I'm working on an updated version of the registry and I'd like to get some feedback on features people would like to see.

I'll putting up a beta soon, but I wanted to start a dialog now to see if anyone had some good ideas.

 

Neil M. is responsible for the current interation of the Registry and he is in Hawaii on his honeymoon.... so. Please bear with us.

 

I'll use the current incarnation of the registry as a base, and I'll say what I like and what I'd change.

I would suggest splitting the "Performance Upgrades" data category into three separate ones, as I started doing with the personal car pages on my Audi club's web site. The most logical way to split them up is into <i>(true) performance</i> modifications (like a chip or coilovers), <i>functional</i> modifications (like a boost gauge or turbo timer), and <i>aesthetic</i> modifications (like an aftermarket grille or window tint). Some people have heavily-modified cars, and these categories help break up their list a little and makes it easier to understand what they've done to their cars.

I would make it so that you could link your registry picture to something you've got in pictureposter, instead of now where there's a separate holding area for registry pics.

The registry info might want to mention what the user's current AudiWorld forum nickname is.

If one of the entries ("Accident Log", "Previous Owners", etc.) is null/zero/empty, you could just not print it out.

Making the "Maintenance Log" and "Owner's Diary" smarter might encourage people to use it more often. For example, look at how I've done mine. I've written it journal-style, with dates/mileages and an entry. (I basically used a bit HTML definition list to format it.) This is kind of hard to maintain by hand, though, and the newbies certainly won't know how to do it. If the log/diaries actually worked on a database concept where you could "add a new entry" dated today, and then each entry was printed out, in a table, much like the forum threads or any other average blog you might see out there. The user could go in and edit entries, or delete them. I'm guessing you could morph some of the forum code for this purpose (though I'm sure it's way more involved than that). <small>(I know this is probably way more work than you want to do, Johannes. I'm just brainstorming.)</small>

Something that might be interesting to help prevent stale registry entries would be to include the feature (which can be disabled per user, of course) that the registry will send a reminder email to the user's linked email address at some reasonable interval (say, 6 months?) after there has been no updates or activity to the registry data. If those reminders are repeatedly ignored, the registry account could go into a queue and you or Neil could then periodically check up on these folks and make sure they haven't died/lost interest/bought a different car or whatever, and can delete the registry if necessary.

That's all I can think of for now.

 

I was definately looking for a brainstorming type of reply. I can't do everything at once, but it'll atleast keep me focused on what features we'll eventually have and design around making that easier.

This is similar to how the version I'm working on now is. I like the ideas about splitting up the upgrades.

 

I'm not really familiar w/ the original registry, as I only viewed others for awhile and never got around to creating my own... I will once you guys have one going.

For us non-HTML guys, how about moving the forum sig section to the registry? The registry could have a section for the sig that text/pictures are placed, which is automatically inserted as the sig, and clicking on the picture/sig would take people to the registry entry. I know a lot of people already do this in the preferences section, but I don't have the time or desire to learn (even simple) HTML, so I'm kinda stuck w/ a standard text signature.

one more: How about compiling (on maybe a registry entrance page), a "stats" section? This might actually make the registry much more of a database. I'm thinking along the lines of I could display a map of the world/US that could show dots where registry entries are located, click on the dot, you get that registry entry. Or maybe you want to know who has a 30v 2.8, because you have an engine performance question, so you list all the reg entries of people with that engine type. Extend the power to modifications, and you really get kickin'!

Reading through this, I guess what I'm saying is that I think it would be really cool to have the Registry set up as more of a browseable/searchable database. This would probably require way more work than is reasonable, and might make the registry not as "freeform" but I think access to the info would be cool. :-(

Just my $0.02...

 

i agree with hugh's breaking the "upgrades" into smaller categories. makes sense having a performance/functional/aesthetic breakdown.

also making the owner diary blog-like (timestamps, etc. for each entry) would be nice. like hugh, i manually put in dates each time i add a new entry. simplifying/automating stuff like that would make it easier for newbies especially to use. and people are already familiar with blogs so the concept isn't totally foreign which would encourage people to use it.

you're planning on having single sign-on, right? so i'm assuming the registry login will go away, then?

this speaks of a more broader enhancement, but it involves the registry so i'll throw it out:

i think having a user profile section would be nice. for example, make the "posted by Username" link in the message page become a pop-up (or regular link) with user profile information (instead of the "mailto:" link) with some suggested fields:

• date registered
• number of posts
• email addr.
• location (city/state/zip/country/etc)
• age/gender
• icq and/or aim #
• homepage
• current audi model
• last but not least, a link to the user's registry page if they've got one (and maybe when they last modified it)

yes, this is more like *cough*UBB*cough*, but there's some valuable demographic data for ya! ;-)

 

Splitting log entries up and adding timestamps is already done.

The general account information hasn't been done yet, but I'll probably being doing that as well.

 

You rock, Johannes.