It's too bad this forum is so disjointed.
 

All the subjects in broken out into sub-sections. This looks organized on the surface, but takes away from any real community forming here.

I'm on other car forums where 400+ people will be on the singular main "Tech issues" forum, and you get so many more eyeballs on each thread.
So much more powerful, since everyone reads everything, and there's so much more cross pollination of knowledge, not just the topics you think you want to read.

Someone might post a question that others never even see.
You have like 600 people online, but there are all off in their little corners of the mandala.

Even how FRS and BRZ General are broken out into two different 75 and 25 people sub forums.
The cars are 99% the same, it would be so much better if there was a single subform where all 100 people read and post.

If the owner of this site is willing to consider some ideas, I can point you to the other forums I am referring to, as a model.
They are very strong communities with outlier stickiness, partly due to the structure.
As this forum is, I think it promotes more of a "look it up and leave" kind of vibe rather than sticking around and reading.

yeah but for people like me, who know what they want to see, its great to not have to sift through a dozen threads about clear corners or how this car is better than a ferarri and whatnot.

There was a huge sense of community here until about a year ago. Go back a bit and the sheer number of posts in a day would have overwhelmed any one thread if everybody focused on it.
The sub forum breakdown works well I think. There are some people that never leave the tech section that interests them, many that never venture out from their local subs and a relatively small group that can be found anyplace. The general sections can be a free for all but the tech subs usually remain focused. Not sure what value having 400 people talking about one subject would really have anyway. Look at the shit show that NASIOC is most of the time.
This is the premier forum on the subject so not sure how much improvement you could provide.

Oh and it would help if people actually posted in the appropriate sub forums in the first place: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=38

A forum about 1 car that over its years of production has basically not changed. Use the search function, or better yet in Google, and you will find 20 threads on your question. It is rare a new question comes up.

The different sections give you something to click during the 2 seconds you spend seeing if there is really anything new.

The site is fine.

I can't speak for everyone, but I know there are quite a few folks that never pay any attention to the top level subforums.

I personally just look at the "New Posts" since I was last on, not really paying attention to the breakdown.

Awesome.

Well, this format works for me.


humfrz

But then how can we answer exactly the same question several times a week?

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...44#post2958444

I do the same thing I click "Today's posts" under quick links and look at things there. I enjoy this forum takes a little getting used to but now I'm quite fond of it faults and all.

Only thing I could think to improve is make the quick links tab more in your face as a big button or something so new users know that's where the stuff you want is hiding.

i agree that this forum is fine...op is just a little late to the party. i'm sure it'll kick up again when gen 2 comes along :)


i can see the argument having the FRS/86 & BRZ general sections combined because most of the threads that pop up aren't specifically for one or the other...but I guess there are enough threads regarding the separate special editions or some different equipment so I guess I'm ok with either way.

When I first joined this forum, I did find that there were way too many sub sections however, after browsing for a week, I realized that the forums are actually laid out pretty well.

Also, download Tapatalk on your phone and pick the sub sections that you'd like to read so when you open the app up and go to feed, you can see all the new posts. You can also bookmark some of those sub sections :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have been on a lot of different car forums and this one is organized as well as any.
I spent the first few days here going down the line through sub-forums to see what was here and then started reading specific subforums and threads that particularly help newcomers. Now I do "New Posts" and also go to specific subforums when I have questions that may be answered in that subforum.
Trust me, fewer subforums does NOT help as people skip over so many things and start missing things they really might want to read. It would be like having a newspaper or magazine with articles in random order.

I came on this forum when I bought my car. That was almost a year ago. I'm a member of the Chrysler Crossfire forum, the Chevy Spark forum, and the Suzuki SX4 forum. Like many of you, I just check New Posts everyday. I like this forum, and I think I've made some "friends" here. I enjoy the banter, and the info is great, just like all the other forums I've been a member of. There is one thing that does bother me a little about this particular forum. It seems that you have to jump through hoops to add a picture. On the other forums, there has never been a restriction to the size of the picture that you would like to add to your post. It took me a while to figure out how to resize my pictures, and now I know how to do it. That really is the only thing that I have an issue with on this forum. Now that I know how to resize my pictures, it's not a problem anymore. Bottom line - this forum is fun and very useful. I think I'll have another Molson Golden now!

Same here - I check 'New Posts' most often so I get to see just about all the posts. That's how I found this one.

I agree, the FRS and BRZ sections should not be split up.

Thank you for pointing this out :bow:

Inception...:D


https://media.giphy.com/media/vMWOn7FPcnm5a/giphy.gif

I use New Posts almost exclusively. The only thing I'd like to see is a way to filter for sale ads in or out of what it brings up. It would be nice to hit new for sale ads for say, wheels/tires only without having to navigate there, or even to just filter for sale ads out of the search altogether.


Other than that, there's nothing wrong here. There are far too many posts to concentrate them all in one area and expect the average user to keep up with them all.

I keep up with them all!

Thanks for the "New Posts" idea. I will check that out. For now, I have been going to General and it's always a ghost town that belies the true level of activity this forum generates.

This is a very curious forum in that is seems like it had massive activity back in 2012/2013. It seems like most posts from Google searches are from that era. Then a lull since there's nothing really left to do.

It's like some sort of bathtub curve. Huge activity in anticipation of the car and the first year of it. I suspect as these cars reach the 10 year mark, there will be renewed DIY activity as these all become 100k to 200k mile cars.

End of lease?

The initial peak makes perfect sense. This is (or was) a very social forum in the couple of years after that peak though and was incredibly active even if not much was getting accomplished. I have noticed a decline in that social aspect in the last year or so though. A lot of that may be due to the simple fact that the car has now become cheap enough that the demographic has changed to people that use social media for chatting and expect the forum to just answer questions for them. The thing is that most of those questions either can't be answered or have been answered so many times that many of the long term users just got bored and moved on.
You can only read "Is this a good deal?", "What is your insurance rate?" and "I am new what mods are best?" so many times before you lose interest.

Some maybe and many have moved on to different platforms. Think it has more to do with the overall tone that the place has taken on than anything though.

Even though I am new, I noticed the latter effect as I went back and read through whole threads that were started 2-4 years ago. I also noticed that many threads now, even those with a specific focus, wander off into off-topic at the drop of a hat.

Only in the general section since the odds are the thread has been repeated 1,000 times already. If the topic is strong enough the thread usually goes back on topic. If not it just becomes a playground or dies a natural death. The tech sections usually stay focused.

All this "forum" talk.

When I started I was mostly restricted to Yahoo Groups and an actual email distribution list.

We had two lists: "General", and "Tech". The tech list was moderated manually.

Less trolls now. Not as entertaining as it once was. I jest ... of course. Or am I jesting? I still come back to see how the old crew is doing.

Most of the old crew can pop in now and then but are pretty much gone.
Ya, it hard now to tell who is a troll and who just sounds like one.

It's actually double (twin) jointed. No, for reals.

Y'all missed the FT86Club IRC chat we used to have at the very beginning. Now that was craziness.

OP, we're always open to suggestions and appreciate you giving us your thoughts! Getting eyes on active discussion is always a mission, but general organization is something that is tough to compromise on as it is an info-seeker's best friend, and that's an important thing for us.

The forum is less active, no doubt. I'm sure some of our structure is partially to blame for that, but really there just isn't much new stuff going on. I'm sure that as soon as Toyota/Subaru start talking about new stuff, we'll start seeing the level of engagement that keeps things lively. These old geezers that replied to this thread tend to keep things lively in their own way though, so maybe you should subscribe to the threads that they're on! :P

Huh, I found this thread again. That 'New Posts' button really works. Fancy that.

The only problem with the new posts button is, let's say you go on your phone, click on "new posts" and without looking at any topics, go on your desktop and do the same. All those new posts are now gone. On other forums they stay there until you've actually read them. That's the only thing I dislike and it causes me to miss out on some posts rather often.

Just monitor all the threads like I do. I have a team that helps though. You should see how excited they get when somebody posts the perfect meme for a topic!


http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kjodc3l6vl...elebration.gif

If that happens you can always go to the "Today's Post" link under Quick Links. Not as nice as the "New Posts" but a least narrows down the looking a bit.

There was one? That must have been fun.... :cheers:

My problem is my wife interrupting me every time I click "New Posts" and by the time I get back things are all marked read.

Yes! I found out this is what I have to do when the above interruption occurs!!