I am a sucker for pictures!
How about a virtual car show? Each page would be a template that would include places for you to insert pictures and a space for you to respond to specific questions about your car (12 things we all want to know!). Things like “what’s under the hood?” “Where did you get it?” “What are you going to do next?” “Does you wife / husband / SO know what you have invested in it?”
That’s a great idea Bill.
Could it be set up so that it is linked to each member’s profile? That way it would not be a super long mega pages post that can be very daunting to start and keep up with when limited time is available.
I run a small local car forum and we used to have a Garage add-in. I’m not sure if they make one similar for phpBB, ours was on vBulletin (although I’m also on phpBB now). Anyway, the add-in allowed you to post pictures, list modifications in various categories (exterior, drivetrain, engine, etc, etc). It was a nice feature with a Forum menu listing that would redirect to the “Garage” area. It sounds like you’re thinking of something similar.
I know there are stickies, but either a subforum/read-only forum Tech Library might be nice as well. I know I’ve done it both ways, with a sticky thread that listed each threads with how to/build info. I’ve also had a separate subforum. Either has worked ok. Even a link to WCCC “Free Stuff” section, if they would allow something like that.
A Marti report library? I know lots of folks have posted their reports when they’ve received them. Maybe they could be tied in with the Garage/Gallery idea.
My current forum has a Chatbox mod installed, although I’ve found that has really reduced forum posting, unfortunately. It’s so heavily used though, that if I removed it now…I may eliminate nearly all site activity!
A monthly/quarterly newsletter sent to members of the site. Contents of the newsletter can vary. Pricing trends, sponsored content (sales?), Rides of the month, calendar of events, etc. I’ve found that can bring people back to a site that they forgot about…which can lead to new posts/ideas.
Thanks for having this forum available. I know running online forums can be difficult, and I’ve found there’s always a battle to drive content/posting/memberships. This forum has helped me immensely, even though I don’t post a lot. I lurk for quite a while whenever I’m “new”.
I always enjoyed the Ride of the Month. Unfortunately being a small community kind of limits the longevity of the concept. There just isn’t a ton of people and then you have a good percentage (like me) that don’t have a car that is eligible. Maybe if you alter the concept slightly and open it up to all Cougars rather than just the cars that are finished. Even a project car can be interesting if there’s a good story that goes with it. It’s not all about the flash.
One of the things that really got me interested in the forums in general was following the ECI thread. Some kind of incentive to get people to start a build thread would keep things far more interesting. It’s not something anyone could do, I consider myself lucky to have any time to devote to a car and that kind of documentation adds exponentially to the time it takes. But I would bet most everyone would follow such a thread pretty faithfully. It’s like reading a favorite book. You just have to wait a bit in between chapters.
Another idea that might be much harder to accomplish on the back end but easier on the user would be to input the VIN and door data plate and an options check list and then it would generate the window sticker and door data tag and buck tag (I know, they all didn’t come with buck tags)… Maybe have an image of the car showing the paint color and vinyl top color if equipped.
Huzer21 those are great ideas! I will look into the garage add on and see if that could work. I found a site that was for couples getting married and it had a series of templates that showed the rings and the invitation and the honey moon plans ans so on… it seemed pretty straight forward in that you just followed the template and it generated a pretty good looking “scrap book” style presentation. I need to check with Kevin on Marti report copyright. I know that we have fair use for editorial purposes so we are probably okay. I will ask about current chat box add ons.
AL Bundy, project cars are okay for ROTM, with one big caveat: we need a good photo for the header. On the other hand, (twisted sense of humor kicking in) wouldn’t it be funny to nominate FastCats trashcan full of parts for ROTM? LOL! Okay, that was a bad idea…
How about for ROTM members send in pictures instead of being nominated (maybe limit it to 10-20 cars per month) then there is a period of time for voting.
Not a heck of a lot different than now just eliminate the nomination which may open it up to a lot of nice cars that no one is aware of.
I think you’ve touched on something here. I’m sure I’m not too dissimilar to other members. I had every intention of nominating someone for this month, but it occurred to me that all the cars I can come up with are already past winners. We need a way to get more Cougars in front of everyone so they can be nominated. Or skip the nomination and have members submit their own.
Something like this could work. I used to have fun searching for a car to nominate to give guys a chance to win the “prestigious ROTM title” but it got to where it was a chore to find worthy cars that weren’t previous winners. I, as many of the others also did, always wound up nominating the cars that didn’t win in the previous few months. (My car actually got a second chance too) It is a little weird though, basically nominating your own car…?
I’d like to suggest “cat videos”, particularly walk-around videos of your cats showing interesting features, scenery, etc. I LOVE watching cat videos on YouTube!
How about instead of ROTM it’s more of a Member/User/Person of the month? I mean, we’re all here for the cars, some people have good stories, too. A good way to kind of introduce some people to the greater community. Me, I have neither good stories or a good car at the moment! I do like seeing the nice, finished cars though. It gives me both motivation and ideas.
I brought up an idea last year to do a picture of the month. I think people tend to shy away from nominating themselves but I bet you could get more involvement if it was just posting a picture. This is the linkfor that thread https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/photo-of-the-month/6546/1
How about an ‘I did it / Mod of the Month’? The winner can give a quick overview of how it was done.
This will show off what people have done, show new members that may not be familiar with member’s cars what can be done and (hopefully) encourage folks to work on their Cougars.
I like the idea Bob, but it leaves out a large group people whose cars are either done or that don’t work on their own cars. I think the adjustment we are making to rotm is to make it more open to every car every month. If people do a mod they should just automatically post a write up like you say.
