M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS

GENERAL => Site and club discussion => Topic started by: bmwman91 on June 23, 2006, 01:43:36 AM

Title: The Executive Address [Not for those with ADD]
Post by: bmwman91 on June 23, 2006, 01:43:36 AM
Well, the idea to have a club for M42 owners started out about a year ago within Bimmerforums.  The E36 folks had a group for M42/44 owners started, and were not allowing non-E36 members.  That did not sit well with me, as I feel that both sets of enthusuasts could do well in a collaboration.  So, I decided that I would see about starting my own group for the E30 M42 and anyone with an older vehicle that swapped to an M42.  That dream was small; I never expected to have a club with over 200 members, and so many being as knowledgeable as they are.  I cannot say how pleased I am that my little idea of a year ago has turned into such a great gathering of information, ideas and cooperation.  The growth has been exponential in the past 4 or so months, since we got our own discussion board.

Before continuing, I would like to send out my great gratitude to sheepdog and Febi Guibo for their hard work in getting this thing going.  They are the ones that got this forum going, so we could move out of Bimmerforums into our own space.  Febi put up the cash for the vBulletin we are using, so our gratitude goes out for that as well.  Thanks go out to everyone that put time and effort into making this possible.


So, where are we now, and where should we go?

Well, currently we are the largest organization of E30 M42 owners, with the largest wealth of ideas and knowledge on the M42, in the world (as far as I have seen).  We have members from around the globe, which not only adds to the perspectives and experiences of our group, but gives folks a chance to see differences in tuning technique and philosophy that we perhaps would not otherwise be exposed to.

Perhaps the BMW designers and tuners of the M42 know more, but they likely do not drive M42 cars, nor are they in here.  So, the torch sits with US to be the most knowledgeable about the M42 vehicles.  The vast difference between what I though of when I had the idea to get a group of M42 enthusiasts together a year ago and where we are now is amazing.  I would like to sit here a year from now and feel the same way.

This group easily has the passion, experience, and willingness to try new things needed to be THE world's M42 authority (in knowledge anyway, although it would be nice to be able to fly to any place and smack anyone who puts a park-bench on an M42 car).  As we already seem to be the largest (and prettymuch only) M42 enthusiast group, it is definitely not an impossible goal.

So, here is the goals part:
- I would like to see this board show up in major search engine searches for most anything regarding the M42.
- I would like to have a statistics section where vehicle information is kept, which can be used as a resource to track production and sales trends of the time.
- The information section will also contain statistics on modifications their popularity (this can go beyond just general mods, like 'lowering springs.'  Brands can be included as well).
- I would also like to get some input on increasing membership.  What discussion groups are there out there that we can make requests to 'recruit' in, tha have not already been used?  We can also make sure to publicize the club at autoX events & such.
- Finally, it would be nice to meet members, and put faces with the names, or even names with user ID's.  Whether it be simple BBQ get-togethers with folks from the region, or perhaps trying to get everyone to go to Bimmerfest to meet and represent the probably most under-represented modern BMW vehicle, I would like some input.

So, I would like to see this expand further, hopefully continuing to do so forever, or until the internet crashes and we all live in some sort of post-war Mad Max type world :p .  Obviously, this will take a some work to do, and certainly all of us have bigger things to worry about.  The goals above will need discussion and planning to be met, and I will do what I can to get people  together and thinking about them.  My 'administrative' presence here has been low as trying to finish school and find a job were consuming my time and attention.  Hopefully now that I have an 8-to-5 9 (well, 7:30 to 4 actually, I take a short lunch) I will be able to be The Godfatherer a little more, and get new things rolling.  Heh, this bears a striking resembelance to what I have heard from management in most companies...except I am not entirely full of BS :D .

Thank you everyone who has put their time, effort, and money into the furthering of this club.  It is truly appreciated, and we certainly have a lot to show for it!

-William Z.
'The Godfatherer'
Title: The Executive Address [Not for those with ADD]
Post by: sheepdog on June 23, 2006, 02:48:31 AM
Quote from: bmwman91
until the internet crashes and we all live in some sort of post-war Mad Max type world :p .  Obviously, this will take a some work to do

I am working on it but nukes are hard to come by :D
Title: The Executive Address [Not for those with ADD]
Post by: sheepdog on June 23, 2006, 03:10:50 AM
But seriously...
The search engine thing is/will happen. Trust me. It does not happen overnight and people pay HUGE bucks to try and rank higher.

As for a section for stats and such,  I am working on that, but I have half a dozen other projects rolling at the moment... When I get a chance I will be adding a CMS/wiki type home page that all of our admins (and maybe mods) can add to. possibly members, as it ties into VB. At which point some of the how-tos and such can/will be moved there. Hopefully we can get permission to re-host some other stuff around the net as well making us the biggest repository of m42 info.
Title: The Executive Address [Not for those with ADD]
Post by: bmwman91 on June 23, 2006, 10:42:57 AM
Quote from: sheepdog
But seriously...
The search engine thing is/will happen. Trust me. It does not happen overnight and people pay HUGE bucks to try and rank higher.

As for a section for stats and such,  I am working on that, but I have half a dozen other projects rolling at the moment... When I get a chance I will be adding a CMS/wiki type home page that all of our admins (and maybe mods) can add to. possibly members, as it ties into VB. At which point some of the how-tos and such can/will be moved there. Hopefully we can get permission to re-host some other stuff around the net as well making us the biggest repository of m42 info.

Yes, the search engine ranking is just something that requires patience.  I suppose my goal just to have continued involvement here, and to have members mentioning the club in other places they might go for information.

The Wiki is a great idea.  I was actually thinking of asking about that a couple weeks ago...I have always been a Wikipedia fan, and something like that here would be great.  The forum sort of IS a wiki as it stands, just not as formal.  The reference and How-To sections can stand to be a little more formalized perhaps.  Having all the how-to's consolidated in a sticky works fine, I will see about going through and a)making sure all the thread entries are in the sticky though it looks pretty complete), and b)doing each link in a tabular form (1).

The reference section, that will take a little discussion to come up with a format perhaps.

(1)
vBulleting supports HTML code and whatnot, correct?  I would place the title/author and a brief description in a
.  The title & author would be in a left-floating
of some width, and the description in a
on the right side, all within the
containing each article entry.  Maybe a 1px solid 50% grey bottom-border separating each, just to keep things tidy.

Here is sort of what I was thinking, code-wise:


TITLE [H.Link]
Author

Description of article.



If this cannot be done here then it can stay how it is.  I have no problem making a nice neat listing and hosting it on my server, but having to go off-forum for the info is not very efficient.

PS
Man, not getting much sleep because of getting up early for work...WOW I have lots of grammatical errors!  Spelling...it happens, but I am usually a grammar fiend.  I guess I need to get to bed on-time more...
Title: The Executive Address [Not for those with ADD]
Post by: sheepdog on June 23, 2006, 12:12:21 PM
Quote from: bmwman91
vBulleting supports HTML code and whatnot, correct?  I would place the title/author and a brief description in a
.  The title & author would be in a left-floating
of some width, and the description in a
on the right side, all within the
containing each article entry.  Maybe a 1px solid 50% grey bottom-border separating each, just to keep things tidy.

Here is sort of what I was thinking, code-wise:


TITLE [H.Link]
Author

Description of article.



If this cannot be done here then it can stay how it is.  I have no problem making a nice neat listing and hosting it on my server, but having to go off-forum for the info is not very efficient.

VB supports HTML, however it is disabled for security reasons asteh forum requires some writeable directories, and allowing html code to be run, is a hack waiting to happen. However there is no reason we cannot put the listing on the wiki, and make a thread heading that redirects straight to it (instead of a forum, or thread, it is just a link to that page).
Title: The Executive Address [Not for those with ADD]
Post by: sheepdog on June 23, 2006, 12:14:07 PM
Oh, I also have a new thing to install here that is a rating system for actions and trades. it is the same thing Bimmerforums is using.

Maybe this weekend I can get that and the wiki system installed.
Title: The Executive Address [Not for those with ADD]
Post by: bmwman91 on June 23, 2006, 02:02:34 PM
Good work.  When you get a chance can you give me some info about this Wiki you are looking to set up?  How does it interface to the vBulletin forum / any layout details?  If there are any example sites out there or product information bases let me know and I will try to get myself up to speed on this platform.
Title: The Executive Address [Not for those with ADD]
Post by: asubimmer on June 23, 2006, 02:56:56 PM
I am also really impressed how much this site has grown in size and great info.  Maybe we could have a huge east coast meet sometime?  It looks like there are a lot of people around on the user map.
Title: The Executive Address [Not for those with ADD]
Post by: bmwman91 on June 23, 2006, 03:57:33 PM
Well, if you want an east coast meet, head it up!  Start up a thread in the Get-Togethers section and throw out some info to people.  Putting some big & colorful text/link in the sig never hurts, either!