Spring cleaning / downsizing

[Eric]

We're overdue for some cleanup on the forums organization. As participation has reduced over the years I think so should the number of subforums we have. So here are my thoughts:

• News, suggestions, and Lost and Found: Merge into Gen Chit Chat ✔
• Trail Talk: Merge sub-sections into the main Trail Talk section ✔
• Gen 4x4: Merge sub-sections into Gen 4x4 along with Pro Shop ✔
• Powersports, Tow Rigs, and all Off Topic sections merge into the chit chat section ✔
• Entire classifieds section: delete? Sees effectively zero activity so delete it all or keep as one catch-all classifieds section? (Keep one section) ✔
• Photo Gallery: This broke years ago and is no longer supported. I suggest it's time to just delete it. (keeping for reference as requested) ✔
• Readers Rigs: Not broken but it's a bit of a relic. Fun for some memory lane content, but otherwise unused. Delete? (keeping as requested) ✔

This would shrink what we have down to this:

• Chit Chat
• 4x4 talk
• Trail talk
• Classifieds (or delete)

Or just throw it all into chit chat

Merging sections should retain all of the past data but you never know, so there's some non-zero risk we might lose some old keeper post.

Open to any and all suggestions, including if the general consensus is it's time to wrap this up. I'm not sure this bulletin board format is the style of choice these days, though it still seems to work for what we need? Forum stats show we still have 79 "active" members so we're not totally dead yet.

PS yes my D300 is still broken, 3 of the Jeep's tires are totally flat, and my interests are currently still more focused on aviation. As with every summer though, hoping this is the one where I get back on the trails.

[Eric]

Fun fact, we've been online now for over 21 years. Link to the 15 year post:
http://www.colorado4x4.org/vbb/showt...18627-15-years!

[creepycrawler]

Sounds completely reasonable and I'm honestly surprised you have been willing to keep this running but I do appreciate it.

If the number of people who still sneak around it would start posting again, it might grow back into something good. I personally don't get how the book of faces is so much more attractive.

Thanks again.

[Rex Ashton]

Hey Eric...

The merging of sections totally makes sense.

FWIW, I'll go ahead and cast a vote to not shut it down. I hate to admit that I've not even peeked in the classifieds in years. Participation does continue to dwindle, but there are a few who stay connected here.

Thank you for keeping us going all these years!

[1BGDOG]

I think I maybe the only one who posts in Off Topic these days...

[creepycrawler]

I think I maybe the only one who posts in Off Topic these days...

Everything you post is off topic. Even when it's on topic, it's off topic.

[Clod Hopper]

[tacotoy]

Not that any of our votes matters, but makes sense to me.

I look at the classifieds when they pop up... but that seems to be seldom over the last few years

[Scott91MJ]

We're overdue for some cleanup on the forums organization. As participation has reduced over the years I think so should the number of subforums we have. So here are my thoughts:

• News, suggestions, and Lost and Found: Merge into Gen Chit Chat
• Trail Talk: Merge sub-sections into the main Trail Talk section
• Gen 4x4: Merge sub-sections into Gen 4x4 along with Pro Shop
• Powersports, Tow Rigs, and all Off Topic sections merge into the chit chat section
• Entire classifieds section: delete? Sees effectively zero activity so delete it all or keep as one catch-all classifieds section?
• Photo Gallery: This broke years ago and is no longer supported. I suggest it's time to just delete it.
• Readers Rigs: Not broken but it's a bit of a relic. Fun for some memory lane content, but otherwise unused. Delete?

This would shrink what we have down to this:

• Chit Chat
• 4x4 talk
• Trail talk
• Classifieds (or delete)

Or just throw it all into chit chat

Merging sections should retain all of the past data but you never know, so there's some non-zero risk we might lose some old keeper post.

Open to any and all suggestions, including if the general consensus is it's time to wrap this up. I'm not sure this bulletin board format is the style of choice these days, though it still seems to work for what we need? Forum stats show we still have 79 "active" members so we're not totally dead yet.

PS yes my D300 is still broken, 3 of the Jeep's tires are totally flat, and my interests are currently still more focused on aviation. As with every summer though, hoping this is the one where I get back on the trails.

• Chit Chat
• 4x4 talk
• Trail talk
• Classifieds (or delete)

This is a good list to keep

I would keep readers Rigs for memory lane.
A general classifieds would be good to keep.

[74BuckinBronc]

I'm up for whatever is the least headache for you while retaining as much of the old stuff as possible. I still lurk around and would like to see this come back to it's former glory. I too, fail to see how any social media can compete with organization of so much data? I will always prefer vbb's for this.

[Sound_Man]

Eric,

Thank you for keeping the site up for the last 21 years. That's really pretty amazing when you think about it. I have made some life long friends that I met here. If it needs to get reorganized to make it easier to manage or possibly get some more participation then have at it IMO.

[creepycrawler]

I still don't understand why people gravitated to the book of faces over sites like this. I guess so they could have more "friends".

[Sound_Man]

My adult children and my grandkids are all over there on FB. My parents and a great number of my friends that are literally spread all over the planet are over there. I don't interact with that platform very much but it is a nice way to stay in touch with long distance relationships.

[Oscar]

What Curt said, my military friends are world wide and reconnected with of friends from school.

[creepycrawler]

My adult children and my grandkids are all over there on FB. My parents and a great number of my friends that are literally spread all over the planet are over there. I don't interact with that platform very much but it is a nice way to stay in touch with long distance relationships.

What Curt said, my military friends are world wide and reconnected with of friends from school.

I get all of that but what does that have to do with a local 4x4 forum?

[Oscar]

I get all of that but what does that have to do with a local 4x4 forum?

Just that folks moved on to a wider platform. Plus who many people left after giving up wheeling as a hobby or when politics just got nasty.

[creepycrawler]

Just that folks moved on to a wider platform. Plus who many people left after giving up wheeling as a hobby or when politics just got nasty.

Yeah, there are no politics on the book of faces, lol.

[Oscar]

Yeah, there are no politics on the book of faces, lol.

Not in my circles

[creepycrawler]

Not in my circles

Ok, are you involved in whatever there is on the feces book that replaced this? I just imagine that there are politics there just like here so again, what is so attractive about it over this?

[Oscar]

I avoided the politics here for the most part. And FB just block pages that spew garbage which is almost all news sites.


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[Steve]

Those changes make sense Eric. I do hope the photos don’t get lost, I have a bunch I’d hate to lose.

We gotta meet and catch up one of these days when I’m up that way.

[Eric]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We'll keep Readers Rigs, the Photo Gallery, and one Classified section. I've started merging these and I'll track my progress in the first post.

Those changes make sense Eric. I do hope the photos don’t get lost, I have a bunch I’d hate to lose.

We gotta meet and catch up one of these days when I’m up that way.

That would be great

[Eric]

Mergers complete and cannot be undone. I was editing the navigation menu that was on the left, but decided with the mergers this really isn't needed except to provide a link to Reader's Rigs. So I created a sticky post for that in the 4x4 section.

For anyone curious, I found the following SQL query to bulk-move threads from one forum to another

UPDATE thread SET forumid=#new# WHERE forumid=#old#;

Next step is to update the search indexes (I think? Not sure if it's necessary yet). Let me know if you see any issues / errors. Thanks for your patience!

I don't think the front page is useful so I'm planning to turn that off, but not tonight. I just didn't have the time to manage that and keep it current with interesting topics. Sorry about that. I'll post here when I turn it off. **Update, I remembered where to disable it so it's turned off **

In other news, I rebuilt the battery tray for the Jeep, got it running again, and drove it back into the garage where I can start tinkering with it again. I'm also getting ready to take my check ride for my Commercial Pilot license I have no intentions of a career change, just felt it was a good opportunity to learn more on my way to a multi-engine rating.

[Scott91MJ]

Thanks for your work!

[1BGDOG]

Cleaned up and lean!