How about a sub forum ... FAMQ's

Owen

Even looking this morning at Motors, there's :

VRT questions
I got stopped by the Gards questions
Tips on negotiating xxx

There are always the same old usual questions being asked again and again by people who just don't use the search function. And the solution is lock them, and point them to stickies, or answer them yet again and just add to the clutter. We're constantly trying to figure out a way of cleaning up this Forum and make it more legible, and there are numerous suggestions for sub forums, and brand specific forums.

How about a simple FAMQ (Frequently Asked Motoring Questions) forum for all the culprit subjects that keep coming up? We can just dump them in there, and keep the main forum free for the more interesting subjects and for our own sanity.

Tigger

ned78 wrote: »

Even looking this morning at Motors, there's :

VRT questions
I got stopped by the Gards questions
Tips on negotiating xxx

There are always the same old usual questions being asked again and again by people who just don't use the search function. And the solution is lock them, and point them to stickies, or answer them yet again and just add to the clutter. We're constantly trying to figure out a way of cleaning up this Forum and make it more legible, and there are numerous suggestions for sub forums, and brand specific forums.

How about a simple FAMQ (Frequently Asked Motoring Questions) forum for all the culprit subjects that keep coming up? We can just dump them in there, and keep the main forum free for the more interesting subjects and for our own sanity.

can we put the "what car sounds like a body part?" threads in there too?

biko

When I saw the preview of the thread I thought you were going to ask for a Frequently Asked Mechanical Questions

There is also the recurring threads:
What car should I get?
My BMW this or that.
Rattling noise from engine, what is it?

I'm not really sure how a common questions subforum would help.
Maybe a mechanical sticky as well as a buying and/or selling sticky?

I think a lot of posters are too lazy or too new to search properly. It's easier to create a new thread.

copacetic

not sure I have ever seen a question on the motors forum that hasn't been asked before.

pburns

I dunno, in amongst the dross there are sometimes stimulating questions (or mundane questions that lead to intersting answers/debate). If a topic doesn't interest you, ignore it. I don't think the forum is THAT busy that you can't scan through it and pick out the nuggets.

And how do you define what's 'interesting' anyway? Is Motors to be an elitist club for those salivating about the latest yuppie-mobile and those who deem interior plastics more important than driving enjoyment? That's the way it seems to me sometimes. Boards comes closest to hitting the spot for my particular needs but to my mind the more hard-core enthusiasts are over on the Classics forum or on Octane anyway...

Owen

The problem that's about to be developed, is that without a Sub Forum of some description, we're going to end up with a full screen of stickies, and will have to scroll to the real threads which will be frustrating.

What will be more frustrating, is that after scrolling, you'll have the same questions regurgitated by posters over and over again.

So, with a Sub Forum, you will cut down on the number of stickies, and the chaff, leaving hopefully some wheat that we can all enjoy!

VH

a sub forum should prob be tried alright - would do no harm - can always be undone later

the stickies need sorting too big time

peasant

VH wrote: »

the stickies need sorting too big time

Any helpful suggestions in that regard?

See unkel's sticky about the charter and its maintenance at the top of the page ..that's where they should go.

VH

i see my suggestion (deletion -which i made a while back) has already been implemented!

peasant

VH wrote: »

i see my suggestion (deletion -which i made a while back) has already been implemented!

ahh ..so you didn't even bother to look before you felt it necessary to tell us that they needed sorting "big time"

...nice ...

VH

peasant wrote: »

ahh ..so you didn't even bother to look before you felt it necessary to tell us that they needed sorting "big time"

...nice ...

I'm used to nothing being done...

crosstownk

Possibly 2 sub-forums - a "What Car" forum and a "Mechanical/Electrical/Electronic Problems" forum might be of some use.

However, it is handy to have all threads in one forum as it's easier to browse - even if some of the threads can be repetitive.

VH

peasant wrote: »

Any helpful suggestions in that regard?

See unkel's sticky about the charter and its maintenance at the top of the page ..that's where they should go.

delete all the posts in the VRT and Importing from the UK guides except the first one - the following 50 or so pages of posts are frustrating