Do we need a "TOWING FORUM" ?

[femuse]

I just posted (one more) question on safety chain.

Dilemma: where to post a towing related question?

Let's look at some recent important posts:

1_"Towing by mlcarney in About these forums, How-To's & more...

2_"More on tow ratings by ipso_facto in On The Road...

3_"What tow vehicle would you suggest? by Kistler in Our Community

4_"Safety Tow Chains by pap in Axle, Brakes, Wheel & Tire Forum

I don't suppose these people are to blame: they are just like everybody else: CONFUSED.

Now let's look at where the right place is supposed to be: "On The Road...
"Some of the greatest memories an Airstreamer will have are from the road. Share your stories with us! Got a towing question? Need to know which hitch to use? Post it here!"

Are we really supposed to mix towing questions (one of the most if not the most important subject) with other topics as "greatest memories" ? Like "I saw a beautiful sunset on my last trip" ????

When we want to peruse posts relating to towing, we have to pass by some unrelated topics such as :
"Number of Airstreams made
"Best Campground on the NC Coast
"Zion National Park
"Flat Panel TVs ....... !!!!!

The "search" is not the answer. Often people want to learn about a topic. To know where to find it, and to find there, mostly questions on that topic would be a great help.

I very respectfully suggest that if one day this was possible, everybody would benefit from a separate forum clearly labelled "Towing & tow vehicles related questions".

I am sure some people will have to answer the usual "Be grateful for what you have, ....and blablabla....". Thanks. That will be very constructive.

What about some real opinions instead ? Even if nothing can be done right now?

[Pick]

Most, if not all RV sites have towing sections. Good idea Chantal! We seem to be getting a LOT of towing related questions and discussions lately. It would be nice to organize them all in one section. Maybe call it "Towing, Tow Vehicles and Hitches"

[Stefrobrts]

I agree, that sounds like a great idea. People who are new to this (as I am), start out thinking they know something about towing, believing the Airstream literature that says their trailers can be towed by many popular cars and minivans (which ones?!) and need a place where they can read through all the towing information here and get set straight. I've spent a lot of time doing searches, but having all that info available to easily browse through in it's own section would have been great.

[53flyingcloud]

femuse

I gotta hand it to you..

You really pulled a "hat trick" with this one ~!!

All too often, someone new to the forum, starts a new thread on the same old subject (to those of us who have been here for a while). This would put things proper order~!!

tip'in of the hat to ya'll~

ciao

[femuse]

Well, thank you to the 3 of you who agree that we need a towing forum.
It looks like most everybody else is satisfied to - randomly post / look for answers to - towing questions.

Since yesterday, we got another "lost soul":

say Hello to Diana Langley who had a question about "Sway bar" and posted it in "Exterior Restoration Forum".

It's not your fault, Diana, if you too were confused about where to post: "welcome to the club"

[jpurdy]

femuse

good point to have it all in the proper place.
it not only makes it look orginized but searches would be quicker

[Kistler]

I find the advice on this forum valuable; I find you to be rude.

Kistler

[Rog0525]

femuse, I don't think it is reasonable to expect everyone who reads this thread to post a reply. A yes or no poll question should get much more response and gain the attention of webmaster Andy.

Rog

[PeterH-350LE]

The suggestion has been noted and a towing forum will be added.

[femuse]

Kistler: I find you to be rude.

You're losing me here. Rude? How? Why?

That obviously was not my intention, and I am really puzzled that someone saw it that way.

[Diana Langley]

<<<say Hello to Diana Langley who had a question about "Sway bar" and posted it in "Exterior Restoration Forum".>>>

Well, I'm just a total nincompoop! All I know is that at the bottom of the page I was looking at it said "POST" so I did. It said nothing about me being in a Restoration Forum when I posted.

I want to thank all the helpful responses in spite of my faux pas. I bought a sway bar, got it hooked up, and know how to adjust it.

I have no idea where this post will end up, but if it is in plumbing or something, I apologize in advance.

[femuse]

Well, I'm just a total nincompoop!

Not more than the rest of us.

I am sure that if you had seen something called "TOWING ETC..." you would have known where to post.

If this can make you feel better: the first time I tried to post, I started a new thread instead. My second one was "Help, I posted this in the wrong place... Kill it !!"

It takes a little while to find your way around the forum, but you will learn faster than you think.

[uwe]

Sure, a towing forum would be great. I am fine, however, with the On the road forum. It clearly states the towing subject.
Either way, newbies will still post to the wrong forum, and look for answers in the wrong places, no matter how many new forums we add. This is because the problem lies not in how the forum is laid out, but in the fact that the newbies are not familiar with the forum, period. Some learn faster than others. I speak from my own experience. It took me quite some time to find my way around the forum. It is very much like learning software. Maybe we should do a user manual instead...

[BobbyW]

I think a Towing forum with sub forums under that to further break down the posts by hitches, vehicles, Toads, techniques....would be great.
I also think that we need a sub forum for LPG related information in the Repair Restoration Forum.

Sometimes were to post a new thread is confusing. It is sometimes even confusing were to move the errant posts. I come here several times a day and do nothing but check posts to see if they are in the right places. I rarely post anymore as our fine members now do a great job of offering information and experience that I can not touch.

For a first time, out of the box try, Organic Hosting did a great, fantastic, outstanding, awesome job and in my opinion got the layout 95% right on the debut of the AirstreamForums, which was just a little over a year ago. As the membership grew/grows, some things have become obvious to change, the addition of several new sub forums being one of them.

What we are trying to do is not make any changes to the Forums until AirstreamForums is upgraded to Version 3 of the vBulletin software. It is in its final Beta testing now (the software) and scheduled to be release "Real Soon". It can be seen at www.vbulletin.com .

When I bought "Project Globetrotter" there was nowhere to go to find an "organized" listing of help that did not require either my email to be bombed with several hundred messages with topics that I did not care about or was a Private forum whose main agenda was to sell trailers. What I was looking for was a site dedicated to Airstreams and their care and feeding only. When Organic Hosting asked for help managing AirstreamForums several of the members gladly stepped up. We had only 150 members at that time. Since he was running this thing on his own nickel, the least we could do is try to give him a hand.

And try is what we have done. We do it for fun and most of the time it is. Only occasionally do we have "issues" and we try to deal with those as fairly as we can. Once in a while someone joins up with the mistaken idea that this is their own little playground or that they could run things better and proceed to tell us everthing that is wrong. All I can say to this is buy or lease a server($100 a month), buy vBulletin ($170), find an ISP with high bandwidth and no Popups, charge the members nothing for the use, get some people to help in their spare time and "have a go at it". Oh yeah, and put up with the PM's that say "don't give me anything about this being a volunteer task" or "this is America and I can write anything I want" or "why have you not made the changes that I gave you, are you just to lazy".

Constructive suggestions have always been and will continue to be welcome. All suggestions are noted and reviewed. Just don't get excited if they are not acted on in 20 minutes.

Best Regards;
-BobbyW
Note: The opinions and comments expressed in this Post are mine and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Owner of AirstreamForums or its other Moderators.

[femuse]

Well said, BobbyW

Constructive suggestions should always be welcome.
I am not going to tell you how to run this thing. But, I am sure you can always use ideas from people who want to see this forum survive.
It is obvious you are not going to rearrange things right now, in the way that will satisfy everybody.
Collecting suggestions will help you I am sure when you are ready to go at it.

The idea of an LPG sub-forum is a great one.

Maybe other people have ideas of what is lacking as sub-forum ?

Don't be afraid to "steal" ideas from other forums. Especially if they are older. They had time to work their buggs out. Let's benefit from their experience.