New Fiat Forum

[ben]

Ok guys, been reading this forum with interest for a while now, and it seems a new and better (no disrespect meant) forum is wanted.

Having just got a bravo and running a hosting company i thought i might be able to help out.

Ok, registered the name fiatforum.com (give ita afew days to refresh) so can start building the new one. Been looking at some examples (fiatcoupe.net was a good one) so now i need your help.

We can do the following:

Split it by car - general, tuning, problems etc.
ie.

Bravo
- General
- Styling
- Tuning

or have aforum for the car and then a generic one for each part...
ie.

Cars
- Bravo
- Stilo
Modifications
- Tuning
- Styling

etc etc.

So if anyone wants to post ideas on how it can be setup, please post here and when the thing goes live (a week or so?) It can be perfect for the job

oh, and a list of cars that people would want in it too

Of course search and everything will be included and anything it can't do, I can write... woo hoo!

I'll set up a rough skeleton now (using the car section method) and then the name clears, you should be able to test it.

- to moderator of this
is there anyway to export the current data and import it into the new one?

 

[Jonathan]

forum

I think most people are fairly happy with this forum now. I also dont like the idea of everybody who thinks they know how to build a website trying to set up a new forum. As well as this forum there is already an established yahoo forum, and another new yahoo forum set up by somebody in here.

The problem is if you set up a new forum, people will still use this one as well, and it just means i will have to look at half a dozen web pages to read all the latest postings, rather than just looking at this one (and occasionally the yahoo one, tho that is down at the mo i think).

I know you are just trying to help, but dont you think you are picking off Paul Renowdens idea? He has built this community and now people are just trying to take it away from him. Feel free to go ahead with this, but please involve the current moderators of this forum, make them moderators on the new forum if it does go ahead.

And one last think, you say you run a hosting company? Please tell me you are not just a fasthosts reseller, because they are mega unreliable! My friend owns www.netweaver.com and runs the www.rover200.com forum, which has to be one of the best forums i have ever seen. Go check it out if you want inspiration.

 

[ben]

good idea

Yes that would be great, so if the current moderators want to email me I can add them to admin status..

also, fasthosts, HAH! i think not, back, way back many moons ago, until i started to get popular

So anyway, i'm not trying to take away what is here, its just it could be done a little better (still no offense meant, purely down to network54).

so yeah, the guys who run this, contact me and i can get you admin'ed.

also, i resent that comment about anyone thinks they can do it, i have been setting up, creating websites for many years now.......

 

[Nigel]

Leave us alone!

I like the format, the ease of use and the people here (even those I bicker with) Yet ANOTHER bleeding forum just dilutes a good idea.

Yes, part of this forum or that forum are better but its the PEOPLE not the format.

My favourites list is full of Fiat forums, Alfa forums and Masser forums and I just delete them after a few days as this is THE place to be...Max Power readers and all

Cheers

Nige

 

[Jonathan]

no insult meant

Sorry i didnt mean to insult your web designing ability, but i remember on the old peugeot forum a few people tried to set up new sites and they thought they were excellant web developers, but from the looks of their sites they were 15 year old script kiddiez who thought they had l33t skilz.

Anyways, if you can do a good job then go for it, but i think the point about there being dozens of different forums to do with bravo's is valid. If this new venture is good, then perhaps it would be possible to take all the messages from this site and import to yours, then close this one down.

ps: what is the name of your company? and did you look at that rover site?

 

[ben]

cool

Yeah, i know, i know

ok, firstly i'm not out to make a site thats worse than this!! that woul djust defeat the whole point!

secondly i'be kept the same kinda colour scheme, layout.

thirdly, i've used a bbs that i can reprogram as new features are needed (its open source) which is a lot better than can be done here.

and yeah, if we can find a way of downloading all the messages, then i can knock up an import no problem.

i'm hoping that with some support we can set one up exactly how we want (rather than be limited to network54's spec).

anyway, if it fails it fails, but at least i tried

ben

(company - www.inetfx.net)

 

[Paul]

Re Forum stuff - Long Message

I don't mean to sound harsh, arrogant or mean disrespect to anyone, but I'd like to highlight a few points.

I think at the moment most people are content with this forum. As mentioned a week or so back, until two weeks ago, no one had knocked this forum at all, and then all hell broke loose (well, nearly ), so I changed it, as i saw what i mess it was in. Now, to me anyway, it looks respectable and is now easy to navigate. More importantly this forum is also an INTEGRAL PART of Shaul's Fiat Bravo website (www.fiatbravo.net, hence why the URL of the forum has since become www.fiatbravo.net/forum). It uses the same style and colour scheme as his site, so I don't think he'll take too kindly to you using his colour schemes and design. I may be wrong. I take more control of it these days as Shaul by the looks of it doesn't have the time. We agreed at the beginning some years ago that we would both run it and make sure it was moderated properly.

A point raised by Jonathan: " The problem is if you set up a new forum, people will still use this one as well"

Quite right. Since the creation of this forum, a Yahoo club has been set up, another forum along the way somewhere has been set up plus two Yahoo mailing lists. People have kept coming back to this one, though.

Also, this is probably one of the most used Fiat forums I've seen, and as a complete nut on Fiats in general I tend to look at a lot of them. There's also 51-odd pages worth of information gathered in this forum. It would take an age (and for that matter wouldn't be too easy) to get the messages transfered to a new forum, and even if you linked this forum from the new one, what's the point? Why not carry on with the old one. I think this forum's too far gone to create a replacement one. I have a job as a web designer, but don't have a huge amount of the technical knowledge of web developing which is why the setup of network54 suits me fine for moderating it. It's simple, takes seconds to do something and I don't have to do a large amount to remove messages, add things. It may be limited, but a majority of the people are happy with using like it is and they seem to keep coming back. And as Nigel said it's the people that count. I may be making a rod for my own back saying all this, but I'm quite happy with this forum.

By all means go set up a forum but why not make it a general forum for Fiats and not just Bravos. If you do a forum for all fiats (seems you've registered fiatforum.com) through the ages (I'm talking ALL Fiats from Tipo Zero through Topolino, 500, 131 Mirafiori, Uno (you get the point) right the way up to Stilo - you can get a good cross section of the cars to include from www.carsfromitaly.com and look in the fiat section - then you could be on to a winner and it would be one hell of a forum. You'd get a lot of people on it, too and i would help you as much as I could.

If you branch it out into two sections such as classics, modern day fiats, each with sub sections for each car, again branching out into technical issues, parts, problems, restorations, general, styling, motor clubs etc etc then it would be great. I'd help you with that too.

This one is popular enough for Bravo-related cars on its own though.

That's my six pounds and fifty seven pence (VAT and labour excluded) on the subject

Paul Renowden
moderator

 

[ben]

yeah... good ideas......

Wow a lot of fiat models were released

I got a lot of typing to do to get them all in... hehe...

thanks for the input, but everyone still seems to think i am trying to take away a good idea. I'm not, there's just possibilities which cannot be reached due to the limitations of network54. Being able to modify as you please makes everything so much better. As you said, there is a lot of data... so a search would be great (last time i tried it, this one didn't work)

As for the importing of data, I reckon give me a weekend and I can have it all in the new format (although i could be wrong... )

We can do so much more (and i'm not talking the yahoo and stuff, great, but still not very flexible) we just need to be agreed on a bit of change.

Everyone says they will not move, but surely for a better (again no offence to you paul, purely network54) forum, why not?

I am perfectly willing (in fact would see it as a necessity) to bring in Paul as a moderator / co runner as yes it was his main idea and indeed bring in everyones input to make it a 'forum for the people by the people'.

Ok, anyway, I'll put in the cars off the list i've heard of to start with and as (if?) it gains popularity i can add more models as they are requested.

Well, lets just see how it all goes eh

(and about the color scheme, i just meant blue )

 

[Jonathan]

forum

If it becomes neccesary for me to start reading another forum, and visiting another web page i will, but whilst all the information i need can be gathered here i will probably keep visiting this forum mainly.

Please dont think i have some sort of personal vendetta against you, i can see what you are trying to do is a good idea, but i also think that people here do not really want to change. I also think it is pretty cheeky to come into somebody else's forum, and try to close it down in effect! Its a bit like the manager of tesco's standing by the checkouts in sainsbury's telling all the customers how much cheaper it is at tescos. Although he may be right, the manager of sainsburys would be immensely annoyed and perfectly within his rights to escort the tesco guy off the premises.

I wish you the best of luck with your forum, if it is good, and has a good website to go with it i am sure it will be a success on its own. You do not need to come to this forum and tell us to stop coming here and start going to yours. You are trying to move this forum to your new site, but it is not "yours" or even "ours" to move. It is pauls and the other guys.

Again i am not out to make an enemy here, just giving you my honest opinion. Best of luck with your forum.

 

[Jamie]

Forum

I've gotta say..... The spam I have been getting since using this forum has rocketted beyond acceptable limits. I am happy to read more than 1 forum, and in my personal experience this isnt a very good forum.

We need a forum where users can be registered, have signatures, etc etc, and become established - too many posters on here ask their question, get their answer, and p1ss off.

UBB forums are the best available in my opinion.

If someone got a UBB Fiat forum i'd happily post all day long.

Jamie

 

[Paul]

Re: yeah... good ideas......

I still maintain that we should keep this forum running (I'm going to anyway) as there is a a whole batch of people (who make up our regulars) who make the place entertaining, informative and helpful. Because of this I'd like it to stay up and am going to keep it up.

Also as mentioned before, it's an integral part of Shaul's site (which means messages too). I'd like to keep the messages on this forum and not transfered to another one. Also, I don't really see the point of transfering all the messages to a new forum anyway. It's a complete waste of time, as it will mean two sites would have the same information when there's no real need. May as well keep it on the one site, especially as this forum WILL be staying online and will be staying with network54.

This forum has done bloody well for the 3-4 years its been online. It's simple, easy to use, easy to navigate and quick to load. It does what it says on the tin. That is what most people want, although looking at it, that's apparantly not the case. What makes a great forum is not neccessarily the features it has, but the people that use it and the amount it is used. The downsides - adverts and the search facility (or lack thereof)

 

[Paul]

Re: Forum

"We need a forum where users can be registered, have signatures, etc etc, and become established - too many posters on here ask their question, get their answer, and p1ss off."

That's absolute b******s. The whole idea of this forum is that it's for everyone. If they ask one question and **** off, there's no problem. They got what they wanted. That is what this bloody thing was set up for in the first place. To help anyone

 

[ben]

sure

yeah that was a good point, not everyone wants to register for a forum, that is a good thing about this one.

also the way i see it is i'm not trying to steal people, network54 is not run by paul, he is using someone elses services, i was just trying to offer an alternative (to network54 if you get what i mean). The search being the main problem with this one.... (which was initially frustrated me into looking for a new one...)

I am also saying that anyone who ran this can come and run the new one so am not taking anything away...

anyway, regardless its now up and running and as paul suggested, i have put in all the main models of fiats (so its like a multifiat board ) which should give wider appeal.

yes you have to register, yes it has different subforums in forums, yes it keeps track of who said what and yes you can search it (which actually works really well) and no it has no adverts (or at least until the bandwidth costs start eating my finances up ) - so basically for all ultimate bb users its like that, just written in a different language.

I DID NOT START THIS UP AS COMPETITION, I ONLY WANTED TO HELP... I'M SORRY IF THIS IS COMING ACROSS IN THE WRONG WAY.

As for the importing of messages, the idea was you could then search them all... which was what the complaints were with this forum... anyway. i obviously won't do this without the right go ahead.

The way I see it, Paul has built up a great forum using network54's service, however network54 is limited, so what is the big deal with him now moving it to a more advanced service? The sainsburys tesco thing, its like tescos telling the sainsburys manager to come to them instead, bring all your customers, and get paid more.... you really have nothing to lose??

All i am doing is providing what network54 provides, but better.....

Paul try it (it should be resolving by now) and see what you think, i've sent you email password details and if you really hate it fine... but it could be a great new way of sorting the forums out. You can moderate, you can still delete posts etc etc... it will just look a bit different....

 

[Paul]

Re: sure

I apologise if I came across overly harsh. It's just that I didn't really see the need of a replacement for this forum as that's how it came across in your first message - that you wanted to take over and replace this one.

However, I will be in full support of the new one as I don't know of a forum on the web that caters for ALL Fiats. If you want me to go away and find a definitive list of the cars that should be covered in it I will do so. And seems you took the time to register a domain name, build up a forum I will back you with this. It's just that I would like to keep this one as well.

However, to ease the lack of search facility on this forum, I have been creating over the last couple of months a Bravo/a/Marea User Guide / Buyers Guide which will go into depth about common problems (most of which have been posted on this forum, basically it's like a condensed version of the forum) to save people having to search for it. When it is eventually finished I will link it on the top of this forum and if there is some way we can link it from the new one i'll do it there too.

Paul

 

[Patrick]

Forum with pics

Any chance of getting a forum with decent pics?
Something like Jordan nearly naked spread over a Fiat?
I can supply the car........

 

[andy]

Re: Forum with pics

that was a good one m8!
lol

i am with u on that 1

 

[Roberto]

New Forum

I'd just like 2 say that I have checked out Ben's new forum and have joined it in the hope it will grow and flourish as this 1 has.
I will still visit this forum on a daily basis as I have done since I found it and will post as often as normal. I still think this forum is a fantastic source of knowledge 4 Bravo owners and should b kept running at all costs. Paul does a great job, 4 free I might add, and we should all b extremely grateful and supportive.
Ben's new forum is well laid out and aims 2 cover ALL models of FIAT as well as club info, events and all manner of related subjects.
Please continue 2 use this forum and join the new 1 2.

Cheers,

Rob.