Ecu And Fuel Thread?

[NYTSKY]

Seeing how the subject of ECUs and fuel systems come up rather frequently here on the forum, i was thinking there should be a section on it.

There are dozens of ECU brands and 100's of fuel system components. I think it would be a good addition if we had a section on this.

Admin?

[R31Nismoid]

How do you distinguish what relates to NA, FI or then ECU/Fuel...?

If things cross both lines then its impossible to Admin, hence we don't have overtly specific.

I get flamed enough via PM as it is for moving threads that i think are in peoples best interests lol

FI is easyish, Drivetrain is easyish, NA is again easyish...

What is classed as FI, but related to fuel (say a rising rate fuel reg), kinda puts a blur/bridge across sections. Where does it go? Because NA fuel bits and then FI fuel bits then become intermixed and could (potentially) be harder to find info to that specific type of application

Its a very specific topic when compared to the current areas, there would need to be very clear 'guidelines' for anything as often things cross both lines.

If you come up with something that's feasible, we can look into it for sure.

[NYTSKY]

What about the idea of sub categories?

I know it would be a headache converting the whole FI to this format but could be beneficial when searching.

So instead of having FI with posts relating to everything.

You could have FI or NA then:

Engine/Valvetrain

Turbo/Exhaust

ECU

Fuel

Intake/Ignition

Ect ect...

If people were smart enough to read the actual thread they were posting in you wouldnt be moving them would you

I see clutch questions in the FI all the time and think "what the...."

[R31Nismoid]

I move the clutch threads hehe, and about 15 others on a daily basis.

Fact of life, people will post in the section they frequent most, doesn't mean its the right one however.

Few things i think of (admin hat on here)

Administration

Honestly, adding in another 12+ sections, I cant say I'm a fan of (splitting it into FI & NA, and then down into sub's)

That's sheerly from an Admin perspective, its 12x the work... then we need 3 moderators for each section... then stuff will be moved all over the shop and make it super messy.

Its enough to Admin/Mod the site as it stands (for the current team) without getting another 6-12 cooks (mods) to help stir the pot because of a change that might not offer much, if anything it could make things worse.

Whilst sections themselves would be smaller - overall its more work with the checking of multi sections as opposed to one or two.

Traffic/Load/Etc

Decrease Traffic

One big active section is better than 5-7 sub-sections that people have to read and click through each time, and could hurt forum traffic.

People might take 2-3 days to get a response rather than a few hours because regulars have to check 6 sections (and they CBF'd)

Increase Traffic

As it stands FI is the 3rd largest section by traffic (216,422 views per 3 months).

Breaking it down - eg 6x - would require potentially 6-12 more clicks from everyone which will increase traffic, for the same amount of information/data...

So in effect going from 216422 upto 1.3Mil overnight... thats more traffic in a 1/4 than For Sale see's in a whole 6 months

In that respect I'm not sure what loads/effects that would have, potentially it could significantly hurt forum resources/performance due to people having to click more to see the same amount...

Ask yourself, would you prefer to check one section for FI, or prefer to click through half a dozen each time? Answer is one most of the time, taking what i see in IT on a daily basis into account.

Search

I don't see how it would benefit search though, honestly i generally find what i want on the first page of every search (and I use it once a week on average).

Rarely 2nd page is ever used. By having split sections if your not quite sure what your looking for, you either have to include many sections, which makes searching no more refined than it does now.

Also often discussions can 'move' within a thread, searching specifics looses that ability from a user perspective

Perhaps you can link to a forum where specifics to that detail are used across a large model range?

Then i could have a look and see it in action and if it actually works.

[NYTSKY]

All very valid points.

Here is a forum that adopt this sort of format.

http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/

[R31Nismoid]

ooo thats yuck in my opinion. Everyone will have thier own views on this though. Far too many clicks and sections.

They merge NA with FI for a start, so that would definately hinder any potential improvement as i see it.

Also look how inactive the sections are.

Some only have a few hundred topics, as a end user... i wouldnt like that site.

Too many clicks where here i click into FI and its all there (as opposed to over 8+ sections on XR6)

[NYTSKY]

Fair enough Ash.

The reason i asked this question was, i wanted to start an E85 fuel thread. Have some info on the fuel including the pros and cons.

And i was not sure what thread would suit it.

I know there is a similar thread in the FI section but the info is based on one persons experience, not actual factual information on it.

[R31Nismoid]

That could apply to

FI

General Auto

and NA

I put the above in order of 'section activity' as the NA section is a very low use section (10,000 views per 3 months).

General Auto see's more and E85 is a broad topic in those terms.

However E85 has different uses/tunes/abilities in FI as opposed to NA i think and results would not be comparable between the two perhaps? Not sure of the scaling/gains between applications as such

So if it was a FI application, use that section.

NA, use that and perhaps drop a link thread (in FI) need be.

[NYTSKY]

Ill put it in the "Cosmetic and Styling" thread so you can move it for me