"How to" section?

[Colbino]

Did this site used to have a "How To" section, or am I confusing it with another?

I think it would be a beneficial to have such a section containing all the threads with those type of explained write ups. Sure. I can search, but having the appropriate section for users to submit their instructions into would be helpful to all of us and save some time.

My .02¢

[Colbino]

Mods - should this be moved to the "website discussion' area?

[Byron510]

General discussion is fine; Lets hear the discussion first.

Byron

[datzenmike]

There's one on Ratsun. Someone finds an easier/faster or cheaper way to fix/replace/modify something or just simply a step by step method for doing something like changing a head gasket with first hand description and pictures. Sometimes this is all it takes for someone to see that someone else has done it and this encourages them to do it also.

Many questions are repeaters of common problems (like my gasket blew what do I do?) and a How To link can be posted to help them and save a lengthy post

Like using a Dodge van door hinge pin bushing repair kit to fix your sloppy 71B shifter.
How to change a U joint with only a hammer and screwdriver.
How to change goon side gears into an H-190 truck differential to get a better 4.11 or 4.375 gearing or 3.364 or 3.545 for your KA swap.
Rebuilding a brake/clutch master cylinder or calipers.

[okayfine]

For a lot of stuff, I just link the poster to DQ or a previous quality thread.

[Colbino]

Personally I just enjoy perusing Ratsun and NWD' ''how to' sections and was kind of caught off guard today when I couldn't find the Realm's. I could have swore we had one. Sure, we can find anything by simply searching, but I'd like to think that having a section for these 'fixes' would be nice and is similar to pinned topics, just all in one place. It's nice to see other peoples write ups collected into one place. Other sites do it and since this is by far my favorite site, maybe it could make the realm an even better place...if that's even at all possible.

Best-

[okayfine]

Other than browsing from curiosity, how would a "How To" sub filled with various topics not involve searching anyway?

[James]

We should probably have a how to search section....

[James]

But - in all seriousness a how to section might be a good idea.

[Colbino]

Other than browsing from curiosity, how would a "How To" sub filled with various topics not involve searching anyway?

This is true. Nothing will ever replace the search function. If that's are argument though, then why have ANY sections at all if we can always just 'search' for topics?

Having another area to organize into can only assist with filtering search results and provide a specified location for those to post their instruction related topics.

To me it just makes sense. It's not the end of the world either way, but simply from an organizational stance it feel right.

Best-

[okayfine]

There is A LOT of information here, but not as much of it is written up in a How To format; most of it is in a "here's what I did BOOM!" format. That's basically why DQ died, not enough people were interested in writing How To articles. But any How To would also need to be well-written and photographed (if necessary), because without that you don't have something to use as a resource but something that'll just generate more questions.

I'm all for information being out there and accessible. But I've seen the Ratsun How To and don't feel that always solves the quality issue and doesn't help at all with the search issue.

An argument for having subs is to help searching. Most terms we'll use to search will be fairly generic, and if searching the wider Realm, they will return too many results to be useful. If you were searching for offset and could narrow it to the Suspension sub, that will help narrow. Won't be perfect by any means, but a whole heap fewer returns helps.

[datzenmike]

Use google, put 'ratsun' in the search question and it will sift through all the thread titles and spit out a pretty good selection.