Open call for web site content suggestions

With the winter "work season" now upon us, the webteam is working on plans for upgrades and enhancements. One of the first changes is to split the BMW MOA web site into Member and Guest sections. Access to the Member section will be though a login validated against our membership database. This is going to allow us to put things on the web site we've not considered before. Naturally, we have a list of ideas, but the best idea is often the one you haven't heard yet. Plus, there's a need to prioritize. As acting Content Manager, I'd like to get member suggestions and comments to add to the mix we have now.

To set the stage, we will be doing a lot more integration between the Owners News and the web site. You will see teaser material on the web pointing to the next ON issue, and you'll see articles published in the ON to the web. Magazines are "push" while the web is "pull". Each has it's advantages and limitations, and we since we have both media, are going to use them to compliment each other. That also means at some point the Flea Market will have an on-line version.

Said another way, the ON and the web site are going to live together. Television did not kill radio, and the web hasn't and won't ever kill magazines. So please take that into consideration in your comments. Also, please consider that as best as we can tell less than 10% of our total membership is currently registered on the forums. That's going to grow - but the very fact you are here makes you somewhat atypical and we're looking for ideas that will appeal to a broad group. That might mean one idea "everyone" will like, but it could also mean seveal ideas, each of which has a smaller audience but together add up.

That's the into. I started this as a new thread to (hopefully) stay better focused. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions.

a searchable archive of all the old ON mags. useful for new members like myself, that don't have a room full of old magazines, and old members, like i will be someday, that don't *want* a room full of magazines.

i realize that there is also a revenue opportunity here too, and the BMWCCA realized this. they had all the old roundels (name of their mag) put out on a six CD set, and you could buy it for ~$100. they were in PDF format, and it was indexed. this obviously costs money, and the plan is that you make it back on the sales. i had older cars, so it rocked for me to get tech tips on old e30s and e28s. folks here with older bikes would benefit similarly.

so free on the website is my request, but i wouldnt mind if the club chose to make money.

thanks for volunteering, and soliciting suggestions. i salute your effort and dedication.

username said:

a searchable archive of all the old ON mags. useful for new members like myself, that don't have a room full of old magazines, and old members, like i will be someday, that don't *want* a room full of magazines.

[snip, snip]

so free on the website is my request, but i wouldnt mind if the club chose to make money.

thanks for volunteering, and soliciting suggestions. i salute your effort and dedication.

Click to expand...

Good idea, and one that's on the list. However, this will only be possible with new issues of the ON. In the "old days" the agreement with most authors was for one-time print-only publication. So they - not we - hold the rights to publish. That limits web material and also cancels the idea of a CD - as cool as that would be.

That's being addressed on a go-foward basis. Pesonally, I'd love to see a library of tech articles that could be printed and used in the garage as needed.

Calendar

It would be nice if there was a calendar of events online. In addition to listing the "Heard on the Road" and "When and Where" Section of the ON it could also include Monthly Club Meetings, and other events such as Saturday Rides or Charity Rides.

Also it would be nice if it was a tabular format, not a list as it currently sits, but rather looked like a calendar so that if one wanted to print it out and put it on their wall, they could.

The Forum has a calendar feature that could be used for this task, but it might be "easier" for non web saavy people if it was more directly accessible, so navigation to the link http://forums.bmwmoa.org/calendar.php?s= rather than a link to the Forum.

Make sense?

Perhaps a classified section??? I sold quite a bit of stuff online the last few weeks on other boards.
I think it will benefit a lot of people and perhaps attract more users than the few we have now.
Just 0.02 cts

rider1150RT said:

Perhaps a classified section??? I sold quite a bit of stuff online the last few weeks on other boards.
I think it will benefit a lot of people and perhaps attract more users than the few we have now.
Just 0.02 cts

Click to expand...

We're working on splitting the site into member and nonmember areas. Having a validation table for the membership number will allow us to verify that folks that have memberships on the forum are actually MOA members.

Once that happens, we can lock down the forum so that non members can only see a couple of the forums. Other forums will not be visible or will be visible, but posts will not be shown.

At that point, we can begin to look at classifieds. This is a matter of some debate in the organization, but I see it as a big leap forward for the members.

I would like...

A searchable archive of Trip reports and tech articles from ON. Perhaps some of the past authors can be contacted for permission.

The classifieds are not a big deal because it would just duplicate the IBMWR Marketplace. Plus any ads put in the ON would be sold on the Website before they were ever published.

Hosting photos for members for public viewing would be good. You could have something like 1 or 2 photos remain while the rest auto erase after a few months. That would limit the space required and entice members to post new pics often.

Redesign of the local rally page to allow searches based on date range or miles from a zip code would be neat but not neccessary.

MarkF

Being a new rider (and looking for like-minded individuals with whom to ride), I love to read the Ride Reports ... they are amazing..... (at least I can live vicariously for the time being), and local rides accessible to me. Thanks for being open to someone who (right now) doesn't have a BMW but longs for one.......

Although I enjoy most of the features of the MOA Forums, I second the nomination for "Ride Reports." What I want to be doing is riding; when I can't ride, I like to read about riding.

I particularly like those ride reports with photos.

I know photos take up space and cost money, so that needs to be looked at. Perhaps a standardized template could be set up (limit of 12 photos) or links to sites like ofoto.com etc. might be a good idea.

Tom Moran

To Kbasa
Please don't shoot me , but why would a classifieds section depend on member verification??
Other sites don't have that and Paypal is pretty safe as to security for both seller and buyer. Has it to do with how the new site is designed in regards to overall security??
In any case I am sure it will all work out in the end.

I think what KBasa is trying to say is that the goal is to ensure that people who are members are listing items in the Classifieds and not people who are not. The idea being that since you have paid to be a member you get to use the services.

BradfordBenn said:

I think what KBasa is trying to say is that the goal is to ensure that people who are members are listing items in the Classifieds and not people who are not. The idea being that since you have paid to be a member you get to use the services.

Click to expand...

No problemo amigos

Re: Calendar

BradfordBenn said:

It would be nice if there was a calendar of events online. In addition to listing the "Heard on the Road" and "When and Where" Section of the ON it could also include Monthly Club Meetings, and other events such as Saturday Rides or Charity Rides.

Also it would be nice if it was a tabular format, not a list as it currently sits, but rather looked like a calendar so that if one wanted to print it out and put it on their wall, they could.

The Forum has a calendar feature that could be used for this task, but it might be "easier" for non web saavy people if it was more directly accessible, so navigation to the link http://forums.bmwmoa.org/calendar.php?s= rather than a link to the Forum.

Make sense?

Click to expand...

One of the ideas on the list so far is to put together an event calendar for the Chartered Club Presidents so they can coordinate regional events among themselves. This should be an ongoing activity that can provide information for the Where And When section of the Owners News, and also be displayed on the web site. I like the idea of a tabular format, as well as a calendar with links to a north American map so people could click on an event, then see where it was and also have links to the sponsoring clubÔÇÖs web site.

Re: I would like...

MarkF said:

A searchable archive of Trip reports and tech articles from ON. Perhaps some of the past authors can be contacted for permission.

The classifieds are not a big deal because it would just duplicate the IBMWR Marketplace. Plus any ads put in the ON would be sold on the Website before they were ever published.

Hosting photos for members for public viewing would be good. You could have something like 1 or 2 photos remain while the rest auto erase after a few months. That would limit the space required and entice members to post new pics often.

Redesign of the local rally page to allow searches based on date range or miles from a zip code would be neat but not neccessary.

MarkF

Click to expand...

Good ideas, Mark. We've had a lot of requests for an on-line Flea Market, so I think that's going to happen sometime after the site split. Although at first glance it seems like a duplication of the IBMWR Marketplace, I don't think it would be.

First, members posting to an access-controlled list would be a lot less likely to get hit with the all the scam email that seems to happen with just about every bike listed on the IBMWR.

Second, a lot of members like the idea of limiting their advertisement to other BMW MOA members - it's a trust thing, like the Anon Book. For those who aren't concerned about such things, there is still the IBMWR list and Ebay. I see a BMW MOA members only classifided section as being complimenatry to the existing options. Your point is well taken that an on-line Flea Market would diminish the value of the hardcopy version, but I don't think it would eliminate it. There are still a lot of people who are not on-line savy, so that would be their alternative.

It will also make for changes in the magazine since the Flea Market is considered advertising by the post office. The percentage of editoral to ad copy in a pub impacts mailing costs. So that space would have to be made up to keep the editorial content the same. However, the replacement ads would create revenue, whereas the member ads do not. So, that would be a good thing in the long run.


I especially like the member photo idea. Maybe a little bio along with the photo and space for a link to a personal web page?

SNC 1923 said:

Although I enjoy most of the features of the MOA Forums, I second the nomination for "Ride Reports." What I want to be doing is riding; when I can't ride, I like to read about riding.

I particularly like those ride reports with photos.

I know photos take up space and cost money, so that needs to be looked at. Perhaps a standardized template could be set up (limit of 12 photos) or links to sites like ofoto.com etc. might be a good idea.

Tom Moran

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, this is a must do in my mind. But, more than just a listing of rides, how would it be to have a north american map with hot spots you could click on to find the ride reports? Then you could "virtual ride" an area and compare differnt accounts of the same rodes. If the same map also listed rallies and camping areas (with their own reviews), you could "ride" you way between to help plan your final route. I'd also like to see the ability for people to annotate a ride report with updated info and their impressions. An alternative view of the reports by date would also be good. Great stuff!

rider1150RT said:

To Kbasa
Please don't shoot me , but why would a classifieds section depend on member verification??
Other sites don't have that and Paypal is pretty safe as to security for both seller and buyer. Has it to do with how the new site is designed in regards to overall security??
In any case I am sure it will all work out in the end.

Click to expand...

If there was going to be any kind of classifieds section, it should be restricted to BMW MOA members, just like advertising in ON.

That's our objective with the site split. Username and password identification for a portion of the site will allow us to put content that is part of MOA membership benefits up on the web. This shouldn't be viewed as duplication of ON, but it should be viewed as an additional way to serve the membership.

Be aware, though, that at this time there is no plan to offer classifieds on the MOA website.

Re: Bug List

flash412 said:

How about a bug list, by model and maybe year, with counts, hopefully linked to fixes. If someone were considering buying a particular model, new or used, it would be of GREAT benefit to them to know what problems to look for which they might encounter and how to fix them. Also, it would give the BMWMOA Consumer Advocate ammunition to use when meeting with BMWNA.

I'd like to see something like:
Year/model - ## - Malady - Fix
2004 K1200S - 48 - broken camshaft - warranty replacement
2005 F650GS - 109 - rusting brake disk fasteners - BMWNA suggests owners oil them

Click to expand...

This is a good idea but a hot topic. The first hurdle would be to get current and complete information from BMW Motorrad USA. Like most manufactures, they are a little sensitive about having "bad news" spread around. However, NHTSA safety recalls are a matter of public record and could be posted. Service bulletins are another matter, especially considering some are much more significant than others, and then there's the aforementioned problem of access to that info. But, I think this is something that should be looked at and worked on.

Re: Bug List

flash412 said:

How about a bug list, by model and maybe year, with counts, hopefully linked to fixes. If someone were considering buying a particular model, new or used, it would be of GREAT benefit to them to know what problems to look for which they might encounter and how to fix them. Also, it would give the BMWMOA Consumer Advocate ammunition to use when meeting with BMWNA.

I'd like to see something like:
Year/model - ## - Malady - Fix
2004 K1200S - 48 - broken camshaft - warranty replacement
2005 F650GS - 109 - rusting brake disk fasteners - BMWNA suggests owners oil them

Click to expand...

How about a sticky at the top of each forum with a short list of items in a poll? As we start to see consistent failures, we can add votes. I believe that there are tools that allow us to leave a thread open, but restrict posting in that thread to voting only, though I'm not sure.

Awesome idea, Flash.

I've got some ideas about photo sharing. There are a bunch of places to host photos online, usually for pretty short money. There's places like smugmug, ofoto, photo island and the like. Figure $20 a year.

We pay for two components of hosting, bandwidth and storage. When pictures are loaded to the forum as attachments, we pay to store the pictures and then to serve up the photo to every person that hits that page.

When photos are hosted by a place like pbase and links to the photos are inserted in posts, the user can insert a number of pictures in one post. Also, the MOA server doesn't store the picture or pay, in terms of bandwidth, to have that picture appear on the screen anywhere.

Now, are there ways for us to negotiate a discount with a particular hosting service and present that discount as a member benefit?

KBasa said:

I've got some ideas about photo sharing. There are a bunch of places to host photos online, usually for pretty short money. There's places like smugmug, ofoto, photo island and the like. Figure $20 a year.

We pay for two components of hosting, bandwidth and storage. When pictures are loaded to the forum as attachments, we pay to store the pictures and then to serve up the photo to every person that hits that page.

When photos are hosted by a place like pbase and links to the photos are inserted in posts, the user can insert a number of pictures in one post. Also, the MOA server doesn't store the picture or pay, in terms of bandwidth, to have that picture appear on the screen anywhere.

Now, are there ways for us to negotiate a discount with a particular hosting service and present that discount as a member benefit?

Click to expand...

Hummmm... there might be a tie in here some way with the trip report area. Photos of an area can add a lot to the description.