What can we do to make Aussieveedubbers better?

Hi there,

I've noticed recently a drop off in postings (compared to say November). Is there something that:

* we're missing that you'd like to see?
* we're not doing that would help you use this site?
* we're doing okay on, but we could do better?

We'll keep this thread open for a while - I'd love to hear your feedback.

Andrew

Just as a quick note, until we've got a chance to update the software and get off this horrible hoster, I've relaxed the settings for registration. Most folks will now be able to register as getting an e-mail from us is no longer necessary.

thanks,
Andrew

On a related note, I've deleted all the newly registered members who registered but have never managed to log on. This got rid of 2800 dead logins.

This will allow *anyone* who tried and failed to register with us in the past to try again now without my or other administrator assistance.

thanks,
Andrew

Content is King
Your content is diminishing as alternate sites are established..
The AVD community is decentralising..
Can you establish links to and from competing sites?
I personally would like one "content rich" portal where all sources are centralised..

I've always thought AVD as more of a VW social forum than a VW Tech forum*. The following stat proves that

The most popular forum is General Chit Chat with 207239 posts and 15684 topics

My guess is as we are now getting the smaller breakaway forums that deal more specifically with a particular VW genre.
If you compare AVD with some of the other sites, AVD ticks over very quickly. A page can disappear in a day sometimes less. Other sites can hold the same page for a week or more.

*Just let me add AVD has some great tech threads and people willing to help. This is an observation not a criticism

[ Edited on 7-6-2007 by Stanley ]

*) It needs to be easier to join/register: I have had people email me asking why they aren't able to join: I have no idea what to say to them, except keep trying... I also have had big problems logging on from overseas:

*) Images/pics need to be able to be seen by everyone - get rid of the 'you must be a registered user to view these images' when people arrive here from Google or other search engines/sites etc. It's a dis-incentive to stay and take a look at all the wodnrful stuff on here...

*) It needs a more appealing front page. The shot of the Kombi windscreen wiper although artsy, is almost unrecognisable. How about a nice big pic of a VW Beetle?! Think of it as the 'cover of a magazine... it's what makes people 'pick it up'

*) Place more emphasis on 'Today's Conversation' or 'Hot Topics' with a nice big 'button' we could 'push' to see today's posts that stand out from all the other controls. On that note, we don't really need the colour-coded rectangular icons about whether a thread is hot, or closed, or whatever

*) get rid of useless fluff such as polls, pets corner, etc.

*) Not sure how this can be done, but discourage breakaway forums. People should be encouraged to keep it all here where anyone can look, learn and enjoy the information

*) MAKE U2U's EASIER TO USE. many, many users have lost their messages when the forget to place words in the 'subject' line; every day, almost, U2Us seem to go missing. This software doesn't 'remember' what has been typed; VERY F---N FRUSTRATING, even after several years of use. Need to incorporate some sort of reminder for this and/or put the 'Subject' line straight above the main text box so it is more obvious


Some of these suggestions are not exclusive to AVD, they are relevant to most/all the popular automotive forums

But yeah, compared to others VW forums, we seem to have a very popular little forum that is only bettered by (the more socially-driven) London-based VolksZone for 'looks' and ease of use

HTH

[ Edited on 7-6-2007 by VWCOOL ]

[ Edited on 7-6-2007 by VWCOOL ]

Hookers and Beer!

VWcool has nailed it.

Front page sux,

u2u I never use now as I have typed long letters and they have gone into nowhere.

Tech encouraged to form wiki type databases of posts. IE some of the bodywork posts make a really good 'how to' or the many snippets of wisdom hidden from the search function. Would take effort from someone to maintain and moderation is a chore enough for the pay! So prob too hard.

The FI posts are a good example with a whole heap of lurkers learning and sharing info.

Firm moderation stick to those who beat up on others esp newbies

Some random thoughts.

Thanks for asking

Buying and selling should be a form to be completed to post with all the req fields.

good suggestions KKK, especially "For sale" form

I've created some additional forums. These haven't worked in the past, but now that we have more members, maybe it will work better. Check it out - Bugs, Busses, Buggies and others!

I've also relaxed it so that guests can now see the images. We turned that on way back when we had a 32 GB per month image allowance limit. With the new software, which automatically resizes the images, we've never really hit that again. I'll be keeping an eye on this to ensure we are not used for free hosting of unsuitable pictures, but for now, guests can see all our images.

thanks,
Andrew

[ Edited on 8-6-2007 by vanderaj ]

This is the perfect place for people that Want To Buy, there seems more of these requets in "Topic Activity" than references to Subaru conversions.
So as a WTB/Subaru conversion forum you are doing great.
As for other topics, with the amount of forums opening up that are more boutique in the type of VW they are appealing to, I think this place has lost its appeal.
It is hard to get yourself known hhere and it is a bit cliquey. People constantly referring to other users by their given names, not their usernames, so those on the outer don't kow who is being reffered to.
The buy and sell section is a total pain. Nothing but bumps and stupid comments or "nice, but out of my price range" crap.

This place is the one that got the forum ball bouncing in Australia, but I think time is passing it by.

Hi

I visit a lot of other VW forums. Almost all of them allow me to look at new posts that have been made since I last visited, I know I can do this by going to topic activity and then increasing the period postings to a larger number of days but its messy and I will often have many other windows as I'm usually in a hurry and only have limited time to browse.

Also on other sites they will have a tick next to a post that I have answered in, this encourages people to answer back a question they brought up or others have commented on in a timely manner.

Another thing that this site doesnt have, if I visit a post and then go back in my browser I end up at the top of the page again, not in line with my original post.

Keep up the good work, Steve

What can we do to make Aussieveedubbers better?

Get the email topic reply notifications working, mine hasn't worked since shortly after I first joined this forum in late 06 in spite of my frequent whinges about it--for the record it's--- NOT --my computer I get topic replys from every other forum Im a member of, as well as every piece of spam in the universe, so over to you.
regards,
Al.

[ Edited on 9-6-2007 by BASHOdi ]

Allow RSS feeds from a thread so I can just use Bloglines to track the stuff I'm interested in. Needs RSS! RSS! and a section for T3s.

@Twokombies. It is well known that I have zero love for the Buying and Selling section. I feel it is abused by folks trying to avoid eBay fees. We're not eBay, we get no transaction fees, and it has caused at least 80% of our legal woes, and at least 90% of all of the reported posts and resultant shit fights between members. But Jim likes it, and most of the members love it, so it's here to stay. That said, someone suggested that there is a form for that area to prevent bad postings. Although I agree there needs to be fewer problematic posts, I don't think that is going to be possible - it would be hard to maintain custom code for just this one forum.

@1303Steve: UltimaBB indicates visually which threads are new since your last visit. It has done this since XMB 1.0 days (2001). phpBB and vBulletin have a specific search for it, and maybe that is something that can be added to UltimaBB's search feature. Topic activity is a bit easier to use than "new posts since last visit" IMHO. I hate how if I don't create tabs of threads I'm interested in within five minutes of using "New posts" feature, it forgets my original "new" posts and I can never get them back.

@BASHOdi : E-mail doesn't work as some ISPs choose to prevent e-mail from "blacklisted" net blocks. We're blacklisted due to some self proclaimed vigilantes who refuse to remove our IP address from their shitlist - guilty forever, none of this innocent until proven guilty crap. I'm working on moving us to a new (hopefully non-blacklisted) host at some considerable cost to us. This is dead money and is a loss caused directly by the ISPs and vigilantes. Soon enough, e-mail will no longer work on the Internet due to stupidities like this.

@crewcabconnection: RSS is a good idea. I'll look into that for UltimaBB 1.0. We had a type 3 forum as at the time of your writing your request. 🙂

a facelift graphiclly speaking and more artisy stuff and music maybe

Andrew...a type3 forum atl ast fantastic work...although I'm a bit confused as to how the whole thing gels together ie country buggies are broken up even further. Will this happen to type 1, 2 and 3 eventually?

The forums are back on again - I'll get the main site, e-mail, and the gallery back later today.

Enjoy the new speed! It's a:

* 2 Processor, 64 bit machine running at 3 GHz
* 16 GB of RAM (we have upto 2 GB of that)
* Plenty of disk space
* Running latest everything

I have root access to this box (yay!), so I've turned on a PHP optimizer - the site should feel (and be) a lot faster now.

Andrew

Monitoring the MySQL database shows that folks are coming here with few issues.

Forums are now working okay
Gallery is now working okay
Front page is now working, but we will be replacing it with a Wiki. The current CMS has failed to get any sort of use.
Mail is not yet working

thanks,
Andrew

[ Edited on 11-6-2007 by vanderaj ]

VWCOOL wrote:*) Not sure how this can be done, but discourage breakaway forums.
[ Edited on 7-6-2007 by VWCOOL ]

Just a small point , if you want the forum to be more popular curb the excesive and overbearing pompus "big brother" attitude that some moderators have on this site, I can't imagine how many people this has pissed of over the years to the degree that even visiting the site becomes a bore---people would be hardly likely to bother with the hassle of setting up a site unless there was iether money in it or they couldn't get what they want out of existing locations, let people have a scream--it's fun,
Cheers ,
:beer
Al.

vanderaj wrote:@BASHOdi : E-mail doesn't work as some ISPs choose to prevent e-mail from "blacklisted" net blocks. We're blacklisted due to some self proclaimed vigilantes who refuse to remove our IP address from their shitlist - guilty forever, none of this innocent until proven guilty crap. I'm working on moving us to a new (hopefully non-blacklisted) host at some considerable cost to us. This is dead money and is a loss caused directly by the ISPs and vigilantes. Soon enough, e-mail will no longer work on the Internet due to stupidities like this. . 🙂

Hi vanderaj,
My ISP is Tel--bloody-- stra
how do I make them fix the problem??--I am not a nice person when I'm angry--and Telstra always makes me freekin livid so advice please --how can I be realy realy nasty to them---,and still make them allow my reply's,
rebanga required,
Cheers ,
Al .

I could also be nice-------------aaaaarrrr---may be not.

[ Edited on 11-6-2007 by BASHOdi ]

Al,

I'm working on getting a good PostFix virtual hosting configuration running now. If this works, there's nothing you need to do. The problems we had in the past are now moot - this IP address is clean.

Also, you mentioned that you find some mods overbearing. It's all shits and giggles until someone threatens to sue, and we've been threatened with litigation at least 10 times. We received *actual* legal advice, and under Australia's laws, we have to be careful. So we are. When the other sites admins get sued, they'll crack down, too.

Personally, I'm not against the other sites - we all have a place in the ecosystem. Any site that tries to win readers by slagging other sites or plain simply doing the same as every other site is doing is not worth the time of day, in my humble opinion. I'd like for folks to come here because it is a nice friendly atmosphere, with stuff that they're interested in exploring the many topics.

thanks,
Andrew

I've imported another 10 or so themes from the UltimaBB theme collection. Try out the "Psyche" themes for a change of scenery. 🙂

thanks,
Andrew

I agree with previous posters about the banner - it sucks!!

The picture is fine (it's your site - so it's your choice), but I can't say I like the font as it should be easier to read and maybe capitalised (but then I can appreciate that not everyone has the same taste as me), worst of all, in my opinion a banner should fill the whole of the screen, to me it just looks like an advert - not the site banner.

My only other gripe about the site is those smiley icons that appear when you're posting.

Don't want to flame anyone, or be flamed for simply having an opinion, but as you're asking for opinions - here's mine - they suck even more than the banner. they look like a 5-y-old went mad in the smiley shop. I personally would get rid of the non standard icons and just retain the ones of the stock size.

Remember - on the web - presentation is everything.

But... after all that is said - the most important thing about this site is the users and their posts - and that it pretty well covered with the forum - the rest is simply gloss

😉

I've reorganized the smilies - most of the really big ones are now on the "More smilies" area. I'm a bit surprised that the others are sticking around in the quick reply area.

We'll talk about getting a re-design in Moderator's Paradise. Strange but true - the site is using as an yet unreleased theme from UltimaBB. For most folks using XMB, it's been since 2004 since they got a visual update. We're actually a bit luckier than they are.

Andrew

vanderaj wrote:Al,

I'm working on getting a good PostFix virtual hosting configuration running now. If this works, there's nothing you need to do. The problems we had in the past are now moot - this IP address is clean.

Also, you mentioned that you find some mods overbearing. It's all shits and giggles until someone threatens to sue, and we've been threatened with litigation at least 10 times. We received *actual* legal advice, and under Australia's laws, we have to be careful. So we are. When the other sites admins get sued, they'll crack down, too.

Personally, I'm not against the other sites - we all have a place in the ecosystem. Any site that tries to win readers by slagging other sites or plain simply doing the same as every other site is doing is not worth the time of day, in my humble opinion. I'd like for folks to come here because it is a nice friendly atmosphere, with stuff that they're interested in exploring the many topics.

thanks,
Andrew

Hi Andrew,
this threaten to sue stuff that keeps being brought up as a reason for censoship just doesn't cut it IMO, with the proper disclaimers you can ironclad any position .
As for abusing other sites--where did I advocate that ? or have I got the wrong end of the stick there? if so sorry.
My point is that if there is a product or service or a person or an anything relevant to the site that has given someone a trampling and they want to give a blast and let other members know by way of a "watch out" they should be able to do it , it's a forum for quarks sake--I for one would buy beer for anyone that kept me out of the crap.
I will take this opportunity to suggest--yet again--a trader comment section---good , bad , ugly , there they go.
I'm sorry to say but after visiting this site for about 6 months I still have the impression that it is run by a limited number of people for the benefit of a limited number of people--but that may just be me.
Cheers,
Al .

VWCOOL wrote:*) MAKE U2U's EASIER TO USE. many, many users have lost their messages when the forget to place words in the 'subject' line; every day, almost, U2Us seem to go missing. This software doesn't 'remember' what has been typed; VERY F---N FRUSTRATING, even after several years of use. Need to incorporate some sort of reminder for this and/or put the 'Subject' line straight above the main text box so it is more obvious

i soooo agree with that.. its soooo frustrating when you forget to inc a title.. grrr

cheers h

vanderaj wrote:Personally, I'm not against the other sites - we all have a place in the ecosystem. Any site that tries to win readers by slagging other sites or plain simply doing the same as every other site is doing is not worth the time of day, in my humble opinion. I'd like for folks to come here because it is a nice friendly atmosphere, with stuff that they're interested in exploring the many topics.

thanks,
Andrew

Yes but unfortunately a significant section of the AVD "knowledge base" don't post here anymore.. I'm finding myself prowling and posting on other forums to achieve the same result that I used to get by just using AVD..
The "richness" of the content is exponential to the number and quality of content providers.. That has declined in my opinion..
Not sure of the solution but maybe one "macro community portal" that houses all niches and interest groups

Hi Andrew,

What about a "real people" forum for those who couldn't care less for "user names", don't suffer from internet fashion pressure, paranoia, or require a "shield of anonymity"

This might be the thing that separates AVD from the rest, make us (at least in this forum) like a virtual club, with real people as members, who post like they are talking face to face (in public, like down at the pub so that others (witnesses), are considered)

People will then tend to moderate their own posts and some genuine discourse and exchanges of information & knowledge may occur.

Regards,

Matt Ryan

Last time I put forward a perfectly reasonable suggestion, what was the response from the administrator?

"Care factor zero"

I find it ironic that the same admin is now asking for suggestions.

But for the sake of Jim's forum:

I don't know that you'll be able to do anything to get people back. We have competition now & with that you get natural attrition.

I don't think these new sub forums are the best idea you've ever had.
Breaking the place up into splinter groups has got to be detrimental to the forum.
If you got beetle people here, kombi people there, type 3 over the back etc etc, who's going to be left in general chat?
General chat will be left to the most mindless of topics, because anything to do with cars will be further down. Yet this will be the first thing any visitor to the site sees because it is top of the list.

As for current members, like a lot of others I own more than one, or even two, types of VW.

So to get my dose of AVD, I'm gunna have to go from here to here to here to here to here to, oh f#ck it, what else is on the net?
And I seriously doubt I'd be the only one.

So you want my suggestion Andrew? Lose this splinter idea before it causes damage.

Spook wrote:So you want my suggestion Andrew? Lose this splinter idea before it causes damage.

What part of that have I written in Maltese?

The splintering is not a suggestion it's already here.

"....why have they gone elsewhere?".
A lot of it would be simply because there's somewhere else to go.
When this forum kicked off it was the ONLY Australian VW forum. So if you wanted to talk Oz cars with Oz people, this was the place to be.
Now there's alternatives. That doesn't mean that this place has got worse or better. Doesn't mean the other forums are worse or better. Just that there is competition & competition takes it's toll.

Now with your second comment you've actually proved my point.
Here's a person who is going to bypass the rest of the forum for the splinter group that interests them. Not everyone will do that.
But if half do, the other half, eventually, wont get a choice, & it will leave general chat high & dry.

Also, as I've said, I'll have to got to four separate sections of the forum ALL the time!
I won't be the only one, & I dare say a few will get sick of it.

Constant bickering is a real turn off...
As mentioned above,a lot of "the knowelege base" wont post anymore simply due to the sledging of their comments or negetive replys to their postings,mostly unfounded. When I first logged on to AVD there was always a new post in the tech section or a good debate about this is better than that and why,posted mainly by knowelegeable people on the topic. This just doesn't happen anymore.Is it because people are always at each others throates??? I'm definetly not Einstein but find it a turn off......How can it be fixed??? Dunno...

TYP-114 wrote:

Spook wrote:Now with your second comment you've actually proved my point.
Here's a person who is going to bypass the rest of the forum for the splinter group that interests them. Not everyone will do that.
But if half do, the other half, eventually, wont get a choice, & it will leave general chat high & dry.

Actually, you have proved my point....not everyone wants to get involved in general chit chat. For you and the others that do, good on ya, thats your choice. But your choice does not have to be everyones choice.

But your choice will eventually limit, or outright remove mine.

Like I said, if half the members only post in their chosen genre, the others will have to follow, or just be left out.
If you have only one particular interest, that's probably no big deal.

But those of us who have more than one interest are going to have to go from section to section to section just to keep up.

That's going to get on a lot of peoples tits in a real hurry.
We'll lose members, not gain em.

Do what I do....go to "Topic Activity" and just read all the new posts.....if it intrests you you click on it...you miss nothing if you do that several times a week.Having seperate "topics" just makes what you want easier to find.

could it be that people are just a bit bored? they just want a change of scenery now and then? the natural ebb and flow of interests and stuff?

my frustration with this forum has been mainly that people seem more interested in making their cars look pretty than actually driving them properly. Seems like I'm in the minority though, so I've given up a bit and found other places where people are more interested in go than show. I'd still recommend AVD as the best VW site in oz, but it does lack some of the momentum it used to have. DSK must have had an impact on that.

As far as the mods go. I think sometimes you could hit some people a little harder. There are a few people on this forum that are just plain bullies.

Anyway, thanx Vanderaj for all the hard work. Highly appreciated. :kiss

MickH wrote:Do what I do....go to "Topic Activity" and just read all the new posts.....if it intrests you you click on it...you miss nothing if you do that several times a week.Having seperate "topics" just makes what you want easier to find.

That works if you can get near a computer "several times a week." People have a life outside the internet.

I'm a shiftworker. This fortnight I've got a couple of hours every day between getting home & the kids arriving. Next fortnight I'll be lucky to see the computer 3 times. It is not uncommon for the last post I wrote/read to be 2 or 3 pages back.

So how do you figure things will be easier to find when I have to look in 4 sections instead of 1?
It's going to be a complete pain in the arse.

No smoke-blowing, but best forum I am a member of. :thumb

For the new, segregated rides forum (I suggested this in another post), how about a "Cousins and Mongrels" section to cater for (what seems to be only me!) VW-based kitcars and other near relatives.

Thanks for providing the most informative, friendly forum I've ever known.

Mick.

Cudos to Andrew for all time he puts into this.

To others with a beef:
Who really cares, it's just the internet.. if you really are that worried about all this get out of the house, do some gardening.

I like some of the undertone comments of "other forums , such as dsk" throughout AVD etc i think it's a laugh.. At the end of the day DSK and i'm sure many other forums were created because of evolution, things change, people change.. and guess what? the internet changes..no hard feelings.. i feel as though we all should get along just fine seeming though we are all into VW's .. you know common interest and all that?

It happens when anything get's too large, it segregates (like my ass)

I welcome new additions to AVD, the broad memberlist will sure to fill the new sections etc.. and now you will be able to browse through your favourite VW type.. nice

I'll stop rambling.. Timmy

Start at the start.

I never question the time & effort Andrew puts in, although the constant need to fix things that aren't broken is a different story.

"Who really cares.."
I do, & I don't recall ever having made a secret of that.

It's not segregation. That's a lock out & it's not what's happening. It's factionalising.

It seems to me that the people that are cheering about this factionalisation all have tunnel vision as to their idea of a VW.
One type & one type only.

If Jim Gow, as a beetle owner, had that sort of tunnel vision when he kicked off this forum, I wouldn't be here, neither would you.

But it was based on the idea that we all owned Volkswagens. Not Beetles or Kombis or dune buggies or whatever.

Now the question was asked: How do we improve the forum?

There is no way known that breaking it into factions is the answer.

Spook wrote:It seems to me that the people that are cheering about this factionalisation all have tunnel vision as to their idea of a VW.
One type & one type only.

You need to get your facts straight first about that...

I welcome the new sections but I have owned, loved and crushed..
Beetles, Type 3's, Busses (split,bay & T3) , golfs & a passat. Not to mention a small peddle car collection.

Aussieveedubbers is way too large to cram all the VW types into a few small sections.. it's grown.. things need to change. If you want to keep the small community spirit alive, then start a new forum and manually activate registrations.. call it AussieWeeDubbers, you can use that joke.

Timmy :kiss

frenzix wrote:

Spook wrote:It seems to me that the people that are cheering about this factionalisation all have tunnel vision as to their idea of a VW.
One type & one type only.

You need to get your facts straight first about that...

I welcome the new sections but I have owned, loved and crushed..
Beetles, Type 3's, Busses (split,bay & T3) , golfs & a passat. Not to mention a small peddle car collection.

Aussieveedubbers is way too large to cram all the VW types into a few small sections.. it's grown.. things need to change. If you want to keep the small community spirit alive, then start a new forum and manually activate registrations.. call it AussieWeeDubbers, you can use that joke.

Timmy :kiss

Strange that you don't mention what you've got here & now.

Here & now I run 4 VWs of 3 entirely different configurations.

Which brings me quite neatly to diversity.
30 years ago, if you owned a VW, you had a beetle, kombi, type 3, golf or passat. There was a couple of specialised vehicles, but 5 types was pretty much your VW range.
Walk into a dealer now. Have a look at the range, & of course, we keep the older cars running, so they're still around.

So start breaking this into selective groups & exactly where do you stop?

There's a bloke now, with a kit car, asking the legitimate question of where does he go.
Where is the kit car section? Why is this group being discriminated against? And that is the right word.

Where do the new beetles go? In with the air cooled beetles when the two cars have nothing in common? Or in the water cooled section with the mk 1 golf & every commercial built after '89? Some choice.
So when will they be demanding their own section?
Everyone wants more.

There is a saying:
Many a true word is said in jest.

"If you want to keep the small community spirit alive, then start a new forum....."

So even though it was written as an attempt at being a smartarse, you can see the community spirit on this forum is going to suffer.

That's all I needed to know.

Spook wrote:Strange that you don't mention what you've got here & now.

Spook again, get your facts straight..

I drive a Watercooled T3 everyday, and have a late Type 3 that I am doing up.. along with a dualcab split. I was driving an early golf up until a year ago..

and the smartarse comment was exactly what I believe.. Segregation is already happening.. has been happening for a couple of years now... catering for a larger audiance is not a bad thing.. Somehow I feel as though you will never change your mind on this topic, or any other topic you voice your opinion about.. it's old.

frenzix wrote:

Spook wrote:Strange that you don't mention what you've got here & now.

Spook again, get your facts straight..

I drive a Watercooled T3 everyday, and have a late Type 3 that I am doing up.. along with a dualcab split. I was driving an early golf up until a year ago..

Facts are straight.
From the quoted text:
"...but I have owned, loved and crushed..."
Have owned is past tense. It doesn't mention what you do have. So it was right. That you've now told me what you have doesn't make it wrong.

Once again, it is NOT segregation. Segregation is breaking it into two or more groups but those groups aren't welcome on each others turf.
With factions, on the other hand, you still have your groups but they remain part of the main body.

This is not catering to the larger audience, it's making several smaller audiences. There's a difference.

But I cannot comprehend how you, or anyone else, can see a move that is going to alter, in any way, as you called it, the community spirit that we have on this forum, as a step forward.

And NO, you won't convince me otherwise.

sorry spook, but this vitriol is why people start other forums.

Spook wrote:

frenzix wrote:

Spook wrote:Strange that you don't mention what you've got here & now.

Spook again, get your facts straight..

I drive a Watercooled T3 everyday, and have a late Type 3 that I am doing up.. along with a dualcab split. I was driving an early golf up until a year ago..

Facts are straight.
From the quoted text:
"...but I have owned, loved and crushed..."
Have owned is past tense. It doesn't mention what you do have. So it was right. That you've now told me what you have doesn't make it wrong.

:duh

pete wood wrote:sorry spook, but this vitriol is why people start other forums.

Maybe, maybe not.

But all things being equal, Peter, I would sooner have a little bad blood between two members, than an "us & them" attitude across the entire forum.

TYP-114
Politics has nothing to do with it.
More to do with years of getting dragged through court.
You learn to be very careful what you say, & if you put it in writing, check it, check it & check it again. Because a word out of place, or what you see as a sly dig, can turn black into white in a real hurry. And once it's in writing, you can't deny saying it.

Mayabe I should have a few beers and come back on here too.

My opinion is to have more positive comments from people posting. That may be a good way to attract people to post. Negative comments may turn them away.

No facts, just personal opinion. 👍

Personally I cannot fault the Admin guys and moderators. I've never had a problem and this is all done in *their own time* (The time that we spend piss-farting about on this site having fun). And that is what it is all about isn't it?? FUN???!!! A chance to converse with like minded individuals and engage in some banter and have FUN. Jeeezz. It's the internet for farksake! If you want to make a difference in the world then write to someone in Canberra and bust their chops...:cussing
To Jim & Andrew :thumb.
To the anti fun brigade:P
Just my 2 cents.
- Adam.

TYP-114 wrote:

Spook wrote:TYP-114
Politics has nothing to do with it.
More to do with years of getting dragged through court.
You learn to be very careful what you say, & if you put it in writing, check it, check it & check it again. Because a word out of place, or what you see as a sly dig, can turn black into white in a real hurry. And once it's in writing, you can't deny saying it.

And what the hell does getting dragged through the courts have to do with your objection to sub-forums?


Or was it an attempt to intimidate, or spook me? 😂😂😂😂

[ Edited on 20-6-2007 by TYP-114 ]

My apologies. I thought you were refering to the way I pick peoples posts apart.

I think my objections have been clearly spelt out.
But simply, I don't want to see an us & them attitude on this forum.
Secondly, once you start catering to groups, where do you stop? More importantly, how do you stop? How many models are there?

As Andrew has said many times, we are bound by the laws of this country.
The discrimination laws are a lot harsher than the liable laws.
Only needs one person to take umbrage at not having a sub forum for their model & all hell breaks lose.

One dickhead blew his hand off with a firecracker, they've been banned ever since. It only ever needs one.

Cars. :thumb

[ Edited on 21-6-2007 by DubbinDan ]

Hey there!

I was wondering why the search function is so woefully inferior to that used by other Forums (Fora? 😂). It seems to either return a massive quantity of useless stuff if you're too general, or nothing at all. What happened to AND and OR?

And when you Go Back in the Browser (to the search options page), as others have mentioned you have to retype the entry in the Search field and re-choose your parameters, which sucks of course (since most of the time you need to modify the search a bit before you get what you want).

A useful search function is a must I think, more so for technical queries than chit-chat of course. Just my suggestion. Long live AVD!

Cheers, A.

Anything new to report here? I see the search is still poo.

Cheers dudes! A.

just for everyone else's sake i thought i would let you know you can always google the aussieveesubbers.com site, just go to google.com and type your keywords and then site:aussieveedubbers.com

e.g if i want brakes;
I type into google:
brake site:aussieveedubbers.com

well, I just look at the headings - if the heading doesn't appeal to Me then I don't look at it..

Too Many NON VW topics etc....

too much bad language --

I'm Not into buggies, race cars,drag cars. hot engines etc..
water cooled engines etc...

LEE

[been into beetles since 1962]

68AutoBug wrote:I'm Not into buggies, race cars,drag cars. hot engines etc..
water cooled engines etc...

Too bad, because the people in positions of power are into those things 🙂

68AutoBug wrote:well, I just look at the headings - if the heading doesn't appeal to Me then I don't look at it..

Too Many NON VW topics etc....

too much bad language --

I'm Not into buggies, race cars,drag cars. hot engines etc..
water cooled engines etc...

LEE

[been into beetles since 1962]

I pretty much agree with the headings bit, bad language sorts adds to the entertainment value n as for the other points I like the diversity of different aspecys tthat the marque covers
not to many marques can have the variety that vw has, that's what makes it interesting
I'm not to bothered as too alledged powers interests honestly, good luck to em..
I value that tolerence is here cause if it wasn't we'd all on some other specific site yeah
sure there are a few minor tweaks to be had here n there
but overall I'm happy fanx
it's a pity some others can't sorta build a bridge n drive over it in their fave vw

Ah, google hey eraser?! Thanks, I'll try that! Learnt something today already.

Cheers, A.

Dear Andrew..

Just running a quick eye over the member list:
I think it would be a good start to survey those members that joined before Dec-02 that have contributed (say) 100 posts or more and haven't logged on for 90 days or more. There are some names amongst them that were real helpful in my early search for advice, parts etc.. IMO the opinions of these members and why they no longer even bother to log in would be helpful in any decisions you wish to take.. Some of these members I see now on other forums so many haven't "lost interest in VW's" but have "lost support of AVD" The list represents over 33,000 posts. That is a lot of content that has walked away.. Just a thought.. Rob

Nice to see an old thread raising its head again.

I think the thing where AVD is suffering is that you can't guarantee that the technical information that you're getting is accurate. Too many times I've seen non-mechanical tinkerers (myself included here) giving out technical knowledge that is just plain wrong. Non-painters, giving out paint adhesion knowledge. I personally know who's word to trust because I've been on here for so long, but newbies wouldn't know who is who.

So what I'd like to suggest is that we have a few dedicated technical experts, paint experts, engine experts, suspension experts, who can be the "official" reference points and respondees to threads if they are under their subject. These are the people who do this work for their daily business. Also we have some historical experts too, who could perhaps start to create some accurate historical threads. The list could go on, but until we get structure around who does and knows what, we will continue to have misinformation going around. I don't have a problem with having multiple people working these lists, so long as we have some core individuals so that opinions are challenging, varied, but accurate.

Further to this....the reason why smaller forums are developing is because AVD is too big to be just one club. The reason for the success of DSK and Melbburgluft is that they are smaller, specialised, and cater to a particular interest bracket. Also, there is a real feeling of being part of an actual club, which AVD cannot cover due to its size.

True Squiz.. But if the brains are walking???

squizy wrote:Nice to see an old thread raising its head again.

I think the thing where AVD is suffering is that you can't guarantee that the technical information that you're getting is accurate. Too many times I've seen non-mechanical tinkerers (myself included here) giving out technical knowledge that is just plain wrong. Non-painters, giving out paint adhesion knowledge. I personally know who's word to trust because I've been on here for so long, but newbies wouldn't know who is who.

So what I'd like to suggest is that we have a few dedicated technical experts, paint experts, engine experts, suspension experts, who can be the "official" reference points and respondees to threads if they are under their subject. These are the people who do this work for their daily business. Also we have some historical experts too, who could perhaps start to create some accurate historical threads. The list could go on, but until we get structure around who does and knows what, we will continue to have misinformation going around. I don't have a problem with having multiple people working these lists, so long as we have some core individuals so that opinions are challenging, varied, but accurate.

Further to this....the reason why smaller forums are developing is because AVD is too big to be just one club. The reason for the success of DSK and Melbburgluft is that they are smaller, specialised, and cater to a particular interest bracket. Also, there is a real feeling of being part of an actual club, which AVD cannot cover due to its size.

And whats with advertising singles (overseas) dating sites now?.. Is the "core" revenues not enough to cover overheads?

I dont know if anyone else mentioned it, but the ability to add higher Res Pic's for everything would be nice 😘

Boozo wrote:I dont know if anyone else mentioned it, but the ability to add higher Res Pic's for everything would be nice 😘

The ability to embed video would be good too.


Regards,


Matt.

Two minor points, but...

1. Where a member has multiple posts in a thread, their signature should only show in the most recent post in that thread, not repeatedly in all posts. This would reduce bandwidth demand and increase the content/crapola ratio.

2. Spell-check-before-submit option.

hth

hey squizy, on the point of your "expert panel plan" great idea but, i have been here 5 mins but watched for a long time. only joining up after buying a car. i was a spraypainter for a few years in the 70's and 80's eventually working at a shop that specialised in ground up restoes of merc, porsche, bmws and rollers. with guys like dave hart(well known hot rodder) and blokes who worked for boyd coddington. i see info given out by guys here who seem to know what they are doing, that i don't agree with, but their work still comes out ok. there are many ways to skin a cat, to stop some people's opinion but allow others on the strength of what? someone else's opinion? despite whatever advice, people should still take sole responsibility for their ride, their life and their decisions. sorry for the rant, pete

"Too bad, because the people in positions of power are into those things "

- "positions of power". what absolute crap.

nick

There is a spellcheck option. Its called Firefox. Dont know if the latest IE has it as well. It may do. Dont know about Mac users, they're all crazy non-conformist people anyway. They probably want spelling mistakes.

bond wrote:"Too bad, because the people in positions of power are into those things "

- "positions of power". what absolute crap.

nick

i really dont care if you dont like the water scene but there is a lot of people on here that do. so pull your head in and move on. nobody is forcing you to read the posts in that section.

amazeer wrote:There is a spellcheck option. Its called Firefox.

That works well - I didn't know FF had it; Internet Explorer will doubtless play catchup in its next version.

barls wrote:

bond wrote:"Too bad, because the people in positions of power are into those things "

- "positions of power". what absolute crap.

nick

i really dont care if you dont like the water scene but there is a lot of people on here that do. so pull your head in and move on. nobody is forcing you to read the posts in that section.

lol. i'll just assume you've quoted me by accident and you're not as retarded as you sound.

nick

We all love air-cooled Volkswagens.

But let's not go down the 'I hate watercooled VWs' path. What's wrong with loving BOTH? If it has a VW badge on it, it's cool.

bond wrote:

barls wrote:

bond wrote:"Too bad, because the people in positions of power are into those things "

- "positions of power". what absolute crap.

nick

i really dont care if you dont like the water scene but there is a lot of people on here that do. so pull your head in and move on. nobody is forcing you to read the posts in that section.

lol. i'll just assume you've quoted me by accident and you're not as retarded as you sound.

nick

your right mate i really should stop drinking and posting!!!!

What about adding the option that if you hold your mouse over the thread Title, that it comes up with the first few sentences of what the thread is actually about?

As a newbie on here, I find/found that I have to look through every thread, and sometimes they are not really relevant to me. Sometimes the title of the thread is a bit ambiguous, which could confuse things. It would just make it quicker for people with not a load of time on their hands to scan through the threads without having to read each one.

Hope that makes sense?

Interesting read.

There are so many things to consider with forums and so little time to do it when everyone works for free.

AVD has become the place it is because of the people who post here, love them or hate them they are still part of the environment.

I am looking at a few of the tech requests and will discuss them with Andrew.

In relation to people coming and going that is just a fact of life. People change, move on and drift from the AVD community. AVD has given life to a lot of more specialised forums and yes many were started by AVD members as they had other ideas and opinions. I do not think this is a bad thing and different forums attract different sorts of people, all about being individual.

AVD would still have to be the largest VW forum in Australia and from what I have seen one of the most active VW forums around.

I agree that on occasion there is a little to much negativity from some people and many of us, myself includes often post on the wrong side of bed and put someone offside. Such is life and tone is a very hard thing to convey in a post, even with smiles.

At the computer generation, grow up, get VW and migrate onto forums the nature of these online communities is going to continue to change and for every negative there is always several positives.

Not only is AVD a hugs positive in my book it will go down in history for being the provider of a great deal of information, technical resources and leg ups to a lot of VW Businesses.

So what do we need to keep AVD going strong and constantly improving.. well that is a question that only the members can answer.

So with that in mind who has some other suggestions for change and improvement ?

modulus wrote:

amazeer wrote:There is a spellcheck option. Its called FireFox.

That works well - I didn't know FF had it; Internet Explorer will doubtless play catchup in its next version.

I don't know what the go is with our Windows XP.
It has a ABC check box at the top of the page to spell check everything.🤪

Brad/Andrew and Others

A bit of digging on the member list shows that this site has a strong, active following.. 4885 registered members of which 1681 (34%) were active in the last 3 months.. I am no forum analyst but, to me, that seems an awesome amount of goodwill/following.. call it what you like.. I have some experience in operating club memberships ( a premier sporting club with paid subscriptions) and I know how hard it is to recruit and retain members.. In my opinion, a healthy organisation with appropriate governance and structure (one that the members and especially the founders/patrons are committed to the longevity, stability and progress) will have the following inherent traits..

A winning attitude
Strict Rules and Governance
Quality content and brand
Good Accessibility
Transparency in Decision making
Financial Security
A progressive stance in planning
An appropriately qualified executive (management) team

The separation of VW enthusiasts into alternate forums is a good and a bad thing.. i guess it is all in the intention of why those competing (thats what they are) forums started in the 1st place..

If it was to develop a niche that was not catered for, then AVD has lost quality/content..
If it was to establish more of a "club" feel for a band of like minded enthusiasts, then AVD has not necessarily lost out as long as there is a level of amiability between the two entities
If it was because people(s) were alienated/wronged/pissed off/banned or just got plain sick of the site.. Then AVD has lost membership/content (but not necessarily quality)..

I believe the 1st item should be to review AVD from the bottom up.. This includes;

reviewing it's structure (including financial model)
surveying current members regarding their interests, intents, likes and dislikes, expectations and wishes
surveying non-current members with the above but also why they do not support AVD anymore
analyse the software deployed, review enhancements, consider competing (successful) models

Hopefully answers will be formed from the above.. Then, returning to the traits of a successful club (noted above) develop these answers

A winning attitude
> AVD is the pre-eminant VW forum with the most active. contented membership

Strict Rules and Governance
> AVD is governed by a set of policy's that enshrine its "raison d'etre"

Quality content and brand
> AVD has the best, most informed and most entertaining content. members are proud and and willing to support AVD

Good Accessibility
> AVD is easy to use. Content is well structured. Information is readily available. Support and advice is valuable

Transparency in Decision making
> AVD is well managed with measures in place to resolve potential disputations. Those charged with forming policy, report and are accountable to the members

Financial Security
> AVD has clearly defined income streams and expenditure

A progressive stance in planning
> AVD constantly stays ahead of the pack with innovative and meaningful offerings to new and existing members.

An appropriately qualified executive (management) team
> AVD is run by a qualified team of people that are charged to uphold the values of the organisation and to carry on its business according to the principles set in place.

This is all a bit of a ramble and I haven't got time at the moment to clean it up (off to work).. However, I hope that all members that are interested and have followed the scene for a while, realise that we are at a bit of a watershed in this forum.. The loss of a founding administrator (Jim Gow) in such a bitter and acrimonious way, really has highlighted the weakness in the AVD model and shows up some of the serious pitfalls ahead if we continue to allow marginalisation, and parochial attitudes to govern the way we see ourselves (and others see us).
New forums, websites, competition is great as long as your organisation faces up to them and has a competing strategy to go forward with.. Do we?

Rob

Sorry and why is this all so important...?
Because 4885 members say it is..

I would like to see the location of any posters made mandatory, dosn't need to be their street address but their city would make it much easier to give some accurate advise such as where to go to purchase a given item, for instance,"in the shed" dosn't realy help.

... but I am 'in the shed'! 😎

Not sure what words web browsers search for but 'old and new school needs' is something you look for, for a 5-year-old kid, not a VW freak? Just athought but maybe a few subtle changes to wording on the site would allow AVD to be found more easily?

not sure if someone has mentioned this, it is only minor, but in the subject column, when there is multiple pages it only lists the first couple of pages and the last page for instance

Subject: What can we do to make Aussieveedubbers better? (1 2 .. 5)

it is a pain when you know the last time you looked at the page you were on page 4. you have to go to page 5 then go back a page. why not make it like the following

Subject: What can we do to make Aussieveedubbers better? (1 2 .. 4 5)

as i said only, only minor but would make reading larger topics easier to read.

Dont know if its been mentioned, but I have been on other sites where you can upload photo directly from your computer and dont require a host. If I host a photo on photobucket and later remove it, it also then disappears from the thread I added it to. Very annoying when you go to look at someones photos and they aren't there anymore.

Just my thoughts, thanks.