why no BMW ON section on forum?

The discussion about ON contributors and their presence on the forum is interesting. My first article appeared in the ON in 1986. I wrote occasionally when Stan Haring was editor, throughout the Douglass period, and almost a hundred times with Sandy as editor.

Since the beginning, I've received and answered hundreds of letters and phone calls and thousands of email inquiries generated by my technical articles. Since the Forum became active I've often noted quotations from or references to Benchwrenching articles. Sometimes I jump in on these threads.

Most of the regular contributors are readily accessible to the membership - by mail, telephone, email, on the forum, and in person.

There's nothing new here folks!

Photo at our house last Saturday!

ok fair enough.......

I deleted my drunken post, after reading it I was amazed I could spell that well.

Visian said:

Greg -- watch my lips... i'll talk s-l-o-w-l-y (and type all in l/c in deference to username )

an organization can deliver the most enjoyable experience to its members when it doesn't create artificial boundaries between various media vehicles. (iow, let the members choosed where/how they wish to communicate)

the magazine is for discussion, too (albeit slow ones) and the forum can easily present stories & information.

if you recall, last year, i performed a little experement called The Triple Nickel. the idea was to collect tidbits from the forum thread and work all the contributions into an article that could be published in the BMW ON and on our web site.

it *almost* got published in the magazine until it was discovered that... ooops... TMI (caps required!)

it did get published on the club's web site, with a link back to the forum, where further discussion could ensue.

if you follow the whole thread on the forum, the entire experience continued for nearly 6 months! talk about ROI (caps, again for a biz-buzzword)

tell you what, i had serious fun doing that article.... researching it, taking stuff others contributed and writing it... and then ultimately riding the road:

point: there should be no boundaries defined as to what goes where. mark's idea is a very good one and imo, every magazine article that finds its way to the web should have a corresponding forum thread (or... a comments blog) for folks to continue the conversation on-line if they so desire.

and... there should be no restriction regarding information first appearing here on the forum or on our website from appearing in our magazine.



ian

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Ian,

IMO The key here is thread vs forum.

I agree that each article or any article of interest could have a thread refering to the article. I don't understand why we would want this "buried" in a seperate forum. Some excellent tips and information are dispensed here on the forum when a thread meanders around the topic a bit. More forums means a narrower focus in each forum, which I am not sure is a good thing.

What I am always hesitant about is adding forums. More forums means more places people have to check plus more work for the poster to interpret the best place for their post and more work for moderators trying to keep the right stuff in the right forum.

Another concern with adding forums is the main forum page starts to run on like my sentence above.

I think the clubhouse serves a wonderful purpose by giving folks a place where they can discuss any MOA activity and then some. To add forums or sub forums for the Owners News, the annual open house, board meetings ect would make it harder for our members and guests to find what they want, how they want it. Sort of like adding artifical boundaries.

If we added every forum that was requested we would have easily doubled the number of forums by now. I say leave it in the clubhouse.

Post Script

I like Motard's comments.

Not quite ready to do a 180 but I like the way you think.

Best,

Rob Nye

Motard said:

My image of a forum is that of a conversation between numerous people. A forum expands a subject through the input of many individuals. I can imagine an ON category becoming the most popular on the site. Every month the introduction of new subject matter stimulating new threads.

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Very much agreed. The main point is the expansion of a subject through the input of multiple individuals.

However, one other point is now there are no restrictions regarding where ideas get communicated. It's really just a matter of each individual's media habits. Some people really like reading ideas on paper, writing letters to editors, etc. Others prefer threaded discussions in near real time.

I personally think that an ON forum is worthwhile, not to create a boundary between subjects that can only be discussed there vs. here... but as a simple tool of organization: to help people find stuff in this rather fragmented medium we call the Forum.

Rob said:

IMO The key here is thread vs forum.

I agree that each article or any article of interest could have a thread refering to the article. I don't understand why we would want this "buried" in a seperate forum.

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Buried is an interesting choice of words. To me, making a forum for ON subjects actually elevates these threads by making them easier for people to find.

However, I strongly agree with you about being conservative on the addition of Forums. It is definitely possible to be too granular.

Paul said:

Most of the regular contributors are readily accessible to the membership - by mail, telephone, email, on the forum, and in person.

There's nothing new here folks!

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But Paul, there is something new here... at the most fundamental level, there is now the ability to have a threaded multimedia discussion where it is significantly easier for individuals to mutually discuss concepts and gain a clearer understanding.

Dave said:

Let's try something over in Campfire, shall we?

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Well, I chose Ride Reports. The main reason is that I'm currently riding! And, this particular content has yet to show up in the BMW ON.

As I understand it, the primary objective of the Media Plan is to create synergy between our media for the benefit of our members and ultimately our club. In my day job, I have found that the best way to achieve that is to eliminate the boxes into which we are tempted to parse out our content, and to instead look for ways to share content across media. And then let the members decide where/how they want their content.

There are no hard and fast formulae for this process... basically, the idea is to just let it flow. And... to structure our media so that each is easiest to consume.

Which is why I feel there needs to be a forum for the BMW ON.

Ian

Newby

I hate to appear impertenent here, but no one has answered my question above? Namely, how does one gain additional information on an article in ON. Specifically, my previous question about an article in the March '06 issue by Jeff Dean about riding "motos" in an ironman. It was a good article with a lot of info but it left out how to get involved.

I am new and I did some searches in the other forum areas and could not find out how to get additional info. Perhaps, this could be part of the public forum which would generate more interest.

But in the mean time, does anybody know how to contact Jeff Dean #115? If so, give him my e-mail - markaharms@yahoo.com.

Thanks for your patience,
Mark Harms

markaharms said:

I hate to appear impertenent here, but no one has answered my question above? Namely, how does one gain additional information on an article in ON. Specifically, my previous question about an article in the March '06 issue by Jeff Dean about riding "motos" in an ironman. It was a good article with a lot of info but it left out how to get involved.

I am new and I did some searches in the other forum areas and could not find out how to get additional info. Perhaps, this could be part of the public forum which would generate more interest.

But in the mean time, does anybody know how to contact Jeff Dean #115? If so, give him my e-mail - markaharms@yahoo.com.

Thanks for your patience,
Mark Harms

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here is his profile
http://forums.bmwmoa.org/member.php?userid=293

Jeff Dean's web site is

http://home.att.net/~jeff.dean/index.html

markaharms said:

It was a good article with a lot of info but it left out how to get involved.

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I was a motor ref and motor marshal in bicycle races until I quit this year. I found that getting involved in this kind of thing requires a certain amount of insider knowledge and depends rather heavily upon making yourself visible and likeable to race promoters and senior USAC officials. Send me a PM and I will give you some insight and leads.

Fred

markaharms said:

What about someone seeking specific information not in the article. Like last month's article about volunteering your bike to escort photogrhers for marathons and bicycle races. It sounded interesting to me but it had no information on how to volunteer. Where could I find that information??

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Post a thread asking for more information and you will get responses (and I see that some came already).

Further, we will, in the future, have additional content on the web-site to suppliment materials in the magazine.

GregFeeler said:

Could be some merit to that - but then again, it seems "suggestion" threads too often turn into bitch-fests.

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Exactly why a separate ON forum makes sense: So those of us who take the ON for what it is (and isn't) don't get their "New Posts" searches soiled by BS they have no desire to read.

you guys paying attention to the recent threads?

can we have a badger hockey area also?

marK11LT said:

you guys paying attention to the recent threads?

can we have a badger hockey area also?

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bager hockey?? What about a sheep forum??

GregFeeler said:

bager hockey?? What about a sheep forum??

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lets go badgers
I'm so excited, should I post pictures of Lillie and Sam in Badger garb

GregFeeler said:

bager hockey?? What about a sheep forum??

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That's really baaaaadddddd!

Thanks for the info


Jeff and Fred Thanks for the useful info!! I am semi-retired and plan on volunteering for some of those events!!

Mark Harms

I think I can grok this...

> Create a base "forum" point for all things MOA related
Subforums for thread bases: (like Tech/: > K / > airhead / F)
> structure, content, & comment on the magazine itself
> additional info on particular articles (should ref issue mo/yr)
> a graphic of What & Where for events
> maybe... this is where the flea market correspondences' happen?

I'd prefer this all would be restricted to current members, given its' value.
Maybe nonmembers could view "Where & What"...

Just a couple of spastic neurons... (where're my endorphine supressors...) <<<)))