Information and News > AMC Eagles Den Updates & News

"hands off approach"

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1985amceagle:
Seems to be a lot less drama here, as far as threads in the wrong location, could some new members not have noticed all of the categories

Prafeston:

--- Quote from: 1985amceagle on January 25, 2014, 11:26:46 PM ---could some new members not have noticed all of the categories

--- End quote ---

quite frankly, that's the only thing about this forum I don't like. Too many dang sections. It could use some consolidation.

IowaEagle:
Thanks all.  I realize we have a lot of sections and some things do end up in places other than they should.  So, what are some recommendations?  What can be consolidated or eliminated?

Prafeston:
Just my suggesting, but there are a bunch of section that could really just be 1 thread in another section and then there are some sections that could just have their threads moved to another section and then that section removed. There are 31 Forums with less than 10 Topics inside them. If these forums were consolidated and their threads moved elsewhere it would really clean up the front page. And that's just the ones under 10 Topics. There are plenty more with under 20 topics that could also use some rearranging.

This may take awhile so bare with me. I'm going to go through each Section/Forum and break it down to how I'd do it if I was starting from scratch.

Information & News
Seems to me like Visitors & Guests Could be merged into Member Information with a Stickied thread for pertinent info for Visitors. Also there is a stickied thread in Visitors & Guests that mentions how to post pictures. The is another stickied thread about posting pictures in Members Information. Member Information also mentions a member map in the description, but there is nothing about it inside. This description seems better suited to the AMC SOAR Section. Which is one of the few areas that seems ok that it only has a couple topics in it. More traffic to it will incur having it on the main page. It could probably use something in the description about it being a Member Map.

AMC Eagle Archives
Model years is a good section with threads for what was available each year and a couple other good topics on prototypes and a graph of production numbers for each year. It would be nice if the Model Years were stickied in order though. 80-88. Also there is no need to have "Our 1980-1988 AMC Eagle's" at the beginning of each thread. Just 1980 Models, 1981 Models, etc would look cleaner. Besides cleaning that up I think this AMC Eagle Archive section is a pretty good one. Not sure if it needs to be the first topic after Info & News as I don't think it's as active as some of the other forums.

Eagle's Den Family
I know we love to think of ourselves as the family friendly forum, but this section seems unnecessary to me. I'm not saying get rid of the posts, but just about every forum in this section could be one stickied thread in the Off-Topic forum and then that forum could just be moved down to General. Would probably take some work moving all those threads around and putting them into one single thread. The hardest being the Furkids one as it does have several topics in it.

General
AMC Eagles Den Meets. Probably doesn't need all the "Child Boards" 2010, 2009, and 2008 have no posts in them. I don't think we need a child board for each year. We can just move all those threads into the main forum. Eagle of the Month is good. Eagle Sanctuaries is a little out dated. Doesn't seem to need the Child Boards either. In fact I wonder if it even needs it's own forum anymore at all. As far as I know there are only two Eagle Sanctuaries anymore. Capt. in Penn. and El Matador in Calgary, Canada. Both of their threads could be stickied in this forum or elsewhere (not sure what other forum they might be good in.) If you did keep the Sanctuary forum I'd get rid of the child boards and just have everything on the main forum. Pitstop and the Automotive Lobby are both popular boards and don't need anything. Member Specialties has one topic in it with just 4 posts. And inside this forum are 7 child forums. People with specialties seem like they could either post How-To's or in the Member Products forum. Good Vibrations is a cool forum that praises other members. I think that one helps show how we are kind of a family. Events & Clubs is a good idea, but it could easily fall under the AMC Eagle Den Meets. In fact that section could be renamed Meets, Events & Clubs and then the Events & Clubs threads could be moved there. Do we really need a thread for Cone of Confusion? We all get the what is that car thing. It's fun to post about these stories, but this is another forum that could just be a single stickied thread in like the Pitstop forum.

Eagle Gallery
Way too many forums in here. I'd break this one down to look like this:
     Your Eagle(s)
     Eagle Pictures & Videos (All the other forums could just be a stickied threads in this forum)
     AMC Eagles by State/Province/Country
     Member Art

The Shop
This section is pretty well put together and has quite a few threads in all the forums. I just have a problem with 3 forums. Restoration/Rehabiltation How To's and Tips...it's a good forum, and definitely one we need, but there is a second How-To forum down in Resources. We need to compile them and decide which forum to leave them in. Along the same line there is a Resource forum found in this section. Wouldn't it be better off in the Resource forum? Lastly the Gremlins forum is confusing since the Gremlin is also an AMC car haha. But seriously. If you have a "gremlin" you should know if in what general part of the car you are having the issue and post your question about it in that topic in The Shop.

The Mighty 258
Don't quote me on it, but I think there isn't anything out of place in this Section :)

The next two board I don't think are going to get much action and they take up a lot of room on the front page. I usually don't like Child Boards, but this seems like the best time to use them and we didn't do it. I think we could consolidate the next two Sections into one and then just have Child Boards for each Forum in those two sections. It would effectively free up 14 forums from the main page. So it would look something like this.

Spirit, Concord, & VAM Forums
     1979 - 1983 AMC Spirits and 1978 - 1983 AMC Concords (Inside this forum you would have Child Boards of the current forums in this Section on the main page)
     VAM - Vehiculos Automotores Mexicanos (Inside this forum you would have Child Boards of the current forums in this Section on the main page)

Classifieds
For Sale: AMC Eagles (This section should just be Eagles only)
For Sale: AMC Parts (Should be for parts that fit Eagles or a common upgrade)
Wanted: WTB Ads Eagles/Parts
FS/WTB: Other Member Cars/Parts
Ebay/Craigslist and Other Third Party Links
Member Products & Services
Junkyard Discoveries
Bucket Brigade

I think the Member auctions forum can be removed. Rollguy tried using it twice and from what I can tell it didn't work. If you have something for sale on here you are basically selling to the highest bidder anyway since usually everything is OBO. :)

Resource & Interchange Center
Quite frankly I never really make it this far down! :) But like mentioned earlier the two How-To forums need to be consolidated and put in one spot. Also the resources forum might want to be moved down here. Not really sure how you'd like to do that.

Wow...so I just went through this whole forum. I think i have some good suggestions, but that's all they are. I love the way the forum is now and don't really mind the clutter as I usually just click the Show unread posts since last visit button, but for a new member or someone trying to locate a specific topic it might help to consolidate and reorganize. I hope my thoughts can help you guys if you decide to go this route.

vangremlin:
Prafeston, thanks for taking the time and effort to go through the forum and coming up with these suggestions.  You're right, there is probably a lot of consolidation and elimination that could go on.  I would have no clue how to do it, however, and what the repercussions are from the rearranging.  For example, if there is a link to a thread in a particular post, and the thread that is linked gets moved to a different area, is the link now broken, or is it smart enough to follow the link to its new location?  Perhaps IowaEagle is savy enough with this software to be able to answer some of these questions. 

Thanks again for your input, thumbs up to you!

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