What sites do you like? Help us design the next TST
 

We are looking for sites that you frequent in order to determine how to shape the future of TST.

What features does that site have that we are lacking?
What sites look better than ours?

Any and all ideas/suggestions are welcome and will be taken into consideration!

Thanks guys.

I like this. I wouldn't change anything. Every other forum I go to is compared with this one because this one is so easy to navigate. I'm sure I'll think of something I dislike but for now I'm happy with this.

Thanks Jacki!
Priority one is ease of use and reading for sure. We're just looking to bring on a new layout and design and add content and features without compromising the clarity and ease of use we currently have. Looking to improve things all around and we have plenty of sites that we really like to get ideas from, but figured the TST community could be a big help in suggesting others and giving feedback on designs and features that they really like from other sites.

Just throwing it out there... can we make the search lockout 15 seconds instead of 30? I get snagged by that multiple times a day and its the only thing about this forum that frustrates me sometimes.

well one of the sites i used to frequent had a chat room. it was pretty nice because people could just BS on there and not in the posts all the time. (there could already be a chat room on here thou im just too lazy to really look)

I think its perfect..maybe modernize it alittle more. But I need to make my site more readable. I hate it. but everyone likes it.

I think this is probably the best car forum around...it suits all kinds of cars, regardless of make or model. I don't know what i would change, other than some of the people on here that have nothing but negative things to say, which obviously isn't your fault. I say minimal changes if any.

Yeah, I donate to this forum because it's the best car forum. I don't even go to the main site. Sometimes some users are a little on the Alabama IQ side, but that's a good trade off, I think.

Some sites I frequest are IGN for gaming, Engadget for Mobile, Ars Technica for in-depth hardware articles, Big Think for opinions, Rooster Teeth for awesome. But, most of the time I'm tunneling into various VPN's for work. So far I'd say good job, Troll. I just wish you had better merch so I'd buy something.

I enjoy browsing Snowboard Addicts. I also mod there.. but thats besides the point

I really like the design of M4Carbine.net. One reason I use TST and M4Carbine is because of the similar vBulletin layout. It's very easy to navigate.

Personally I like darker stylized themes. I know the desert digital pattern from M4Carbine wouldn't really fit with cars, but maybe a similarly laid out mix of carbon and black gloss with light/dark greys, maybe some sharp color accents of '00ff00' green or 'c80000' red... Nothing over the top, just everything in the right place to give the site a modern and customized feel. After all, that's what we're all here for. For me, TST is too old/generic looking. I think a site like this should have some pop to it, but stay sleek and classy at the same time.

Along with the new design, maybe revamp the logo as well. The solid black on white is great for decals and t-shirts, but again.. too generic for a modern car site. Same idea as the rest of the site... keep it simple and sleek, but just give it some depth. In my opinion, a properly done (not cheesy 3 min Photoshop tutorial) brushed metal texture or chrome would look great over a dark background.

I don't necessarily have all the answers or a perfect design in mind, these are just my observations and suggestions. TST is a well designed site overall, I just think it needs some modernization.

on g20.net for paid sponsors they incorporated some of the new features in the lates Vbulliten,

Chat
Ispy (does real time updating of peoples posts,,,,keep the bandwitdth down , since people dont need to hit new posts all the time

like 420sx said, it would be cool if we could have a chat room on here. on the charger forumz they have a chat room which i use sometimes

New color scheme, definitely. A more modernized look would be a big plus.

I also don't know if this has to do with the type of system used -- I know nothing about the technical stuff about forums -- but another forum I'm on has a 'sidebar' type thing that lists all the threads with the most recent activity. I always like browsing over them.

Lets see.... car sites I frequent...

dsmtuners.com (where I spend 75% of my time)
dsmtalk.com (for not so performance based dsm stuff)
evolutionm.net (for evo 8 ecu support)
psulpac.org (my local club's forum)


One thing I'd like to see here is a "My Discussion" button. It pulls up all the threads you've posted it. DSMTuners has it and EvoM has something similar.

I like the my discussion button idea.

dont do some stupid major change like vwvortex did... it made me sooo mad :(

i have to agree with not making major changes, adding a chat or making the refresh time a little lower could do. But i after being on this site for almost 5 years it’s still my favorite.

+1 on this one

bimmerforums has always been nice.

the old vortex. With less ass hats

I love the way this is set up. It's like pbnation.com which was where I spent all of my time on forums before I found TST :lol:

TST had a chat room back in the day, but nobody used it.

Back in the day how long ago? I think I remember one for a few days when things were getting messed with but that would have been a long time ago.

There's a LOT more members now then "back in the day"

I just think the area up near the TST logo is a little bland. It needs something to fill up the blank space. Perhaps maybe just a logo overhaul.

Otherwise I like the layout, its clean, organized and you don't have to guess where your topic should go unlike other forums that have a million sub-sections.

I love the forum for my 6, it has the chatbox like stated above about another forum, but i dont feel like that would work very well on here, because...well you know.
http://6crew.com

ability to embed videos

online games and scoreboard for those of us who get very bored at work...like what iwsti used to have

Agreed!

Definitely agreed. The logo should be redone imo. You might be able to get even more people promoting the site with a revamp of the logo. :)

New color scheme would be awesome. I personally think we should do a thread where we vote on the top 10 cars to put on a banner. But maybe that would cause a ruckus.

yea, theres drama when theres just imaginary competitions, a real one? oh god. lol

as the noob... the forum looks good as is. when you post you get similar post which helps. Chat rooms are good but you have facebook... I didn't see this when I logged on but how about facebook connect??

A new color theme... please. Thats the only thing that bothers me about TST. This theme is clean and I think the next one should be as well... but some different colors would make a world of difference.

I'm a fan of the theme Novera http://www.transversestyles.com/work.html

i agree, that theme looks good. that, paired with a new/updated logo would be a 100% improvement over the current TST. as far as the forum structure, i don't think anything should change. IMO we don't need chat or any other special features, just a modern look.

Honestly this is the easiest forum I use.

x3 on the "my discussion" button. I loose track of where I posted sometimes.

Some of the other forums I go to have the ability to embed videos. THat's always a nice feature.

the "My Discussion" button is a good idea. I've used it on other forums.

Also, how about having multiple user selectible color themes like many other forums have?

Another thing I did for one of the other automotive Forums I was on is create a page that loads the forum in a frame that has a MS Word toolbar at the top. One of the forum options was to have a white background and black text with all the links in black bold text. It was useful for the people that browsed at work.

change for change's sake is never good. you've got a huge user base that is used to what they're currently getting. A drastic change could do more harm than good. Kinda like how when facebook.com changes it's layout everyone freaks the **** out like the world is ending (but people are more personally invested in facebook than a forum b/c it's their "life")

I'd suggest leaving the forum relatively unchanged. add new features and/or update certain sections. I'd like to see the member's journal less a forum space and more of a blog style page that is associated with user's. Ie: it's accessible via the user's profile page, that person posts an update, people can comment on it. Tie it into the Member's Journal forum to show these journals in order of most recent update/comment and it effectively has the same foot print on the site, but is more personal to each person keeping their journal updated

user specific gallery (sort of the same as above but updating the gallery section)

TST is uncomplicated... which is why it does as well as it does despite it's... member issues... much like facebook, it's simple and intuitive, lots here but not cluttered. It's easy for new users to stumble on the site and not feel confused about where to go (most of the time)

I agree with this. New members Journal would be neat since you can't tell when a mod was done or a comment was made without going though too much effort. I rarely look and haven't updated mine since 1/2 fast making it because of this.

I still think something needs to be done with the logo/ logoarea at the top.

As for My Discussion I think its a good idea, but you can use a less convenient method meanwhile; click your name at top right of forum and click statistics, and find all posts by 'name'

humans are creatures of habit, most people don't adjust to change very well.

^Than therein lies humanities weakness.

I mentioned this site before but I think this will help with the color change, check out pbnation.com at the very bottom of the page it has a little drop down and you can adjust the color of the whole set up, without affecting it