Separate Forums for different generations of Prius

[Optimus]

What would you think of the idea of having separate forums for the different Prius generations? As a newbie Prius owner, and an owner of a G1, much of what I read in the forums these days seems to be all related to '04 and newer. G1 Prius threads and information seem to be few and far in between making researching information very time consuming. Half the time, the only way I can figure out what generation people are talking about is if I look at their sigs or at their vehicle profile. Just one sub forum for the G1 Prius would suffice. I don't think the generations need to be split up in to all the categories that exist right now.

It would be nice for geewunner's (Generation 1 owners, for short) to have a place to go to. The Classic Prius almost seems to be disowned or at least disliked by many people here, and it's just plain hard to find G1 information.

[Danny]

Good idea! I've created a subforum of the Prius Main Forum to be the Gen1 discussion:

Generation 1 Prius Discussion - PriusChat Forums

Let me know if anyone thinks it needs to go somewhere else.

[efusco]

Originally Posted by Danny

Good idea! I've created a subforum of the Prius Main Forum to be the Gen1 discussion:

Generation 1 Prius Discussion - PriusChat Forums

Let me know if anyone thinks it needs to go somewhere else.

You know Danny, we may need to think about a total restructure of the forum layout with the impending release of the Prius III and, hopefully, the Prius III PHEV a year later.

Perhaps:
Prius I
-Main Forum
-Care, maint., ts
-mods

Prius II
-Main Forum
-Care, maint, ts
-mods

Prius III
-Main Forum
-Care, maint, ts
-mods

[Danny]

I agree, I think that is definitely a topic we are going to have to broach soon.

[Bill Merchant]

When I look at the PC forums, it looks like PC just grew, without a lot of forethought and planning. I'm sure there was planning, but there is a lot of obvious evolution. Maybe, considering the coming models, it would be good to start planning now. And maybe think bigger, not just PC, but all the related sites and shops.

[Tideland Prius]

Danny, I think we can merge the common forums and leave the subforum...ing to more specific items.

For example, we can specify the audio/elec and the modification section to each generation since that will be different but leave the main forum as a gathering place for all owners of any Prius generation.


The reason I suggest this method is so that we don't get to distance from all members. Right now, we communicate and interact as an entire group (Even with the gen 1 owners).

At the other large forums I visit, I may never meet person x who's fantastic in a particular field (say audio/elec) because he never visits the subforum I frequent or vice versa.

[Tideland Prius]

oh and "separate" is spelled incorrectly

[JHSmith]

I have a small suggestion to think about while you're considering making other changes:

In Personal Profile/Your Car area, could you expand the selection to include the other Toyota Hybrids (such as Camry Hybrid) instead of grouping EVERY non-Prius in "Other Hybrid" group? Granted, this IS the PriusChat forum / group, however several of we TCH'ers do come here to learn from the "old guys" -- Those who are driving the "tried and true" / proven hybrid car.

[Danny]

Sounds like a job for a committee...

As soon as I get the performance problems fixed, we'll tackle re-organizing the forums.

[Optimus]

Sorry, I hadn't looked here in a few days and missed seeing replies to my own thread.

If I may add some additional comments on "separate" forums based on what I see and use on other forums....

It becomes very hard to use a forum when it's split up into so many sub forums. Priuschat seems to have a lot of sub forums (and I know, my request is to have another one....).

My preference is to have one main forum for each generation of car, and every topic can be discussed in that one forum, meaning, audio stuff is asked in the same forum as engine stuff. With forums such as Priuschat, I tend to find that I don't use any of the other subforums except the Main forum (and soon to be the G1 forum). I don't know if that makes any sense, but I like the "one stop shop" approach where I can go to one forum to see everything instead of having to remember which forums I posted in and where. It becomes cumbersome to remember things, especially if you have posted things that are either borderline in terms of which forum it should go in, or perhaps contain multiple topics in which case it could go in more than one subforum.

I'm by no means knocking PC, I'm just relaying what I have found that I like and dislike about forums in general. I would like to think I'm not the only one who's brain works this way, but I can certainly be wrong. I tend not to use forums that have too many subforums. It seems to make sense to me to have different sub forums for each generation of Prius, but I wouldn't want to see subforums for interior, electrical, drive train, exterior styling, etc... for EACH generation. I'd just assume see them all merge into one forum for each generation.

As I originally posted, I have found it rather hard to find pertinant information for the G1 Prius. I have to weed through a lot of posts in the main forum just to find G1 stuff, then to have a bunch of other subforums where other things might be posted makes it even harder. If Geewunners still post in the regular Main forum and miss the G1 forum, it still means multiple places to post or search for answers.

Does that make any sense?