Open call for web site content suggestions

Yup. Bandwidth is the key. I've had a cable modem for about 7 or 8 years now and can't live without it. It turns your computer into an appliance you can extract information from easily. It's like having a library sitting on your desk.

For example, I fly quite a bit on business. I make my reservations on line, check in online and check the weather and like online. I pay my bills online (OK, Tina pays our bills online). I talk about bikes online. I post my pictures on a smugmug account so other folks can see them. The problem is that my family is still using dialup, so they don't see the computer as the information appliance it can be.

If they had bandwidth, they'd change their mind. However, my dad says "I don't use the computer that much". Well, the reason he doesn't use it that much is because it takes him a half hour to download a photo. It's kind of a vicious circle.

It sounds weird being the geek that I am but I do agree with Dave about the physical qualities of the printed document. For the stuff I want to read and not just browse, I print it out and read it. It is nice to put something down and be able to come back to it.Somehow it just seems to hold my attention more.

However High Speed is the key and without that the website could be really difficult for people to use.

Having said that and looking at lots of the threads in the gear section, it would be great to have a searchable resource of the reviews that have been put into ON as well as a current index of articles.

ok how about a search "keyword" block. People can type in a keyword and get a ton of information that way. Prompting someone to search with a place to type a word in instead of a pull down menu would help IMHO.

pmdave said:

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a small increase in dues to help pay for the website, say $2 to $5. However, every member now receives ON, and it would not be fair to charge those who do not use the website to help finance it.

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Put another way, I would be willing to give up my ON subscription to receive
it electronically. But I would not want to pay more to receive both.

Ian

ian408 said:

Put another way, I would be willing to give up my ON subscription to receive
it electronically. But I would not want to pay more to receive both.

Ian

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It would be kind of cool to get ON as PDF. I could store those on my machine. Using some text searching tools (dtSearch comes to mind) I could crawl across the entire collection looking for tech articles or product reviews pretty easily.

I love reading the mag, but I throw them out after a couple months since I don't want to store them.

Have been trying to read through 108 posts and I don't think it was mentioned but it would be beneficial to have a 'Hall of Wisdom' section. This is where techical information is posted in a read only format. I.e how to change oil on a R or K bike is a simple thing, but new riders ask the same questions all the time, and it takes up bandwith to rehash the same things over and over again. Look at the K 1200 LT site and see what I mean.
Just my 0.02 cts and now more

It may be difficult for you "city" guys to understand that out here where the indians still surround the wagons at night, the telephone line may be the only means of connecting to the outside world--other than cell phones and dish antennas. As a practical matter, even if DSL lines were extended down the main road, our community drive is about 600 feet from the main road, and our private drive is another 250 feet to the house. Utilities are underground, so installing a cable would require some serious digging--for which someone would probably want some pay.

And, even if there were a cable connection, the price out here is OUT HERE.

But the bottom line for a great many people is that the whole concept of communicating via a computer carries with it some obligations that we may not want to take on. If I weren't writing, I might do without a computer entirely. While my current box is doing fine, I've had about one major headache each year with computers, from software incompatibility to processor death. Apparently, computers are still a bit in the dark ages, and to use one reliably requires that you become a bit of a computer nerd. For a motorcyclist, that means you need to be both a motorcycle nerd and a computer weanie--not to mention a bunch of other occupations and hobbies such as tending the house, maintaining the bike, and keeping the frau happy.

Computers seem to be settling down, with sufficient capacity, reliability, and ease of use, and as they become cheaper and more reliable, more people will be convinced to become computer literate. Once they master "driving" a computer, they may start using the net more and paper less. In the meanwhile, for many of us, hard copy is the first choice, and E is a way to amplify the hard copy.

pmdave

rider1150RT said:

Have been trying to read through 108 posts and I don't think it was mentioned but it would be beneficial to have a 'Hall of Wisdom' section. This is where techical information is posted in a read only format. I.e how to change oil on a R or K bike is a simple thing, but new riders ask the same questions all the time, and it takes up bandwith to rehash the same things over and over again. Look at the K 1200 LT site and see what I mean.
Just my 0.02 cts and now more

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Excellent idea!

rider1150RT said:

...it would be beneficial to have a 'Hall of Wisdom' section. This is where techical information is posted in a read only format.

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This is the thinking behind the suggestion I made earlier. Find all the good posts related to various subjects and make a page of links, categorized by each subject.

For example:

Oilchanges
... for airheads (link to post/posts)
... for oilheads (link to post/posts)
... for K bikes (link to post/posts)
... for F bikes (link to post/posts)

Tires
... changing them (link to post/posts)
... places to buy them (link to post/posts)
... opinions on brands (link to post/posts)

etc.

This could be complemented by traditional articles written by taking excerpts from these posts and stitching together a cohesive story.

It is so much easier than having wade through all the posts that are listed when you search, or... answering the same questions over and over again.

Ian

KBasa said:

I love reading the mag, but I throw them out after a couple months since I don't want to store them.

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Ditto.

That's why services such as Zinio are so appealing.

I believe that offering the BMW ON via PDF would help us gain a vast number of international memberships. Right now, the only limitation is the cost of sending snail mail.

Ian

Visian said:

This is the thinking behind the suggestion I made earlier. Find all the good posts related to various subjects and make a page of links, categorized by each subject.

For example:

Oilchanges
... for airheads (link to post/posts)
... for oilheads (link to post/posts)
... for K bikes (link to post/posts)
... for F bikes (link to post/posts)

Tires
... changing them (link to post/posts)
... places to buy them (link to post/posts)
... opinions on brands (link to post/posts)

etc.

This could be complemented by traditional articles written by taking excerpts from these posts and stitching together a cohesive story.

It is so much easier than having wade through all the posts that are listed when you search, or... answering the same questions over and over again.

Ian

Click to expand...

Again, there's no sense in trying to reinvent the wheel... As Rider1150RT suggested in a previous post, Go to the bulletin board section of the K1200LT web site < www.k1200lt.net > and check out the "Hall of Wisdom." You'll see exactly what you're talking about. The hard part is putting the index together and keeping it current.

KBasa said:

It would be kind of cool to get ON as PDF. I could store those on my machine. Using some text searching tools (dtSearch comes to mind) I could crawl across the entire collection looking for tech articles or product reviews pretty easily.

I love reading the mag, but I throw them out after a couple months since I don't want to store them.

Click to expand...

Exactly. You could even use the google search tools to do it. Even better,
add the functionality to the web site (members only) via htdig or something.
htdig can parse all sorts of files.

The storage issue is a big deal for me as well.

Ian