What would you like to see in YotaTechs future?
 

G'day, happy Friday!
My favorite workday of the week ;)

YotaTech has grown substantially over the past 4 (going on 5 very quick) years.

We have lots more off road tech here, and many hardcore rigs.

We have added features over the years, and new sections.
Throw me some ideas here of what you would like to see down the road (perhaps the Flash Chat again) in the future here.

Maybe a new section?
I am open to ideas, and I would very much like to hear them.

Not all of course can be done, but you never know until you let me know.

We are working on a few things such as a place to purchase clothing with the YotaTech name and a logo on it, diecut stickers (different than the current ones we offer) and more.

First off, I would like to say that this site is amazing and I have learned quite a lot already (and spent even more $$$). One thing I was thinking of was, for each area of vehicle tech, a sticky or something for common "tuneup" parts. Spark plugs, wires, waterpumps, timingbelts, etc... It can help to show whether or not OEM is better or what the prefferred aftermarket company to go with. Also, their experiences with which parts not to go with. Most of this can already be found by searching, but it takes a very long time to search through everything and reading a lot of useless posts trying to find what brand of spark plug wires everyone is useing. The posts in it should probably only have the part (part# if available), company name, and your experience with it. Basically just a short, yes it has worked well, or no, I did not have a good experience with it. No replies to what others have posted, only what you have used and your experience. Debates can be done in another thread or by pm. Pretty quick, it would be easy to see what the majority are useing for common parts and their experiences. I am getting ready to do my timing belt/ water pump, and a few other things and while I have found a wealth of knowledge on the install, it has been hell trying to figure out what part brands to get.

Here is an example of what I am thinking: this is for 89-95

'93 4runner 3.0 auto

spark plugs: bosch platinums (won't buy again, terrible performance)
waterpump: playdough brand (looked well made, has lasted 50,000 and no problems yet)

timing belt: atoyot brand (terrible experience, broke after 5,000 miles)

***if you have any questions, contact me by PM

Once again that is just an example, but at least you could just scroll down the page and see very quickly what the trend has been for good and bad parts. All posts without parts or are replies to what someone else had for parts should be deleted. Also, all posts that don't list the year, motor, and tranny should be deleted. That is all I have.

I know I'm kind of a baby, but I would REALLY like it if the avatar's size limit way just slightly increased... The resolution could stay the same, but I have a hell of a time trying to compress my avatars to the size required, and they end up looking like crap... Maybe an increase for just contributing members? Pretty please? :nopity: :D All I want is like 80 or 100 kb...

Whoooa :D 80 to 100 kb is a big hit.
Many have 160x160 avs and they look good if done right.

slosurfer, good idea.
I have one for mods stuck up in the FJ Cruiser section that gets updated by me, and will get more updates over this weekend.

A good thread with the parts to use would be good.

Keep the ideas coming...

Lol, [sigh]. It was worth a shot... Maybe 50kb? :horse:

I'll try cranking out some examples this weekend, to show you my woes. I'm a bit of a photography buff, so it could be I'm just a snob, but anyway...

On another note, a few forums I have seen have "awards" where people vote for things like "funniest member," "tech guru," stuff like that. People vote in polls (after the options are narrowed down to a dozen or so possibilities) and the winner has an "award" under their avatar for the year.

Fustercluck for most ridiculous vocabulary! :hillbill:

P.S. we will definitely need a "post whore" award... I think we all know where that is going :booty:

EDIT: I volunteer to make the little award images in Photoshop, I've got some good ideas of what they might look like, maybe I'll make a demo this weekend to get my mind off the avatar sizing issue.

one of these days im going to get around to writing some stuff for you guys. its been along time since ive written a review or guide, but i had some good ones back in the day.

i was thinking some general stuff too:
rattle can guide to painting
interior fab work (working on a new center console for my 4runner)
guides to make stuff: a surco whip antenna mount and wiring your surco rack for lights (something im working on now), proper equipment care and storage, lists for first aid kits and recovery kits
a belt replacement guide, with a section for doing it in the boonies.

i think we need more area specific forums. basically a forum for each area. desert southwest, new england, etc. we kinda have this, but not really.

also starting mini yt clubs. id like to start one for just the inland empire, and the 10 or so people that attend this forum and live in my area.

maybe organize YT as more of a off road club such as ttora or the numerous jeep clubs. i find ttora intimidating, too many people!!! just keep this as a small club type thing.

just some random ideas, ill post more if they come to me when im not quite so stressed out over midterms.

I wouldn't mind seeing a list of vendors alphabetical by part. In otherwords, if I'm looking for pulleys, there might be a forum thread labeled "engine" and threads labeled simply (i.e. injectors, pulleys, intakes, etc). Each thread would have links contributed by various members.

So, if I were looking for a winch, I might click on Offroad-->Recovery-->Winches--> and then find links to Clemson4WD, etc.

EDIT: And if said section was created, I'd be more than happy to moderate it ;)

On the avatars, we both have 160x..., and they look pretty good to me at around 26 kb each.

I would like to see more Tech Writeups submitted too.
Currently I only have one in the Q sitting at home to work on that was submitted yesterweekend.

We have no writeups on how to do just a simple disc brake pad replacement.

Sometimes I may be a little slow at getting an article published, but they do take time to format and put up, and I am pretty busy at home when off work.

This place does keep me hopping!

On a side note, you may find that our daily spam dosage is slimming down.
We have a few tricks up our sleeves for these pesky low lifes.
Some may still get through though.

i would like for the time between post change instead of 20secs

I would like to see the flash chat back - IF - it can be done safely.
Also, how about a preRunner section?
Something specifically for us 2WD'ers?
I know, its been done on TTORA, I dont know if there are a lot of PreRunners here, but I know its pretty popular on TTORA and I think it could be a good addition to YT.

Seems like a good idea... I don't have a Prerunner but anyway.

I agree it would be cool to do the voting on members. That would be fun, as long as we kept it to positive things.

I think another forum added to Offroad Tech called "Solid Axle Swaps". Not that i don't like reading everyones stuff, i love seeing all the new swaps and threads, but for newer members, perhaps it would be easier to get to the IFS modifications in the offroad tech without wading through all the swap stuff.

I would like to add that i really like the ROTW and hope that it keeps going. Only thing i'd like to see changed is that we could have a ROTW section, and when someone's rig is up, they can post up their build and how they did stuff, etc. And, so people can ask questions. It would have to be limited to positive feedback and questions that are reasonable, but it would be nice. We could also look back over all the previous ROTW easily.

One last thing i'd like to see is a function added to the search feature, so that we can search for posts based upon time. So, say i want to search posts from just the last two days, becasue i can't remember where i posted, but the thread was defiently modified in the last two days. AFAIK, that seems to be impossible right now.

I think this would make an excellent sub-forum of "Fab Shop".

While I like the idea of chat coming back, it seems very taxing. The OLD AOL Chat room...was that run on the server, or was it something that was created on the fly in AOL's domain when someone clicked the link? If it doesn't run on the server, why not bring that back? I realize you can't moderate it, but was it really that bad? We used to have a couple of the mods pop in relatively often (Good Time, Bob-o, even Corey).

I actually like this idea. Maybe have a Regional forum with more specific (requested) sub-forums. There's no point in putting a "North Dakota" forum if no one wants one, and a "Southern California" forum is far to broad. Maybe setup some sort of petition system (a poll perhaps) to make sure there's enough interest in a requested area?

I don't know. I like YT as a community instead of a club. A club seems so exclusive, which I think goes against the way YT is. Just my .02

Come on, dude. ImageReady/Photoshop are your friends. It's pretty easy to get a JPG down to a reasonable size with good quality.

as for chat, i think irc is the best chat format, as its simple and easy to setup (though at this point its beyond my ability)

something to look into anyway.

as for the club, didnt mean for it to be exclusive, just as in bringing it off the web some and out into the field.

I think some way to look at marketplace by area as well as the way it is now.

Is there anyway to add a mandatory spell check step to post? :hillbill:

I use google's toolbar spell check and it saves my butt every time I post :bowdown:

Just an idea :nerd:

Erich

We need a FAQ - something collective where people are assigned to maintain specific sections. Maybe a Wiki is a better idea. It would be an ideal way to handle the 72 questions a week about air filters, ISR mods, tire sizes, body lifts, supercharger info, etc.

"SEARCH NEWBIE!" doesn't really cut it for the various reasons that have been mentioned before - the search engine has the same fault of every other one, it's non-succinct and complex to use to trim out results.

Use FF - Tools | Options | Advanced | General | "Check my spelling as I type". :)

But a grammar checker would make my eyes bleed less. I find myself fixing other people's spelling and grammar when I quote them.

I second that. :bowdown:

Erich