New Ideas for the Site & BBS?

Wayne 962 · Wayne 962's Garage

I'm bored. Too much writing (Engine Book), on a very sunny and nice day. I'm wondering if anyone has any killer ideas out there. Here are some that I came up with:

- New forum for rebuilding 911 engines

- Game of sorts, like a trivia question type contest each week on the board

- Coffee at Pelican HQ! Every 3rd Saturday? Awards for cleanest and dirtiest cars

- Above, but barbeque on Sat/Sun?

- Pelican Newsletter (actually, this is going to happen, just haven't had time)

- Pelican Owner's Gallery (ooops, already have that one).

- Tech clinics? Engine Rebuild classes Too much work probably. Besides no one ever believes it's me when they see how young I look.

- General purpose car forum? I'd like to keep the 911 forum, 911 related, but what about when people have questions about their 'other' cars (non Porsche & non-BMW).

- Chat room meetings? The chat room stinks because everyone is always on the board instead. How about Monday at 8PM, we all discuss suspension mods, or something like that? There's nothing good on TV on Mondays, right?

- Auctions on the BBS? I can setup an auction site like the classifieds maybe?

- Pelican Parts how-to videos. Hmm, how to completely suck up all that bandwidth I just bought...

What do you think guys, have you got some ideas of your own?

-Wayne

juan ruiz · juan ruiz's Garage

Wayne heres my 0.02

Up Grade and Modifications( I probably be the only one there)
Dyno Sheets
Engine Swap Tips 3.6 into ? Etc
Technical Tip of the day or month
Survey Corner you get to vote for your favorite product (oil,Wax,etc)
Latest news from the Porsche World
A COMPLETE section for all the BS not car related
Monthly Parts Special
A Section of street kills(but i be banned from the board)

Well I think that will do for now,they probably will never make them to the top 50.

Doug E · 06-01-2002, 06:28 PM

I like the game and get-together ideas however since I am on the East Coast I'd never be able to attend! Maybe Pelican could do a monthly / quarterly meeting or get-together in different cities through-out the US. Say alternate between the major cities and regions and then each member would be able to pick the closest location and get-together with their fellow Pelicanheads. I realize this would be logistical challenge but in this day&age anything is possible.

BTW, how will the Pelican newsletter be distributed and how will circulation be determined?

Brian993 · Brian993's Garage

Wayne how about a featuring a members car from time to time. A little background on its history, mileage, etc.... Just an idea.

Moses · 06-01-2002, 07:18 PM

I'd like to see a weekly high-resolution tour of owners cars with owners comments on upgrades/alterations. Inside and out. Serves to inspire the membership and highlight all the things we need to buy from Pelican!

Jack Olsen · 06-01-2002, 07:24 PM

I like the coffee idea. It's always great to be able to put faces with screen names. (Coffee, Krispy Kreme donuts, watching the last pieces of paint seperate from Noah's new tub. That's what Sunday mornings were made for.)

I don't like the auction idea. I think auctions promote a bad type of relationship between buyers and sellers.

And lately, I really think the board hasn't had enough discussion of how my car was classed at the Open Track Challenge. I think we need some more opinions on that.

(Okay, the last one's a joke.)

I think an interesting kind of feature article would be to get one particular story from one guy's particular car -- maybe once a month. It could be a Q&A, or something the owner writes. But these projects get so long-term that it's easy to miss big pieces of a particular car's development. Like, I think it would be cool to see the whole story of Mark Hargett's Beast in one place, or Matt Holcomb's car, or Randy Wells', or Mike Marshall's, Juan Ruiz's, or... well, you get the point.

HawgRyder · HawgRyder's Garage

Wayne....I would like to see some sort of compatability chart for parts.
I may have to rebuild my engine..and would like to know my options on what fits what.
Bob

Wayne 962 · Wayne 962's Garage

HawgRider - all of this info is in my new book. Hold off a month...

Seems like a "CAR OF THE MONTH" idea is the big winner.

The newsletter will be an electronic one to start with tips and hints every two weeks. Sent via email...

-Wayne

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

I like the car-o-the-month idea. Getting a "virtual tour" of someone's ride should be a hit. Challenges are dealing with variable quality of photos and getting the annotation. Do you have a good CMS? We are working on one that might be able to be modified for such a purpose.

What I'd like to see is a really well annotated version of 101 projects (or equivalent). Online would be great, but DVD would be even better. Actually you can do both concurrent. For those that don't know every part in their car, a ton of photos to accompany the prose would be a great help. An annotated 911 glossary/dictionary would be a fun related project. My group spends a fair amount of time working on these types of interactive media, so I'd be game for pitching in.

jkeyzer · jkeyzer's Garage

Get togethers at Pelican HQ is a great idea. I'd drive up once in a while especially if it included new product demos or something else of a similar nature.

82SC · 06-01-2002, 10:14 PM

Pelican Racing Team

a car featuring all the mods and products of Pelican and covered in Pelican graphics

Weekend clinics to see the car in action or being put together

Pelican Platinum Membership
how about some sort os incentive by making a membership via past purchases, contributions to the board, tech articles...for future dicounts...and it be recognized by other businesses like speedo shops upholstry shops etc...for additional discounts...

AOL IM real time customer service/tech support
AOL also allows you to set up chat rooms...it is the easiest interface I have seen yet....

A good outline-style collection of important past threads that collects basic often asked questions

a calender of local events that keeps us updated to car shows, swap meets, DE, auto cross, etc...you can appoint regional memebers to be the keepers of the calenders so all members can click on a map and pull up a calender of local events...members can also submit when they have home gatherings...engine drop clinics etc...

Pelican Track sponsored events

garage space that local members can pay to rent...lifts/tools etc...

tool rental program!!

let me think of some more...

MJ

Adam · Adam's Garage

Wayne,

I know that this has been brought up a few times in the past, but perhaps the site could use a splash page similar to the Corvette Action Center. It's a really well thought out starting point, and the way each forum is highlighted with "latest posts" etc is neat.

I like the idea of a "Car of the Month" or "Member's Car Spotlight". Changes help keep the board fresh, but I also like it just as it is.

Victor · 06-02-2002, 01:01 AM

How about a forum for V8 conversions for everyone here to ignore and go on our merry flat 6 aircooled way?

Cheers, VC
'89 3.2

82SC · 06-02-2002, 01:59 AM

not to be too critical, but the front page needs work....many of the links are still the NEW SERVER message
The catalog place is well organized, but the lower stuff is confusing and has so many links and options, and many of them are not very useful or functional...

"other" forum front pages are very colorful and have very Porsche graphics...pics of cars...the current front page looks out dated...kinda like tha yahoo page vs the MSN page...

although there is also the philosphy that it does work so why mess with it...

MJ

expat · 06-02-2002, 05:39 AM

As I've said in previous posts about this topic, how about getting someone of note (race driver, mechanic etc) on the chat board. I like the idea of a set time each week/month with a purposeful topic. Advanced notice would give people time to plan questions, photos etc.

Cheers
Mark

Doug Zielke · 06-02-2002, 05:48 AM

Wayne, you are a genius!
I *love* the idea of coffee and dog-nuts at the Pelican HQ, especially if I could do a little shopping while I'm there.
Hell, I'm only about 28 hours of non-stop driving away!
Lets do it every Saturday, ok?

billwagnon · 06-02-2002, 07:52 AM

I vote for Car of the Month - and more wit and wisdom from Jack Olsen! BB should be the first Car of the Month...

FranksPlace2 · 06-02-2002, 08:13 AM

I like the idea of different members writing about their car - history, experiences, modifications , etc. Pictures are a must.

How about a downloadable screen saver based on all those neat individual pictures in a recent thread?

Your archives are a hidden jewel. You could feature one topic a week, linking/building on the current tech articles. Invite further comments. Some of them may need to be edited and more pictures added; volunteers could help with that. In a year we will have "202 Projects for your 911" Tho goal should be, obviously, 911 Projects.

pbs911 · pbs911's Garage

I don't know what you could do to the site to improve it. Maybe a car of the month or in depth reports of project cars such as Iris, The Beast, BB and several of the Carrera RS cars on the board.

I do like the idea of a morning coffee. But don't make it at 8:00 a.m. that's way to early. Better yet make it an early BBQ lunch.

How about a traveling DE or Pelican Parts open track day / autocross? Hold the events across the county to get as many members as possible involved. WTF hold the events across the globe - great opp to visits Oz and Europe.

Kurt B · 06-02-2002, 08:34 AM

- New forum for rebuilding 911 engines

Sounds good to me, but I'd rather post in this forum for the immediately (within minutes usually ) response and would end up doing so!

- Game of sorts, like a trivia question type contest each week on the board

This'll be fun. Walker, Warren, Natchamp, Rarly, Super, Tyson...battle of the titans.

- Coffee [BBQ] at Pelican HQ! Every 3rd Saturday? Awards for cleanest and dirtiest cars

This sounds like a real blast!

[i]- Tech clinics? Engine Rebuild classes Too much work probably. Besides no one ever believes it's me when they see how young I look.[/]

Hahahaha. Better than my conclusion: you don't actually exist.

- General purpose car forum? I'd like to keep the 911 forum, 911 related, but what about when people have questions about their 'other' cars (non Porsche & non-BMW).

Not bad for moving the Range rover discussion et al

- Chat room meetings? The chat room stinks because everyone is always on the board instead. How about Monday at 8PM, we all discuss suspension mods, or something like that? There's nothing good on TV on Mondays, right?

Only the fast typists will participate. Unfortunately those people (me for example) ain't got anything of value to say.

- Auctions on the BBS? I can setup an auction site lik
e the classifieds maybe?

Interesting....

- Pelican Parts how-to videos. Hmm, how to completely suck up all that bandwidth I just bought...
GREAT idea. GREAT. I'd pay big bucks for a 5 or 6 videotape set on an engine rebuilt.

What do you think guys, have you got some ideas of your own?

Yup. Since your wife is Japanese, have her invite her friends to the Coffee and BBQ. Yee Haw.