Splitting of two poplular sections

Hi Everyone.
A slight change has been made to some of the forum areas. The two highest volume sections have now been split up according to engine types:

General TDI Discussion is now:
General TDI Discussion - A4 TDIs
General TDI Discussion - A3/B4 TDIs

and General Maintenance is now:
General Maintenance - A4 TDIs
General Maintenance - A3/B4 TDIs

This should hopefully give topics a little more opportunity to be seen by others as these two sections each have around 150 posts/day on average. We will also move some of the latest A3/B4 topics from the A4 sections into the A3/B4 sections.

Cheers,

Fred

[ December 12, 2002, 12:37: Message edited by: VW Derf ]

Great!

Thanks Derf.

Right on!!! Now we truly superior TDI owners can discuss our cars without having to deal with the riff-raff.

Say it Loud!
I'm A3 and I'm Proud!



D'

Excellent news

Good move

Thanx Derf!

Fred...I don't like this!
All things should be in balance....in order to do that I'd have to buy 2 more A3/B4's......

"Honey....I know what we need for Christmas"

Fred, although its a good idea, I think in the end it will add more confusion for the newbies. I seriously doubt many newbies know the difference between an A3/B4 and an A4.

You may want to consider adding a small description of what they are in the FAQ posts you stickyed on all the forums (which are a GREAT idea, BTW)

I was just about to type what Car54 typed - most newbies have no clue. I know, I was one of them

Now the question is, how to set-up" Favourites" so one can go directly to the vehicle type.Good move Fred, from an ex Richmond-ite, where I now have to shovel the snow,rather than wait a day or two.Didn't realize how cold cold is.
Moved East on a whim and couldn't afford to move back.HAVE HAMMER, WILL TRAVEL.
Dirk

The forum description (on the category selection page) has a quick definition. However, I'll add the definition to the individual forum pages as well later today.

Fred

Unless it's slowing down the server, I favor having the forums back the old way. I enjoy reading posts from owners of various types and incarnations. Often, there are comments very useful and relevant to me and my A4 Golf, even if they were written by the owner of an older car. Readers may miss out on something important to them.

This is just a nitpick, but when I look at the Today's Active Topics page, it's harder to read the forum titles, since the new titles wrap to a second line.

I'd favor just "General TDI Discussion - A4", eliminating the redundant "TDI". I can understanding using your format in the interest of clarity, but I think the folks not familiar with "A4" will be initially confused regardless.

Wine Guy, I agree with your approach, which is why I always use the Today's Active Topics page. That way you only need to check the individual forums if you haven't looked for a day or two.

Credit should go to TDIMeister and his fellow Passat owners. I think it was a great idea! (Obviously)

[ December 12, 2002, 12:38: Message edited by: VW Derf ]

WOW, what a great idea! After all, we B4 owners are very proud of our individuality and limited production automobiles.

Well done, Fred and others!

- Richard

Perfect timing now that I'm joining the B4 crowd. Whoo Hoo! Thanx Fred!

Exactly - my first thoughts upon joining these forums were

A4: why are they talking about an audi?

A3/B4? ***?

Bentley manual? *** do these people do? put manual trannies from a bentley turbo R in their tdi?

Viper cone? *** does dodge have to do with a TDI?

These are just a few things that i'm sure confuse every newbie as we use them rather than type out the whole thing... and I believe the new layout with only lead to more h3ll for the moderators and more confusion for the newbies.

Bad move. Too many sections as it is.

Hi,

Originally posted by colucci:
Right on!!! Now we truly superior TDI owners can discuss our cars without having to deal with the riff-raff. Say it Loud! I'm A3 and I'm Proud!

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">HILARIOUS! [Gerbil voice from "Joe Cartoon"] YEAH! Who's with me?!!?[/Gerbil voice from "Joe Cartoon"]

Finally... a place where we "old" guys can come and stay on topic. Actually, I agree with the post about there being plenty of folders anyway. For the time being, it's nice to have a place where I can find A3 stuff.

Take Care,

[ December 13, 2002, 08:42: Message edited by: Stealth TDI ]

I do like the new setup as it can eliminate some confusion between different models as they have different attributes. That's why I love this site. There is such a vast compilation of owners over a great range of years.

I know this is primarily a TDI webpage, but somehow I feel as though the old schoolers have been weeded out. How about an "A2 TD, or old school" section or even renaming:
"General Discussion - Other VW Group TDIs" to
"General Discussion - Other VW Group TDs"
...just a thought.

Originally posted by Smokescreen:
I do like the new setup as it can eliminate some confusion between different models as they have different attributes.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ditto on that! Maybe the separation will help to cut down on "shoot from the hip" advice to A3/B4 owners (especially new members) such as:

"You're MAF is causing the driveability problem" or
"Check for stuck vanes on the turbo" or
"Impex has a great price on oil filters" when the quote is for cannister-type.

Harrumph.

Thanks for your input guys. Feed back is definitely Pro and not Con (emails included). However I've addressed a few of the concerns as well:

* Smokescreen, the section in question is low volume, so that would be fine. I'll change that.
* As for the comment there are too many sections, well you are partly right. There are a lot. However there are also a lot of posts and for those who don't read daily (or multiple times a day), it is difficult to find stuff. Also by posting in different sections it can help reduce the question (is it a B4/A3 or A4) as assumptions are often made. For those that read all the sections, "today's active topics" is a good way to read the sections.
* For the questions like: "What is an A4, I didn't think Audi had TDIs in Canada?" Well the forum description includes a definition in addition to the top of the forum sections.

Fred

I just got this message

Could not find any forum_thread_data files! Please tell the board administrator to Rebuild Forum Stat Files for forum: 41 (NOUPG2)

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">when I tried to go into the B4 general Discussion.

Originally posted by 96Wagon:
I just got this message </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Could not find any forum_thread_data files! Please tell the board administrator to Rebuild Forum Stat Files for forum: 41 (NOUPG2)

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">when I tried to go into the B4 general Discussion.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">fixed

Cool! I like it

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Excellent move!

As for the newbies, we can help them out if they just stick to posting in "101" 'til they get the hang of it!

I'm not particularly fond of the new split. Now instead of sharing information across platforms we divide and force people to scan two sets of forums. Additionally, we already know there are a ton more A4 TDI's out there over B4/A3 so what it really does is make the A3/B4 people go look at the A4 forums too.

I would ask what criteria was used to determine that a split needed to happen?

The old way forced people to understand that there were differences between platforms...which was a good thing; it made people become more involved in knowing more about their own cars. It also helped to educate those thinking of moving to the A4 platforms. I can understand splits on VWVortex like VR6 vs. 2.0 vs. TDI, but splitting TDI's here was really ridiculous...there really wasn't any justification.

Additionally, those of us in the A3/B4 forum will not get the kind of help from the A4 gurus that we've come to appreciate. And, the way it was done the A3/B4 people were kicked out of the existing forum without any of the old post history. It wasn't a split, you just sent us packing.

I'd like to see it go back to the way it was.

my .02

steve a

[ December 14, 2002, 18:38: Message edited by: Steve Addy ]

I will acclimate to it- Fred does a great job with this forum. I will admit I didn't make the A3/ A4 distinction right away when I first got my Jetta.

Fred,

I'm probably too tired to see straight, but where will I find all the earlier posts? The new split sections are just very short & new.

Mike
Exeter, UK
B4 '96 TDI estate

I like the change Fred. With the massive growth in numbers it allows one to focus more quickly on current pertinent issues. There are a lot of similarities between the platforms, but I think the differences are large enough to warrant the split. Too bad you abandoned the A3 folks . Hope you are enjoying the new wagon. Bill.