Re: (ET) What for our future?

["Christopher Meier" <mr23 mn rr com>]

I took a look at maeaa and at the evalbum. With the current tractor count,
I'd
recommend that you pull the electric tractors/mowers out of the 'other'
group,
and place them in their own section (of the EVDL album).  Possibly organize
them into two sections (probably still on the same 'thumbnail' page, one 
for
elec-traks (and wheelhorses), and a second section for the rest.  Then the
elec-trak.org site can link to it. At this point, there just aren't that
many
elec-trak entries, and I personally think it better to have some volume and
variety in there, and to have it closely associated with the EVDL album
(with a link to the tractor page from the main EVDL page).  Pulling them
out of the 'other' category might increase views that originate from the
EVDL main page.

Having details about each tractor on the tractor specific pages would
be nice, as some owners have upgraded their units to newer technology,
and having some way to communicate that in a standard form would make
it easier to find one that has upgrades one might be considering.

-Chris

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Chancey" <evtinker evalbum com>
To: "Christopher Meier" <mr23 mn rr com>
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 8:19 PM
Subject: Re: (ET) What for our future?


> Hi Chris,
>
> Sorry I took SO LONG to get back to you on this.
>
> I am about a month behind on the Album pages but I am catching up.  An 
> all
> Elec-Trac section would be simple really.  What do you have in mind
> exactly?  I could make a page that would look like just a standard photo
> album, but the images would be linked to the EV Album pages instead of
just
> pictures.  I did this for our EAA chapter website at:
>
> http://www.maeaa.org
>
> Just follow the "Photo Album" link (not the EVDL Photo Album link).
>
> Would this work?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
>
> At 11:21 PM 1/19/2003 -0600, you wrote:
> >     I like the idea of following the EV Photo Album template...
> >There is already a tractor/mower section with a number of Elec-traks in
it.
> >I'm sure we could convince Mike to create a subsection just for
Elec-traks
> >if the cost for a separate album was unreasonable.
> >
> >How about it, Mike? What would the cost be?
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Rod Hower" <rodhower ameritech net>
> >To: "Don Barry" <Don Barry kirbycorp com>
> >Cc: "<Elec-trak" <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
> >Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 7:44 PM
> >Subject: Re: (ET) What for our future?
> >
> >
> > > http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/
> > > This is a world wide album of electric vehicles, most of them autos.
> > > A similar format would be nice for the Elec Traks.
> > > Mike Chancey created this photo album and would probably
> > > be more than happy to share the template for the Elec Trak site.
> > > Perhaps you could email him.
> > > P.S. I bought my 1994 Dodge TEVan off Mike
> > > http://www.qsl.net/w8rnh/tevanh/page1.html
> > > My E trak pictures are here..
> > > http://www.qsl.net/w8rnh/etrakh/page1.html
> > > .....Maybe I should make an album?
> > > Rod
> > >
> > > Don Barry wrote:
> > >
> > > >Hello All,
> > > >
> > > >Tonight I was pondering upgrading things on the www.elec-trak.org 
> > > >(or
> >.com) website. I thought it would be good to poll everyone on some of my
> >thoughts. Please give this some thought and email back yours.
> > > >
> > > > Hopping on top of my E-15's seat, here I go:
> > > >
> > > >- I don't feel like our numbers are increasing much. If you look at
some
> >of the other tractor clubs, they seem more robust. What to do (or is it
not
> >a problem) ?
> > > >
> > > >- It breaks my heart to think running (or nearly running) ET's are
> >sitting unused or in the junkpile. Why can't we as group make some of
them
> >running and GIVE them to groups (like a church, city, any
> >enviromentally-active company or whatever) to use? The more folks who 
> >see
an
> >ET makes more folks who might want one.
> > > >
> > > >- I feel that we all answer the same questions over and over again.
As we
> >do not have an indexed archive for our email messages, a lot of info 
> >gets
> >lost.
> > > >
> > > >- While the websites are good, there isn't any easy way for us to
upload
> >and comment out information individually or spontaneously. This would be
> >invaluable for those of use with problems to submit a picture (worth a
> >thousand words, I hear).
> > > >
> > > >- We lack a registry of existing tractors.
> > > >
> > > >- We lack a concise history document for them as well.
> > > >
> > > >- We still don't have PDF's of every Owner's Use and Care Manual on
the
> >www-sites collectively.
> > > >
> > > >=================================================
> > > >A solution I've been thinking of is a having is a BBS....
> > > >
> > > >I see a lot of other clubs using web-based bulletin board software.
> > > >- anyone can browse. Registered users can upload text AND IMAGES.
It's
> >searchable, too
> > > >
> > > >For an example of a layout see http://www.acuramdx.org and
> >http://www.acuramdx.org/forums You can all guess what car I drive.
> > > >This site is uses a popular package called vbulletin.  One of the
> >interesting things here is you can have multiple admins/moderators for
the
> >foums.
> > > >
> > > >So far the downside is that we're really used to seeing the emails.
> >Typically on the forums you need to "subscribe" to a discussion group,
and
> >then you'll get an email whenever something changes on that group. You
still
> >need to go to the WWW site to read/write messages. But you get to see
pics
> >then too.
> > > >==================================================
> > > >Another is that I've been doing is re-writing the www interface to
> >something much simpler. Right now you *have* to use MacroMedia
Dreamweaver
> >to edit the site. I used a template (which I thought was cool), but now
with
> >so many changes means any menu-update means updating over 60 template-ed
> >pages. It's getting kinda kwirky doing the updates.
> > > >==================================================
> > > >For those who are curious, the domain names are good for another
three
> >years (www.elec-trak.org and www.elec-trak.com).
> > > >The ISP is paid up for the next two years (cost is $240/year). We're
only
> >using about 35% of the allocated disk space, and about 5% of the
bandwidth.
> > > >==================================================
> > > >My darling bride bought me (or should I say let me buy) a brand-new
HP
> >officejet d145 combo printer-scanner-fax for Christmas. The scanner has 
> >a
> >SHEET FEEDER (Thank God)... Omnipage Pro 12 Office software is also on
> >order.. this should allow almost automatic generation of PDF files.
> >Currently the page-by-page scan on the old HPScanJet 3300C was about
15-20
> >minutes per page...
> > > >==================================================
> > > >
> > > >Okay, I'm off my tractor now...
> > > >
> > > >Don
> > > >
> > > >Houston, Texas
> > > >Restored E-15
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
>