Truck forum suggestions

[adrian]

If you have any suggestions for sub-forums that can be added to the truck forums, feel free to share them here.

[Mark]

Eventually, we could break it down to racing, dragging, sled pulls, street & strip, custom/hybrid (much like a Toyota with a huge hemi stuffed in it). Even by brand, as long as that doesn't breed brand bashing and or wars.

Additional sub forums, parts, maintenance, Maybe a small micro section for diesel?

Do you plan on having paying vendors? (Supporting Vendors) They are usually given their own sub forum. With adding vendors I would suggest being picky. With the advent of MAP for the internet (Minimum Advertised Price), the ability of vendors to save loads of money is limited. They are still expected to provide a discount over the retail prices on there personal sites, but normally it's 10%. Group buys help due to volume, but my experience with group buys is that they never really come through. People back out, not enough sign up for it and prices usually are not published, so no one really knows what they are paying until the purchase is made.

More to come.

[adrian]

Those all sound like good ideas. Thanks Mark.

Here are my thoughts on the vendor section: I personally don't care for them, and you hit on a couple of the reasons why.

I think that personal testimony from our users is probably the way to go. In the past I have made arrangements with companies who rented space on my sites, and our users ended up getting screwed. They trusted the company because I dedicated a section of the site to the vendor, when in reality the vendors were only allowed to have that section because they paid for it. I felt bad after I found out what happened, and I pulled the site endorsements all together.

I think most people understand that google ads are a non-affiliate caveat emptor situation, and I have no control over who google puts in those spots (well, limited control), so I use google ads to try and help offset what the site costs me each month.

Those are my inital thoughts, but I am flexible to reason if there is a forum outcry.

[Mark]

I agree. I'm thinking that we shouldn't break the forums down to quickly.

Truck Forum
Maybe brand specific sub forums. (just to keep some organization to the layout)

See where it goes from there. Maybe the forums end up looking like list of "General Discussion" threads. Who knows.

[adrian]

Originally Posted by Mark

I agree. I'm thinking that we shouldn't break the forums down to quickly.

Maybe brand specific sub forums. (just to keep some organization to the layout)

We are thinking the same thing. I figured that as people posted up things like, "My Jeep Rules", or "Any CJ owners out there", that we can start creating the categories like: home/trucks/by make/jeep, or home/trucks/by make/dodge

[Lori]

I say leave it a bit generic like you have it until the need is there. No reason to have people looking through a million links to get to the right one for their category. Until it grows leave them all under Trucks, Cars, etc...

[Mark]

Agreed. I think one of the easiest forum I've ever been to is the Ninja 650 forum. Very generic discussion groups. I usually just view the new posts and then drill down from there. Quite easy to navigate.

[adrian]

You bring up a good point about staying with an easy format. I will probably just have it mirror the motorcycle forum format.

Well, I already know that I want to meet other Tacoma owners and talk about trucks like mine, so I have started with the Toyota forum under the by-make forum. Mark, I know you are a truck fan too so if you want me to go ahead and create the Dodge forum I will. I think that in order to get interest in posting, we will have to stay with the "build it, they will come" mantra as opposed to waiting for them to come stand around bored and then build it approach.

[Mark]

Agreed. Sounds like a logical way forward.