Additional Topic Specific Forum Catagories

[Mechanicaldan]

I'm seeking comments regarding if forum members would be interested in seeing additional topic specific forum catagories added to the forum. My thoughts would be to keep the General Discussion section, and add two new sections:

ECU, Engine and Drivetrain Discussion
Chassis, Suspension, Brakes Discussion

More specific sections? No specific sections? What do you think? What would be best for the long term?

Regards,

[Mechanicaldan]

I'm seeking comments regarding if forum members would be interested in seeing additional topic specific forum catagories added to the forum. My thoughts would be to keep the General Discussion section, and add two new sections:

ECU, Engine and Drivetrain Discussion
Chassis, Suspension, Brakes Discussion

More specific sections? No specific sections? What do you think? What would be best for the long term?

Regards,

[Jon @ Electromotive, Inc.]

I think that would be a fantastic idea. The General Discussion is getting pretty crowded.

Maybe I'm biased, but I think electronics should be in it's own section.

[flavorPacket]

I think chassis/powertrain forums would be good.

I also think a noob/FAQ section would be useful. I'm sure that I speak for a lot of people when I say it's getting really old answering the question, "How do I do this?" over and over.

[SNasello]

I think that this will clean up the forums a lot. Also, it might be a good idea to 'sticky' some previous threads that are very helpful to people and are referenced a lot. So perhaps if people have threads they think are important they could submit them to a moderator so that they could be approved.

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

On the sticky note, a few that were good ones were the "Radiator Design" one that is probably at 15+ pages and my "Lets Talk ATV Diffs" is up there as well.

A few more topics would be good so that people can ask more specific questions and get answers from those who know those areas.

[D J Yates]

I'm not sure about splitting the forum up into chassis, powertrain etc. The majority of sytems and sub-systems of an FSAE car are inter-related and consequently, any discussion about a particular system tends to spill over into other areas. For example, discussions about engine selection influence both powertrain and chassis design so could fall into either of the suggested catagories.

Personally, i would prefer to see catagories along the lines of:

FSAE Design, Concepts and Theory:-
e.g. suspension geometry, engine selection, aero, literature and resources.

General Design, Manufacture and Engineering Practice:-
e.g. composite use, welding set-ups, CAD systems, FEA and CFD, first principles.

Team Organisation:-
e.g. team structure, funding, testing and competition logistics.

Imediate problems and specific questions:-
e.g. specific problems with engines of a known year and model, broke something and need a replacement asap.

At the moment, i think all of the above are covered by Open FSAE Discussion.

Also, looking at the numbers of posts in the existing forum catagories, i think the dynamic and static event catagories should be combined.

I tend to browse this forum every day or so, and even though i no longer participate in FSAE, i'm always learning something new by stumbling across posts in the general forum about things i've never considered and wouldn't activly go looking for. How often have you read: "i'm not an engine/suspension guy, but..."? Chances are, if the forum is catagorised too specifically it risks loosing posts like these and a lot of the interesting discussion that they generate.

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

HA, I love the imediate problem forum. I love the guys that are like "I need to design x part NOW" "I need this solid model NOW" Sounds like bad planning IMO.

Something needs to be done about the amount of requests for solid models of parts, especially engines. They might be in that sticky, but that still doesnt stop 20 people from asking for an R6 and F4i every year.

[Peter7307]

Dan,
Two extra sections to focus on powertrain and chassis is an excellent idea.

This will add to the six already in place which will still be manageable and help keep questions and replies relevant to the heading.

Just my 2c worth.

Cheers , Pete.

[Charlie]

If we split forums, my suggestion would be keep the number of sub-forums to a minimum. Nothing worse than having so many that it isn't obvious where the topics go.

I would also suggest that any technical subforums require some kind of membership length or post count to allow posting. Nothing big, maybe 5 posts and 10 days or something. This would keep SPAM and 'Can you design this for me' posts out.

There could be a 'newbie' tech or maybe just misc general tech forum that anyone could post in.