Forum & Website Suggestions

[Gary Lewis]

I'm not sure what your saying - but I trust that you know the best way to get all these forum parts working.I was only thinking that if you only provided a "link" from this forum's "HOW TO" page to another place the internet, if that other place ever goes away, the link is no good and the info can't be reached.For example "How to swap in a 3G alternator" - that info could be in step-by-step instructions in a separate on this forum (such as in a thread called "3G Swap" where you open the thread and everything is there (all the pictures, etc.). Or you open the thread and you see something like this "for doing a 3G swap click here https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1120352-3g-alternator-swap-with-pics-parts-tips-and-costs-2.html " in which case all of the info is on someone else's site.Maybe it is not possible to have the actual step-by-step and pictures on the this site in a single thread - and it is just more efficient to link to someone else's site. I suppose as long the person gets the info the need it doesn't matter where the info came from.

Mike - Do me a favor, please, and go to the Resource Links sub-forum. There compare the example bulleted list at the top with General and Body and Electrical to the first topic/thread below that. To my way of thinking it is better to have a clean bulleted list up top and for the user to not need to open up any threads to find what s/he is looking for. Yes, a user could create a thread or post in an existing thread to suggest another link to needed documentation, but at some point I would migrate that into the bulleted list up top and delete the threads as I think they clutter things up.

Now, for where things reside. I suggest they be on my web site, which is where the forum is. But not actually in the forum. Here's an example - check out my how-to on making an ICVR or Cash's how-to on replacing the vent window vs the thread you linked. Both of those how-to's are on my web site and are easily edited, updated, enhanced, etc. And, you can see in Cash's how we used smaller side-by-side pics with pop-up captions. And there are lots of other ways of presenting the information on a web page that are not available in a thread.

So, I think the how-to's ought to be done "right" and put on my web site. (The forum takes up one of hundreds of pages on my web site.) I'm happy to give anyone of you a page and knight you as editor of that page so you can write up a how-to - or 30.

However, as we are getting started I can see placing links to other web sites or forums that have documentation that we don't have. There's no need to recreate the wheel if we find a good one. Yes, that puts us at their mercy. For instance, Bubba's site went away, as did that good site that had schematics - IJR? But there are sites that capture images of old site, like those two, so the stuff hangs around. Or, we can recreate some of it.

Does that make sense?

[CountryBumkin]

Mike - Do me a favor, please, and go to the Resource Links sub-forum. There compare the example bulleted list at the top with General and Body and Electrical to the first topic/thread below that. To my way of thinking it is better to have a clean bulleted list up top and for the user to not need to open up any threads to find what s/he is looking for. Yes, a user could create a thread or post in an existing thread to suggest another link to needed documentation, but at some point I would migrate that into the bulleted list up top and delete the threads as I think they clutter things up.

Now, for where things reside. I suggest they be on my web site, which is where the forum is. But not actually in the forum. Here's an example - check out my how-to on making an ICVR or Cash's how-to on replacing the vent window vs the thread you linked. Both of those how-to's are on my web site and are easily edited, updated, enhanced, etc. And, you can see in Cash's how we used smaller side-by-side pics with pop-up captions. And there are lots of other ways of presenting the information on a web page that are not available in a thread.

So, I think the how-to's ought to be done "right" and put on my web site. (The forum takes up one of hundreds of pages on my web site.) I'm happy to give anyone of you a page and knight you as editor of that page so you can write up a how-to - or 30.

However, as we are getting started I can see placing links to other web sites or forums that have documentation that we don't have. There's no need to recreate the wheel if we find a good one. Yes, that puts us at their mercy. For instance, Bubba's site went away, as did that good site that had schematics - IJR? But there are sites that capture images of old site, like those two, so the stuff hangs around. Or, we can recreate some of it.

Does that make sense?

Yes. I get it now. The data will be on your website - so it is owned/controlled by you. Good plan

[Gary Lewis]

Yes. I get it now. The data will be on your website - so it is owned/controlled by you. Good plan

Yep! I plan to maintain the site forever and, assuming it is good enough to do so, will put it in my will so someone(s) get it when I pass. The cost is minimal and the usage is starting to grow, so apparently it is useful.

So, are you ready to write up a 3G conversion? Mine the available info that is out there, and use some of your own, to make a better how-to than is available elsewhere? If you look you'll see that there is a new page that needs a bit more than an "Under Construction" sign. I can make you the editor for that page and then tell you how to make something happen on it. What say?

[CountryBumkin]

Yep! I plan to maintain the site forever and, assuming it is good enough to do so, will put it in my will so someone(s) get it when I pass. The cost is minimal and the usage is starting to grow, so apparently it is useful.

So, are you ready to write up a 3G conversion? Mine the available info that is out there, and use some of your own, to make a better how-to than is available elsewhere? If you look you'll see that there is a new page that needs a bit more than an "Under Construction" sign. I can make you the editor for that page and then tell you how to make something happen on it. What say?

Sure. I'll do a 3G conversion write up.

Do I make one long post with step-by-step directions and photos, or do it as a bunch of separate posts, or some other method? Is there a preference?

Do I do this on my computer and upload when done, or do you have thread or post I should start in?

[Gary Lewis]

Sure. I'll do a 3G conversion write up.

Do I make one long post with step-by-step directions and photos, or do it as a bunch of separate posts, or some other method? Is there a preference?

Do I do this on my computer and upload when done, or do you have thread or post I should start in?

Since the ultimate goal is to have it as a page on the web site and not as a post in the forum, the easiest approach for you is to write it up in email and attach the pictures. But that doesn't give you the ability to position the pictures, so you could put the pics in the body of the email, although most email systems won't give you the ability to do 2 or more pics side-by-side like the web page will. But you could write it up and tell me in the body where you want each pic, maybe by saying "(Put pic XYZ here.)"

Or, if you are good with Word, you could lay it out as you want it in a Word document and then I'll transpose that into the page. That's actually the better way as it allows you to work on the document over several days and come back to add, change, etc at will. You wouldn't even have to embed the pics, just tell me where each one goes. And speaking of them, please include the pics as attachments to the transmittal email as extracting them from a document doesn't always give the best results.

And, when I put it in a page we can have just one long page, or we can break it into tabs. (Look at Exhaust Systems to see an example.) For instance one tab could be something like Overview where you tell why to go 3G; and then a tab called Which Alternator where you tell what to look for at the salvage; and then Wiring (within which there could be a tab With Ammeter, one With Idiot Light, and one with 2G since I think some of the later trucks came with them) where you tell how to wire it for each scenario; and then Mounting where you tell how to bend the arm just a bit and how to "clock" the alternator if needed.

Anyway, those are just ideas to tell you what can be done, but how to do it is up to you.

 

[CountryBumkin]

Since the ultimate goal is to have it as a page on the web site and not as a post in the forum, the easiest approach for you is to write it up in email and attach the pictures. But that doesn't give you the ability to position the pictures, so you could put the pics in the body of the email, although most email systems won't give you the ability to do 2 or more pics side-by-side like the web page will. But you could write it up and tell me in the body where you want each pic, maybe by saying "(Put pic XYZ here.)"

Or, if you are good with Word, you could lay it out as you want it in a Word document and then I'll transpose that into the page. That's actually the better way as it allows you to work on the document over several days and come back to add, change, etc at will. You wouldn't even have to embed the pics, just tell me where each one goes. And speaking of them, please include the pics as attachments to the transmittal email as extracting them from a document doesn't always give the best results.

And, when I put it in a page we can have just one long page, or we can break it into tabs. (Look at Exhaust Systems to see an example.) For instance one tab could be something like Overview where you tell why to go 3G; and then a tab called Which Alternator where you tell what to look for at the salvage; and then Wiring (within which there could be a tab With Ammeter, one With Idiot Light, and one with 2G since I think some of the later trucks came with them) where you tell how to wire it for each scenario; and then Mounting where you tell how to bend the arm just a bit and how to "clock" the alternator if needed.

Anyway, those are just ideas to tell you what can be done, but how to do it is up to you.

Okay.

I set it up in a Word document, and you can add to your site.

 

[Gary Lewis]

This topic is to capture suggestions from users for either the website itself or the forum. Let's see those ideas!

[ctubutis]

Okay.

I set it up in a Word document, and you can add to your site.

OK, I'm real late here, it's been several days but that's OK.

Overall, I like what people are suggesting you (Gary) do here.

The FTE FAQs and HOWTOs, some are better than others... some are full-blown documentation efforts, other entries are merely discussion threads that contain good information but contain lots of noise & static (and broken links and pictures these days).

My general feelings are:

- Use the garagemahal site for documentation efforts, little danger of stuff breaking because of changes made by the service provider(s).

- I am not abandoning FTE in the least, I will continue there as I have all along.

But I hope to refer people to HERE for documentation on how to do one or another thing.

I have no intention of getting involved in Q & A, forum-type of discussion here, at least for the foreseeable future; we have that capability on FTE with an existing user base that I'm not going to try and move to anyplace else.

Despite all of FTE's problems, I am part of it's back-end staff and will continue that way, no way am I going to abandon it and all those people merely to come here and try to do the same thing using brand-new (relative term, new to me), incomplete, low-grade software hosted by a "free" provider who is going to inject advertising & user tracking/measuring... no, I'm not gonna go there, at least right now.

We have discussion capabilities and a large, international audience with FTE, I want to use that resource rather than abandon it to try and do "our own" thing, I have too much going on in my life to spread myself so thin. It will take years to get the number & variety of people as "regular contributing members" and there is simply too much other stuff going on to sit around and wait (or try and make it happen).

My feelings, for what they're worth.

[ctubutis]

OK, I'm real late here, it's been several days but that's OK.

Overall, I like what people are suggesting you (Gary) do here.

The FTE FAQs and HOWTOs, some are better than others... some are full-blown documentation efforts, other entries are merely discussion threads that contain good information but contain lots of noise & static (and broken links and pictures these days).

My general feelings are:

- Use the garagemahal site for documentation efforts, little danger of stuff breaking because of changes made by the service provider(s).

- I am not abandoning FTE in the least, I will continue there as I have all along.

But I hope to refer people to HERE for documentation on how to do one or another thing.

I have no intention of getting involved in Q & A, forum-type of discussion here, at least for the foreseeable future; we have that capability on FTE with an existing user base that I'm not going to try and move to anyplace else.

Despite all of FTE's problems, I am part of it's back-end staff and will continue that way, no way am I going to abandon it and all those people merely to come here and try to do the same thing using brand-new (relative term, new to me), incomplete, low-grade software hosted by a "free" provider who is going to inject advertising & user tracking/measuring... no, I'm not gonna go there, at least right now.

We have discussion capabilities and a large, international audience with FTE, I want to use that resource rather than abandon it to try and do "our own" thing, I have too much going on in my life to spread myself so thin. It will take years to get the number & variety of people as "regular contributing members" and there is simply too much other stuff going on to sit around and wait (or try and make it happen).

My feelings, for what they're worth.

Same stuff, stated differently...

I began my documentation efforts on FTE before I ever met you, Gary, the first thing I did as a mod is create the stickies (in 80-86, 335 engine, and Escape/Mariner forums that I have).

I was looking for a way to create step-by-step instruction sheets with pictures but using today's technology with hyperlinking to other resources in the world (how the name World Wide Web came about).

And the first time I met you, I showed you the subforums I was working on where my hope was to replace the stickies with those things.

Implementing those things took years, and I totally understand the frustrations in dealing with IB/FTE.

And stuff changed over time - security vulnerabilities that got covered up (not really *fixed* but merely removing certain functions from users keeps a lot of abuse from happening) and browser capabilities have evolved, we now have Ajax and HTML 5 for example.

But they eventually came online and they themselves were subsequently broken as stuff evolved, just like all such Internet-related resources will break as stuff evolves.

Jim mentioned listserv... gawd, it's been 20 years since I've used any listserv stuff, the WWW replaced all that push technology with user-induced, pull technology.

~~

Point being, yes, I see you're getting a little bit of forum traffic on your site (I forgot about those metrics, YouTube/Google does the same thing for me and my youtube channel).

But it's insanely small; come see me when you're getting a 1 million+ unique visitors per day and you need to manage all that stuff.

FTE forums have a large, established user base with lots of traffic... use that stuff for what you can, don't abandon it because of perceived personality difficulties with FTE/IB staff & business objectives.

[Gary Lewis]

OK, I'm real late here, it's been several days but that's OK.

Overall, I like what people are suggesting you (Gary) do here.

The FTE FAQs and HOWTOs, some are better than others... some are full-blown documentation efforts, other entries are merely discussion threads that contain good information but contain lots of noise & static (and broken links and pictures these days).

My general feelings are:

- Use the garagemahal site for documentation efforts, little danger of stuff breaking because of changes made by the service provider(s).

- I am not abandoning FTE in the least, I will continue there as I have all along.

But I hope to refer people to HERE for documentation on how to do one or another thing.

I have no intention of getting involved in Q & A, forum-type of discussion here, at least for the foreseeable future; we have that capability on FTE with an existing user base that I'm not going to try and move to anyplace else.

Despite all of FTE's problems, I am part of it's back-end staff and will continue that way, no way am I going to abandon it and all those people merely to come here and try to do the same thing using brand-new (relative term, new to me), incomplete, low-grade software hosted by a "free" provider who is going to inject advertising & user tracking/measuring... no, I'm not gonna go there, at least right now.

We have discussion capabilities and a large, international audience with FTE, I want to use that resource rather than abandon it to try and do "our own" thing, I have too much going on in my life to spread myself so thin. It will take years to get the number & variety of people as "regular contributing members" and there is simply too much other stuff going on to sit around and wait (or try and make it happen).

My feelings, for what they're worth.

Chris - I appreciate your comments. However, I suggest we don't discuss issues with FTE here "in the open". I have a lot of friends there and appreciate all of the work that goes on, behind the scenes as well as in front of it.

As for a "free provider who is going to inject advertising", I've already said I will pay the freight to ensure users of the Bullnose forum do not see advertising. When my status was not re-upped on FTE I saw ad's that embarrassed me and I'm not going to allow that to happen here.