to help manage things (moderators). If I create a new category, it shoud be somebody's job to go around and collect all the relevent posts and move them to the new category. If look at the number of existing posts, that could be a real job.

I like Xyster's idea. I'd like to setup a structure that won't become outdated or outgrown too quicky.

Anybody else have suggestions?

xyster said:

Because the components are fairly exclusive to the realm of electrical (motor, controller, battery, throttle, etc) or mechanical (components also normally found on non-electrical bikes), splitting E-bike Technical into E-bike Electrical-Tech and Ebike Mechanical-Tech makes sense.

Click to expand...

Until Forum Index is relatively short i wouldn't like spliting E-bike Technical into subforums.
For better clearness i would like to see E-bike Mechanical parallel to E-bike Technical Forum.
This way we could get easier acces to that new place.

xyster said:

Where there's crossover (like perhaps electric-interrupt brake levers), if any part of the component or system of discussion carries electricity, I'd suggest putting it in the electrical section, else it goes under mechanical.

I think this forum may lose it's focus and spirit if we branch out too far into the realm of large electrical vehicles.

Click to expand...

I think it's depend on topic. If the topic contain info related to mechanical solutions i would like to see that topic under mechanical with ref added under technical/electrical.
I assume the Mechanical will contain much less topics, so for the better acces to mechanical info the priority for crossover topics should be put into the smaller (Mechanical) forum.

fechter said:

I've been thinking about the same thing. It's a balance between too many and too few categories. If one category gets too many topics, it probably needs to be split. We'll do something.
...
I like Xyster's idea. I'd like to setup a structure that won't become outdated or outgrown too quicky.

Anybody else have suggestions?

Click to expand...

Lets look at this:
http://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/index.php?sid

I'm sure we are still far from to get too many categories.
Even at so long Main Index most people still don't need better navigation than i linked above.

So don't afraid to create new categories now.

I voted no simply because there aren't enough posts to warrant their own forum. If you split things up too much, infrequently-updated boards end up getting very few views, encouraging people to post e.g. mechanical topics in the General Discussion board instead. This is a common mistake by message-board admins.

The ideal way to create a message-board is to do away with boards and instead use tags. So a given post can be tagged 'bicycle', 'batteries', 'electric-vehicle' (each tag being from a dropdown list, not user-entered) and boards are really filters; i.e. 'Electric Vehicle General Discussion' would show all posts tagged 'electric-vehicle', 'E-bike General Discussion' would show all posts with both the 'bicycle' and 'electric-vehicle' tags, etc. And obviously people could construct their own filters. This solves the problem of people trying to figure out where to post something that covers various topics, or of people not wanting to create a post in the appropriate section if it gets too few hits. Of course people can't be allowed to choose 10 tags; the limit could be one or two for new people, increased to three for older posters, and/or with a limit.

CGameProgrammer said:

I voted no simply because there aren't enough posts to warrant their own forum. If you split things up too much, infrequently-updated boards end up getting very few views, encouraging people to post e.g. mechanical topics in the General Discussion board instead. This is a common mistake by message-board admins.

Click to expand...

So how many posts are sufficient for its own forum in your opinion ??
I see over 20 topics could be moved to Mechanical forum now and over 300 posts.
I didn't listed all mechanical related topics in my first post.
So you can find much more if you will search long enough. For example:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=188
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=295
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=351
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=513
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=536
and much more


Boards have no own view statistics - topics have it.
I see you don't understand that site is much more than message-board alone.

It is very very important for users to get easy acces to right kind info. It is much more important than view statistics. Statistics can't give you the right info you need.
Only well informed people are able to do that, so quality are much important than quantity at this case.

Viewers numbers are important for short life message boards - differnt kinds of advertise which shortly expire.

CGameProgrammer said:

The ideal way to create a message-board is to do away with boards and instead use tags. So a given post can be tagged 'bicycle', 'batteries', 'electric-vehicle' (each tag being from a dropdown list, not user-entered) and boards are really filters; i.e. 'Electric Vehicle General Discussion' would show all posts tagged 'electric-vehicle', 'E-bike General Discussion' would show all posts with both the 'bicycle' and 'electric-vehicle' tags, etc. And obviously people could construct their own filters. This solves the problem of people trying to figure out where to post something that covers various topics, or of people not wanting to create a post in the appropriate section if it gets too few hits. Of course people can't be allowed to choose 10 tags; the limit could be one or two for new people, increased to three for older posters, and/or with a limit.

Click to expand...

Mechanical knowlegde is very important for DIY bikes, so that kind of topics should be at one place for easy acces for all members and guests.

It is easy to move wrong board putted post from one board to other (right). You are unable do the same with guests. If somebody looking for mechanical info and see mostly electical topics than in most cases will searching at other sites.
The right kind boards existence is a signal to all - especially the guests - we have this kind knowledge also and we want to share them.

The ideal way to create a message-board is to do away with boards and instead use tags.

Click to expand...

IMO, tags can be useful if kept very brief, but also tend to get overloaded with terms over time. Categories better allow new threads to be seen quickly, and help keep topics flowing more naturally. Like keyword search, tags are better for finding something posted long ago. Tags + Categories + Keyword Search could be good...does this board, or the new beta, support tags?

xyster said:

The ideal way to create a message-board is to do away with boards and instead use tags.

Click to expand...

IMO, tags can be useful if kept very brief, but also tend to get overloaded with terms over time. Categories better allow new threads to be seen quickly, and help keep topics flowing more naturally. Like keyword search, tags are better for finding something posted long ago. Tags + Categories + Keyword Search could be good...does this board, or the new beta, support tags?

Click to expand...

To search by tags you need to know the right tags.
The guest need to open one page of the common category and maybe even more if the right tag doesn't exist at first page.
The right category at Forum Index is the best message to the newcommer what he/she is able to looking for here. This way we get the common place for the same kind of topics.
I see many mechanical topics at General Discussion, so if we will use tags we have to use the same tags at many places.

Keep in mind we don't voting now for the next one category. We voting for the important category which should grab more place (more topics) at this forum.

If you dont need more mechanical topics - vote i don't need. If you want more this kind of info you should to choice another option i see.

We don't need afraid the new category will be dead as those topics are almost dead now, burried deep into different categories and different pages at each category.

I don't see a way to create a sub-forum in the control panel, so I suspect that's not an option with this software.

I could create a "E-Bike Mechanical" forum and re-name the Technical forum to "E-Bike Electrical" or something. Then somebody would need to sift the topics and move the mechanical ones over.

I'm also thinking about creating a Newbie area with guides and info for people just getting started. The 'where to buy stuff' lists would go there too. Links to topics in other forums that are appropriate might be a good way to collect info from a wide variety of sources.

Since making changes to forum gets more difficult as it gets larger, I'd like to plan ahead as much as possible.

I could create a "E-Bike Mechanical" forum and re-name the Technical forum to "E-Bike Electrical" or something. Then somebody would need to sift the topics and move the mechanical ones over.

I'm also thinking about creating a Newbie area with guides and info for people just getting started. The 'where to buy stuff' lists would go there too.

Click to expand...

Both forum mods sound worthwhile to me...

xyster said:

I could create a "E-Bike Mechanical" forum and re-name the Technical forum to "E-Bike Electrical" or something. Then somebody would need to sift the topics and move the mechanical ones over.

I'm also thinking about creating a Newbie area with guides and info for people just getting started. The 'where to buy stuff' lists would go there too.

Click to expand...

Both forum mods sound worthwhile to me...

Click to expand...

and to me...

Miles said:

xyster said:

Both forum mods sound worthwhile to me...

Click to expand...

and to me...

Click to expand...

and to me too 8) :lol:

I should chime in at this point as well. The forum software we have now doesn't have this feature. There are some mods for it, but we have put mods and such on hold for the new major release of the forum software that will have many of the things we want (both user and admin)

So while the software may seem locked in place, it's for a good reason at the moment. It's too avoid issues with beta software or mod software until the major release (that and security issues).

Now as far as adding more forums, we all know we can add them forever if we wish, but we are trying to keep things focused so that we don't have 1 forum for every user. I know that from personal experience, I visit forums that have 50 sections on the first page, I never visit the other areas. Not because I don't like them, it's just too many to work through or interact with.

Right now, the forum has 200+ users, of which about half are very active (the rest may be bots for all we know). We are also working on a site that will be a more "static" location for information on e-bikes and everything else we love to discuss. That way, new users can reference to that site instead of asking the same question at the forum if it's been answered 5 times before. It's not that any question is stupid, it's just better if we had those "questions" that have been long debated and answered put somewhere that everyone can get easy access to and further their knowledge on electric bikes and everything else in general.

That's what I wanted to get out this week before work got me buried.

I think the FAQ section for us new ebikers would be great. Especially if there were references to different threads or individuals that might be receptive to answering particular kinds of questions.

Just my selfish interest mind you.

Greg