The moderator team has been discussing ideas for re-organizing the forum to make it simpler and easier to use. I mostly hang out in the Gen2 section, because that's what I have. My ideas are below, I'm asking for comments, suggestions, etc. on how we can better organize and present all the information.

For the Gen2 cars, R56, R55, R57, R58 etc. are all basically the same car. Differences are the roof line, the Clubman is a little longer, and a few interior bits. Engines are all the same, suspensions the same except for spring rates depending on weight distribution, and so on. But many people, especially those new to MINIs, don't realize that. So what happens? The new owner with an R55 posts a question about oil change intervals in the R55 Clubman forum because hey, he has a Clubman so that must be the right place. Or, generic maintenance related questions get dumped into the R56 specific forum or Stock Problems & Issues forum because there's no obvious place for them. And where do you post if you have an R55 JCW? In the R55 section, or the JCW section?

I have thought about how to re-organize things a lot, this is what I think works:

Gen2 Forum
- Gen2 FAQ
- Gen2 in general: The separate sections for R56, R55, R57, R58, R59, and JCW would all be combined here. We would add thread prefixes and/or color coding for model specific stuff like R55 rear doors or R57 top. The benefit is that all of the general stuff related to Gen2s is all in one place.
- Gen2 Maintenance (oil changes, spark plugs, new brake pads, etc., all that stuff that applies across the board.) Maybe have sub-sections for N12/N16, N14, and N18 engines.
- Gen2 Problems and Issues (help my car is broke and doing ________), this section remains.
- Gen2 How To (guides for how to fix / mod / install, move up from Modifications)
- Gen2 Modifications (keep subsections except for How To and Classifieds, which move up.)
- Gen2 Classifieds (currently under Modifications, move up)

Please post your comments and ideas.

 

Whatever you do, please send a notice to ALL members that changes have been made, and include a brief description. It was only yesterday that I found out about the General --- Build section.

I too spend most of my browsing time in Gen 2 --- no experience with the others. And since my main interest is in Modifications and Builds, I'd like to know how you distinguish between the two.

I'm afraid that whatever you do, there's gonna be some overlap between sub-sections. --- you'll never satisfy all of us. Best of luck tho ---

 

Pessimist alert - no matter what organizational work you do, those that find things now will still find them and those that don't will still post in the wrong area or ask the same question over and over.

Whatever you decide is fine with me, I'm down with the search function.

 

is that pessimist or realist?

One of the reasons for creating the FAQs was to reduce the number of repetitive question threads. I think it has helped. Also I'm thinking about pruning the list of sticky threads.

 

If you end up combining all the R-types together, I would suggest a sub-menu for non-tubro, turbo, and the JCW engines. I understand what you are doing; many parts are identical between all the models referenced above, but the engines are very different.

Thanks for the creative destruction!

Mark

 

We can consider separating it to N12, N14, N16, N18 sections separately? It's what bimmerpost guys are doing. I am an active member of their N52 subsection because I own a 3-series with a N52 engine. They let users pretty post whatever they want in there, maintenance, problems, upgrades, reviews all in one big thread. That way the moderator won't have to comb through the forum daily and having so much work to do. And all the users will just comb through the threads to pick and read whatever they want. Though it's a gigantic monster section, users get used to it and it's all there at once. Classifieds should be a totally independent section, that I can see the need.

 

Any other comments or input?

Speak up now or one morning you may wake up to an entirely different forum!