The HU 4wd Forum and what does it need to make better?

[Mehmet Zeki Avar]

That was also a question mark in my mind since I started HUBB. as hubbers is a great worldwide world and give to get is sincerely and honestly realised here.

Here goes my personal ideas for this important subject while having Turkish tea at the balcony on this sunny İstanbul day we had after several freezing days..

Yes, there are great information for 4WD. travellers here but I guess subjects are mixed into each other and/or reports are under wrong threads which makes it hard to reach the required information.

Uniform accounting plan may be helpful to form a better classification of threads so specific information can easily be reached.Similar separate forum group will be good for cycling world (Cyclists), too.

For Example.
Will it be better if:
Main threads are on continent names base as Europe,asia,africa,america,oceania and each of them have starting threads
as;
1- 4WD travel reports and blogs
2- 4WD sos/help me messages
3- 4WD recommended camping areas
4- 4WD recommended continent routes
5- 4WD recommended repair/spare part shops
6- 4WD technologies/getting ready
7- 4WD for sale/wanted
8- 4WD barbecue (let bar belong to 2 WD)

Hope will be helpful for a better world we share..

[diesel jim]

Originally Posted by Overland Tonka

Jim..I'm not sure that there is other 4x4 forums that come anywhere close to the information on Overlanding that you find on The Hubb..if there is I've not found it.

#

Yeah, sorry, my bad typing... I meant there are lots of other 4x4 forums in general... the only other overland-ish ones I've seen are 4x4overland, but that's a very slow moving forum, and bits of Devon4x4, but they're mainly interested in comp events.

This one here is the best followed by expedition exchange.

[Grant Johnson]

UPDATES!

We've spent a lot of time going over all the 4 wheels forums feedback and comments that have been made, shuffled it and made painstaking calculations at great length,... naw, we just tossed it up in the air and let it land...

Anyway, we made some major changes to the 4 Wheels section of the HUBB, shuffled a few other things around, rewrote some of the descriptive text on forums etc.

There will be a few more changes in the next few days, but we've run out of steam for now.

Let us know what you think, we'll be very interested in your feedback!

[Overland Tonka]

Love the changes.....I started a report about our travels, but never kept it up. That may now all change..I have no idea why moving it up the page has made a difference to my thinking..It just has.
The new titles are good too...the whole Hubb looks more balanced and reads like a family joined together through our common interest...Travel.

Well done... Kevin.

[Walkabout]

Originally Posted by Overland Tonka

Love the changes.....I started a report about our travels, but never kept it up. That may now all change..I have no idea why moving it up the page has made a difference to my thinking..It just has.
The new titles are good too...the whole Hubb looks more balanced and reads like a family joined together through our common interest...Travel.

Well done... Kevin.

I'm in broad agreement: all trip reports brought together and at the top is good and should draw attention to the site.

4 wheels:
Let's see how the readers get on with looking for specific technical information about Landrovers and Landcruisers.
I'm not sure that it is an improvement to put them all together with all other light-weight vehicles: I used to know where to read about engine issues for the 3 litre LC just as one example.
No doubt that information is still in the forum, somewhere.
Similarly, there are some earlier threads concerning, again for instance, use of vans for travelling or Nissan X Trails; I guess they are all in the one cooking pot now.

[Walkabout]

Originally Posted by Grant Johnson

rewrote some of the descriptive text on forums etc.

There will be a few more changes in the next few days, but we've run out of steam for now.

Let us know what you think, we'll be very interested in your feedback!

There remains scope to consider the descriptive text, wherein you could consider each and every use of the word "bike" for replacement by, say, "vehicle".
e.g.
"Connecting - internet cafes, laptops, Palm devices, cell phones - how to connect, use, which one, and Bike to Bike and passenger intercoms"

Does anyone use a palm device nowadays?
It would be quite possible to amalgamate the whole communications forum with that for "maps, navigation, gps" but I wouldn't want to see that happen - the technologies are converging, but they haven't yet merged completely.

In similar vein, the verb "riding" can often be taken to mean "travelling" or "overlanding" in some of the forums, without losing the overall theme.

Just saying.
Some motorcycle purists will probably object but you have moved along this particular road already.

[crinklystarfish]

Thank you to Grant and all others concerned for listening and formulating a much improved container for overlanders to exchange ideas and information specific to cars, vans and trucks etc.

Apart from anything, the new format immediately has users adopting the mindset of traveller rather than simply exponents of a particular marque of vehicle.

Good work, looking forward to seeing how things pan out.

[Grant Johnson]

Thanks, good to hear you like the changes - generally

Palm devices - good spot! now gone...

Bike / Riding terms - tweaked where possible, some left because e.g. Riding clothing is a very specific thing - can't sub "travel" there!

Land * stuff - general consensus seemed to be keep it simple, and under and over 3500, so that's the way we went. We also looked at the number of posts - and there weren't enough per forum to be considered "very active" but together we think it's good.

Thanks for all the input, it really helped, and made it all possible!

And of course we're always listening!

[Walkabout]

Originally Posted by Grant Johnson

Land * stuff - general consensus seemed to be keep it simple, and under and over 3500, so that's the way we went. We also looked at the number of posts - and there weren't enough per forum to be considered "very active" but together we think it's good.

I found my very own X Trail thread from about two years ago, as a test case/example, very easily and quickly via the use of the inbuilt search function: so that is fine. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/search
I guess folks will need to use the search function more frequently, which may be an expectation too far.

[Walkabout]

With the recent rebranding of the 4 wheels section of the HUBB there has been a somewhat interesting side effect.

At present, whatever topics existed as sticky threads in the earlier layout have now gone.
There are very, very few sticky threads across the whole of the "4 wheels" at present.

I guess we all have to earn our spurs again, and make some posts in threads that are worthy of being "stuck".