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Posted by: SCCA Stang Nov 14 2010, 01:02 AM

Guess who decided to drop in on the ol' DSMCentral



I also see I am still 5th in total posts ever.... holy not much activity batman!!!

Posted by: Dan Boles Nov 14 2010, 11:37 AM

QUOTE (SCCA Stang @ Nov 14 2010, 01:02 AM)

Guess who decided to drop in on the ol' DSMCentral



I also see I am still 5th in total posts ever.... holy not much activity batman!!!

Posted by: awd4kicks Nov 15 2010, 05:58 PM

How's it going Ben.

The forum end of this site has gotten few daily posts as most of the core group has moved on to building families and fortunes. So the site has transformed into a mostly forgotten (read private) meeting space for the few hard core DSM hold out's like Chris Lang and the few of us old friends that choose to stay in touch.

Because of spam bots I had to shut down any new membership a while back... So DSMCentral can now be considered an invitation only meeting place for the elite DSM group that lived through the hey day of the early to mid 2000's.

Posted by: black92_tsi_awd Nov 15 2010, 06:21 PM

Kicks that statement is a little depressing but I guess true enough. I wish I would have gotten into dsm's a little earlier to get in on the earlier "activities." +utt everybody on here has always been A plus group. Helpful and trustworthy.

Posted by: mitsu90 Nov 15 2010, 07:43 PM

I with Chris I wish I would have gotten here sooner and got to attend a farm meet

Posted by: awd4kicks Nov 15 2010, 09:15 PM

DEPRESSING!? You guys are part of one of the most elite DSM groups in the US. DSMCentral was one of a handfull of car enthusiasts websites back in 200o and it was definitely THE first performance automotive web site in Central Illinois! Everything else wad founded from this rock! OK that's an exageration, but not totally off base.

Seriously, DSM's...No productive, Quality DSM's are not often found, but at DSMCentral it was the norm. Be proud. I'm proud of you guys!

Posted by: dualdj1 Nov 16 2010, 10:02 AM

I haven't known you guys all that long, but have appreciated all the help I've gotten and friends I've made from this site. It's been fun times, and glad to be a part of it for whatever I can contribute!

Posted by: Dan Boles Nov 16 2010, 10:47 AM

Whats funny, back in the day, when all other forums would encounter issues, DSMcentral was the fall back for folk to communicate.
Im proud of the fact this site has endured the test of time, and that all of us still manage to break away from our busy lives to have fun everyonce in a while.

Posted by: dualdj1 Nov 16 2010, 11:26 AM

Maybe it's time to consider changing focus a bit? I'm just brainstorming here.

It would depend on *if* you want more activity on the site, or if you want it to remain a select few that it is now. I'd think you could keep it dsm oriented, and still build up the community here some if you wanted to, though you'd probably have to open up a little more and say add some sections for newer mitsu cars, etc. just a thought, nothing serious

Posted by: awd4kicks Nov 18 2010, 06:58 PM

Yeah, I've considered expanding the scope of the website to meet a wider array of users and their needs for quite some time. In fact a number of us discussed this as Mitsubishi was getting ready to unveil the EVO.

I'm open to suggestion. Opening the site up to EVO's is a no brainer as it is already welcome ground to them. There is just no advertising in the name or description to say so.


Expanding the car selection to all Mitsubishis might seem to be the right path, but I think most other platformes are so different and offer different benefits that I don't believe we could build on what we had /have very well.

I personally would rather see the site to be expanded for all AWD turbo charged vehicles. That's the real king of interest on this site and many other DSM sites. However, I would think that opening up the membership to anyone with AWD, or turbocharger would allow us to build an organized forum where our core background information can still be helpful to both.

The cars and sections I can think of that would fit would be:
Skylines
Supra's
Audi's
Subaru
Hyundai
Honda
Grand National
Turbo Trans Am
Conquest/Starion
GM Cyclone/Typhoons
Rally cars
Feature rally racing
Aftermarket turbo charging applications
etc.


Now to do this we would have to be able to re-open an upgraded automated member ship registry so that the site isn't bombarded with spam. I need some major help with that. I have no idea how to fix that problem and I don't have time to manually sort through spam bots to find real users.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Posted by: black92_tsi_awd Nov 18 2010, 08:45 PM

I like the idea of expanding to cover any AWD or Turbo vehicle. I like looking at other similiar vehicle since you can gain tuning or fabrication ideas from any type of car. Hell I hit a Honda site because it has a good fabrication sub-forum! Just don't tell anybody.

Posted by: awd4kicks Nov 18 2010, 11:32 PM

Boost&Grip.com

or

Boost&Grit.com

or

Shit&Git.com

Posted by: dualdj1 Nov 19 2010, 08:33 AM

I think the AWD Turbo is a good focus. We can keep a "legacy" DSM section for any of the DSM related info, but focusing more on things that are applicable now will build the community.

It seems that the core areas of expertise here are surrounding AWD/Turbo cars, so that makes sense, even if most experience lies in Mitsu/DSM, the theory behind it is all the same.

I also think your category selection looks pretty well. We could possibly do some grouping on it, if you want to cut down on the total categories shown on the main page

I will try and get in soon and see what I can do about the automated registration. I know there have been some improvements to other forum framework packages, and I've found some good ways to work around spammers, though it requires a little more work for the end user sometimes. Will keep you posted with what I come up with.

Posted by: black92_tsi_awd Nov 19 2010, 12:23 PM

How about Sitting On Blocks.com.... 8)

Posted by: Dan Boles Nov 19 2010, 12:58 PM

sounds like a good pathway

Posted by: dualdj1 Nov 19 2010, 02:28 PM

QUOTE (black92_tsi_awd @ Nov 19 2010, 12:23 PM)

Posted by: scorp28 Dec 4 2010, 10:20 PM

While reading this I had a couple ideas just off the top of my head. What about setting up a different website as a part of and hosted by this site? Kind of like DSM Source and DSM Trader. If I understand it right you can just register another domain name that will direct you to a specific part of the site so that a person doesn't have to go to the DSMCentral home page to find the link. Basically a site within a site. I would hate to see DSMCentral .com get its name changed and just be a sub forum of a broader site.

As far as a name what about ForcedAWD.com or simply using your screen name? AWD4Kicks.com sounds like a good website to me.

Posted by: treydawgs4g63T Dec 5 2010, 01:41 PM

I have come up with a few small club names over the years and have stuck to one that i really think sounds pretty good... I dont know if there is a site out there but we could do

BoostedTechniques.com

that is the name i have founded over the past few years and a few cars are wearing the badge (atleast ones that i have owned)

doesnt matter too me i just wanna be sure we can still be focused on the boosted platforms and bringing in a new crowd would definetly be beneficial and could lead to new and more gatherings and events.

Posted by: dualdj1 Dec 7 2010, 12:46 PM

i kinda like forcedawd.com, it's simple and expresses the target audience.

Posted by: Dan Boles Dec 8 2010, 12:35 PM

QUOTE (scorp28 @ Dec 4 2010, 10:20 PM)

Posted by: treydawgs4g63T Dec 8 2010, 08:21 PM

also like the above mentioned choices but that will lead to a crowd of mostly awd vehicles or atleast aimed at only them. The turbo supras, mr2s, celicas, and others that are not awd will not be as welcomed by the name.

Posted by: dualdj1 Dec 9 2010, 03:10 PM

good point, i would think the focus is turbo or awd, so some way of combining in that fashion would be advantageous. If we advertise right (keywords) it shouldn't make much difference though.

Posted by: SCCA Stang Dec 17 2010, 11:41 PM

Good suggestions....

I really don't see any harm in having the "legacy" DSMcentral site falling under a new site as long as you can access it without going to the new site first or vise a versa.

Posted by: dualdj1 Dec 20 2010, 12:08 PM

yeah I don't see any reason to move or remove anything from here. It would just be reorganizing a bit on the way the forums/categories are set up.

Posted by: awd4kicks Dec 23 2010, 02:59 PM

I've been pretty busy with the Christmas season and work lately. So I'll try to make some time on my days off here and there to help get this upgrade going.

Posted by: natedogg Jan 6 2011, 08:37 AM

Sounds like a great idea! I'm half hoping to get back in the game myself. Having 3 kids now makes it difficult to continue with a regular cab pickup truck for my DD. I've been looking around at used sporty four doors (AWD and turbo being preferred). Heck I guess I could cover that part of it by putting a turbo on my truck and running it in 4x4