Site revamp, aggressive marketing, etc.

[Fat Charlie]

Although the new header is nice. Kudos!

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by LeZX2

When looking at the forum activity are you looking at the number of posts, or the number of vistors to a page? I ask this because i often come on here and dont sign in(lurking)

We keep tabs on everything. And as you point out, the various metrics don't always move in unison -- sometimes we can have reduced overall traffic, yet post & thread activity remains steady or goes up. (Indicates more member activity vs. visitor activity). Or vise versa.

Originally Posted by UltArc

Watching a bit of insightcentral.net, mustangevolution.com, and other forums I randomly come across (guns, random cars, other things), I find this to be the most refined. It's not complex, not obnoxious, not confusing. It's nice.

Thanks. One main difference is the big sites are mostly owned by one company based in Toronto whose business is buying up all kinds of forums. The sites they buy tend to get pretty ad-heavy and a bit cluttered. IC is owned by them now. Not sure about the other.

Although, I must say, attempting to use this site on a mobile phone (pda, smartphone) it is pretty rough.

I use the non-mobile skin, and it actually works just fine in 2 different browsers on my tiny old android 2.x phone.

[Smurf]

I'm running a new HTC One with Android 4.1.2 on a 4.7" 1080p screen, using the main non-mobile site without problems. I did try the site on a Blackberry Z10 at work and found it more difficult.

But, I do agree with the cleanliness of the site overall. I've become frustrated at times with the Search feature here, so if I was pressed to make a complaint that'd be the one.

Love this site too much to complain though

[MetroMPG]

You probably already know this, but...

Default search box on each page is Google-powered... so you know how to formulate a query to make that work.

If you hit the "Advanced Search" link, it takes you to the native vBulletin search feature. It has its own syntax & quirks.

[mikeyjd]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

There's a home page?

I always go straight to "recent posts".

I think many of us more experienced forum users do that.

It would make sense to have a "share" function in each thread for those of us who do use fb/twitter to more easily share post's that we find interesting/useful. This by itself would attract new interested users.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

You probably already know this, but...

Default search box on each page is Google-powered... so you know how to formulate a query to make that work.

If you hit the "Advanced Search" link, it takes you to the native vBulletin search feature. It has its own syntax & quirks.

I wish that when I did a search, if I went to modify my search, it would continue searching EcoModder!

[MetroMPG]

I've asked Ben (SVOboy) for EM's Facebook login info... hopefully we can put the page to better use than it has been since... oh, November 3, 2011.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/EcoModdercom/22233936282

[spacemanspif]

I understand the idea behind social media and getting the word out to the masses but I think the best advertisement would be a car sticker. Considering almost all of us drive slower than traffic on the highway there is ample opportunity for people to see our back and side windows.

Just an ecomodder.com sticker wouldn't be all the effective though. There should be a spot to put each car's MPG on the sticker. The sticker (and/or magnet?) should be of some material where you could write on it semi-permenantly; kinda like a dry erase board idea but better. Being able to change it lets your advertise your gains to the people that pass you on the road...some of them on a daily basis. Next time they fill up, they might check their MPG, time after that they might start wondering "how does that guy get such high mpg? Maybe I'll check out that website".

Most of us have small economy cars that get good mpg unlike "most" of America who pass us in the their SUVs but I think that the members here who have pickups, SUVs and other "not-so-economical" cars could really make an impression on the masses by using the sticker idea...for a "hey, that guy gets 20 more MPG than me in the same truck, what is he doing to get that kind of economy?" type situation.

[cbaber]

They sell decals on the site for $5, but I like your idea of adding each members MPG somehow. EcoModder Store: Get Stuff, Support EcoModder - EcoModder.com

While I was working on my undergraduate senior project (mpg computer similar to MPGuino) I thought about mounting a small display in the rear window that showed my instant MPG. But I'm not sure if that is safe for other drivers, and I'm not sure of how legal it is to have a display showing out of your window. But you are correct, advertising our MPG numbers is a lot more interesting than just the website link.

[UltArc]

Originally Posted by cbaber

They sell decals on the site for $5, but I like your idea of adding each members MPG somehow. EcoModder Store: Get Stuff, Support EcoModder - EcoModder.com

While I was working on my undergraduate senior project (mpg computer similar to MPGuino) I thought about mounting a small display in the rear window that showed my instant MPG. But I'm not sure if that is safe for other drivers, and I'm not sure of how legal it is to have a display showing out of your window. But you are correct, advertising our MPG numbers is a lot more interesting than just the website link.

I always talk about this. Essentially, a ~32" scanguage for the rear window. My roommate always complains- because I talk about it so much lol