Ideas For The New Year For The Moderators

[Bard]

To the moderators,

First of all thank you for a free and good forum, it's great.

I have a couple of ideas which I believe would improve the Bike part.

1. Put in a sub forum called "Motorbike Trips and Touring" this is due to more and more members seems to be smitten by touring there bikes around the beloved Kingdom, probably due to bigger bikes are more affordable and available. The iron butts, Motorbike get together and trips, road info, where to stay and eat etc. Could be in it, I know we have GT-Riders forum which covers this but for me it appears that lot of people do not post there, seems to not use it, or post in both places. I believe it would benefit if we could have this.

2. I have also noticed that the Honda CBR 150 and Ninja 250 is so many pages and posts that people do not read useful information in them an double post, obviosly because it is not easy to read hundreds of posts, and it will be a big spread in the posts from trips to tuning to what have we in one post. Could we have sub forum for say Honda. Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha big bikes? It would make it far easier to find specific posts and keep them specific.

Thank you for considering my ideas for the New Year, I believe it will benefit the forum and it's users.

Cheers Bard

[LivinLOS]

Not to knock the ideas.. But its a low traffic forum any way.. Breaking it up into multiple sub fora would make it single posts per forum per day kind of thing.

[withnail]

I think maybe a couple of stickies might suffice. I was thinking of suggesting one for info regarding new models being released as this is the main reason I keep checking in here.

[dave_boo]

Not to knock the ideas.. But its a low traffic forum any way.. Breaking it up into multiple sub fora would make it single posts per forum per day kind of thing.

Really? I checked the 'views' for the CBR 150R thread (43 147) and the Kawasaki Ninja thread (25 075), and then burrowed upwards from there. Since I didn't have time to investigate each and every forum, I simply compared those numbers versus total replies in other forums/subforums. Interesting fact came up; in the Business forum there are 8 different subforums. 37.5% of them have fewer replies than just the CBR thread. 75% have fewer replies than both the before mentione threads have views.

Going up to the main forum, there are 48 individual forums. Of those only 22.9% have more replies than the views that the CBR thread sports. And only 16.7% have more replies than the views that both the threads have.

Basically I think there's a lot of people who rely on the forum and few that are doing the actual postings.

I agree that having a trip forum would be nice; not quite as sure of the break up of the manufacturers, perhaps a size or classification break up would be nicer. Also, I see that it's led by bazmlb, whose avatar I recognise but has very few posts. Perhaps if we had more actual mods in the forum the mini flamewars (which I've been guilty of participating in) wouldn't be carried out. But I've been wrong before, just not usually if I write it down.

[Bard]

If we compare Bike forum with say GT-Riders there is more posts here than there. They have a subforum for each of the major brands. That gives us the possibility to post in specific questions and ideas instead of posting hundreds of subjects in one post, it would separate it into more posts and much more easy to find information people need. So it would lead to more separate topics instead of few with hundreds of topics, problem is for say CBR 150 and Ninja 250 which are the two most posted and read topics, there are so many topics in those two threads that it's hard to find the information, problem for the poster is that if you post something regarding one of the bikes anywhere else it quickly disappears into page two or what have you, and guess what a double post in the CBR / Ninja comes up again. Also I know there are KLX 250 owners etc who would benefit from a Kawa Sub plus hopefully soon to be ER-6n, and Honda owners would benefit CBR 250 owner (s?) CBR 400 and the list goes on. Anyway it's just an idea...

Travel would also be brilliant, but it's no good having one post for all the trips as it seems to become now, so that would really be good.

I agree there is few posters and many readers getting information out of it, Thai Visa could get increased traffic if there were subs, as they show up nice in search engines and get more hits.

There should be one sticky with Motorbike suppliers in Thailand as well.

Cheers Bard

[neverdie]

If we compare Bike forum with say GT-Riders there is more posts here than there. They have a subforum for each of the major brands. That gives us the possibility to post in specific questions and ideas instead of posting hundreds of subjects in one post, it would separate it into more posts and much more easy to find information people need. So it would lead to more separate topics instead of few with hundreds of topics, problem is for say CBR 150 and Ninja 250 which are the two most posted and read topics, there are so many topics in those two threads that it's hard to find the information, problem for the poster is that if you post something regarding one of the bikes anywhere else it quickly disappears into page two or what have you, and guess what a double post in the CBR / Ninja comes up again. Also I know there are KLX 250 owners etc who would benefit from a Kawa Sub plus hopefully soon to be ER-6n, and Honda owners would benefit CBR 250 owner (s?) CBR 400 and the list goes on. Anyway it's just an idea...

Travel would also be brilliant, but it's no good having one post for all the trips as it seems to become now, so that would really be good.

I agree there is few posters and many readers getting information out of it, Thai Visa could get increased traffic if there were subs, as they show up nice in search engines and get more hits.

There should be one sticky with Motorbike suppliers in Thailand as well.

Cheers Bard

Theres no doubt about our ole Bard.....he doesnt do anything in halves

[LivinLOS]

Not to knock the ideas.. But its a low traffic forum any way.. Breaking it up into multiple sub fora would make it single posts per forum per day kind of thing.

Really? I checked the 'views' for the CBR 150R thread (43 147) and the Kawasaki Ninja thread (25 075), and then burrowed upwards from there. Since I didn't have time to investigate each and every forum, I simply compared those numbers versus total replies in other forums/subforums. Interesting fact came up; in the Business forum there are 8 different subforums. 37.5% of them have fewer replies than just the CBR thread. 75% have fewer replies than both the before mentione threads have views.

But thats my very point.. You sub divide it up too much and end up with entire fora with only a single active thread in it !!

Also your stats.. When you state "37.5% of them have fewer replies than just the CBR thread" Do you really mean replies ?? Or are you now mixing and matching 'views' and 'replies' to make a false point ?? As its obvious that a forum has far more lurkers creating views than posters making replies.. I actually say your stats are way off but I dont have a way of easily seeing views for an entire sub forum its hard to know (as if you mean views then its 50% have less replies then the 43,000 views ??).. but as the CBR thread has just 740 something 'replies' and only the classifieds and the software downloads (2 forums that are not discussion forums so dont have 'replies') have less posts / replies, I am trying to understand your point here..

[LivinLOS]

If we compare Bike forum with say GT-Riders there is more posts here than there. They have a subforum for each of the major brands. That gives us the possibility to post in specific questions and ideas instead of posting hundreds of subjects in one post, it would separate it into more posts and much more easy to find information people need. So it would lead to more separate topics instead of few with hundreds of topics, problem is for say CBR 150 and Ninja 250 which are the two most posted and read topics, there are so many topics in those two threads that it's hard to find the information, problem for the poster is that if you post something regarding one of the bikes anywhere else it quickly disappears into page two or what have you, and guess what a double post in the CBR / Ninja comes up again. Also I know there are KLX 250 owners etc who would benefit from a Kawa Sub plus hopefully soon to be ER-6n, and Honda owners would benefit CBR 250 owner (s?) CBR 400 and the list goes on. Anyway it's just an idea...

Travel would also be brilliant, but it's no good having one post for all the trips as it seems to become now, so that would really be good.

I agree there is few posters and many readers getting information out of it, Thai Visa could get increased traffic if there were subs, as they show up nice in search engines and get more hits.

There should be one sticky with Motorbike suppliers in Thailand as well.

Cheers Bard

I see what your saying.. But I tend to think thats one of the unwieldy things about GT-R.. That theres too many sub forums that have no traffic.. Of course thats easy to work around with the 'new posts' link..

Like the superbike forum that someones made they have linked a few time on here.. Its just 100's of forums with nothing in each one..

Personally theres little enough posted in here.. 10 threads or so a day.. splitting it out makes it harder to browse and this (whole) forum is so huge you cant use 'new posts' to browse thaivisa like you can GTR..

[dotcom]

Change the name "Bikes in Thailand" to "Motorcycles in Thailand"

Thank You

[Kerryd]

Of course there will have to be a special forum just for

(with proof of ownership required to access the forum)

[Imkah]

what if I can prove I once touched one, and witnesses can confirm I got a hard-on?

[dave_boo]

But thats my very point.. You sub divide it up too much and end up with entire fora with only a single active thread in it !!

Also your stats.. When you state "37.5% of them have fewer replies than just the CBR thread" Do you really mean replies ?? Or are you now mixing and matching 'views' and 'replies' to make a false point ?? As its obvious that a forum has far more lurkers creating views than posters making replies.. I actually say your stats are way off but I dont have a way of easily seeing views for an entire sub forum its hard to know (as if you mean views then its 50% have less replies then the 43,000 views ??).. but as the CBR thread has just 740 something 'replies' and only the classifieds and the software downloads (2 forums that are not discussion forums so dont have 'replies') have less posts / replies, I am trying to understand your point here..

I wasn't suggesting dividing it up much, just keeping the scooters away from the bigger bikes. Starting more pinned threads would be nice also; but as I pointed out there's a distinct lack of moderators here in this subforum, the efforts of PeaceBlondie being appreciated none-the-less.

Your question in the second paragraph is answered by stating that I left off 'views' as was included in my other stats. Granted it's a bit disingenious to compare views to actual replies, but I was trying to make a point; I believe there's no way you can say that our beloved sub-forum is low traffic. It may be low post, but obviously someone is viewing. I'd like to think (blame my Napoleon sized ego) that it's due to the quality of posts coming from us few posters that leaves little room for someone else to jump in. It's actually more likely that people searching for that particular motorcycle or problem find that thread through google. And if the second assumption is true, subdividing the subforum wouldn't hurt anybody as long as it wasn't too extreme.

Of course there will have to be a special forum just for

I'd imagine that it would be a low post count; but then again we could fold in the JRD, Phantom, and Boss which should increase y'all's standings.

Reduced: 94% of original size [ 543 x 480 ] - Click to view full image

(with proof of ownership required to access the forum)

[Bard]

The point I try to make is; Well since I am one of the posters.

Almost every thing about a Ninja 250 is in one post, right? So you will dig through I donno 600+ posts to look for very very different information. Say I post some tuning info outside that post, it vanishes to page 2 or 3 or what have you and guess what a question which is answered comes up in the massive Ninja 250 post, so we post the answer again, then we have people searching for information but find the thread so large and inconsistent that scrolling through all those pages and answers they give up and guess what? Ask again, so it's posted again. That is not user friendly...

OK so let's have a BigBike Section and Pinned BigBike Motorbike suppliers in there. And I can promise you lot more separate threads will come up, which would encourage more people to post. Also when you search on say Google the thread comes up not the post, so look for some of the massive amount of info on CBR 150, Ninja 250, Phantom 200 etc and you are in trouble. Say I want to find overbore cylinder info on CBR 150, is it logical it's found under CBR 150 (an owners forum)? or would it be better for all if it was a thread called Tuning CBR 150?

I also fully agree with dotcom change the name to Motorcycles in Thailand would be good.

Also how many posts per day is it here? How many is it today? What we have little of is not posts it's threads. There are threads with hundreds of posts, but few threads which is what I hoped could be changed.

Regarding GT-Riders, the problem there I think is many people think it's only for that group, members or feel it's elite based, or only for touring. It's actually not, but I think many have that impression. Hence few post of fear for being newbie or what have you, black color on forums is also proven to slow down traffic since it's intimidating.

I donno just shooting ideas here, or maybe the small bike section would die if the bigger bike posters was not present I don't know...

Cheers Bard

[dave_boo]

I'm agreeing with your Bard; but if we're not getting our way let's do what other forums do and simply start new threads. Granted the danger increases that a thread you started may get pushed down the list, but that's what simply replying to your own thread with a 'bump' fixes. Also, when the last time that someone has asked PB to pin a thread?

[Richard-BKK]

I fully agree with Dave_boo, matter of fact I start to love you guy...

[PeaceBlondie]

Hey guys, lots of excellent ideas and comments. I will discuss it with the moderators. Thanks, and keep commenting, please.

[dotcom]

I do agree with Bard.

[LivinLOS]

Of course there will have to be a special forum just for

(with proof of ownership required to access the forum)

Yeah thats it.. Once we know who they are it will be easier to round em up !!

[LivinLOS]

The point I try to make is; Well since I am one of the posters.

Almost every thing about a Ninja 250 is in one post, right? So you will dig through I donno 600+ posts to look for very very different information. Say I post some tuning info outside that post, it vanishes to page 2 or 3 or what have you and guess what a question which is answered comes up in the massive Ninja 250 post, so we post the answer again, then we have people searching for information but find the thread so large and inconsistent that scrolling through all those pages and answers they give up and guess what? Ask again, so it's posted again. That is not user friendly...

OK so let's have a BigBike Section and Pinned BigBike Motorbike suppliers in there. And I can promise you lot more separate threads will come up, which would encourage more people to post. Also when you search on say Google the thread comes up not the post, so look for some of the massive amount of info on CBR 150, Ninja 250, Phantom 200 etc and you are in trouble. Say I want to find overbore cylinder info on CBR 150, is it logical it's found under CBR 150 (an owners forum)? or would it be better for all if it was a thread called Tuning CBR 150?

I also fully agree with dotcom change the name to Motorcycles in Thailand would be good.

Also how many posts per day is it here? How many is it today? What we have little of is not posts it's threads. There are threads with hundreds of posts, but few threads which is what I hoped could be changed.

Regarding GT-Riders, the problem there I think is many people think it's only for that group, members or feel it's elite based, or only for touring. It's actually not, but I think many have that impression. Hence few post of fear for being newbie or what have you, black color on forums is also proven to slow down traffic since it's intimidating.

I donno just shooting ideas here, or maybe the small bike section would die if the bigger bike posters was not present I don't know...

Cheers Bard

I agree that huge thread become unwieldy.. On another forum I was on they used to cap a thread at x amount of pages, the lock it and link back to it.. Doesnt really solve the fact that good info gets buried but does help start many more threads which can make info easier to track.

Also an idea I have been meaning to mention, this occured to me when in Chiang Mai, as a non local, who needed to find a good mechanic. We need to create a database of big bike mechanics, and suppliers and use google earth / google maps tools to make it easy to find them.. In this age when many people have GPS's and in a couple of years they will be in every phone, its about time we made a map / location database of all the Thai spots. I would bet theres not more than a couple hundred real big bike places but it needs to be a collaborative effort.

When I thought about it, the ideal solution would be a wiki format, where the data could be collaboratively maintained. The site could contain sales, parts, mechanics, even bike friendly bars and or accommodations, rentors, or even rides. Its really easy to slap a wiki together, google maps lets us bookmark locations and put them onto the site, google earth kmz's are downloadable / exportable from the site and can be converted into garmin / mapsource or nokia waypoints easily. It just needs everyone to pitch in and help put placemarkers around thier local area to get the project started.

I was going to register a domain and get a wiki thrown up on it, but then ThaiVisa has a fairly illogical and strict 'no linking' policy (that I have asked over and over to clarify but never is) and I also didnt want to do a thai-riders.com when theres already GT-Rider etc.. But the wiki format for this kind of info would be ideal and once it got critical mass it would be a very useful thai biker directory. Need service in Khon Khen ?? Or the DMV in Udon ?? There it is online with address, phone number, a map and a downloadable waypoint for a GPS if you have one !! Handy or what !!

[Kerryd]

Of course there will have to be a special forum just for

(with proof of ownership required to access the forum)

Yeah thats it.. Once we know who they are it will be easier to round em up !!

We are usually pretty easy to find:

And we tend to have BIG parties on a regular basis all around the country !

[dave_boo]

[quote name='LivinLOS' post='2431423' date='2008-12-26 22:42:35'I agree that huge thread become unwieldy.. On another forum I was on they used to cap a thread at x amount of pages, the lock it and link back to it.. Doesnt really solve the fact that good info gets buried but does help start many more threads which can make info easier to track.

Also an idea I have been meaning to mention, this occured to me when in Chiang Mai, as a non local, who needed to find a good mechanic. We need to create a database of big bike mechanics, and suppliers and use google earth / google maps tools to make it easy to find them.. In this age when many people have GPS's and in a couple of years they will be in every phone, its about time we made a map / location database of all the Thai spots. I would bet theres not more than a couple hundred real big bike places but it needs to be a collaborative effort.

When I thought about it, the ideal solution would be a wiki format, where the data could be collaboratively maintained. The site could contain sales, parts, mechanics, even bike friendly bars and or accommodations, rentors, or even rides. Its really easy to slap a wiki together, google maps lets us bookmark locations and put them onto the site, google earth kmz's are downloadable / exportable from the site and can be converted into garmin / mapsource or nokia waypoints easily. It just needs everyone to pitch in and help put placemarkers around thier local area to get the project started.

I was going to register a domain and get a wiki thrown up on it, but then ThaiVisa has a fairly illogical and strict 'no linking' policy (that I have asked over and over to clarify but never is) and I also didnt want to do a thai-riders.com when theres already GT-Rider etc.. But the wiki format for this kind of info would be ideal and once it got critical mass it would be a very useful thai biker directory. Need service in Khon Khen ?? Or the DMV in Udon ?? There it is online with address, phone number, a map and a downloadable waypoint for a GPS if you have one !! Handy or what !!

Excellent idea about the GPS co-ordinates.

**edit**

Removed the quote inside the quote.

Edited December 27, 2008 by dave_boo

[PeaceBlondie]

I posted this on the separate threads:

Gentlemen,

I have been thinking that the threads for the Honda CBR150R, the Ninja 250 and Tiger Boxer, may be too lengthy. We can keep this open for 987 more posts and infinitely more views, but what about starting a new thread for each of these bikes, for all new posts during 2009?

[BigBikeBKK]

I hope I don't hurt anyone's feelings but honestly, when it comes to a Thai motorcycle specific forum I think GT Riders is still way ahead of Thai Visa, but Thai Visa has a lot more active users and obviously more diverse content so I spend more time on TV than GTR these days.

Anyway- I think the ThaiVisa "Bikes in Thailand" is a great forum and could certainly be improved.

I vote in favor of PB's idea to cap threads, but hope that the new threads will link back to the originals.

Happy Trails!

[DirkKohler]

I hope I don't hurt anyone's feelings but honestly, when it comes to a Thai motorcycle specific forum I think GT Riders is still way ahead of Thai Visa, but Thai Visa has a lot more active users and obviously more diverse content so I spend more time on TV than GTR these days.

Anyway- I think the ThaiVisa "Bikes in Thailand" is a great forum and could certainly be improved.

I vote in favor of PB's idea to cap threads, but hope that the new threads will link back to the originals.

Happy Trails!

Agree about GT Rider, there is more useful information info about bikes and rides over there then at TV.

[Kimera]

Of course there will have to be a special forum just for

(with proof of ownership required to access the forum)

Yeah thats it.. Once we know who they are it will be easier to round em up !!

We are usually pretty easy to find:

And we tend to have BIG parties on a regular basis all around the country !

You sure they are not all waiting to be repaired

[PeaceBlondie]

We are not competing with GTRiders Forum. These suggestions are helpful. I closed the Ninja 250 old thread, made a new one, and put cross links in both. I plan to do that with the Tiger Boxer and CBR150 threads.

[Kerryd]

We are not competing with GTRiders Forum. These suggestions are helpful. I closed the Ninja 250 old thread, made a new one, and put cross links in both. I plan to do that with the Tiger Boxer and CBR150 threads.

Oh come on. We can TAKE them !!

We're # .75 ! We're # .75 !

(I'll probably get booted off GT now for that)

[dotcom]

I agree that huge thread become unwieldy.. On another forum I was on they used to cap a thread at x amount of pages, the lock it and link back to it.. Doesnt really solve the fact that good info gets buried but does help start many more threads which can make info easier to track.

Also an idea I have been meaning to mention, this occured to me when in Chiang Mai, as a non local, who needed to find a good mechanic. We need to create a database of big bike mechanics, and suppliers and use google earth / google maps tools to make it easy to find them.. In this age when many people have GPS's and in a couple of years they will be in every phone, its about time we made a map / location database of all the Thai spots. I would bet theres not more than a couple hundred real big bike places but it needs to be a collaborative effort.

When I thought about it, the ideal solution would be a wiki format, where the data could be collaboratively maintained. The site could contain sales, parts, mechanics, even bike friendly bars and or accommodations, rentors, or even rides. Its really easy to slap a wiki together, google maps lets us bookmark locations and put them onto the site, google earth kmz's are downloadable / exportable from the site and can be converted into garmin / mapsource or nokia waypoints easily. It just needs everyone to pitch in and help put placemarkers around thier local area to get the project started.

I was going to register a domain and get a wiki thrown up on it, but then ThaiVisa has a fairly illogical and strict 'no linking' policy (that I have asked over and over to clarify but never is) and I also didnt want to do a thai-riders.com when theres already GT-Rider etc.. But the wiki format for this kind of info would be ideal and once it got critical mass it would be a very useful thai biker directory. Need service in Khon Khen ?? Or the DMV in Udon ?? There it is online with address, phone number, a map and a downloadable waypoint for a GPS if you have one !! Handy or what !!

Hey Sefton. Good idea. Just now I'm trying to locate a shop in Thon Buri & having zero joy.

The old Bangkok Riders forum already contains GPS coordinates for lots of Bangkok Shops.

That would/could be the starting point.

So far TV isn't complaining too loudly about "insert link" as long as it's well behaved. It is after all information for our members.

bkkriders is no longer updated. A lot of info out of date like still showing Siam Superbike which closed years ago.

Shops Index

Check it out.

I'm up for helping whoever update.

[LivinLOS]

I used that link in the past.. And its very out of date for phone numbers etc.. But it was partly what got me thinking that if it could be a wiki, where everyone chips in a little to maintain it, it would be massively useful and wouldnt get old.

I am busy today, but will go out tomorrow and waypoint some places.. Then post some ideas on a 'format' for the info.. A wiki is real easy, I have hosted one before and can probably slap one together in an afternoon.. Does anyone have PHP/ MySQL hosting spare ?? I no longer have a multi site host. Its not a huge cost, but its still a cost none the less.

Using downloadable waypoints, google maps for non GPS users and routing, it could be really useful both for riders and also for business promotion.