Hi all. i have a suggestion that i would like input on. i have already ran it by jim and he says he has no problem with it, see what you all think.
in automodeler the vehicle categories are trucks cars and motorcycles. my idea is to add another category- competition- that would include anything that races, cars, trucks, motorcycles. i am sure you can all agree there is not much if anything in common today with their street versions so why not have a place for them? this would include time going as far back as the first motorized races to present day. if we get a positive feedback i am sure jim would add the new category. please share your opinions and thoughts.
thanks, joe
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I like that idea . It would open up a lot of other options
I can see the future need but is there currently enough posts to justify adding more categories?
well i just counted about 11 competition/racecar posts compared to around 36 posts in total under the car category and i have my builds to post too so i would say yes. the new site hasn’t hit it’s stride yet either.
To me that seem like a low volume and not enough to make the change. Might be a case of built it and they will come but I don’t think that is what is preventing people from posting. The issue is there is not enough auto fans and not the categories or lack of that is preventing folks from posting. I would recommend posting in the automotive section linking to this thread to see if the folks that visit that section think it’s warranted at this time.
My $0.02 thoughts
I actually don’t mind the idea. A dedicated sub-forum for all things wheeled that are designed to go A to B ASAP makes a lot of sense. Joe made a very valid point in the opening post that the vast majority of race vehicles are designed and built for that singular purpose and as such would never be seen on the road. I’m sure @Joel_W would wholeheartedly agree and be the major contributor. As stated above, the traffic on Automodeler is light at the moment, but given the very major changes to the structure of the Kitmaker forums in general, the hope is for us to pick up momentum and new members and also regain some of the contributors from the old site who haven’t made the jump yet.
Cheers, D
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I think the idea is really good. I get the understandable concerns about a lack of post volume, but I was the first person to post in the motorcycle category, and I’d say it was a worthy addition even if there was only one post.
Overall, it’s worth noting that competition vics are a major field in automodelling and I for one would be interested in it having a separate category, or heck even an official tag.
2 Likes
All the categories under AutoModeler could do with a “Track” sub forum, not just cars.
The track sub forums would catch anything that races, be it race track, rally stages, Paris Dakar type terrain.
We also need a separate forum for “Construction equipment” ,i.e. anything which doesn’t quite fit under trucks cars etc, such as tractors, rollers, bulldozers, etc etc.
Andy 
2 Likes
“Construction and Agriculture” perhaps?
Joe,
I’m fairly confident that presently I’m the King of racing car build blogs. I even build them for group Builds. About all that I ever seem to build is race cars since I came over to the dark side from Aeroscale several years ago.
While I love the idea, I do have my reservations about another sub category when the traffic/members are on the lighter side compared to what we had grown to before the move.
What I mean specifically is that if you’re mainly interested in lets say street rods, classics, etc. but have no real interest in race cars, would you actually visit that sub category on a regular basis? My Porsche 911 GT1 build actually got over 2.3k views, so a lot of guys were looking at every update. But then my Ford Mustang GT4 build just got the general average views. Why the difference? Subject matter most likely is it.
What I’m concerned with is isolating types of builds to the point that one has to make an effort to go to another sub forum rather then just checking out what’s already in the present ones. I offer up the low view counts on the current GB compared to the view counts on just the car sub forum. Huge difference, why?
joel
1 Like
Excellent observations, Joel!
i understand what your saying joel but it would be no different than choosing one of the existing categories once you click on automodeler and you can still use the search to find a specific build if you want. anyway it’s was just an idea, if it proved to not be practical we could always go back. i have noticed though light posts in most categories across the board here, i think we need mostly to attract more members or maybe not everyone has made the transition yet.
i just thought instead of scrolling through every post to find a race subject it would make sense to have more easy access to what your looking for.
maybe then we we should think about having just one category in automodeler to include cars,trucks, motorcycles and then just the paint and finishes until we get more contributors. i have not been able to build anything for about a year myself but would be another added contributor as i am gearing up to hopefully statr building again. my two projects have been sitting on my bench collecting dust since.
well lets see what everyone thinks, like i said if it doesn’t work we could go back to the original setup.
joe
Joe,
There’s a decent percentage of members that either never made the conversion to the new site, or tested the waters and just didn’t like what they saw. I can attest to that as I got a few pm’s saying that, and would be moving on. A few of them have joined my other site which is basically focused on racing subjects of all types.
You’ve said it yourself that the number of posts in any of the AutoModeler forums are rather lite. Agreed that you would think that once in one sub forum any other sub forum is just a click away, but not many bother even doing that. I’m willing to bet that more then 50% of the members rarely if ever go over to the other side and checkout the News, Reviews, or Features. I have to confess that I’m in that group since the conversion. In the old site it was much easier to get where you wanted to go.
Honestly, given the choice I rather see as you suggested as an alternative, a single forum, as once a member or visitor enters they can see all we offer, and it’s easy to follow any builds.
The key is two fold: Number of active members, and the number of active/current builds. After all, it makes little sense to get them here, and have little in each forum to keep them coming back or even checking out more then one sub forum.
joel
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agreed. like you said, i think not many go over to check out news and reviews. i to have only done that about three times myself and that is because it is hard to find. i think once i spent about 3-5 minutes looking for it and gave up and another time i ended up there and don’t even know how i got there. like you mentioned, on the old forum everything was on the opening page and you can choose where you wanted to go and check out. i spent a lot more time checking out reviews and walkarounds there. you know joel you may have touched on what seems to me to be missing here, i didn’t realize it till now, yes!. the old site had more personality and ease of access. plus come to think of it, it was more colorful and engaging right off the bat. all that is still here just spread out where it is hard to tell exactly where you are.
still it is not like we would be watering down the automodeler forum just separating the different subjects. after all you have trucks separate from cars because they are different obviously. so are racecars from street cars.
when i said light posts across the board i meant, as you probably figured, the whole site, armor, ships, aircraft ect. but IIRC the old site automodeler was low on contributors too. so maybe one general category is in order. i believe that was the case for all the sites too back then.
btw the starliner for strip and track campaign is the one i am trying to finish up. i lost the hood for a while, thought the cat got it, but found it last week.
joe
Hi Joe,
I think you’ll find that has a lot more to do with what page you have bookmarked as your primary destination rather than some major difference in the way the old sites and new sites are laid out. If you have Automodeler bookmarked and go there you get the same “Latest Posts” section on it’s homepage that was on the old sites homepage. The only major difference being that when you click a discussion topic it sends you here and you have to find your way back to AutoModeler via the links above (or on your browser toolbar). There is no massive difference between the sites that stops people from seeing the news or reviews. Just changes in peoples habits.
For example I removed the Facebook link in my toolbar several months back. And now I rarely spend time on Facebook. It’s really that simple for most people.
Cheers,
Jim
Also FYI this is what I said to Joe in his original message to me about this subject. I noted tags have not been brought up so I will put it here:
I have thought about that a bit, as there are sites that do that (have racing sub-forums) and they seem to do well. The thing is we also have the ability to use tags for some of those more specific racing designations so that is an option as well. If people used the tags consistently it would be very easy for users to see groupings of topics by those interests. So for example…
Sub-forum: Cars
Tag: Muscle
Sub-forum: Cars
Tag: Ferrrari
Sub-forum: Cars
Tag: NASCAR
Sub-forum: Cars
Tag: F-1
However that said I am not against having a “Competition” forum under Automotive. Maybe float the idea to the users and see what they think.
Cheers,
Jim
yes it is just amatter of getting use to the new. i am sure the more i spend on it the more comfortable it will feel
joe
Joe & Jim,
I’ve struggled trying to find what I’m looking for at the beginning and still do occasionally.
It’s no secret that I spend 95% of my time in AutoModeler/Cars since I made the change to cars several years ago. What I said about not adding a separate sub forum due to our current low active membership, keeps all the active members in one sub forum and easy access to the posts and build blogs. When we get to the stage that there’s so many posts from a multitude of members that following all things racing becomes an issue, then it’s time for another sub forum IMHO.
I’m not totally convinced that the use of Tags will make it easier for the average member to find what they’re looking for, nor the need for one more click which I’m betting many won’t do past the 1st or 2nd click on a tab or not bother at all. It’s like when someone post with several links to various pictures, personally I stop checking each one out after 1 or 2 links. Maybe #3 is the best of the lot, but if I’m not inclined to do so, I’m betting that most members feel the same way as I do.
joel
you make some good points there joel. there have been a couple of times when i couldn’t find what i was looking for after a couple of clicks i just gave up too. and i admit i have never been one to use tags or searches much. plus i never use my phone to check this site or any internet for that matter. but on the other hand i find it a process to try to find what i am interested in which is mainly racecars (nascar, F-1) and american muscle.
joe