paulr

I view VS at work using the lo-fi version. The all-text screen looks less "goofing-off".

As a sysadmin I can say (to everyone viewing at work) that unless you work at a REALLY small company, you're really only hiding from your coworkers - your boss / IT department knows EXACTLY what you're doing, IF they care.

Where I work some days over half our bandwidth goes to non-work sites from bimmerforums to Myspace to XMradio - all on company time. Many companies log internet traffic, and some also log e-mail + file access. If someone looks over the access logs, it's usually quite clear how much someone's working. For us, Boss's position is as long as the person is getting done what they're expected to, it's ok - just like personal phone calls - but if they start slipping up it will be used against them. It's generally ineffective to micromanage employees, especially when they're producing up to expectations.

However, if you're the employee who comes in at 6AM and runs off 400 church fliers on company consumables, you're much less likely to get a promotion.

Well that's my $.02.

</semi off-topic rant>

All the extensive ip logging (06 and before?) is very cool and creepy at the same time. Pseudo-static IPs suck because it just makes it that much easier to compile long-term browsing trends. Oh well. I've accessed VS from my cellphone, campus, work, my parent's house house, and my two apartments all within the last month or two. Maybe even more places I forgot. Too bad not all within the last week or I would have helped FLA represent a little more. Did you ever say what service that map was done with, again? I assume "google analytics" is part of their ad package, if that's even what it was?

Volvospeed has carved a very deep niche for itself. So deep in fact we have almost become a stereo type. With the world changing, new cars coming out, new members coming and going, we too must change and adapt.

Building Interest In The Volvo Brand

For continuing success this is a MUST. This means more active forums, greater turn out at shows and more support for the good vendors who do support us.

Logistical Issues

Before you post something outside of off topic ask yourself is you posts adding anything to the site or only detracting from it. Do not tell new people to search. Help them out. The site is free and paid for. 1 extra post does not cost anything.

We are not going to generate revenue at the cost of being censored. The second reason is the larger companies simply are not stepping up. They are perfectly happy to do group buys where they only take off a token amount for all of your sweat labor and resources all while offering nothing in return. If this is the way you want the site to be run let me know.

The S60 Project Car - This car is critical is bring creditability to both Volvospeed and all other Volvo tuners.

You hit the nail on the head when you said we have 10 or less people on this forum who actually know their stuff. I'm also glad that you've selected people who are willing to answer these questions readily, without too much bull.

I think the biggest, and only improvement you can make (and only YOU can make this), is that you pull out the ban hammer (seriously, no joke). Get rid of people with feeler threads, get rid of the ones with "suck it" and "you're the man". Start deleting feeler threads, teaser threads, etc. Don't move them to off-topic....they dont deserve it. Delete them.

Also, I don't know if you've done the thing where you have to have been a member for a certain time before you can post, or you have to have a minimum of 10 posts in existing threads before you can start a new topic (I think you have because I don't see too many spammers starting new threads).

I don't think a motorsports section would live long as a thread. So far, all races involving a volvo have been posted in news because that's precisely what it is.

I agree with Pras that more attention needs to be payed to the quality of posts and members. There are those that give volvospeed the stereotype that we're a bunch of idiot kids with fwd volvos that are bent on looks rather then performance. Having your car appear appealing to the eye is one thing but when people start calling you stupid just because you're a member on a forum, something went horribly wrong. After all, it's just the internet so why would somebody have anything negative to say about a whole forum? I'm keeping the poster on Tbricks anonymous but he called the members on volvospeed "stupid" for the sole reason that we care more about our headlights rather then the engine.

I also get annoyed when people respond with simple comments similar to "nice" and "I like it" when somebody posts an image of their car or particular part. The same goes for those that post images and become annoyed with members who disagree and state it. Both of these are probably just a problem I need to get over and I can deal with it but they just don't seem sensible to me.

I agree VS is very stuck in two niches – 850 / x 70 (P1?) performance and cosmetic interests in general. I think a big part of that is because of how the forum is organized, and the members this draws. We have one performance section, and it’s all but dominated by people with above cars. If you make a generic post, people just assume you’re talking about these cars. Perhaps keeping a general performance section (for showing off new stuff, etc) isn’t a bad idea, but adding special interest ones (like you have with maintenance) may be good, too. Adding a fourth-tier maintenance section, for even newer cars, may also be a good idea. That way, new members with their brand-new cars don't post one or two threads, get disheartened, and leave.

The appeal of "Cosmetic mods" is they're easy to pull off by many of our members (who have lots of time and energy, but not necessarily much experience or money). And that's the nature of the beast – these people for a variety of reasons, can't/don't get involved in performance – but they're still members, who support the site, show up at meets, and have an interest in Volvos. Many of then have NA's, and there's only so much a highschooler with a NA, hand tools, and $250 can do for "performance". Perhaps we differ from Honda's in this way, and perhaps that's a good thing.

Another thing which I'll let other people thing about might be some sort of "performance electronics" or "electronics modifications" section – or renaming the A/V forum to this – there are a lot of issues like alarms / remote starter problems, LED conversion problems, and similar things that don't necessarily fit one specific section.

I also think some delineation between "standard" performance (chips, MBC, IPD exhaust kits) and custom performance (piggyback / EMS & tuning, custom hardware, etc) might be nice, but I can't say if it's worthy of a new and separate forum. The S60 project car is another interesting thing – every time I go and try to find detailed information on it, IE a detailed write-up, I can't find one after about a minute of looking around, so I move on to other things. It's a nice looking car, and I'm sure will attract interest, but if there's detailed information floating around on it, the average person can't easily find it. I must however disagree with the S60R project being "crucial" – it's definitely interesting, and will probably turn out to be a very promising car, but I think it has about as much bearing on Volvo performance as top-fuelers do on someone with a 15-year old camaro. You kinda lose some of that "bam look what a Volvo is capable of" effect when you start dealing with things like custom-built frames, etc. Perhaps a few more "down-to-earth" projects might also be warranted (such as a project I heard rumors of in my local area – a 1000HP 850)?

Mods and modding posts is a sensitive area. I agree with what Pras and "notyourspoon" have to say on one level (especially with BS posts and threads) – but you delete too many posts / ban too many people, and the site begins to lose members and doesn’t grow or expand at all, or even lose valued members due to the atmosphere this creates. I’m sure some of the hardcore members might want this, but it somewhat undermines one of the purposes of VS – to be a resource to Volvo owners. Posts like "nice" and "I like it" can get annoying, but it also sucks when you post some sort of a mod or upgrade you did, and you're trying to show it off, and there's no response. People need to use judgment when posting, and find the happy medium, but alas, this is the internet. Post counts exacerbate this – while it's a useful system, people get too caught up in it, too. The sad truth is many people out there are idiots, and there’s only so much you can do. You put up too much idiot protection, and you prevent the new user (who's not a 'n00b', but just had his first Volvo problem, googled us, and found the forum) from posting a serious question in A/V or maintenance. Perhaps some level of responsibility / authority between member and mod – for all the decently trustworthy members who are on a lot, but are unworthy/ unwilling to take on the responsibility of moderator? Like "BS post remover", with the ability to flag BS posts / threads, or something…

With all that being said, I don't think there's much need to worry about exciting interest in the Volvo brand, or drumming up new members. We have a great community here, and I like the esoteric nature of it. I don't really want Mercedes people crowding our forums with their problems or showing up at meets – they're probably wonderful people and the cars sure are nice, but it takes something away, too. IMO, that's just one step up from the adds Charles was talking about (which I also think are a bad idea – thanks for not doing them!). I think everything's running just fine, and letting things grow and follow their natural progression isn't a bad thing. I remember in one post I made where I criticized something about this forum someone reminded I compare it to other forums, and that’s true – I really forgot how much better this forum runs compared to other ones. I'd rather see "d00dz can I turbo my 850 N/A" than "d00dz I think she gave me wartz" or "click here free pr0n" (outside of O/T) any day.

Sorry it's long, but, I quote AND babble.

Hey it was just an idea, hell, you could let the recipient chose: "MBC, stock rotors, 5 quarts of oil, or $45 in paypal".

Nothing's perfect, and something will always be better for someone and worse for someone else. I think you're doing more than enough just with the idea, so if you think cash will make the most people happy, and it's easiest for you, then great. It's kinda petty I'm / we're bitching over how you give out free stuff .

I like the tentative awards categories, but perhaps there are other options? I know most of the admins / mods do it because the like it, but perhaps something for some of them? It seems they're usually ignored unless something goes wrong and then they catch people's stuff (I know I'm guilty of this). Your awards seem to be based on who "gives back" the most to VS, and I think that for the most part, the admins / mods do that.

Other options might be "most innovative mod", "best looking car - on the cheap" or other things that would generate interest and perhaps positive competition. I'm somewhat disinterested in the new user idea, as most new users are existing car / forum people, or n00bs and therefore useless. It might be exploited, and I'm not sure what it will do to gain / keep members. But, it's your site so it's your call, it's cool you're doing anything whatsoever.

Also, perhaps not cash, but the person's choice in car parts, say whatever vendors offer up, or from a list or something? and do it every couple months for more $$? I know it might be more headache but hey, just an idea. I only bring this up because while to me, $20 would mean little, and to many people on here it would mean absolutely nothing - a set of plugs and wires, a MBC, some decent component speakers, or some other equivalent car parts might be of use. This is especially true for the husbands with the "You can't go spending $$$ on the car" wives, or the high schoolers (also in a similar predicament).

Either way, it's a great idea, and props for thinking of doing it.

The new ad-free skin displays ads based on your membership level. So in short for the least ads possible opt for "ad-free". For supporting members this means no ads at all.

So how do all these annoying ad links help you? I am setting up a structure that will pay cash prizes to members each month. I will be testing for bugs over the next few weeks and updates will follow.

The ads wouldn't be so bad if they were a bit more intelligent. I know how incredibly difficult that can be, especially with dynamic content, but It would be nice if it could tell that intercooler meant Intercooler in this context, not Integrated Circuit. Many of the ads are quite absurd, with pipe bringing up results for "engineered piping systems and head exchangers". The only one i've seen that is applicable was for koni, where it redirected to suspension at tirerack, and that's something I just might click.

I've yet to try out this "Add-free skin", but thank god you're offering one, the adds would drive me nuts if there was no escape. I think you'll generate more revenue from people becoming supporting members to get rid of them then from the adds themselves.

Cash prizes are cool though, so if that's what the adds get us, sounds good here.

I check my VS news RSS to see if there's anything important, like the whole sig thing, and I see a thread called "suspend", and figure, "well stuff, this just might be important".

Let me be the first to say WTF.

I can't understand this at all. Stupid anime thing.

I think Adam summed it up. I think I spent a good 5 minutes of my life on that, and couldn't figure it out at all. Guess I'm not the gamer I used to be.

Got excited and thought you were looking for that. I have 2 NAS' I need to unload. Both IBM 8 15k U320s with the spf modules. I wish I could have held out on the new server some for the new tigertons. I love massive overkill and scalability. I guess thats obvious by the server and truck but anyways. I also upped the movie limit on regular members to 6 megs.

Yeah, that's what I'd consider four cores... It seems like bandwidth, then IO, then Ram would be the limiting factors at this point, though.?

6MB for regular members wow that's generous. I figgure there are 18k members total, who knows how many active... I guess that fits well with 147GB, tho. Wasn't it just 1MB only a few months ago...? What next, VS hosting?

Setup that's replacing the U320 = Dell FC4700, at 1.8TB. If that doesn't offer enough space and throughput, I don't know what will. Supposed to hold 360 MBps sustained.

not bad, especially for a website. I wasn't just commenting on storage space and speed though, but backups + bandwidth, too. I don't know what the connection is, but someone's paying for it... Right now I'm upgrading a site from U320 to Fibre, got a powervault 220S loaded with U320 36g 15k Cheetah's, 2 RAID5 controllers, and three cold spares. Trying to get $1800 for it, but that would benefit any VS people, especially VS itself, that price could definitely fall..

Its sad we have so many members and this thread has been viewed less than 300 times now. I guess people really dont pay attention to the news section.

Yeah, well, it's not really as interesting as the other forums. Hell, I just found out it had a separate RSS feed oh 15 minutes ago. I guess the whole sig thing proves it's important, though.

Seems like those server upgrades are paying off if you can hand out upgrades like that. You're gonna go from 6GB of data to a lot more - real quick. Wish you luck with that one man .

When you put it like that, I guess it makes more sense. Sometimes it's easy to forget you guys are doing this in your spare time, too. I only had "modifications" in RSS, I didn't even know there was a news one, so now that's added. So yeah I guess that's me apologizing for being an ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD.

So it's OUR fault, that you use RSS feeds and never read the News forum? I don't think so, that's all on you. It's not our fault you didn't read, 1. the great big announcement post at the top of EVERY FORUM, and 2. the news forum. I personally feel that 600x150 is still too big, you don't hear me crying about how they need to be even smaller do you? If you make an offensive post, it will be edited. Are you going to cry about that too?

No, I've had several posts edited, but because they WERE offensive. I self-edited my rant to remove some of the direct insults in it, and if you want to clean that up even more, great. That's fine, that's what mods are for. Not to be picture-size nazi's, because some jpeg is a few pixels too big. There's no way that's hurting / offending anyone. I made my rant, and I'm done with this. Half the time I don't even run a sig, so I'm not going to bother making a new one right now. Flat-out removing people's sigs as opposed to replacing them with something offensive would have been much better from a PR standpoint, but whatever, what's done is done. Word filter bothered me too, so I paid the $15 fee, and no more "is that a word, let me check" or whatever the hell it does these days. For the record, I don't actually want people's sigs to be bigger, I just don't think it's the admin team's business, especially if they're not hosting the images. There are methods in place not to show people's sigs, and beyond that, the choice should be left to the users.

Regarding me not reading your memo and it being my "fault", yes, that is on you guys, too. Not everyone on here actively concerns themselves with the running of this board, as we're too busy doing things. It's not like you replaced it with a benign message. I've already stated my position on this, and I'm not going to waste any more time with it. It's done, you guys made it law, I think it's I&#39;m dumb, many people agree with you, perhaps a few agree with me - whatever - it's not worth the time and attention it's getting anymore.

First off moron, I sent you a PM. Second, this was spearheaded by the admins, including Chuck, and myself. Don't like it, then too damn bad. As said before, it's a simple request and you were given ample time to comply. You failed to comply so a reminder was placed in your sig. If that's too much for you to handle, then you need to look back at your life and figure out where it went so wrong and what made you so uptight that you cry about having your little precious sig changed. You can put it right back up, just in the correct size format. So, in closing: grow up, shut up, and change your sig.

With all the love in the world from you warm hearted VS admin,

Greg

I replied your PM, didn't need to bring it back into the thread, but whatever. There are many issues here - for those of us who only use RSS feeds, we never saw the damn memo. Only noticed when our sig was changed. Kinda a kick in the nuts to go from a nice pic of your car to "idiot", with no warning. The point is, setting some specific guideline, "600x150", is really absurd. kB, overall size, or area are all much better ideas if you're dead set on an official rule. A general "anti-large-sig" guideline is much better. There are many well-formated, aesthetic sigs, that happen to be just out of this guideline. Reason I brought up Kevin's sig was because it looked nice, and he formated his text (one line) to accommodate it. When I redid my sig from my old size to the new one, I got rid of three lines of text so my sig was the same size overall.

re: me putting up a fight, I have issue with people changing my stuff, especially for no damn good reason. If someone re-parked my car because I wasn't quite centered between the lines, I'd also be pretty pissed. I was maybe 60pix over? I'm glad the admin's all came to consensus, and it's swell you all decided this is now official policy. Still doesn't mean it was necessary or wise, or handled properly regarding those who didn't change their sigs.

Whoever started this signature thing, you're a real douchebag. I think it's interesting that while some people (namely, regular members) have had their sigs resized, others *cough* Kevin *cough* still have 633x282 pix images. And that's the only one I've noticed, I'm sure there are more.

This issue has been brought up before, and the consensus has always been those with bandwidth issues / small screens need to turn off signature images in the control panel, or turn on image resizing / turn off browser images. I personally run two screens, one at 2048x1436 and another at 1600x1200, and I personally don't give a stuff if someone stuck running at 800x600 has an issue because my sig is 700pix wide. I totally agree with a noobhammer for those who take a shitty 800x600 bitmap and set that as their signature, but a finite pixel count is really extreme. Who gives a stuff if it's eleven pixels too high? That's half a percent of my screen, I'll deal. Besides, many people's sigs are much longer due to their mod format, with a new line after each mod.

It's difficult to discretely read a car forum at the office with HUGE GARISH sig pics to a)download and attract netadmin attention, b)attract passing coworkers attention (or worse, the boss), and c)give the idea that not only do I drive a volvo but I'm enthusiastic about it too!!!!

This is funny because #1 you're the one dodging work, and #2 unless your sysadmin has a brain the size of a pea, he knows exactly what you're doing. However, he's probably more worried about the guy downloading malware and looking at porn on company time, if he's not actually fixing problems. I work for a company, less than 20 people, and we log EVERYTHING. What you print, where you go, when you log on, when you change your password, what files you access. It's very interesting to look through. If you don't want your coworkers to see you poking around, then at least have the sense to go into your control panel and turn off sigs, or images in your browser.

lol, when shall we all upgrade our resolution to something more than 800x600.

Seriously. Even on my tablet (1024x768) the sigs aren't that bad, and when I'm on a low bandwidth connection like my cellphone or something, I'll just turn off images. C'mon people, this really isn't that hard.

You should see how small they look at 3200x1200, but thats not the point, i prefer it this way, and the mods have requested it for the benefiet of those running smaller windows, laptops, and indeed smaller devices. Bandwidth usage is also a possible issue, but whatever the case may be, that's what's been requested of us, so lets abide. Last time i checked VS wasn't a democracy

True VS isn't a democracy. But the mods are supposed to be here for a better user experience, not to go around fulfilling napoleon complexes, or to make up for not making team captain in high school. If it's not about making the average user's experience markedly better (like getting rid of offensive posts, flames, spam, idiots), the mods should just leave it the hell alone. This isn't THEIR website, only one man can claim that, and I haven't seen him play any part in this (... maybe I missed something?).

I'm done with this issue, is 600x150 is the final size, then if I ever get around to making another sig, I'll consider that. However, the fact that time and energy was devoted to something so petty does say a lot.

Awesome increasing the PM's, very very awesome. Cool for doing everything else too. Giving supporting members a few extra perks (besides the word filter bypass, etc) is very nice.

Completly agree!

I don't know, I think some of us got some good laughs, and there was a lot of drama. Isn't drama always good? Besides, there are a few good points inbetween the menagerie of I&#39;m dumb.

I believe you would need something to control the map input and put it to use. Due to the fact that the car is MAF controlled, and therefor most all aspects of fuel and air control are MAF based.

I heard talk of MAF "emulators" using MAP sensors for older cars (850s), but I read that if the car was ME7 based the ECU might be able to work off a MAP reading directly, with no external converter, etc.

But I can't quote any of this and I've never worked with it firsthand, so...

As far as the MAF, apparently we have godson MAFs good for anything, who knows. I've never seen a number hp limit for them. I hacked mine to a 3'' pipe, but whatever...for 300 you don't need it and honestly if you're going for actual power you'd go MAP.

Do the S70 ECU's supprot MAP metering, or you would you need some sort of standalone / piggyback System ? I'm pretty sure it requires some sort of standalone system on the 850's but I've never looked into it, really.

And I thought MAF's didn't decrease the CFM's much because they were only a short distance

rrfpr and wideband won't work b/c we have load limits and timing pull that the stock ecu will do. Intercooler because it's pancaked between the radiator and a/c condensor.

Don't the turbos have RRFPR's to compensate for turbo boost ? Or do you mean an aftermarket one that would actually give you a "net" fuel pressure boost vs. increase in MAP ?

I think the real point isn't the debate between 310 and 350cc but those considering or running 500/750/800/1000cc injectors (especally without a remap). 310 to 350 is a 12% increase, while 350 to 500 is a 42% increase. ouch. 500 to 750cc is a 50% increase. double-ouch.

If you're smart enough to remap it's just waste,and if you're not, then you'll just be rich as all hell for no good reason.

You need extreme after-market hardware (and new internals) to justify that much fuel flow, and I'd argue that 750cc and up doesn't have any place on our blocks, period.