Comments on Forum Information & Stickies
 

Thank you for your opinion on how dreadful our stickeys are!
Perhaps to keep this thread more pure you could pm me and provide more info on what you specifics you suggest need improving with stickies and where - the forum has been going for many years and the stickies are contributed by everyone and only built up as contributions have been made, but of course the whole forum is searchable by section in addition should something not be stickied.

If anyone has ideas for improvement or additions then just send us a PM with links and suggestions and we will happily add to, enhance or correct what we have if required. +++

There's no bulb guide on what is what, iv seen so many what bulbs are in mine etc etc.

There's no guide on how to change with decent pictures, until now. Mines up so could be of use.

The simple things are always worth adding to how to's or stickys.

There should be a how to section for the common things the home diy merchant can have a go at.....

Take a look at the ClioSport website. It's amazing to use and so simple to find what you want. On here is just very clumsy to use.

All the stickys are pretty much useless, no1 is really going to use them and half of them don't work, I'm on my phone like most would look at and some have pdf files to open and it's just painful.

Just my opinion, I've been on ed38 forums for years and years and again that's very good to use..... Just needs updating is all.

I take some of your points on board but I would re-iterate that whatever is on here has to have been produced by somebody first in a cohesive and well laid out way so that it can be stickied. Taking your point about bulbs for example there may well have been many discussions about bulbs in both D2 and D3 cars but that doesn't mean someone has produced a well written and photographed write up on how to change each and every bulb in each of those cars.

To say all of the stickies are pretty much useless is really to degrade other members hard work in writing many of them. If half of tHem don't work then as I have asked, PM me with which ones don't work and that will be corrected. I don't spend every waking moment of my free time clicking on sticky links to see if they are still valid but if anyone reports dead links to me on such threads then I will either remove them or edit them if they still have useful information despite the links not working.

I haven't been on the Cliosport website or many others and don't spend my little spare time going on to other forums to see what they are like and how much worse or better than this one they are, we rely on the members on THIS forum to tell us what needs adding or changing or deleting. There are massive files of PDFS on this forum (tech dumps) as resources for both D2 and D3

I now invite other members views on whether they think that all the stickies are pretty much useless (or indeed have used them and found them to be helpful) and whether half of the links are dead on any stickies as I have had very few reported to me.

For what it's worth I spend a huge deal of my time both organising events for this community and moderating on this forum and have not seen any of the criticism you have made voiced from any other members about the points that you raise . . . . So let's have a discussion open here for any other comments going forwards from all . . . .

My thoughts well yes things could always be better in everything in life.

As far as this forum is concerned its primarily based around A8's and the only one that competes in my opinion is Audiworld and personally I find it painful to use.

Its just one big ass section and none of it is split up and indexed like this forum is, so for me i feel this is the best place and the info is easier found, is it perfect ? no it is not but we don't pay for it and I have gained so much from here and in return have done what I can to contribute.

I have offered to assist in the past but its probably not needed in the grand scheme of things.

Where I have felt things needed to be moved or made sticky its been done pretty quickly.

So if you feel it needs changing make something, upload it and ask the mod's to put it sticky or whatever you feel it needs.

I would like to point out that the pro active management of the forum is conducted by moderators with limited administrative function.
Moderators only moderate.

You'll find no abusive post, slurs, foul language, profanity, pornography, libellous or unwarranted personal attacks because the Mods are mustard! +++

Somewhat overly critical to openly criticise a forum, without first giving those in control a right of reply to your criticisms.

Regarding your bulb installation guide, I see that it is now a sticky, which will be of use to others, but as Neil says, someone has to create these in the first place, and not everyone may be confident in doing so. There is a ton of information on here that isn't in stickies because it's a direct response to a question posed by someone, and everything can be made a sticky.

You also mention having a section for 'common things the home diy merchant can have a go at'. Where do you draw the line on what is a 'common thing' and what skills a 'home diy merchant' has. I've been using this site for two years now, and it has allowed me to keep the car on the road on a very tight budget, and I've tackled jobs that I would have avoided, were it not for the advice given here.

I've used dozens of different forums over the years covering all aspects (not just cars), and without a doubt this has been the best one I have ever come across. The people are well informed and polite, the information excellent, and for those dead links, they are usually to other sites on the internet, which is again beyond the control of the moderators here, or for that matter, on any forum.

Like any forum, it's only as good as people make it. That means giving, as well as getting. The first part of giving is highlighting what could be better - but the second part is helping make it better. I think the forum moderators are being a bit polite, which I'm less fussed about being, so if you really care about making it better, the best way is to put your hand up to make it so! +++

I think you have some valid points, some other forums do have a single large sticky per section which links all important info posts in that section.

However, pdfs are important and there's no getting away from them. We pride ourselves on using Audi's original service instructions and these are best saved from ElsaWin in pdf form. That way you are not reading someone's layman interpretation of service instructions (like on some car forums I have seen), you are reading Audi's original and specific instructions with factory torque settings, etc, for your car.

Look at it this way, when you download a Elsawin pdf from this forum, you are getting (for free) original Audi service tech manuals that Audi do not release to the public, at least not for free. Also you are being spared the annoying installation of a ebay Elsawin disc.

Well, i did produce a table of lamps (bulbs are for gardeners) for D2s a few years back as there wasnt one but I forgot to suggest that it got put into asticky. If the mods wish to then the link is http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5920&page=2

With regard to the "all stickies are useless", well, thats just tosh. Like steamship says, I have made use of some of them on various occasions (oilchange, headlight lens polishing, solar roof wiring, alarm) and they enable me to do things myself with confidence. Also, the Tech Dumps are my first resort now (thank Delboy for those). As said earlier, no filtering by others - just the gospel according to Audi. The problem of pdfs on phones is a limitation of your phone not the fault of the documentation. People posting this stuff dont probably have time to make the documentation multi platform viewable.
If this forum has things to learn from other forums then please do make workable suggestions - every day is a learning day.

I can only speak as I find, as the saying goes. This is the only car forum I've ever been a member of but since discovering it by chance a couple of years ago it's been invaluable to me. The sticky's have allowed me to have several problems on my D2 sorted (as in taking PDF's from here to my Indy to show what's required) and the information and discussion on other threads has continued to make Audi ownership enjoyable since I bought a D3. The contributions of members make it what it is, not everything is useful to all but never disregard the effort that goes into making it the place it is.

Keep up the great work mods, see you all in South Wales I'm 2016 +++