Forum Reorg - what do you think?

[Evan Bottcher]

Hi folks,

I'm going to reorganise the boards in this forum.  This site started as the victorian website only, however the forum has started to attract people from around Australia - the Queensland club now has a link to this forum from their home page.  I think we should definitely welcome the wider Alfa community in Australia for as long as they want to use and contribute to the forum.

Note: this isn't a personal agenda to build a big website.  Forums have a lifecycle of their own - there's not a lot you can do as a webmaster to make people come and contribute on a forum.  If it doesn't work it doesn't work.  Having said that the Vics alone kept a decent chat going on this forum.

With more than just mexicans on the forum, I think a re-org is in order.  I'd like to propose the following - compare this to the front page of our forum now:

General Category
- General Discussion
- Introduce Yourself
- Photos & Videos
- Off Topic (a new board for anything non-car-related.  politics, football etc.)
- Buy/Swap/Sell

Technial
- 105/115 Series (105 Coupe/Spider/Berlina)
- 116 Series (Alfetta Sedan/GT/GTV & Giulietta Sedan)
- 160 Series (90, 75, 164 Sedans)
- 900 Series (Alfasud, Alfasud Sprint, 33)
- Current Models (GTV, Spider, 147, 156, 159, 166)
- Other (pre-105, specials)

State Divisions
- Victoria (would be the current "General" board)
    - Motorsport
    - Historic Group S Challenge
- Queensland
- Western Australia
- New South Wales

Other
- Motorsport Administration

Updated: put all state division boards together, and moved motorsport and historic group S challenge to be sub-boards of the general Victorian board.
Updated: added an "other" board for pre-105, or any other kind of Alfa not covered by the categories

As victoria already has a division between general and motorsport (and the group S challenge) it kind of requires it's own category.  Maybe we could flatten that later.  It does seem like a long list, but the parts of national interest are at the top.  I've also left SA (they use alfabb.com) off the list, although they'd be welcome of course.

Let me know what you think....

thanks, Evan.

[Victor Lee]

Hi all,

First of all, thanks to Webmaster Evan for getting this off the ground.

At the Division President's meeting at Alfesta this year, it was viewed that Victoria had the only sustainable AROCA forum. 

AROCA NSW closed their forum due to internal issues, AROCA SA has moved their forum to AlfaBB and AROCA QLD forum wasn't generating enough traffic.   (AROCA QLD forum has since closed and is directing it's traffic to Victoria).

It was proposed that as Victoria's forum was working, and Alfa owners predominantly are interested in the same thing regardless of which state they live in (advice how to tinker with your car, where to source parts, advice how to fix things); we should open such info to all. 

But there should also be regional/state specific forum where members can discuss things which are only related to them (like latest info for upcoming events or spruiking events or whatever)

AROCA Vic committee has agreed on this idea and webmaster Evan has kindly offerred to expand the site.  As Evan says, as there are more interstate members coming on-board, the time is right to change a few things!

So, its over to you!  I hope that members from the other states who haven't joined the forum will embrace this idea give it a go!

Cheers

Victor Lee
National Coordinator for the
Alfa Romeo Owners Clubs of Australia

[Colin Byrne]

Sounds good to me, the more people we can get involved the better.

[Brad M]

Sounds like a plan. Alfisti! Come one, come all

[Evan Bottcher]

It'd be great if people could comment specifically on the organisation of the boards and categories - if you have an opinion.

thanks, Evan.

[Brad M]

As you are asking for specific feedback, I suggest the following;

Move the Victorian Division down amongst the other AROCA divisions, as the other divisions may like to request their own groupings (such as Motorsport)

AROCA Divisions
- Queensland
- Western Australia
- New South Wales
- Victorian Division
    - General (for events and general Vic related chit-chat)
    - Motorsport
    - Historic Group S Challenge

[branko.gt]

few opinions as requested by master Evan

technical bulletins, as proposed, probably cover over 90% if not more of the car population but maybe we shoudl have "other section" including pre 105 cars, or  "specials' and even non-alfa cars

the state forums look little bit slanted towards Vic but i think your explanation covers it well. Brad's suggestion would be good if there were that many levels of hierarchy available.  I agree that it is better to start with proposed state bulletins and then bring them up a level if the interest is there. There is no point in creating a structure if people are not going to use it. Other way be to create all states at the top level and create only a general section to start with. Does that create too much overhead?

my 2c (as you can see talk is cheap)

[alfagtv58]

Perhaps a board for suggested events/runs/social/comp etc.

[Evan Bottcher]

I didn't think there was more than one level of hierarchy, but it seems there is.  So I've refined my original list with your suggestions.

[Victor Lee]

My 5 cent's worth:

In the exisitng forum main page:
Create a new section between General and Motorsport
In this sectioncalled (say) AROCA State Forums will be an area each for QLD, NSW, SA and WA.
Leave everything else as is.

Whilst, I love to have an AROCA National Forum going one day, it is still AROCA Vic's site, and until we can gauge the amount of interstate usage, the simpler for Evan the better!

Cheers

Victor

[Evan Bottcher]

Last chance to comment before I switch around the forum structure - I'll try to find some time tomorrow.  I'm not removing any boards really, so I guess no one will get too upset.

thanks,
Evan.

[scott.venables]

I think the technical forums would best be arranged like this:

- 105/115 Series (Coupe/Spider/Berlina)
- Transaxles (Alfetta Sedan/GT/GTV/GTV6, & Giulietta, 90, 75)
- 900 Series (Alfasud, Alfasud Sprint, 33)
- Current Models (GTV, Spider, 164, 147, 156, 159, 166)
- Other (pre-105, specials)

Apart from that, great work.  Thanks for keeping the forum going.

Scott

[Brad M]

I'd add to that Scott, the 900 series should be listed first ...   

[Fast Eddie]

Nice work Bradley

[Evan Bottcher]

I'm going to switch some stuff around now - apologies if things look a bit weird for the next half hour or so.

cheers,
Evan.