What improvements do you want to see for 4x4earth in 2016?

Hello,
2015 has been a huge year for 4x4earth, with the migration to the new website, the introduction of the podcasts and our little website becoming Australia's largest free and independant 4 wheel drive website, with over 2,000,000 visits and 6 million page views!!!! That is an amazing result and a big thanks to all of the team, especially the mods and those organising events and trips out.
The podcast has been a really big success with around 20,000 downloads of the podcasts. Most popular so far have been:
Everything you wanted to know about Diff Locks but were afraid to ask; and
The day I killed my Jeep!
To make it easier for everyone to listen to the Podcast, we've created the 4x4earth Podcast app. Now you can download you favourite tracks and listen to them in the car on your way to work or when you're out on the tracks with no radio reception.

The big question is what do you want to see in 2016?

A couple of ideas we have are:
More 4x4earth merchandise - caps, beanies and T-shirts. These help spread the word and bring in a bit of revenue - the website upgrade cost a fortune and we need to pay that off somehow.
Bring back the function to upoad and download track files for your GPS.
A better feature for organising trips. At the moment it is pretty ad hoc and I think that there are better ways to do it.
More competitions. Would like to see best photos, best cooking ideas and the like in return for cool prizes.
What would you like to see? Is any of this exciting, or have you got a great idea to further build on our little community?

 

I would like to see a move into practical driver training, from beginner to advanced levels including recovery training. I see plenty of people on here with strong views on how to get the most from your 4wd with minimal impact, but do you think the newbies will recall what they read on a forum when they actually make it out in the bush? Or even change the old blokes perspectives that are set in their ways?
You have a decent chunk of the market, how about expanding the services and potentially making a dollar or 2 from from it. Perhaps get some long term forum members trained to organise monthly "courses".
You could even incorporate navigation/map reading, camp etiquette, bush cooking and so on.

 

Hey Hiluxdriver,
This is something we have talked about for a while and we should do something about it. I think there would be a lot we could do to create a course of videos to help people. Sand driving, recoveries, rock, mud, equipment, navigation. It is a really good point.

 

Yes, maybe do practical courses in the field (even just a few times a year), and have decent videos of these sessions online to serve as a reminder / pre course preparation.
Even just contract the training out.

 

Is it possible to have a "Special deals for members" section.
Whereby suppliers of anything related to all things 4wd give some fair dinkum heavy discounts, like 20% maybe even 30% for a number of orders. etc.
This would cover such a wide range of products, for eg. Camper trailers . cookware, recover equip, winch bars, winches, cameras, gps, radios, tents, toilets, swags, roof top tents, tyres, Even discounted training, recovery of vehicles, hire of sat. navs., endless, you name it.
Reckon it might require approaching suppliers, manufacturers, providers, etc. showing the benefits of large number of members, views, etc.
A Special area on the site, no recommendations, guarantees, etc, buyer beware.
Say get some income from the advertising.

 

I'd love to see the track section up and running again. Especially on a mobile device.
Would be great to upload and download GPS track files again.

 

How about being able to see a members location on their avatar, saves going onto their profile page.

Just a simple Brisbane or wherever under their member type eg: 4x4 earth contributer

 

Agree with this one, people ask a question about an area specific item or service and you have no idea where they are or what vehicle they have
I think you would get a better response with a bit more relevant information available.
The recent stolen troopie thread is a classic example.

 

Include an automatic photo sizer so you can post images straight off your Iphone etc.

I don't post with photos any more as it is too much hassle as I only get the message that file is too large to post even though they are iphone taken pics.

Also it would be better if the images were all full size rather than having the thumbnail option.

 

True, (for me at least on the iphone) on the mobile thumbnails open in new window, a right pain . . . where as on the desktop they open in a slideshow type screen, which is great to scroll through them.

 

Maybe like a calender of events section.
Say by State, date, what event ( xmas do, cruise, day trip, weekend trip, annual trip, BBQ meet and greet, socoal outing.) Contact Organiser/volunteer name and details. Anyone interested in organizing something can load info on and if necessary can call off with reasonable notice if no interest.

 

Perhaps more technical articles on the installation of various mods. These articles should include a lot of detail including photos and instructions on how to incorporate the modification. One of our national magazines does something similar but often fails to include basic instructions on gaining access to various parts of the vehicle.

 

Keen to see the tracks download working again, maybe with track classifications like Beach, rock, mud, mountain etc so that tracks can be sorted by state and kind, e.g. Beaches in WA, or forestry trails in QLD.
Photo competitions sound interesting too, but Darb would always win.

 

The NEW POSTS. and RECENT POSTS buttons
i don't understand their current function.
If you just press the new posts you don't get the latest posts only some of them, you then need to press the recent posts to see an update of what has recently been posted on the forum

 

Bring back support for Tapatalk

Kevin

 

The way I see that Alby is the obvious NEW posts shows anything posted since your last visit, great for catching up.
Once you've read those, sometimes if you haven't noticed the section they are in, it can be hard to find the post again (tech sections, member builds, etc, can be obscure), as clicking NEW posts of course won't bring it up again.
Clicking RECENT posts will show that in the list again, not sure how old this covers, maybe a certain time, or maybe posts that a member themselves has visited recently ??

 

We already have the ability to see locations, simply click on the avatar and it's there for you to see.

 

Hello,while not being a regular contributer,i would like to browse the forum without being signed-in and would like to do so without being interrupted with the annoying"not a member register now"pop-up coming on my screen every 60 seconds or so.
Can you please reduce this to every 15 minutes or so,i think thats ample.
Thanks.

 

A lot of the avatars do not have the location section filled in

 

I'm pretty sure it pops up every time you open a new page. A "Do not show again" button would be good.