• Welcome to H4O! For a reduced ad experience, please login or register with the forum.

Garage Resourses

crwalkerasla

Well-Known Member
Messages
312
Location
Corinth, MS
Thoughts for the Grand Poohbah & Big Cheese in the HUMMER Omniverse,

I was thinking about our FORUM and the myriad of links, resources, and general wealth if information that's buried in here.

Expand the GARAGE to include a listing for:
VIN:
DATE OF PURCHASE:
MILEAGE AT PURCHASE:
CURRENT MILEAGE:
MODs or MAJOR Repairs (that's linked to the VIN).

i.e.
MILEAGE: MODIFICATION/REPAIR: PART COST: LABOR COST: REMARKS/COMMENTS:
175,000 Outfitter Designs Bushing Sets $215.00 $75.00 Direct Fit, very tight drive

This would
1. VIN Link to GM Parts website or catalog search for when something breaks
2. Allow us to keep a better record of what we have in our rigs
3. Let others have an idea of when various parts/systems will wear out
4. Resource for which parts are most used/preferred by the membership
5. Provide a vehicle history for other's looking to purchase when one goes on the market. (But for the life of me, I don't know why anyone would ever want to sell one)

Also within the GARAGE add a Members Resources that has a link to:
1. that wonderful Amazon Parts List,
2. Member Preferences: (TIRES: KO2's 42%, COOPER ST MAXX 36% SHOCKS: Bilstien 43% FOX 28% Rough Country 19%, etc...)

Just a few thoughts that might help in the info search within the forum. I know that there has been times when I went looking for specific info & hadn't been able to find it & other time read something previously then couldn't find it later when I was trying to search for those specific references

Thanks,

Chuck
 

alrock

El Diablo
Staff member
Messages
10,442
Location
Scottsdale
Great ideas Chuck! Our challenge is that the Garage is a third party add-on to the vBulletin forum software. Like many add-on developers, they stopped supporting their products years ago so the Garage is an orphaned product. Heck, vBulletin is almost an orphaned product since so many people have moved away from forums to places like Facebook, where you can get a question answered but you certainly can't do any research. I've looked at more modern forum software like Xenforo and I don't see anything that could help either.

I'm not enough of a programmer to be able to build something from scratch or redo the VB Pro Garage addin. If we have a geek that can tackle it, I'm happy to give them access.

Have you seen similar features in another forum? If so, I'd be happy to look into it.
 

crwalkerasla

Well-Known Member
Messages
312
Location
Corinth, MS
No, hadn't seen anything else. I was originally thinking about a simple log book to keep in the glove box or spreadsheet to better track what all I've done with my truck (and how much it's costs) then thought something similar would have a benefit to the forum members. I just have a horrendous daily commute that provides way too much time to think about a wide variety of things.
 

Acer4LO

Well-Known Member
Messages
750
Location
Illinois
I am glad you brought this up. For a while now I have been thinking of ways to make information easier to access. vBulletin is a great place to post your stuff and have people read it right away, but the problem begins with content that is older. For me I don't do a whole lot of digging on the site for older stuff unless I know what I am looking for. Most of the time I just keep up with the "What's New" tab. This kind of becomes a problem for newer members like me who haven't been here since 2011. I don't think we need to change anything on the website, but start making naming threads that are SEO friendly. What I mean by this is start spelling out exactly what you will be posting about in your thread. Say for example you want to ask a question about where you should mount your CB radio in your H3. Instead of naming the thread "cb questions" you could put "Hummer H3 CB Radio Mounting Places?" This way when new members and guests types in "places to put CB radio in a Hummer H3" on google, the thread should come up right away.

My other idea is to start making threads links old content togther. Say we make a new thread specifically about all the different solid axle swaps that have been done. Members like 4speed, pazer, 06H3, could post a few pics and basic details and link to where the information is located to. We could name the threads "Post Your Info - Hummer H3 Solid Axle Swaps" Also any H4O member could post any info they might have on builds they know of with a solid axle swap. These types of threads would be serve as a one-stop-shop where members could quickly compare modifications on builds and parts without having to spend a year or so getting to know each indidvudal member and their build.
 

alrock

El Diablo
Staff member
Messages
10,442
Location
Scottsdale
Thanks for the ideas, Acer. Heck, I sometimes use Google to search this forum! Google does crawl it and sitemaps are sent to the search engines - whether or not that's still relevant, I don't know. A while back I was going to start a wiki to gather this knowledge but the security side of maintaining that wiki is a nightmare. Not sure who hacked it, but I'm pretty sure it was Putin.
 
Top