School Bus Fleet Magazine Forums
Home | Profile | Register | Active Topics | Members | Search | FAQ
 All Forums
 Professional Garage
 Enter Forum: Professional Garage
 Improvements to this forum
 New Topic  Reply to Topic
 Printer Friendly
Author Previous Topic Topic Next Topic  

bwest
Administrator

United States
3820 Posts

Posted - 09/27/2018 :  05:19:38 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
It seems the traffic has slowed on the forum. I'd like to get ideas, from you guys, of improvements to it. As most of you know, I am just like you all. I work on these things daily and try to keep drivers, state inspectors and the superintendent happy (not to mention the school board). The only difference is that myself and Pat have been chosen to moderate (which really only means keeping people on topic and keep the garbage off of here). I have been in contact with SBF and they want our ideas. At some point after the next issue of SBF is "put to bed" I'll be on the phone with the managing editor. I would like to give her some good ideas to make this an awesome place to get real world fixes to problems, whether that's here in the mechanic's forum or in the other topics.

Some ideas Pat and I have come up with are as follows; a better way to post pictures, a way to "like" a response, email (or another way) notification of a response to your post or response to your response, a "phone app".

Here's your chance to get involved.

Thomasbus24
Administrator

USA
4544 Posts

Posted - 09/27/2018 :  09:56:19 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Credit also to Brian AKA partsman_ba for helping chase the spam away, and the late Ray (Carp_26).

But to echo the above....PLEASE speak up...this is too valuable of a resource to give up on.
Go to Top of Page

Kodie
Top Member

United States
2028 Posts

Posted - 09/27/2018 :  4:26:29 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Something that might make life easier is the ability for the original poster to select make/model/year and subject matter of the vehicle in question prior to hitting post. For example, check the boxes or select the year, make, model and select the category "Electrical" prior to posting. This could be outlined on the post automatically and avoid the questions around those items.

With that, someone looking for a specific problem would be able to search by bus and issue... if I was looking for electrical troubleshooting info on a Thomas I could search by selecting "Thomas" and "Electrical" boxes, and it will pair that search with the posts which contained the same information. This would give the searcher only Thomas electrical issues, or whatever it may be.

The search feature on here is incredibly overwhelming when trying to find good info, in my opinion. They would have to create a behind the scenes channel for that search to only search topics which contain the boxes selected by the original poster.
Go to Top of Page

jeeptjken
Senior Member

147 Posts

Posted - 09/28/2018 :  03:36:50 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
i would like to be able to post a photo to show what we are talking about with out it being difficult

How did you get the gosinta in the whatchamacallit
Go to Top of Page

bwest
Administrator

United States
3820 Posts

Posted - 09/28/2018 :  05:52:34 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by jeeptjken

i would like to be able to post a photo to show what we are talking about with out it being difficult



You can do that now but it sure isn't very easy.

Bryan
Go to Top of Page

partsman_ba
Administrator

United States
377 Posts

Posted - 10/08/2018 :  4:04:11 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I myself have just been very busy trying to keep up with my mechanics. We are now doing repairs for small school districts surrounding our area as well, which means... unfamiliar buses.

"Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional."
Go to Top of Page

bwest
Administrator

United States
3820 Posts

Posted - 11/14/2018 :  05:43:50 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
We are on the radar again at SBF. Please list any improvements you'd like to see on this forum that aren't already listed above. I'll be talking to Nicole about this very soon.
Thanks again, guys!!

Bryan
Go to Top of Page

RonF
Top Member

867 Posts

Posted - 11/14/2018 :  06:23:27 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by bwest

We are on the radar again at SBF. Please list any improvements you'd like to see on this forum that aren't already listed above. I'll be talking to Nicole about this very soon.
Thanks again, guys!!



Make it easier to add pictures

US Army retired CMBT
Go to Top of Page

valleybusman
Top Member

USA
799 Posts

Posted - 11/14/2018 :  08:02:08 AM  Show Profile  Send valleybusman an AOL message  Reply with Quote
I like the idea about having boxes to check for like year and make . I seem to always forget something and then when I add it I am not sure it gets looked at again . I also would like to see an e-mail response .Then I know I need to go back and see what was said . Not sure if there is a way to e-mail the individual about their response to maybe get a better response ?
Go to Top of Page

bwest
Administrator

United States
3820 Posts

Posted - 11/14/2018 :  11:18:26 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Just going over some of the ideas real quick. Post pics easier, check boxes with pertinent information and make them searchable, be able to "like" a post or response, be able to be notified by some method (email, text, smoke signals, etc) when someone responds to your post or something you comment on, make an app available. Anything I missed?

Bryan
Go to Top of Page

Thomasbus24
Administrator

USA
4544 Posts

Posted - 11/14/2018 :  12:02:02 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I don't participate in any other forums, so I don't really know what options and features are available. I just want to remind everyone that this is free, with no annoying ads popping up.

Please don't think I'm trying to discourage anything, just reminding us to be mindful of the above if these features don't pan out.
Go to Top of Page

BigPapa
Advanced Member

215 Posts

Posted - 11/14/2018 :  4:14:19 PM  Show Profile  Visit BigPapa's Homepage  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by bwest

Anything I missed?



Make it easier to post pictures.

AND, almost forgot, make it easier to post pictures.

Just picking at you. Y'all do a great job with the forum, ESPECIALLY since it's no cost to us and lots of free work for you, I'm sure.

THANKS.

Also, just thought about it, IF it's not too much trouble, most of the other forums I'm on, if you hover your cursor over the thread title on the menu you can "preview" most of the first post in the thread. From this I can get a general idea if I really want to enter the thread or not without actually opening the thread and having to back out.

Just one of those little "niceties" that I've come to appreciate.

Thanks again!

Edited by - BigPapa on 11/14/2018 4:20:05 PM
Go to Top of Page

bwest
Administrator

United States
3820 Posts

Posted - 11/15/2018 :  05:33:13 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
THANKS! I appreciate that you are on other forums. Is anyone else making things searchable like we're talking about?

Bryan
Go to Top of Page

aaronwilmoth80911
Top Member

538 Posts

Posted - 11/19/2018 :  07:11:21 AM  Show Profile  Visit aaronwilmoth80911's Homepage  Reply with Quote
I think if there was a way to do "likes" or something similar like Facebook, it might be a bit easier. When someone answers a question the first time with the most correct and pertinent information, if others could come in and hit a button that basically shows other members agreeing with the response, it would keep people from posting the same answers over and over which keeps the page clean. On Reddit, you have upvote and downvote buttons, so you could use that same kind of thinking on it.
Go to Top of Page

tigger2
Advanced Member

USA
469 Posts

Posted - 11/19/2018 :  12:26:19 PM  Show Profile  Click to see tigger2's MSN Messenger address  Reply with Quote
Search by categories would be nice, as would build a vehicle w/ dropdown boxes. Posting PDF files as part of our comments would help as well.
I think the major reason for the drop in activity is that after the 07 emissions price jump, most manufactures used that as an excuse to spend the projected price on improvements to their vehicles. Thomas Built units were sure a lot better after 07 and got even better with the 2010 price hike as well. I cant say about the others as that's all we have.
On a whole different note Thank you Brian for making your service sheet available. We made a few minor changes but it sure has helped to streamline our program.
Go to Top of Page

namao
Senior Member

Canada
89 Posts

Posted - 11/20/2018 :  06:44:43 AM  Show Profile  Visit namao's Homepage  Reply with Quote
If your looking for ideas I would say get a look at IATN its a site I am on a fair amount. We do more than just buses here so I am on multiple sites. Some things that site has is vehicle drop box when you go to post to input the vehicle, you can post pictures , pdf , etc. fairly easy. You can link other info easily. When you do a post people can respond to you or start talking to someone that made a comment to you , when you look at the page its easy to follow as to who is responding to who and if you want to jump in. If someone responds to you , you get a email direct so you do not have to keep checking the site. I do like there search function as well. One thing is its a payed site not free so I would guess they have a lot more resources. This bus forum site is excellent and worth its weight in gold. We are all bus guys working together to keep them on the road and looking for some help sometimes. My dad use to be my mentor when I was younger, after I took over the shop I turned to forums like this to get help or be my mentor and it works. Here is a link to the HD page not sure if it will let you in http://members.iatn.net/forums/read/?c=1&f=forum18 If not just google iatn and take a look, they were a lot like this forum in the beginning and kept expanding and changing.
Go to Top of Page

bwest
Administrator

United States
3820 Posts

Posted - 11/21/2018 :  05:54:10 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thanks!

Bryan
Go to Top of Page

BigPapa
Advanced Member

215 Posts

Posted - 11/21/2018 :  06:37:03 AM  Show Profile  Visit BigPapa's Homepage  Reply with Quote
A "View First Unread Post" button on the thread list would be nice, too.
Go to Top of Page
  Previous Topic Topic Next Topic  
 New Topic  Reply to Topic
 Printer Friendly
Jump To:
 


School Bus Fleet Magazine Forums © 2022 School Bus Fleet Magazine Go To Top Of Page
This page was generated in 0.1 seconds. Snitz Forums 2000