Too many forums??

[darkStar]

Ok, I want to tip-toe into this carefully...

I'm busily trying to learn everything I can about Airstreams, new, newer, and vintage. This truly is a GREAT site! (He says sucking up...)

I'm wondering whether anyone else thinks that the 'Airstream Trailer Forums (by Model and Year)' are broken into too many small forums? For instance, maybe the Safari forums could be consolidated into:

Safari 1999-2004
Safari 1970's
Safari 1960's
Safari 1950's


I'm not an expert, so I'm not sure where the difficult 'drawing of the lines' would have to go, but it seems a lot of these forums are languishing, and it's certainly time consuming to look thru them all!

[Tomy Dean Noah]

Hello from Ok.City,Ok. I am new to the sight and it is a help to me. What I am doing is looking at the topic that is helpful to me in redoing my airstream . I have a printer and copier with my computer. First I bought a 4" note book, then started coping each thing that I need and am putting the information in the folder. This helps me to not search and copy needless. Hope this gives you ideas to find and save information. All people giving information on the sight is excellent. You obtain more than one opinion and excellent information. Thanks everyone. Tomy

[71tradewind]

DarkStar , It is this way because these models only share the name and length and sometimes the length can be different as well. So by breaking it up this way makes it eaiser for people looking for info on a certain vintage.

[markdoane]

darkStar:
I agree there are a lot of forums, but I think using the search tool is a great help. I do wish people would start a new thread when the discussion starts to wander off the original subject. Also, when a topic becomes more general in interest than the original subject, the new thread should also move up to a higher level so that it is not buried in some low level forum like a certain age group of a certain model.

[Tomy Dean Noah]

Chat rooms are good . Misunderstandings do occure. Will read question better next time . My appology .Tomy

[thenewkid64]

Darkstar,

If there are sections of the forum that you want to keep up with or be notified, then you can suscribe to the thread or forum section that hold the models that intrest you the most. On the bottom of each page is a link to suscribe to a thread or forum. Once you click it you will get an e-mail each time someone posts so you can see what they have to say.

I also find that using the front page with the last 30 threads causes me too miss out on some of them, so I use the forum button, and then click on the new button on the top of the page. This gives me all new posts in all forums since the last time I logged in. This is one of the reasons it pays to join, the system knows when you were here last.

Normally the model years are broken out to conincide with major changes in the units. Shell shape, window types and things like that. It keeps the questions and answers combined so someone with that vintage can find info easily.

markdoane,

If you use the method I describe above for new posts you will not have to click deep into the forum to read new posts either.

As a moderator I try to split off threads that have wandered but alas there are only so many hours in a day. We all try to keep up with it. If you see one that has gone astray, please let the moderator of that forum section know. Sometimes we do not get the chance to review all of the threads.

[jcanavera]

I know as moderator of the trailer forum that we have discussed that possiblity of grouping. The newer trailers are fairly easy to group. As noted the newer Safaris are pretty obvious. Where we start having problems is where to group the older units.

Are there clear mechanical differences that would allow us to draw the lines? If you have the expertise that would help us make these deliniations, let me know.

Jack

[jcanavera]

Originally posted by darkStar
I'm not an expert, so I'm not sure where the difficult 'drawing of the lines' would have to go, but it seems a lot of these forums are languishing, and it's certainly time consuming to look thru them all!

I would have to say that just because there are no active posts that a forum is languishing. The 2001 Safari forum, near and dear to my heart, pretty much has run its course. No real new issues here but lots of good information.

What's nice about this one is if a newbe buys a 2001, its all there easy to find and read. On the downside there are some posts there that go across multiple years of the new Safari's and if you skip the 2001 forum, you may miss a good thread. I know I posted some hints that do cross over several years of the newer units.

I'll do some further thinking on this issue.

Jack

[darkStar]

Probably beyond the capabilities of the software, I wonder if there is a facility to create, for instance, a 'super safari' forum that automatically merges all the posts in the individual safari forums. (Remember I'm just using safaris as an example, I'm not picking on safaris )

Then if you wanted one-stop shopping you could browse the 'super' forums, and if you wanted a specific year, that would still be available...


Hmmm... or maybe some sort of additional post attribute (like year) that one could search on, yes! a total query-database (he says spinning out of control )

[markdoane]

Wonderful imagery: darkStar, spinning out of contol. I like these forums for their light-heartedness and friendliness.