Manufacturer Forums

[hostage]

I have noticed that a lot of people's post questions in the Maxum forum that would be better suited for boat, general, and electric forums. Though most likely their question will not be answered, since there are so many forums for manufacturers. I just redirect them to the proper forum, though it would be nice to have a sticky in these forums so people know the best place to have their question answered. I wonder if it would be a good idea to even have boats that are made by subsidiaries of one company should be lumped together.

-Hostage

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Manufacturer Forums

We, as moderators, are not big fans of the manufacturer sections for the very reason you mentioned. We have done a little bit to try to help like removing the "Mercury" section (yes there was a Mercury boat company). However, iboats management wants them. Probably for search results and ad placement. I was actually considering making a similar Stickie recommendation to the other mods. It would be a big job to get all those into place.

Some of the manufacturer sections are quite active and a great resource (SeaRay, Bayliner, Starcraft, etc etc) but most are pretty dead and I feel we lose potential contributing members who's first posts go answered in those areas.

 

[JB]

Re: Manufacturer Forums

What he ^^^ said.

 

[hostage]

Re: Manufacturer Forums

One good thing is I found another member who owns the exact same boat, make, model, and even year. It has helped a lot to compare notes on what should go where, even more so, since these boats are 10 years old and seeing we are both not an original owner. Though I think I might be the exception to the rule.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

OK, almost against my better judgment I am going to post this and look like either an idiot ("c'mon, everybody knows that!....duh!!") or this might be a useful contribution . What worries me is that the two Mods who responded did not mention it.

So, if this was known to everyone in here except me, I apologise and will change my forum name to "ObviousMan1"....
I just stumbled across this myself by accident....and it solved a minor mystery for me....

Towards the bottom of the main forum listing there is a section titled "Owners Groups By Manufacturer" and a list of names of manufactures each with its own forum.
People can post directly in there and I agree, it is "a bit off the beaten track."
I have an Orlando Clipper tinny and i was sure that there was a "group" or "forum for them....I thought I had seen it, but could never find it again.

~ BUT ~

If you go further down the Main forum listing you will see, almost at the bottom, a section titled "iboats Forum Directory"...with a sub-heading, "Boat manufacturers"

The manufacturers headings in here, lead to a completely different screen display....which pulls from the entire iBoats forum content. Boat and hull repair, Electrics,...etc.
The more popular brands have a far more robust page layout with a vast list of indexed sections and really significant features to find help topics.
I am not exactly clear on the logic used, but it seems that if the boat name is in the thread title, the search engine finds it and includes it in the group.
It does not appear to be perfect, but it is a great feature, nonetheless.

But, even my Orlando Clipper had a great section and i now know that CoolGuy also runs a Clipper....

This leads to the conclusion that if appropriate, include your boat brand in the title of any post that you start which might be brand related/specific....it will help build the brand Body of Knowledge in here.

~ and ~ if this is NOT widely known, any suggestions on how to make this more commonly/better understood?

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

I don't know, I think that's just one of those iboats things they use to get more hits on google.

 

[JB]

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

What he ^^^ said.

 

[hostage]

Re: Manufacturer Forums

@Tim: Seems like a good idea, don't know if there is a plugin for the forums to do that, though it would be cool to post something i.e. Maxum and Electronic issues and link them together, because sometimes where you should put it can be a little fuzzy.

Then again we will have mods saying "They terk er jerbs!"



-Hostage

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

Towards the bottom of the main forum listing there is a section titled "Owners Groups By Manufacturer" and a list of names of manufactures each with its own forum.
People can post directly in there and I agree, it is "a bit off the beaten track."
I have an Orlando Clipper tinny and i was sure that there was a "group" or "forum for them....I thought I had seen it, but could never find it again.

~ BUT ~

If you go further down the Main forum listing you will see, almost at the bottom, a section titled "iboats Forum Directory"...with a sub-heading, "Boat manufacturers"

The manufacturers headings in here, lead to a completely different screen display....which pulls from the entire iBoats forum content. Boat and hull repair, Electrics,...etc.
The more popular brands have a far more robust page layout with a vast list of indexed sections and really significant features to find help topics.
I am not exactly clear on the logic used, but it seems that if the boat name is in the thread title, the search engine finds it and includes it in the group.
It does not appear to be perfect, but it is a great feature, nonetheless.

But, even my Orlando Clipper had a great section and i now know that CoolGuy also runs a Clipper....

This leads to the conclusion that if appropriate, include your boat brand in the title of any post that you start which might be brand related/specific....it will help build the brand Body of Knowledge in here.

~ and ~ if this is NOT widely known, any suggestions on how to make this more commonly/better understood?

Let me be more specific because i think JB and EZ may have missed my point.

Take Cobia boats as an example.
If you check the "Owners Groups By Manufacturer" , there is a Cobia forum.
If you go further down the Main forum listing you will see, almost at the bottom, a section titled "iboats Forum Directory"...with a sub-heading, "Boat manufacturers"
Check the Cobia entry there.
There is far more useful information (IMO) grouped by original forum in which it was posted.
The common denominator is that "Cobia" appears in the thread title somewhere.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

I follwed your instructions previously so I know what you're talking about. It's an additional search tool.....does a thread title search for Cobia. It's not something we mods can modify or anything.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

I follwed your instructions previously so I know what you're talking about. It's an additional search tool.....does a thread title search for Cobia. It's not something we mods can modify or anything.

I'm not suggesting that it needs to be modified; it is really useful as it is!!
I've been crashing around a bit for the last 1/2 hour and I think you have described it very accurately as "an additional search tool".
From what i have seen it is a great tool, and the "manufacturers" angle is a very small part.

iboats Forum Directory is the entry to a completely different search approach from the regular "search" function.
It is more like a menu driven search aid and IMO is better, easier to use, and gives more specific results.
Instead of trying to search say, SHT, try "Boating Blunders" in the iboats Forum Directory....

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

Re: Manufacturer Forums ~ DID YOU KNOW????

I don't know Tim, I can see it being useful in some ways but it's real friggin' dumb in others. http://forums.iboats.com/Boating-Blunders/ many of the links don't work, I have no idea where they come from. This is just how iboats manages to make it so their site comes up all over the place in Google. Somehow it generates all these "searches" from content. It puts words together and does thread title searches.

 

[dbkerley]

Re: Manufacturer Forums

Personally, I start off in the manufacturer forums and then after I get caught up on what is happening I hit new posts and see what else is going on. It doesn't matter where you post it will show up in there.

 

[joed]

Re: Manufacturer Forums

For some reason I can't find Smokercraft in the bottom search section. It does appear in the upper manufactures section.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Manufacturer Forums

For some reason I can't find Smokercraft in the bottom search section. It does appear in the upper manufactures section.

It is near impossible to have all the manufacturer's represented however, smokercraft owns sylvan and they are listed. We used to add new ones in the past but, it proved to be far too much "IT" work.

iboats does have Social Groups..... you are welcomed to start your own Social Groups for Smokercraft

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Manufacturer Forums

It is near impossible to have all the manufacturer's represented however, smokercraft owns sylvan and they are listed. We used to add new ones in the past but, it proved to be far too much "IT" work.

iboats does have Social Groups..... you are welcomed to start your own Social Groups for Smokercraft

So this is not on "autopilot", there is continuing IT input required?

There is the showstopper....

Rat %^$$#@!!