The Oldsmobile Connection

85cieraholiday · Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 9:39 am Post subject: Ideas for the site

1. We need to get others to this site, so that we can get more post/people,. Our car domain sites would be a great way to do this, all it will cost is time.
2. Add a section for Olds info, like production numbers, engine specs, and the ads for the cars. I could help with production and such for 1946-1998, and have some limited info on 1940-1945. The ads, many of us have pulled them out of magazines, and they are always online. Make this a members only section, to influance people to join.
3. Do something with Team Olds, to attract people.
4. Set up a chat night, but this time give it a few tries so it can catch on.
5.Add to the tech info section.

LETS GET EVERYONE TO POST THERE IDEAS, so that the best ones could be selected, and then we can work to make this site better, with new people, ideas, and post. 8)

metallica_r · Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: 64 Location: corydon, indiana

i have my cardomain and my web site linked to here. i am about ready to get oldsconnection.com accross my back window from a decal place in town. Also my web site is posted on autogeek.com and ohiocarclubs.com so if people go to that site and see it then click on my site at the bottom and under the links page there is links to this site. i hope i am helping out.

Brando · Joined: 06 Jun 2003 Posts: 3067 Location: Michigan, USA

85cieraholiday wrote: 1. We need to get others to this site, so that we can get more post/people,. Our car domain sites would be a great way to do this, all it will cost is time.
2. Add a section for Olds info, like production numbers, engine specs, and the ads for the cars. I could help with production and such for 1946-1998, and have some limited info on 1940-1945. The ads, many of us have pulled them out of magazines, and they are always online. Make this a members only section, to influance people to join.
3. Do something with Team Olds, to attract people.
4. Set up a chat night, but this time give it a few tries so it can catch on.
5.Add to the tech info section.

LETS GET EVERYONE TO POST THERE IDEAS, so that the best ones could be selected, and then we can work to make this site better, with new people, ideas, and post. 8)

1. Already have my site linked, and page dedicated to this site. But more people doing this would be great as I checked the stats and we do get people from linked member pages, such as mine and 85cieraholiday's.

2. Olds info section....sounds good, send the info my way and I'll put it up and require login, maybe I'll require login for the tech section too...to influence guests to register.

3. Any ideas? Decals would be great, I PMed CutlassCiera95 but got no reply about the decals!?! :? Where you at man?

4. Chat night, definately.....

5. Once again, anything people have to contribute is welcome, just email me: webmaster@oldsconnection.com with your article you want posted. Some scans from people's Haynes/Chiltons manuals would be great, something informative for other users. Like we have the 73 wiring diagram....get others.

Also, anyone know of any places that allow free advertisement by displaying their banner? I did this with RSM Racing (we're in their links section) and we actually get the most hits from them as for "external" site links.

TOC Admin
Brando

88delta88 · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 2407 Location: Canada

I think we've got a tight little group here... We definately need more people, but the ones we already have are great!!! I absolutely love posting to this board, everyone has a bright and humorous attitude.

Cheers to all,

Cheers to brando for making it all possible.

85cieraholiday · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:03 am Post subject:

Ok for the Info section, Ill send you the info working my way back from 1999-1940 (might take some time but Ill get it done) Ill scan some of the Olds ads I have and put them into the album.

85cieraholiday · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 3:20 pm Post subject:

I also have wireing diagrams for 1985-1995 Calais/Achieva and 1982-1996 Cutlass Ciera cars so if you want me to send them to you for the tech info section let me know.

kevinlj182 · Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 44 Location: BERLIN CONNECTICUT

I'm not sure if we can do this or not already but i'd really think it'd be cool if we could embed our posts with pictures and movies. I tried before to embed a youtube post, but when i posted it all i saw was the written graggle. I don't know what the negatives could be for not doing it other then our load page time, (but hey its not face anyways) and then we wouldn't have to open new windows all the time right? Also i'm kinda at a point in my own life (not being totally healthy and all) where i spend a great deal of time infront of the commputer doing nothing, maybe theres something our site needs, that hasn't gotten done because of lack of man power hours. ( I could totally do data entry! :D ) another way we could also cut down on the loading of our site is the use of more drop boxes to elimenate new screens and to facilitate more effective navigating through the site. Also i was thinking we should better organize our forums creating general areas, and then doing year and models for some. for example like this :

Appearance- choice of 3 "buttons" or linked words:
all posts ( like we have it now)
General exterior
General Interior
again there might be more topics that deseve hot buttons i just dont know them
then 2 drop bars or pull down menus so to speak:
Specific Year ( 1900,1901, etc)
Specific Model (all models of that year)
more options then that would probably be unnecesary but easy to add on once this would be complete.

Audio- choice of buttons and drop menus (should be changed to electronic, or car media devices to better encompase navi, mp3,lcd screens and so on)
all posts "button"(like we have now)
general speakers button(not the talkers but the electronics)
general head units button
genral amplifiers button
again there might be more topics that deseve hot buttons i just dont know them.
Or if you wanted to narrow down info , you could choose to use the 2 drop menus.
choices would be year for the first one, and model for the next one and then it would bring you to a page with all relivant model yr info.

General - could be left alone, i have no ideas to improve it... Yet :)

Off Topic - stays the same could be left alone, i have no ideas to improve it

Maintenance- hot buttons and drop menus used again
-all post (like we have now)
-Exterior
-Interior
-engine
-tranny
-electical
thes hot buttons would bring up everything relating to them,
-Misc for things tht dont fit into any catagory
again there might be more topics that deseve hot buttons i just dont know them
2 drop bars
first drop bar giving you a choice of year
followed by model in the next bar
then i would spit out all threads that fit.

Finally performance could be handled in a similar fasion.

hot buttons and drop menus. the hot buttons could be all posts, exhaust, engine, brakes, suspension

or you could utilize the same 2 drop menus (year then model) if you wanted to be specific.

i think we could keep the defualt forum page to not creep out old time users but add in the hot buttons and drop menus bellow there specific areas

anyways what do you guys think? I would be interessted in helping do this so all it would take is a "yay" to get the ball rolling.

of course i've never really done any website design so i dont know really how to implement this type of thing, tho i am a design student so it wouldn't look cut rate nor would i want it to skew from this current design too much in terms of color font and more.

afrats · Joined: 13 Mar 2007 Posts: 84 Location: Colorado Springs

Sounds like you have lots of time to think about this.

RednBlackCutlass · Joined: 19 Nov 2005 Posts: 103

How about a Member Locator map? There are several out there. Here is the one I use on my family site.

http://www.frappr.com/mfforum

You can start your own map, and link it here.

And maybe put a Donate link on the front page? How about a recurring Pay Pal? Easier to drop a couple of bux a month for some, I'd hit it. You could even insert a star or something for donating members underneath the sig.
Just my 2 cents...

Brando · Joined: 06 Jun 2003 Posts: 3067 Location: Michigan, USA

RednBlackCutlass wrote: How about a Member Locator map? There are several out there. Here is the one I use on my family site.

http://www.frappr.com/mfforum

You can start your own map, and link it here.

http://www.oldsconnection.com/forum/atlas.php?mode=viewmap

Never mind...apparently it stopped working and that's the latest version... :(

Not so keen on the whole drop down menu thing...not something you see used on message boards to select a forum. There is such a thing as having too many forums, we used to have quite a few and it was just too much, so it was condensed and reorganized.

TOC Admin
Brando

kevinlj182 · Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 44 Location: BERLIN CONNECTICUT

I agree with you about having too man forums, but im not suggesting creating more. I think increasing the usuablity of this site is very important because as it is, its hard to thouroghly go through the 9-14 pages and find the correct forum that applies to you. the default forum page would stay the same except for the above corrections, allowing users to stay firmiliar with the layout but increasing the likelyhood of them finding the desired information.

Brando · Joined: 06 Jun 2003 Posts: 3067 Location: Michigan, USA

Well, that's what the search function is for. I can see what you're saying, but it would require users to input their topic into the correct section out of...well...yea, it would be a mess imo.

TOC Admin
Brando

Brando · Joined: 06 Jun 2003 Posts: 3067 Location: Michigan, USA

RednBlackCutlass wrote: How about a Member Locator map? There are several out there. Here is the one I use on my family site.

http://www.frappr.com/mfforum

You can start your own map, and link it here.

And maybe put a Donate link on the front page? How about a recurring Pay Pal? Easier to drop a couple of bux a month for some, I'd hit it. You could even insert a star or something for donating members underneath the sig.
Just my 2 cents...

The map is back in business and better than before, check the announcement on the main page.

TOC Admin
Brando

kevinlj182 · Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 44 Location: BERLIN CONNECTICUT

Regardless of the search function which is definately important, i think it would still be a good upgrade, and it wouldn't really be any harder for people to post in the correct spot since they r posting it, but even if they didn't there could ber an "i don't know where to put this thread"` section were a monitor or maintiance person (such as myself) could eventually put it in the right place.

andrewk · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 1246 Location: Ames, IA

Video and audio encryption increases bandwidth exponentially, which will increase the cost of the site.

The other ideas are dependent on people posting on the right forum, and then dependent on the mods and admin to fix the mistakes. Brando funds all of this, at least AFAIK, and mods work for free, so I see it being a lot of work for minimal gain. People have a hard enough time now, give them more choices, and they won't know what to do.

An "i dont know where to put this" would be the Off Topic Lounge, where everything is supposed to go that doesn't fall into another category.

I don't really find it that hard to decide which forum to post in. If it deals with appearance, then thats pretty obvious. Car Electronics, car audio, etc, etc. It is conveniently broken up into big enough segments that each one has worth. Get too many, and they become useless.

Indexing the site to better find things is a novel idea, but it would again, require users to follow some form of formatting and syntax, which would prove to be difficult, IMO.

Not meaning to rain on your parade.

Andrew