Forum Suggestions

[Cosmacelf]

Please post any suggestions you have on how to improve this forum. The next major release of the Xenforo forum software is just around the corner, and that'll bring different "Like" buttons so people can react to forum messages in different ways (eg. funny, informative, etc.). Let me know what else is missing and/or what you'd like to have.

 

[Randy]

Thanks for putting this together. Keeping it simple is perfect!

 

[zach90z]

Can't wait for the Forum to grow!

Cosmacelf, I noticed your Alias shows Reservation Holder. Maybe you could add that in the user profile side and collect the data to see how many pre-orders were placed and on what day to see how many people are switching over to EV's?

 

[Randy]

@zach90z - The Reservation Holder is in his signature. You can edit your profile to include that too. Click your id on top bar, click [signature] and place it there.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Can't wait for the Forum to grow!

Cosmacelf, I noticed your Alias shows Reservation Holder. Maybe you could add that in the user profile side and collect the data to see how many pre-orders were placed and on what day to see how many people are switching over to EV's?

Yeah, that's my signature. But good idea on a custom user profile field. I don't know how many people will use it, but I created a couple of new fields in the user profile. Check it out. I'm not going to make that data print out in the signature area or anywhere, but it'll be able there if you click on someone's profile. I'll leave it to people to update their own signatures to print out whatever they want others to quickly know about them.

The only extra profile info I want to print out is people's location and their post count. I'll have to modify a template for that, we'll see how good my Zenforo modding ability is...

On second thought, should I not display post count? While it would be nice to have a few more people posting on this board, sometimes I think bigger boards like TMC have people posting just to post and have a high post count. So far, I'm liking that this board has, like, zero, extraneous useless posts. It won't last, but it is kinda nice

Annnd, I just realized that if you hover your mouse on a user's info at the side of any forum message (or touch on touchscreen device), you get a pop up that shows their location (if they've set it in their profile) and a post count. So, that's good enough for me, no modding needed.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Incidentally, how’s the loading performance of the site? Slow, ok?

 

[Randy]

Fine on desktop fine on mobile.

 

[sixlxvi]

Hey man, I saw the forum on XF and I'm pretty excited for you, so I thought I'd join and make some suggestions straight away.

I was pretty excited watching the LA Auto Show stuff. And to be honest, I was even more excited to have an opportunity to be the first to create a forum for something brand new; finally a forum that would technically have no competitors. I didn't create one though, but you did, so that's cool.

Here are some suggestions for now:

I could be wrong about this, but I believe it is always best to have a .com domain to get the most traffic to your site/for SEO purposes/it just looks cleaner. I know there are exceptions nowadays, but I still believe in this age old rule. It's really not too late to switch to a .com! rivianautoclub.com, rivianforum.com, rivianowners.com - etc. I would be way more inclined to join.

Along with the URL, I think your sub-directory would look more professional as /forum instead of /xf. And that's only if you intend to ever create a homepage in the future. If you know you always want to the forum to be the homepage/main purpose of the website, I would just move the whole forum to the home directory.

I don't see Rivian writing it as RIVIAN except on the emblem on the vehicle. You also use Rivian throughout the site. So, maybe for consistency, change the forum title to Rivian Auto Club instead of RIVIAN Auto Club. That said, I don't know if I would personally use that name since your main "competitor" (I know it is a totally different brand) uses that name (Tesla Motors Club).

The simplicity of the forum categories is good. No need to have extra forums that won't have many posts in them yet. But I would change the name of the main category to something that isn't default XenForo and also rewrite the description of the Community forum, which feels a little weird when reading it. Also, maybe add at least one off-topic forum, though I could understand why you may not want one.

The sidebar on the right is much longer than the list of forums. You could move some of that around to display under the forums list, like the social media one, members online, and stats. That would even things out a bit for now.

Lastly, your skin works. Simple is good. But if you want to become THE Rivian forum as the company starts to become more popular, a professionally made skin is always better.


I'm very interested in seeing what you do with the forum since it is the first of its kind which is usually a good thing!

 

[Randy]

@sixlxvi - I get the impression you see this as a business opportunity rather than a way to exchange information amongst people with a common interest. I didn't realize @Cosmacelf was looking for competitive advantage over anyone. There are no ads here, no tracking cookies, no ga scripts, etc. In my opinion I like those facts better than anything else.

Your suggestions are interesting and I'm sure Cosmacelf will find them valuable. Something to keep in mind though. The compliments kind of ring hollow when most are followed by the word "but".

but
A word used to nullify all words preceding it in a sentence.

Urban Dictionary: but

 

[Cosmacelf]

Hey man, I saw the forum on XF and I'm pretty excited for you, so I thought I'd join and make some suggestions straight away.

I was pretty excited watching the LA Auto Show stuff. And to be honest, I was even more excited to have an opportunity to be the first to create a forum for something brand new; finally a forum that would technically have no competitors. I didn't create one though, but you did, so that's cool.

Here are some suggestions for now:

I could be wrong about this, but I believe it is always best to have a .com domain to get the most traffic to your site/for SEO purposes/it just looks cleaner. I know there are exceptions nowadays, but I still believe in this age old rule. It's really not too late to switch to a .com! rivianautoclub.com, rivianforum.com, rivianowners.com - etc. I would be way more inclined to join.

Along with the URL, I think your sub-directory would look more professional as /forum instead of /xf. And that's only if you intend to ever create a homepage in the future. If you know you always want to the forum to be the homepage/main purpose of the website, I would just move the whole forum to the home directory.

I don't see Rivian writing it as RIVIAN except on the emblem on the vehicle. You also use Rivian throughout the site. So, maybe for consistency, change the forum title to Rivian Auto Club instead of RIVIAN Auto Club. That said, I don't know if I would personally use that name since your main "competitor" (I know it is a totally different brand) uses that name (Tesla Motors Club).

The simplicity of the forum categories is good. No need to have extra forums that won't have many posts in them yet. But I would change the name of the main category to something that isn't default XenForo and also rewrite the description of the Community forum, which feels a little weird when reading it. Also, maybe add at least one off-topic forum, though I could understand why you may not want one.

The sidebar on the right is much longer than the list of forums. You could move some of that around to display under the forums list, like the social media one, members online, and stats. That would even things out a bit for now.

Lastly, your skin works. Simple is good. But if you want to become THE Rivian forum as the company starts to become more popular, a professionally made skin is always better.


I'm very interested in seeing what you do with the forum since it is the first of its kind which is usually a good thing!

Wow, great suggestions, all.

I'm torn on the .com name. Yeah, I chose the .club name partly because it's cute, but also because it's a shorter name. I'm hoping that a .club name is different enough to be memorable, so that people can remember the domain, should they lose a link to it. Just in case, and while I'm thinking about it, I just did register rivianautoclub.com. If nothing else, it's a way of protecting the Rivian Auto Club "trademark".

Again I chose xf instead of forum because it makes URLs shorter, and frankly, no one else other then XenForo sysadmins would care/notice.

But I am tempted to have it be at the root level since I don't have any ambitions to have a landing page separate from the forum. TMC has one, and I dare say no one visits it.

You are 100% right on RIVIAN. I was copying their logo, but even they don't use it in print. I'll change it to Rivian when I use it in print.

I don't see the connection between Tesla Motors Club and Rivian Auto Club. I use Auto (as in Rivian Automotive), they use Motors (Tesla used to be called Tesla Motors). The only similarity is Club. And I found the .club domain name, so that pretty much sealed it for me. I wasn't actually trying to copy TMC. I think Rivian Auto Club is fine.

Any suggestions for a new name for the Main Category? And for the Community description? I may add an off-topic forum, or I may just nuke poisonous off topic discussions like anything to do with politics, haven't decided yet. I think TMC gets more political debate than it should because it tolerates off topic discussions too much, has a forum for it, etc. But TMC is actually trying to make money, so the more posters, messages and debates the better for them. I have zero interest in trying to monetize this site, so I'd rather the mission be 100% useful for Rivian and related technologies when we get bigger (like other EVs, EV tech in general, etc.).

Your formatting suggestions are great, I will look into that pronto.

I'm a utilitarian at heart. I will add some nice touches here and there (hey, I added photos on the title bar!), but it'll be light.

Thanks again for the detailed feedback.

 

[sixlxvi]

@sixlxvi - I get the impression you see this as a business opportunity rather than a way to exchange information amongst people with a common interest. I didn't realize @Cosmacelf was looking for competitive advantage over anyone. There are no ads here, no tracking cookies, no ga scripts, etc. In my opinion I like those facts better than anything else.

Your suggestions are interesting and I'm sure Cosmacelf will find them valuable. Something to keep in mind though. The compliments kind of ring hollow when most are followed by the word "but".

but
A word used to nullify all words preceding it in a sentence.

Urban Dictionary: but

You couldn't be more wrong about the business part. Running forums has been a hobby of mine for over 10 years and I have never once monetized one of my forums nor did I ever intend to. I would never have ads on a forum or expect to make money from them. I strongly believe in an individually owned forum that exists soley for bettering the community and hosting valuable information. I sigh every time I see a forum like that get sold to a big forum network brand.

I am giving honest suggestions based off my attention to detail, which I have a lot of - maybe too much of. I understand some of it came off as unnecessary nitpicking, though I did not intend for it to be that way. Sorry you think that.

 

[Randy]

@sixlxvi - It's all good. I would sigh a big sigh if this forum started to become biased toward money rather than information. I don't think that is the course it is on from what I've seen. So it sure sounds like we are on the same page.

utilitarian <-- Like

Food for thought: what if I told you I have looked at the guts (ads, cookies, storage, code, etc) without ever realizing the TLD for this site is .club

 

[sixlxvi]

Wow, great suggestions, all.

I'm torn on the .com name. Yeah, I chose the .club name partly because it's cute, but also because it's a shorter name. I'm hoping that a .club name is different enough to be memorable, so that people can remember the domain, should they lose a link to it. Just in case, and while I'm thinking about it, I just did register rivianautoclub.com. If nothing else, it's a way of protecting the Rivian Auto Club "trademark".

Again I chose xf instead of forum because it makes URLs shorter, and frankly, no one else other then XenForo sysadmins would care/notice.

But I am tempted to have it be at the root level since I don't have any ambitions to have a landing page separate from the forum. TMC has one, and I dare say no one visits it.

You are 100% right on RIVIAN. I was copying their logo, but even they don't use it in print. I'll change it to Rivian when I use it in print.

I don't see the connection between Tesla Motors Club and Rivian Auto Club. I use Auto (as in Rivian Automotive), they use Motors (Tesla used to be called Tesla Motors). The only similarity is Club. And I found the .club domain name, so that pretty much sealed it for me. I wasn't actually trying to copy TMC. I think Rivian Auto Club is fine.

Any suggestions for a new name for the Main Category? And for the Community description? I may add an off-topic forum, or I may just nuke poisonous off topic discussions like anything to do with politics, haven't decided yet. I think TMC gets more political debate than it should because it tolerates off topic discussions too much, has a forum for it, etc. But TMC is actually trying to make money, so the more posters, messages and debates the better for them. I have zero interest in trying to monetize this site, so I'd rather the mission be 100% useful for Rivian and related technologies when we get bigger (like other EVs, EV tech in general, etc.).

Your formatting suggestions are great, I will look into that pronto.

I'm a utilitarian at heart. I will add some nice touches here and there (hey, I added photos on the title bar!), but it'll be light.

Thanks again for the detailed feedback.

Special domains offer may clever plays on the name of the site, like how you did RivianAuto.Club, yes. It's a newer thing that I think has many years to go until it becomes truly usable, except for maybe some huge social media sites and personal blogs. Even a .net can bring down a site. SEO (people being able to easily find your site on Google) is very important and .com contributes to that. Same thing with the directories. Having the forum in the root directory is great, but if you wanna leave it in a sub-directory so you can eventually have a homepage (I know you said you probably don't), /forum is a SEO friendly word compared to /xf. If someone Googles, "Rivian Forum", Google might find your site via the URL, rivianauto.club/forum, for example.

As for the categories, I would call that main category Rivian. It implies those discussions will be about the main subject of the website. Then, I'd add one more category below it, call that one Rivian Auto Club, and put your annoucements/feedback forum there as well as a possible off-topic forum.

Of course, please don't take any of this as what you HAVE to do. I'm just trying to be helpful.

 

[Cosmacelf]

OK, finally had some time during this holiday season to eek out a few minutes to make these changes. Most of them anyways. Thanks again for the look over, I really appreciate it (and yeah, that forum description of "talk about each other" needed a second look ).