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Hi All:

___I added an all-new Hybrid Community section with four forums including the Prius, HCH, Insight and FEH specific forums. I have also had feedback on adding a 4x4 or V6/V8 forum as well as a diesel forum all by their lonesome as well. As clean as the Hybrid Community section appears, would some like to see a Diesel and non-Hybrid community section cordoned off with their own forums underneath too?

___The mods are discussing what we should consolidate to clean the place up a bit and I most certainly agree. Any and all feedback is encouraged and welcome.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Well well, no Tahoe Hybrid Forum?

Maybe have a forum for auto-transmission cars and a separate one for manual transmissions?

I don't understood having the two new people forums, Start Your Journey Here & Introductions. Seems rather redundant and makes it twice as hard for older members trying to greet newer members. Just a thought but perhaps they could be consolidated.

I vote yes for diesel. If you're adding these forums, maybe take out the 'Automobiles' forum and add the Manufacturer specific sub-forums and Motorcycle forum to 'Non-Hybrid'.

Kirk

Wayne,

Thanks for taking customer feedback seriously -

1) Either a 4WD or V8 forum listed is a great idea - it could be listed in manufacturer section. As long as it provide a place to make the Heavy Metal Driver's feel welcome.

2) Combing the 2 forums 'introductions' and 'start your journey here' is also fine idea - it tends to be difficult to greet new members.

3) Diesel ? - what happens when TDIClub finds out :)

Alexander

Hi All:

___Hybrid forums complete, check. Start your Journey and Intro forums merged, check.

___Now how should we move/create a Diesel forum amongst other manufacturers plus the V6/V8 forum in a grouping all on there own. I hate to use the term Non-Hybrid vehicles as a header since it sounds condescending?

___Alexander, I do listen once in a while ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Conventional Vehicles perhaps? To build upon the format you have...

Conventional Vehicles
General
Manufacturer Specific
Heavy Metal
Diesel

Kirk

Gas powered?
Conventional?
Gas only?
Standard? (might be mixed up with transmission, though)

I second the vote for separate Manual and Auto sections.

Hi Kirk:

___I like the term “Conventional vehicles” but would like to give the Diesel guys there due given they are a big force in FE savings and should have there own forum. I do not like the idea of a Diesel forum with only one or two categories however? What is your take on that?

___How to pull the rest of the Automobile section into its own under Conventional vehicles is another. Best way to organize? I am thinking to start similar to what you posted. Conventional automobiles with diesels as a forum and the rest under Automobiles. It feels a little kludgy to me however?

___I did create a Motorcycle specific forum with the Street and Performance bikes AND scooters as their own separate forums. I still might add a general forum to that section as well?

___I moved the Monthly automobile sales forum from Topics to Information where it should have been in the first place.

___It is the main forum with all those automobiles that has me scratching my head right now. And of course reordering the lists from most popular to least which I will do later today?

___Justin and Andrew, good idea about the AT and MT forums. Maybe as a subforum of the Conventional Automobile section?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Wayne,

Kirk's format of conventional and his categories seems sensible. - However don't even think about putting the Diesels there. You'll get flamed fast and furious.

How about "Conventional" and "Alternative" ?

The Alternatives would contain:
Hybrids (subcategories as Wayne listed)
Diesels (single category for now)
EVs & PHEVs (ditto)


Alexander

I'm a diesel driver and didn't think anything of it :D (I guess since I've been driving diesel all my life it seemed conventional to me). I like Alexander's layout, it seems reasonable. The Auto/Manual specific forums seem like a good idea as well.

Kirk

Hi Alexander and Kirk:

___Setting up some of the forum ideas now :)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Lets hope it helps make your site even more successful.

Return the "% over combined EPA" to "% over EPA".

This has been ticking me off as I do mainly city miles to save gas and want to show that its a significant achievement vs highway miles. Also, when I was driving highway only miles, it gave a better yardstick to compare myself to others.

Not to mention, 125% of Combined EPA for "expert" status means that my driving has to actually be 141.6% of the Old EPA numbers I SHOULD be compared to.

Not sure if the move saved database calcs or what, but to me its a significant step backwards.

As far as I know, it's always been compared against the combined. It's never accounted for your city/highway split. I think your 117% is just a display change vs the old 17% above it used to show.

As far as I know, it's always been compared against the combined. It's never accounted for your city/highway split. I think your 117% is just a display change vs the old 17% above it used to show.

No, it used to factor in the split. I could never get the Dakota % up because it was all highway while the Combined was quite a bit lower. I wonder if it accidently got changed when setting up the 3 month runs.

Hi Marc:

___Your request is a bit beyond the scope of the forum swap idea but I am sure Sean will have some ideas and answers for you wrt the DBase split calc. He is becoming a master with that unruly monster really quick :D

___All, the Hybrid and Conventional forums are setup and mostly complete. A few more ideas on tweaks, display order and descriptions would be nice so let me know. I am about to create the EV forums with BEV, PHEV and FCV’s in that particular forum section.

___Please post your ideas as you think if them given I can change anything but there is a lot of back and forth when creating and deleting forums after transferring the posts from one to another. I would hate to make a mistake now but since you are all watching closely, at least it won’t be a glaring mistake for months before someone says hey dummy, you spelled description wrong in the “Other Hybrids” forum or something :rolleyes: :)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

In the interest of keeping things less cluttered, I suggest combining Scion into Toyota.

Hello,
I have a question. I haven't posted a lot but I was wondering:
If I find an article that I think might be of interest to post, Is there a way to contact the moderators?
Or is there a place to suggest Articles for others to post?

A help section or button would be useful for new members, but it might take a lot of work to add. It would be a tough flowchart.
I just had another thought: Maybe a tab on the left for media/PR requests on the sites positions about......

Hi Andrew:

___I moved the one post in the Scion forums into the Toyota forum and deleted the Scion forum altogether. Great call.

___With the forum structure moved around and rebuilt, let me know what you think of the current layout and structure. I did not add a MT and AT specific forum although I still see the necessity of that to help newer members with the reasons why they can and cannot FAS their automobiles. Not sure how to fit it in just yet? Also, please keep your eyes open for the little things like spelling and grammar errors, inconsistencies in the descriptions, additions or removal of what was created etc.

___Thanks and keep these ideas coming as I thought it was a rather productive day from where we were this morning to where we are this evening :)

___97Protege’ excellent point on the media! To contact me, you can use the Contact Us link on the bottom of every page and your note will get to me. Unfortunately, I am receiving over 200 and as many as 300 E-Mails a day as of late and it is really tough to keep my head above water with that kind of volume :( Both Chuck (Delta Flyer) and Reid (Atlaw4u) can usually help with News items when and if you find a great one ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hi All:

___Please take a look over what is setup as it may be finished? I did not add a V6/V8 section but did add a 4x4, SUV and P/U forum in the conventional powered vehicles category.

___I am still working on a media forum (where to place it) or set it up as a separate html page rom a link or tab on the home and forums pages. John Flory (Lightfoot) has created a great first post for that one.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Marc, I inherited the code with calculations already being done with a simple 50/50 split of city/hwy numbers for combined EPA -- the code for taking into account entered percentages would be significantly more complex and I see no evidence of it ever existing in the developed environment?

Hi All:

___Please take a look over what is setup as it may be finished? I did not add a V6/V8 section but did add a 4x4, SUV and P/U forum in the conventional powered vehicles category.

___I am still working on a media forum (where to place it) or set it up as a separate html page rom a link or tab on the home and forums pages. John Flory (Lightfoot) has created a great first post for that one.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Would it be better to make each of the forum groups about the various cars into subforums the way the automobiles forums used to be? That way the main forum page would only be about half the length it currently is.

Hi Auston:

____We had a bunch of those buried forums within a forum sub-group previously and you could not see the latest threads contents when nested like that. Not saying the new way is right but it is a lot cleaner and someone does not have to drill down into sub-forum or groups to get where they want to go other than the extra half page scroll as we have to now.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Isn't it "Fuel Cell Vehicle"?

Right now the FCV forum spelling is "Fuel Cel Vehicle".

Kirk

Hi Kirk:

___Done.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hi All:

___Bumping for the last time. Also if anyone knows of a thread or group of threads that was intermixed in the old forums and wants them moved into the newly created/ordered forums, by all means let me or one of the mods know and we can move them post haste.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Wayne, I like the new forum setup, it looks good.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the elimination of sub-forums. I know Auston already brought this up, but you mentioned...

Hi Auston:

____We had a bunch of those buried forums within a forum sub-group previously and you could not see the latest threads contents when nested like that.

I can't remember, but couldn't you see the latest threads in the sub-forums when you clicked on the main forum? If so, then it comes down to this: Is it a bigger hassle to look through 2 pages of forums to find the one you want, or to click once. Computer science tells us search trees are more efficient (the sub-forum method). If we only had a few forums, I would agree with the elimination of sub-forums since it's not difficult to look through a short list. We have A LOT of forums, which is why I'm not sure one way or the other. So here's how I would see sub-forums working: Move from Electric, Motorcycle, Hybrid, Diesel, Conventional categories to one "Vehicle Specific" category. The categories would become forums, and the forums would become sub-forums. (Does that make sense?)

Anyway, just something to consider.

Kirk

It looks like you may have two forums entitled "General" now,
forum 2 and forum 78. Or I'm missing something.
.
I also cannot seem to post into the "website news and
questions" area, no permission, or I would have dropped
this over there instead.
.
_H*

Hobbit: There are actually 6 "General" Forums, but they are all under different topics. Click the "Fuel Economy Forums" link on the left to see the layout.

I'm able to post new threads in the "Website News & Discussions" area. Do you have the "remember me" box checked when you log in?

Kirk