Subdivide the 5-board?

[SnakeyesTx]

I've noticed a trend lately .. not a flood of them, but every now and then, I see some E34 owners selling off or losing their cars to accidents, and upgrading to an E39 or newer. Maybe it's time to add a sub menu for specific chassis numbers? Maybe start with the E28 and work our way up? I think it'd attract more people from other model-specific boards. What say you?

Subdividing would basically add one extra click to your navigation after clicking the 5 board, then click the E-number, then everything should look familiar to you. We've got a 3, 6, 7, and 8 board.. so why not?

[eaglecomm]

+1

[632 Regal]

make a poll and I'll sticky it. If we get interest I'll talk to Ed.

[repenttokyo]

i think it would dilute the board too much. concentrated knowledge is better.

[BMWDriver]

i think it would dilute the board too much. concentrated knowledge is better.

I agree. The forum is not that active.

[whiskychaser]

'Hang on lads. I've got an idea.......'

[SnakeyesTx]

I think the reason for the inactivity is because when people from say, the m5board come here with their catagorized listings, and see mainly that this is E34 heavy, they don't feel like they need to chime in if they have say, an E28 or E39 or even newer model.

[SnakeyesTx]

As much as I want to agree with your point, I can not since I actually navigate around almost every board here anyway, which I'm sure the majority of people here do anyway since half the drivetrains are found in other models (M20 in 3's, M30's in 7's and so on).

[repenttokyo]

I think the reason for the inactivity is because when people from say, the m5board come here with their catagorized listings, and see mainly that this is E34 heavy, they don't feel like they need to chime in if they have say, an E28 or E39 or even newer model.

don't take this the wrong way, but if you aren't finding the e39 info you are looking for, then there are other places you can go.

i don't agree with your reason for inactivity.

[repenttokyo]

As much as I want to agree with your point, I can not since I actually navigate around almost every board here anyway, which I'm sure the majority of people here do anyway since half the drivetrains are found in other models (M20 in 3's, M30's in 7's and so on).

i have never read any other forum on this site, aside from the classifieds. ever.

[myles]

i have never read any other forum on this site, aside from the classifieds. ever.

Same for me. I've got the 5 series forum bookmarked and thats all I use. I'd like to see it stay the same.

[BigKriss]

I'd like to see the forum divided up into sections, like engine, suspension, gearbox etc

[paul p (chi-town)]

Don’t like the idea.

Honestly we really don’t have the traffic to justify it. Rarely do ‘current’ threads drop off the front page.
This is the main page...
I wouldn’t suggest going back to the message board format, but the homey feel of this place is part of the appeal ............. Note, i’m not posting ‘bout my TOYOTA oil pan in OT. If there’s an engine issue with the 3er i will still ask here on the main board as well. But if it has to do with the 3ers control arms then it goes on teh proper board.

All is well here, at least with the format.
I noticed we even had a little reunion of sorts when JR got the vagon. Geeky until you realize what you have room to ‘do’ back there, LOL.


Hang up & Drive!
94 BMW 530iT&A 145K, ‘Helga’ ( Shleppen Schnell, Boat Bus *splash* )
92 BMW 325i 170K, ‘Rolf’ ( Euro vision equipped, ghetto Naka install *woot* )
93 Datsun NX2000 190K ‘Carla’ ( Uber heated seat & rust holes *shakes head* )
85 Toyo MR2 140K ‘Jerry’ ( Showcar/track toy, killer mpg, way more fun than a prius *grin* )

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
- Hunter S. Thompson

[ss2115]

Considering that the 5 series models share a lot of design features unique to BMW's it seems preferable to have this one large knowledge base where a person can search for a solution to a problem and/or discuss it and even if they have a different "E", the solution offered might still apply.

If you felt that it was definetly E34 heavy, you could perhaps seperate it out, but I think you'd actually lose the others eventually as a smaller catagory and end up excusively E34 at the loss of valuable contributers.

[genphreak]

This is an interesting thread. Myles and Repenttokyo's comments that they only read this forum are key as this is how most people use the board. (ie just clicking and browsing the 5-series forum).

When I began that is what I did at every forum. However when you goto a forum that is sub-divided (as the big ones all are) you are literally forced to use the New Posts links and search, etc. to find things.

I'm not the only one making this point, but the level of activity is important for the viability of the forum: Perception is everything online.

Before dividing a forum, one has to know if there will be enough activity to support it, or it will encourage (particularly new people) to go to forums where there more activity is apparent. And there are lots of other places to go.

After years on here, I come back for the content, the relevance and the quality. However the most important thing (as with most things) is the people. It is the community that ed and the members have built up that truly make this board.

Categorisation is helpful and wouldn't worry me. But it will **force** people to change their habits and many won't get it and see it as hard. I think it'd be a mistake. Would be better to do a categorisation drive (like so many gret contributors did before with the archiving project) but to perhaps do it programmatically and have the content linked. This is really why it would be good to have a Wiki, as content that is 'ready' or 'good enough' for 'publication' can be put there.

In many ways this is what bmwe34.net was to many people. Given that the site's content was eventually migrated to a Wiki, and is now hosted by ed, means that mwe are closer to this than many would think. Perhaps we should work out a way where we can all just contribute to that more :)

I'm not here to talk one model or another, but I want to talk to people that know more than I do... at least that last bit isn't hard to do!