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I've got a couple ideas and need to know what everybody thinks
I would like to make this forum THE place to come for Cadillac info, not just the best place to come to BS about Cadillacs. I was rather disturbed by a comment in a recent thread that stated that cadillacowners.com was the place to go for information on Cadillacs. While the site (cadillacowners) is a good one, there's no reason why ours can't be as good or better, if we want it to be.
I think the first step needs to be identifying what kind of talent we have on board so far, followed by a plan to take advantage of that talent.
One big problem I see here is that when somebody poses a technical question, it ignites a debate. Unfortunately, this has little benefit for the person asking the question, and only serves to discourage people from asking questions. Another problem is that the person asking the question has no idea whether the person answering them actually has any REAL background or expertice on the subject or not.
What I would like to suggest is something similar to Home Depot. They claim to have an "edge" on their competition because the people they have in each of their departments are "experts" in those fields. Like the people in the tile department have extensive experience with tile, and the same for all their departments. I'm thinking we can do that here with our forums.
I'm thinking that each forum should have an "expert" on that particular topic and that we should also post a little bio at the top of each forum showing members why this person is (or should be) considered an expert. I think this would go a long way with increasing our forum's credibility, and might allow members to more easily direct questions to the people that can give them the most accurate answers. This might also limit the endless debates that always seem to pop up. And I'm thinking that this technical person or "expert" doesn't HAVE to also be the moderator for that forum. It's obvious that some of us are more internet forum savy than others. We can have a moderator for the site-specific things like managing the threads, AND have a technical person just to help on a technical basis. Or maybe one person can do both?
Another point I wanted to make was that I think we should have an "Electrical" forum that deals with electrical issues, and ECM/PCM issues like programming etc.
So im assuming you intend to be the "expert" in all the forums.
Actually its not a bad idea, but finding "experts" may be difficult. Plus defining "experts" would not be easy either. To use you as an example(sorry), you have a load of knowledge on alot of subjects, but i think sometimes you draw the wrong conclusions imho. The reason we have debates is that most topics are not black and white. It would be hard to put one person in charge of handing out the right answer in a given forum. In other forums i have participated in, the people with the good advice rise to the top over time, the regular members start to trust certain people more than others. To me it would be hard to put someone in that place and say "hey everybody, trust this guy"
In time, there will be technicians that work on cadillacs every day, just like cadillac dan on GMF.
I agree with brett, it would be too hard to give the responsibilty to one guy, since 1) it is the internet, and unless you're there, you cant really get a good diagnosis on the problem 2) There would be a lot of speculation if a bad diagnosis was made.
I agree that "over time" the regular members will learn who knows what. The problem is a vast majority of the questions asked here are by new people, and when they ask a question and end up with several vaying responces, they're left with the feeling that asking the question didn't get them anywhere.
The point was to try to get as many "truely" knowledgable people together and use them as "key" information points. Without starting another debate here, I just wanted to know if anyone could think of a way to provide a more adequate process by which members could get answers to their questions.
I like the idea of having technical "experts" for particular areas. One way I can think of to weed out the "legend in his own mind" expert is to set up a rating system. There is already a system in place to rate threads. Can it be adapted to allow the members to rate the "experts"? If so, it would be of great benefit to the new member. Further, it would be even better if the experts could be rated in different fields: engine mechanical, engine electrical, trans, suspension, etc. Come to think of it the fields would pretty closely mirror those in a service manual.
I agree with the statement that a lot of threads diverge into off-topic debate and arguing - technical and otherwise. I think it should be left to the moderator to reel in the debate or perhaps branch the debate into another thread. Unfortunately, it often seems to be the moderators in the thick of the arguing.
It may also be a good idea to have some sort of indicator for how frequently the tech expert is on the board. Personally, I feel comfortable voluteering to be a tech contact, but I don't get a chance to be here every day - sometimes I can only stop in once or twice in a week. It would be extremely frustrating to ask someone for help when the Cad is dead & not get a response for 4 days.
A database of people who own factory service manuals would also be a good thing to have (Haynes, Motor and Chilton only go so far). And while having a factory service manual doesn't necessarily mean you know anything about troubleshooting or fixing stuff, it's still handy to know who might be able to look something up for you.
Actually, a lot of the suggestions I have could be incorporated into a structured bio. A section of the bio for "Repairs I have done/Repairs I helped a buddy with/Repairs my buddy did while I fetched tools, beer & parts" would also give people a frame of reference for trusting the "expert".
Maybe those who want to volunteer to be the experts should submit their bios for review & let the members vote.
No system is perfect & any system that is put in place will need tweaking as things evolve, but I think this should go ahead.
Rather than pick the post apart and comment on each point, I'll just say, a lot of good input there Eric.
Thanks.
So you know I gotta ask, what's YOUR background?
Ratings degenerate into popularity contests. All too often a technical expert is not well-liked.
The best solution to quelling debates where they don't belong is more heavy-handed moderation. Any topic that starts as a problem looking to be solved should be tightly moderated to keep it clean. Delete or move off-topic posts, period. THAT adds value to a forum.
BS is great and it attracts its own interesting flies. But too many forums suffer from an overload of off-topic BS that buries useful content and drives away all but the dedicated time-waster.
IMHO the point of moderation is to keep {general BS} separate from {subject-oriented debate and prognostication} separate from {specific question-and-answer}.
If that is to be the case.....And it's not a bad idea, There'll have to be some changes made behind the scenes between the moderator staff and the admin! As it stands now Jinx...What you propose is impossible!
I do think that the moderators ( Myself included ) Should be a little more agressive about stopping off topic nonsense and RIDICULOUS never ending debates and moving off topic stuff to general discussion areas. The general discussion area " Chit-Chat " should be kind of a no holds barred area with less restriction as to subject matter....
Ideas for improvements 
