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Greetings from "The Official Streetfire" Group
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 by m610 on Aug 07, 09 01:15 AM
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Greetings from "The Official Streetfire Group". I know. Official??? Read on and you'll see why, but basically it's a group started by members from the original forum.
My reason for coming here is to try to stir up a little trouble, well, not really trouble, but to get things going again towards improving the groups feature. I'm contacting the top groups, in terms of membership and activity, to help get a fire started.
A little background. SF started out with a forum, then added video (before YouTube), and later photos, then other stuff, and eventually groups. After a shakeup at SF it was decided that the original forums should go. We complained bitterly, maybe too bitterly, but eventually came around, provisionally, depending on how the groups thing turned out. We started offering suggestions and asking for features. The forums was out idea, including the sub-forums, and the blog, bbcode support, and we did a lot of testing of forum features and reported the bugs to get them fixed. We were hoping for a bit more, but it looks like things have stalled as far as the development of the groups feature goes. That's why I am here, to try to get you guys to help get things moving again, and to maybe complain about the new wave of intrusive advertising. But that is another matter.
So, there might be things you'd like to see in Groups, in your forum, etc. If not, to help get the creative juices flowing, here are some things we've been asking for:
1. Featured groups on the front page. If a group does something interesting, or if it is just their turn, it gets a plug on the home page so we can pick up some new members, and just plain be acknowledged.
2. More features in the forums. We're not expecting a full blown forum, but some things are still needed. At first there was no bbcode support, now there is partial support. Displaying small images is screwed up. The image is resized to the width of the container. Forums could use a search feature. Links are not automatically tagged as links. Links to SF videos don't work. You might have noticed other things that either don't work, don't work well, or are missing.
3. A dialog with SF, at least between SF and groups admins. We hoped that they'd let us know what was going on, when new features are added, etc. The SEMA contest, for example, has been running for a month. I only noticed it today because it blocks my access to various pages. In turn, admins could pass the word, help out, etc.
4. A resources page for group admins. Some how-to stuff, lists of features to try, etc. I've visited a few group's forums that seem not to know that you can create sub-forums, for example.
5. Some suggestions can be for great new features that SF could claim to be first on. You can already embed SF videos in forum posts, but how about being able to embed video playlists? It would make for quicker page downloads and would turn more people on to this great feature. Same for slide shows. Instead of pasting lots of photos in your posts, just create a slide show and embed it. It would be much cleaner, improve bandwidth/downloads, etc. Again, you may have more ideas. Let SF know about them.
6. Publish - a feature I have been pushing for is a way to convert a great thread into an article that visitors to your group can view. For example, in forums people would do great write ups on cars they test drove while shopping around for a new car. People added their comments, and in the end it was raw material for a keeper, but not a mere sticky, something the authors could rework a bit and "publish". Your group might want to have articles available on specific and essential topics. For example, the NASA group might want to have a few articles, such as "Your First Track Day", "Drivign at NASA Events". Thing is, this site is all about user-generated content, and so far that includes photos and videos, but so far no written content. I think it is time. Plus, in terms of marketing, peer recommendations are more effective than traditional advertising.
7. Some suggestions for effective ways for sponsors to advertise here. What do you think is appropriate, or not? Before you say - no advertising, be realistic. SF needs to pay bills. Plus, having the right companies on your pages can make your group look good. It is an endorsement of sorts, of your group (potentially, anyway), and besides, we do want a relationship with some of these companies.
That's enough for now.
By the way, in a more friendly vein. I drive a Honda Prelude (Don't worry, it's not riced out. ) and I drive and instruct at track days in my region. Thunderhill is my home track, and below is the link to a quick video. I also set up a couple of groups to see what they are like. Check out the Track Days group (http://groups.streetfire.net/trackdays) for ideas on what you can do in terms of customizing your profile or group's pages.
Link: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/m610s-Segment-from-the_193983.htm
SF people to contact:
* http://user.streetfire.net/profile/iammercy.htm for bugs and programming issues.
* http://user.streetfire.net/profile/jfarber.htm for features and larger issues.
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