Help Page Changes Coming

[Jason Edge]

I have started making all Help Topic article names hot links and deleting the long URL addresses beneath them on the Help Page at www.help.6364cadillac.com (and link above in header). It was already in alphabetical order, but will pull all the First Letter Entries together to make it easier bump down through the topics. By removing the URL addresses and pulling them together, the page should end up about 1/3 as long and easier to navigate down. Later I can pull those blocks of hot linked articles together and put in to a matrix style index etc. It will take me some time, but will bump down them over the coming days and weeks.

Looking at the screen shot below, I did the Web Help topics and Numbers and A's today. When I go through the B' they will be bunched together in their own block, and then on to the C's, D's, etc!

 

[Mark S Anderson]

This should really help out.  I never used help here, but it does look too big as it is, so you may just save yourself a lot of time answering the same questions over and over.  You're definitely headed in the right way.

I just hope you don't do all that manually lol.  Repetitive tasks like this are exactly why i taught myself Javascript/Jquery.   

[Anders]

A really good plan. That will surely help "Help".

[Clovis]

Jason you are unreal in your dedication to this website and our cars. Although the collective adds to the content here it always comes down to one person who holds it all together. This forum really fills a HUGE void and is probably why my Cadillac has become such a big part of my life. My car never fails to get a thumbs up from all age groups but if someone was to go looking for a classic car these would probably not be on the top of their lists. This forum is changing that as it's keeping these old girls alive and shows that there are alternatives to the regular classic car options. I've had all the other classic hot rods and it's kind of a "been there done that" thing. I never would of thought that I would one day be driving around in a 1964 four door anything, let alone loving it, kind of car.
Thanks again for the great forum.

I do have one suggestion for improvement. On another forum, that I'm a member of, you only get one email alert if there is one or ten new posts to a discussion you are part of. If you go back and read everything it again will only send one email alert and stops sending them until you go back to read. That would help tremendously if we had that here. If I post on four discussions once and there are fifteen different posters I'll get sixty emails alerting me so. I can just imagine your email gets blown up every day. That's my two cents and again thanks.

[Jason Edge]

I think we all collectively make this a great site!  I am proud of the fact we are a winner of the prestigious overall CLC Website of Excellence Award, and that we have been a recipient of the Website of Merit Award for the past 4 consecutive years with has some pretty stringent criteria! I believe in continuous improvement and believe these minor changes to the Help Page will continue to push us in the right directions. For any other specific suggestions, please create a new thread on the suggestion forum (www.suggestions.6364cadillac.com or in the header drop down box) and we can address each one individually. With the Ning.com hosted sites there are some customization available by me as administrator, and then others that will be confined to your own person setting (click My Page, Settings, etc). Posting a separate thread with appropriate heading will give us an opportunity to discuss in details any specific suggestions and make it easier to find previous suggestions discussions in the future. Again, thanks to everyone's support of the site and Chapter. 

[Tony and Ginny 429]

Jsson
How do you feel about the title DIY HELP PAGES ?
Most of the info is about aquiring suppliers repairing our year cars and specs
which keep many with the knowledge they need to Do It Yourself
Just thought i would kick that out to see what you think
Thought it might give the people more desire to check the topics info
It your baby so proceed accordingly

Enjoy

[Jason Edge]

Tony, not quite sure I understand. We have a parts supplier page at www.parts.6364cadillac.com or just click Parts Suppliers in the header. I believe "Help" is for all of us Do It Yourselfers whether it is navigating the website or finding useful information on restoration or repairing our cars car. When some one wants to know alignment specs I send them to www.help.6364cadillac.com; when they want to know how to remove the dash ... .ditto, convert non-ac to AC car... .ditto, convert non-tilt to tilt. .... ditto, find the VIN #.... ditto. I think the simple word Help works well and the learning curve for what that page offers should be very short for most.  I also have to consider the extra real estate the extra letters and words take up in web names, the header, etc. Again, please put new suggestions in a separate thread at www.suggestions.6364cadillac.com.  

[Jason Edge]

Most of the help page has been reorganized into all Hot Links to condense the entries and make navigation easier. Should wrap up in a couple of days. I have also been adding new entries here and there.