New Feature Extra Thread Fields - a.k.a more data = more helpful

As suggested by @GettinBetter over in another thread, I've now added a few (optional) extra fields to the thread creation page for all model forums.

Now when creating a post, you'll see them at the bottom:

Which if filled in, will then show above the main post text, like so ...

The reason I haven't made them compulsory is that would get annoying really fast if posting about something irrelevant to those fields.

Hopefully this, combined with the new alert to stop people posting issues in the newbie lounge will help organise things a bit better, and cut the need for "which model is this?" posts

 

[GettinBetter]

Defo on the right track, I don't suppose you could squeeze mileage in there? We really need to know if it's on it's last legs or not from the start
(as mileage creaps up the prognosis changes)

& I understand the comment about 'annoying', but can those input boxes be set to appear only if the user chooses the 'Technical' or 'Tuning' as their Heading Prefix?

 

[ben]

That's going to make things quite long before the post starts

So what I've done now is move the data below. If this is still acceptable, then I can add more fields as it won't affect the display....

 

[ben]

Defo on the right track, I don't suppose you could squeeze mileage in there?

I've added this now, but I just realised we have an issue.

In a country that uses km, is it still called mileage? And also the box only accepts digits, so people putting their mileage in KM will make the number look much inflated (if everyone is expecting miles)

 

[GettinBetter]

Good point, perhaps 'Odometer Reading' may be better ? Is it possible to add a combo box with the KM/Miles as options?

 

[ben]

Just added the new Grande Panda sub forum and realised we're going to need a new way to differentiate the electric and hybrid models. I don't think it's worth creating a sub forum for each (there will be too much overlap) - so I've added a new thread field Fuel Type for this (and the New 600) forum.

This one can be filtered on in the filter drop down, so it will hopefully keep things tidy.



I'll keep tabs on every newly created thread to make sure they have the right option selected - which would mean in the future if we did want to split them out, it would be pretty simple to do.

Or if anyone can think of a better way to deal with this, let me know