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  • Welcome to Tacoma3G.com, a free resource for 2016-2023 Toyota Tacoma owners!

    This website is the passion-project of a USMC veteran/mechanic, @Tyler. I created Tacoma3G.com to share my knowledge of this subject with others and to provide like-minded folks with a comfortable space to ask questions and create 'build threads' within our Tacoma Forums. Now, if the format of this website is confusing to navigate for you, or if you're interested in my full mission and T3G's history, check out the Help and About pages.

T3G staff, I need your opinions

Tyler

Tyler

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Volunteer T3G Editor
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Apr 12, 2018
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Age
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Long Island, NY
Website
tacoma3g.com
2017 TRD OR DCLB Auto
Quicksand
I was at the OC Overland meet today in SoCal and got into a conversation about something that has always been in the back of my mind. I was talking to @Mr. Nobody, @Malcolm, and @Romp-A-Taco about this.

I created T3G as a 3rd gen specific forum because those are the trucks I care about. I honestly have no need for 1st and 2nd gen content to be available to me. I thought a specific niche like this would make us unique and be the reason we are able to succeed. And it pretty much is.

However, over the year that we've been doing this, many people ask me and other staff about other Toyota trucks. "What about 2nd gens? You guys don't want those?" Well, no, we don't... that's the point! Even vendors have been saying they wish they had an alternative to TW but T3G being specific to 3rd gens just isn't enough because they sell products for all Toyota trucks. I have never really cared about these opinions until today.

Today I started really thinking about this and brainstormed some options. People love T3G because of the way the community is. Respectful, no cliques or trolls, and the forum itself is pretty and modern. But they don't all have a 3rd gen so they don't really want to be here. How can we take the good things about what we've built and expand on it, opening it up to this rapidly growing hobby? Create a sister site for other Tacomas? Meh.

But I have brainstorming all day and I think I might have a solution.

There is a way that I can open up our forum to all Toyota 4x4 trucks and still have it feel like it is only for 3rd gen owners. It is possible for me to give the users the option on what content they want to see, completely customizable by them. If they ONLY want to see the 3rd gen stuff, the way it is now, they can do that. If they want 3rd gen stuff and 1st gen 4Runner stuff, they would be able to do that. If they want all Toyota 4x4 stuff, from Hilux to FJ to Land Cruiser to whatever stuff, they can have that. This would even function in searches. If you hide everything but 3rd gen stuff and do a search, only 3rd gen results will appear.

If we think this is a good idea, a lot more logistical stuff would go into it of course. Right now I'm just presenting you guys an idea on how I think it can be done properly. I would want to change the website name for this. But besides changing the website name and adding sections for the other trucks, the forum would be almost exactly the same, especially if you were to hide all the new stuff.

What are your opinions on this? Pros/cons?
 
Tyler said:
I was at the OC Overland meet today in SoCal and got into a conversation about something that has always been in the back of my mind. I was talking to @Mr. Nobody, @Malcolm, and @Romp-A-Taco about this.

I created T3G as a 3rd gen specific forum because those are the trucks I care about. I honestly have no need for 1st and 2nd gen content to be available to me. I thought a specific niche like this would make us unique and be the reason we are able to succeed. And it pretty much is.

However, over the year that we've been doing this, many people ask me and other staff about other Toyota trucks. "What about 2nd gens? You guys don't want those?" Well, no, we don't... that's the point! Even vendors have been saying they wish they had an alternative to TW but T3G being specific to 3rd gens just isn't enough because they sell products for all Toyota trucks. I have never really cared about these opinions until today.

Today I started really thinking about this and brainstormed some options. People love T3G because of the way the community is. Respectful, no cliques or trolls, and the forum itself is pretty and modern. But they don't all have a 3rd gen so they don't really want to be here. How can we take the good things about what we've built and expand on it, opening it up to this rapidly growing hobby? Create a sister site for other Tacomas? Meh.

But I have brainstorming all day and I think I might have a solution.

There is a way that I can open up our forum to all Toyota 4x4 trucks and still have it feel like it is only for 3rd gen owners. It is possible for me to give the users the option on what content they want to see, completely customizable by them. If they ONLY want to see the 3rd gen stuff, the way it is now, they can do that. If they want 3rd gen stuff and 1st gen 4Runner stuff, they would be able to do that. If they want all Toyota 4x4 stuff, from Hilux to FJ to Land Cruiser to whatever stuff, they can have that. This would even function in searches. If you hide everything but 3rd gen stuff and do a search, only 3rd gen results will appear.

If we think this is a good idea, a lot more logistical stuff would go into it of course. Right now I'm just presenting you guys an idea on how I think it can be done properly. I would want to change the website name for this. But besides changing the website name and adding sections for the other trucks, the forum would be almost exactly the same, especially if you were to hide all the new stuff.

What are your opinions on this? Pros/cons?
Click to expand...

I was wondering where this would go tbh, while reading im like....oh no it’s gonna be a free for all.

Then you talked about being able to filter what you see and include the other gens.

I honestly think that’s a great idea. That will definitely help you build the site even larger!
 
Jfrisch01 said:
I was wondering where this would go tbh, while reading im like....oh no it’s gonna be a free for all.

Then you talked about being able to filter what you see and include the other gens.

I honestly think that’s a great idea. That will definitely help you build the site even larger!
Click to expand...
I know a lot of our veteran members are gonna react like that and I don't blame them. Almost everyone joined for a reason and that reason is they want the 3rd gen stuff in their face without other bullshit. But I do think this is the best of both worlds.

Say we bring in 2,000 more members because we do this. These 2,000 new members have 4Runners, Tundras, old Tacomas, whatever. Well that is still 2,000 new people that will share the same regional forums and be able to plan wheeling trips and meet ups with. 2,000 more members that will be selling tires, lighting, and roof top tents that are universal to any truck. 2,000 more members that are posting what their dog or girlfriend looks like, or are benefiting from the vendors' exclusive discount codes and giveaways (you win sliders that fit your truck, you win a gift card, you win ditch lights, etc.).
 
Tyler said:
I know a lot of our veteran members are gonna react like that and I don't blame them. Almost everyone joined for a reason and that reason is they want the 3rd gen stuff in their face without other bullshit. But I do think this is the best of both worlds.

Say we bring in 2,000 more members because we do this. These 2,000 new members have 4Runners, Tundras, old Tacomas, whatever. Well that is still 2,000 new people that will share the same regional forums and be able to plan wheeling trips and meet ups with. 2,000 more members that will be selling tires, lighting, and roof top tents that are universal to any truck. 2,000 more members that are posting what their dog or girlfriend looks like, or are benefiting from the vendors' exclusive discount codes and giveaways (you win sliders that fit your truck, you win a gift card, you win ditch lights, etc.).
Click to expand...

I’m with ya ?

Keep on moving forward.
 
My internal testing for the functionality on this has been going well. I've also been thinking of names all day long. I think I have written down and reconsidered about 15 different names over and over today. I have one that I really like now - it's different than the usual names you see around.

I honestly think this could be a huge move yet it will essentially leave the current user experience unchanged for those who do not want change. I hope to hear more of your opinions.
 
I of course want to see whatever mock ups you've got going on.

@Tyler , @Paige , and @Malcolm obviously know where I stand on this but so everyone knows I have been talking to many vendors and brands and many of them say the things @Tyler mentioned. They're looking for a place they can reach the most people in a well behaved environment. Many of them make or distribute parts for multiple models and makes, so while they really like what we have going here for the 3rd Gen they now of course hope we will expand and create that same welcoming environment for other model Toyotas. The current website offerings are leaving much to be desired in their eyes as they see it as a free for all with little to no moderation and clicks/groups of people ripping on newer members while moderators let there bros do so unchecked.

I'm of the opinion that with well staffed moderation we can continue to provide a welcoming environment for multiple models of Toyota enthusiasts that allows ideas to be exchanged across models with little to no bullies or clicks. Including the other models will allow our user base to increase, our overall knowledge base on the site to increase, allow us to provide more in the way of raffles, giveaways, and discount codes from vendors, and generally just make this place bigger and better for all.
 
I'm down with it. It would be cool to see mockups on how the different areas of the site would navigated to and what that experience would be like. What names are you thinking?
 
Sorry. Was a few too many in when I read this last night. Party!

Let's see what you got. What would the site name change too? Tacoma3g.com should direct to that specific section of the forum
 
Okay. I have to give a huge disclaimer on the name. I had a long list of names including many that are just plain stupid. But listing out everything I think of helps me visualize. The one I am favoring, I could see you guys not digging at first. But it has grown on me and Paige for a few reasons.

ToyotaThreads.com or YotaThreads.com for short (the shortened will redirect to the longer).

Why Threads? It’s definitely not something you’ve ever heard before and so it will be a memorable name. Things like forum, nation, world, crew, rebels, etc. are overly generic and hard to remember which group is which (besides TW).

Threads are the topics on the forum. It implies there are discussions here. And the actual word can be found throughout the forum already. By definition the word (in our case) means a continuous theme in writing about your subject.

Of course I’m open to other ideas and we can keep working on names. I can also share some of the other ones I have.

Now the mock-up. This is meant to show the major changes in the forum structure. It is obviously missing the regional, vendor, and off-topic sections because those would remain the way they are currently. For the truck sections, this can be made as broken down and specific as we want them or as broad as we want them. I think in the mock-up I have a happy medium for the current amount of posts and site traffic we currently have. We don't want to spread our content too thin by creating a sub-forum for every single different type of topic, but as the site grows it can absolutely be broken down further for more organization.

The big point about this whole idea is that all of the specific truck sections will be customizable by the user. This means everyone will have the ability to hide whatever section they don't want to see with the click of a button and it will even be hidden in search results. This functionality is really cool and I think it can set us apart.

The marketplace can be handled in a few different ways, so I need advice. The way I have it mocked-up could work fine until we have more activity. Go into the Tacoma marketplace and each thread can have a prefix in front of it with what generation the part is compatible with. Then there is a marketplace for parts that work on any truck, like lighting and tents. And one more for unrelated stuff like mountain bikes and tools. Again, we can do this however we want and it doesn't need to be like this.

This is a rough first draft of the mock-up and things will definitely change the more we keep looking at it and think of new ideas.

ttmock.png
 
Tyler said:
Okay. I have to give a huge disclaimer on the name. I had a long list of names including many that are just plain stupid. But listing out everything I think of helps me visualize. The one I am favoring, I could see you guys not digging at first. But it has grown on me and Paige for a few reasons.

ToyotaThreads.com or YotaThreads.com for short (the shortened will redirect to the longer).

Why Threads? It’s definitely not something you’ve ever heard before and so it will be a memorable name. Things like forum, nation, world, crew, rebels, etc. are overly generic and hard to remember which group is which (besides TW).

Threads are the topics on the forum. It implies there are discussions here. And the actual word can be found throughout the forum already. By definition the word (in our case) means a continuous theme in writing about your subject.

Of course I’m open to other ideas and we can keep working on names. I can also share some of the other ones I have.

Now the mock-up. This is meant to show the major changes in the forum structure. It is obviously missing the regional, vendor, and off-topic sections because those would remain the way they are currently. For the truck sections, this can be made as broken down and specific as we want them or as broad as we want them. I think in the mock-up I have a happy medium for the current amount of posts and site traffic we currently have. We don't want to spread our content too thin by creating a sub-forum for every single different type of topic, but as the site grows it can absolutely be broken down further for more organization.

The big point about this whole idea is that all of the specific truck sections will be customizable by the user. This means everyone will have the ability to hide whatever section they don't want to see with the click of a button and it will even be hidden in search results. This functionality is really cool and I think it can set us apart.

The marketplace can be handled in a few different ways, so I need advice. The way I have it mocked-up could work fine until we have more activity. Go into the Tacoma marketplace and each thread can have a prefix in front of it with what generation the part is compatible with. Then there is a marketplace for parts that work on any truck, like lighting and tents. And one more for unrelated stuff like mountain bikes and tools. Again, we can do this however we want and it doesn't need to be like this.

This is a rough first draft of the mock-up and things will definitely change the more we keep looking at it and think of new ideas.

ttmock.png
Click to expand...
sorry im in still on vacation for the last week and a half so all of my viewing has been through the phone at like 2am, but I can see how appealing this would be to vendors and where vendors are active people will follow, I'm just not exactly sure how the best way to reach out these other vehicle owners/fans. The instagram was fairly large so getting some 3rd gen tacomas to join the forum, I think if we can get that reach to all the other vehicles it could work out fairly well. Best way I could think of is like facebook groups that are just for offroad vehicles like the 3rd Gen tacoma group that's massive on facebook.
 
Nick BBP said:
sorry im in still on vacation for the last week and a half so all of my viewing has been through the phone at like 2am, but I can see how appealing this would be to vendors and where vendors are active people will follow, I'm just not exactly sure how the best way to reach out these other vehicle owners/fans. The instagram was fairly large so getting some 3rd gen tacomas to join the forum, I think if we can get that reach to all the other vehicles it could work out fairly well. Best way I could think of is like facebook groups that are just for offroad vehicles like the 3rd Gen tacoma group that's massive on facebook.
Click to expand...
This is a really good thought. If we did it, it would be a great system for having hundreds of people on the site that actually own these other vehicles. But getting them on here will take some time and effort and might look a little funny because we will have so much existing 3rd gen content and maybe 1 Tundra owner and 5 4Runner owners who might feel out of place because their friends aren't here yet.
 
Nick BBP said:
sorry im in still on vacation for the last week and a half so all of my viewing has been through the phone at like 2am, but I can see how appealing this would be to vendors and where vendors are active people will follow, I'm just not exactly sure how the best way to reach out these other vehicle owners/fans. The instagram was fairly large so getting some 3rd gen tacomas to join the forum, I think if we can get that reach to all the other vehicles it could work out fairly well. Best way I could think of is like facebook groups that are just for offroad vehicles like the 3rd Gen tacoma group that's massive on facebook.
Click to expand...
Good point on recruiting new vehicle members to join and contribute. That will be the challenge. Expanding the marketing of the platform to hit the reach of all the other Toyota owners and to drive the new traffic should be a topic we discuss too. Might require a new instagram account or merging the content and name change on the existing IG account too.

Usually when launching a new blog the best practice is to build up content before releasing to the public. So when and if this is the direction you @Tyler decide to go with I think it would be worth considering this for the forum. Maybe recruit content creators for the new section. Just some thoughts.
 
I'm definitely trying to think about what the best name might be because the name is really important. Here are some from my list (in no order). They all have the option to be shortened using Yota.

ToyotaThreads
ToyotaDirt
ToyotaRigs
ToyotaFourby
Toyoverland
ToyotaTravels
ToyotaExplorers
ToyotaTrails
ToyotaBuilds
 
@Tyler heres some feedback. I dig these from your list:

ToyotaThreads - this is rad
ToyotaRigs - This is my fav so far.
ToyotaFourby - how about: Toyota4x4 or Toyota4x
ToyotaTravels
ToyotaTrails
ToyotaBuilds

An Idea for a name I had:

ToyotaExchange

Once you narrow it down, it would be cool to have a vote with the moderator group. Ultimately it's your choice, but just some ideas.
 
So I thought it was crazy that toyotarigs.com and yotarigs.com were not taken. Those handles were also not taken on Instagram.

Because of that, and because you and Malcolm are digging that name, I went and bought the .com names and took both Instagram names. I'm really digging it. It is short and very easy to remember and clearly describes what we will be.

This COULD change if more people hate it than love it but I don't think that will happen.
 
Tyler said:
So I thought it was crazy that toyotarigs.com and yotarigs.com were not taken. Those handles were also not taken on Instagram.

Because of that, and because you and Malcolm are digging that name, I went and bought the .com names and took both Instagram names. I'm really digging it. It is short and very easy to remember and clearly describes what we will be.

This COULD change if more people hate it than love it but I don't think that will happen.
Click to expand...

Nope it cool
 
Tyler said:
So I thought it was crazy that toyotarigs.com and yotarigs.com were not taken. Those handles were also not taken on Instagram.

Because of that, and because you and Malcolm are digging that name, I went and bought the .com names and took both Instagram names. I'm really digging it. It is short and very easy to remember and clearly describes what we will be.

This COULD change if more people hate it than love it but I don't think that will happen.
Click to expand...
Toyotarigs might be my favorite, especially would be easy to expand with that through Instagram too, maybe start building that up because it’ll appeal to a lot of the people on Instagram too, 79 series > all Toyota’s sorry not sorry though moving to aulstralia ?
 
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