DIY section restructuring... who wants to lend a hand?

[deevergote]

I'm looking to restructure the DIY section.

Phase 1 will involve creating subsections (interior, exterior, engine, suspension, etc...) and then moving all of the current threads to those sections.

Phase 2 will involve weeding through all the DIYs that are incomplete, unhelpful, or missing pictures.

Phase 3 will involve compiling a list of important DIYs that we need to replace or create

and finally

Phase 4 will involve motivating people to create new DIYs (especially those on the list of important ones.)



Once the restructuring is underway, anyone who lends a hand will remain on as a moderator of the DIY section for as long as you'd like (please tell me if and when you no longer want to moderate the section.)

I feel that once the DIY section is revitalized, the rest of the forum SHOULD follow. I feel the DIY section is the cornerstone of this site, and if we have any hope of staying afloat in the future, we need to start there.

Let me know if you're interested. I think 3 people will be sufficient.

[af_1132]

I'm real glad we are getting started on this. You were talking in another sub-forum about how you want to see more basic DIY's (changing alternator, oil, belts, filters, radiator, thermostat, etc.). Am I correct?

[deevergote]

Yes sir. That'll be part of Phases 3 and 4, though.

First, we need to sort what we have, and then dig through the mess to determine what we need. Some of the existing DIYs might just need a little cleaning up. Others will be fine as they are. Some will just need to disappear.
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[H311RA151N]

Awesome! I'm glad to see the ball rolling!

[Tishock]

Do you have a deadline in mind?

I can start lending a hand next week.

[Scolirk]

I'm happy to help out. I'm usually browsing the DIY forum anyway, might as well use the time there to clean it up if you'd like!

[TheFunk]

I'd like to think I have good technical writing skills and volunteer to rewrite or reorganize any DIYs that need to be redone.
And as long as it doesn't require ripping my car apart too much I can gather some new pictures as well.

[Davids92Accord]

I don't mind helping out if needed to. I believe if we organize that DIY section and fix all the broken pictures and links we can eliminate a lot of the whole how do you do this and that threads. Second we can all even promote it on the Facebook page that everyone is posting on.

[dysfunk]

Mike, I am willing to help in any way possible. You know this!

[uslspct]

I've always thought we could use a more in depth, detailed, indexed DIY section. A place you could go and learn about 99% of the car and not have to ask the "question how do I?"
I'll help out organizing or making new ones. Maybe in each new subsection there can a sticky thread with links to threads already made, even years ago, discussing certain topics. Not other old DIY but just "more info" links. God knows we've discussed it all by now, and I know the search button exists, but why not make a list of popular informative threads on certain parts of the car we've always discussed. A kind of site map. And leave the new DIY threads clean of extra comments and discussions.

[sonikaccord]

A template would be nice. It would give each DIY thread a familiar format.

[H311RA151N]

IMO, I would not really care for all DIY's being reformatted. One DIY I have almost 30 hours in. I would be kinda pissed if someone started messing with it.

Some DIYs have lost their pictures. Some need more pictures than they have. Some need to be laid out differently or the info revised so it's easier to read. Some need proper punctuation and spelling. And some are just outdated and obsolete.

We need a list of DIYs which need to be replaced and a list of DIYs that we don't have. Then we can (or I know I will) start on replacing or making those previously nonexistent DIYs.

DIYs are our golden egg.

[deevergote]

Honestly, if we're going to have any hope of this forum staying alive, we need the DIY section to be WAY better than it is. That's one thing the Facebook group with their quick answers can't compete with.

Some DIYs are truly laid out like crap. Some of those are best just deleted. Others might be able to be fixed.
Josh, you make a good point about your DIY that has a ton of time invested, and it would suck if someone else messed with it. I think if a DIY was created by someone that is still active (let's say anyone that has logged on two months ago at the latest), then we can just contact them and ask them to clean up their thread... or give permission for someone else to do it.

We should develop a format for future DIYs, however, and any old ones that can be made to conform without major trouble can be altered.



Anyway, the first thing we do is sort. I'll be creating the subforums a little later today. We can start stuffing threads into the appropriate sections. THEN we go through and weed out the bad threads.

I'll need at least one person per section that I create. The sections will most likely mirror the current INT, EXT, ENG, SUSP, etc... titles that accordtunerx put in place in this site's infancy.

The primary requirement for the people I'll need helping is that you're around often (the quickest to reply to this thread illustrate that pretty well!)
It's not absolutely mandatory, but I'd like to put people in charge of a section that deals with a subject matter that they're familiar with. Someone that is well-versed in engine building would be best to organize and moderate the Engine DIY section.

[H311RA151N]

Agreed. I have a lot of faith that this will be done very well and give the site the boost that it needs.

I get what you are saying about if the creator of the DIY is still around asking them to reformat it. I was scrolling through the DIY's on another tab while contemplating my response to this thread. While looking at the usernames of all those I have never seen on here I made my response. While not thinking about the creators that are still here. ...For some reason.

I'm on here all the time. If you feel you have a place for me or I'm capable of carrying out the desired tasks it would be a privilege to do so.

[Stoner51]

So. I have been thinking about this for a while not sure how to today today this but we we will we will need a fair number of subsections. Like 2-5 per section maybe. For instance audio and electric for things like amp install. Electric for adding batteries and such and what about the fog light wiring and various led diy

I'm just thinking out loud. I don't want to burst every bodies hopes. But I almost think we need to have the number of diys limited. With maybe links to various types in another sub section. Ie. One diy take the recent alt belt install put other alt ps pulley stuff linked in the first thread with all the linked threads stuck in a subsection. I think we need to limit the number and quality of diys because quite frankly some of them suck.
And my biggest gripe. Is the seat thread. We need concrete damn answers with the various seats in the first thread. Not some jackass saying that was answered already read.

I typed this on my phone and some of it may not make sense now I will edit it later

And I will be willing to help some if needed. Another thought is for someone to take random pics of certain parts and someone use paint to plug in the holes in on the on the older diy

Steve