New member guide to Gearhead Central.

Hi and welcome to Gearhead Central. What I want to do here is to show off some of the areas on this forum to make it easier for you to post in the right section. It will also show some forums that might not get noticed.


We have six categories on Gearhead Central.

1. General Topics
2. Car and Truck
3. Pro Drivers
4. Car Clubs
5. Products and Events
6. Website

Each of these categories have one or more forums in them.

General Topics: In "General Topics" we have three forums.

1. Introductions
2. Off Topic
3. Sports

Introductions: This is were you can introduce yourself and learn about other members as well.

Off Topic: In this forum you can talk about topics that don't fit in other forums. It is for basic chit chat.

Sports: This is for all of your sports talk.


Car And Truck: Is made up of seven forums

1. General Automotive Talk
2. News
3. Motorsports
4. Recreational Vehicles
5. Detailing
6. How To
7. Member Rides
8. Car Builds

General Automotive Talk: In here you can post the regular auto talk and news that doesn't belong to one the specific forums in the "car and truck" category.

News: In the news section you will find automotive news. It can be new models, products, laws and so on. We have an RSS feed posted in hear under the name of Gearhead Central. This is grabbing news from a RSS feed and posting them every so often.

Motosports: Motorsport news and info can be posted hear. If it has an engine or motor and is raced it can be posted. Karts, motorcycle/dirt bike, Nascar, Indy, lawnmower racing and so on.

Recreational Vehicles: This is for talk and new on ATV, Motorcycle, Dirt bike , side by sides, snowmobiles and watercraft.

Detailing: In this forum you can get detailing help, show off your processes and/or products and show off your work with pictures. Everyone loves pictures.

How To: Want to teach someone "how to" do a repair? This is where to do it. This is a great place for all of us to learn.

Member Rides: This is where you can show off your ride of any type. Car, truck, motorcycle, highway tractor and so on. Daily driver or trailer queen.

Car Builds: This is a section I'm most excited about. In here you can post your ride and any work you do to it, big or small. How is this different from Member rides? In there you can show off the final product, spec sheet and so on. In here you can show how it got that way. Having a thread in this section can also win you prizes.

Pro Drivers: Currently this section is made up of one forum.

1. Drivers Lounge
2. Truck news

Drivers Lounge:This is for the drivers that get paid to drive. From local P&D driver (pick up and deliver) to long haul. This is your spot to talk trucking.

Truck News: This is the same as the other news forum but this one is for the trucking industry. We have a trucking news feed being posted by Gearhead Central.

Auto Clubs: Car clubs will be made up of forums for each car club. Update This section now be used for almost any automotive club. It can be a car club, race team, go kart weekly fun league. If you have a club that is automoitve related and would like a spot, send a message to Flexin.

1. Your Car Club: This is to more or less a place holder for a car club and a spot to get info on this offer. If you have a car club or are starting one and would like your own forum, then this is an easy way to do it. It is free.

Products and Events:This category is made up of four forums.

1. Classifieds
2. Product Reviews
3. Contests
4. Events

Classifieds: Have an car, car part or other item that you want to sell? You can post it here for free. We also have a trader rating system so that you can rate sellers. This is for personal items. Have a business and want to sell products here? Contact me Flexin and we can discuss it.

Product Reviews: This forum is for members to post product reviews and to find out about good and bad products before you buy.

Contests: All contests will be posted here. If they are part of a forum (like the Car Build contest) they will be posted there as well.

Events: We have an event calender and events that are posted can also be made into threads that are automatically posted to this forum. Pictures of the event or more info about the event can be posted in here.

Website: This category contains one forum.

1. Questions and Suggestions

Questions and Suggestions:This one is simple. In here you post your questions and suggestions for Gearhead Central.

James

 

On the top menu bar you will find 13 tabs.

1. Home
2. Forums
3. XenTrader
4. SportsBook
5. Bank
6. Events
7. Members
8. Help
9. Your name (which brings you to your user control panel)
10. Inbox
11. Alerts
12. Forum money total
13. Log out

Home: Brings you back to the home screen.

Forums: Brings you to the forum list.

Bank: Brings you to your forum banking controls. You can see your transactions and send forum cash.

XenTrader: This is for the seller ranking system.

Sportsbook: This is the (for fun only) sportsbook where you can bet on races and games using your forum cash.

Events: This is our events calender. Here you will find a list upcoming automotive events.

Members: Here you will find the member list. You will also find a new feature called Top Contributors which will tell you who the top contributors are on the site this month and also last month.

Help: Click here and you will find help with smilies, BB codes, trophies, cookie usages and terms and rules.

Your name: This is where you will find your user cp (control panel). You can change/add and avatar, change your settings and so on.

Inbox: This is your inbox to your private messages.

Alerts: Alerts appear here if you there is a new post in a thread your watching or have posted in, or won a trophy.

Forum money total: This is how much forum cash you have. You earn more of this by posting and playing in the sportsbook (you can also lose money in the sportsbook).

Log out: Clicking this will log you out of Gearhead Central. I don't know why you would ever want to use this feature.

James

 

We have a new feature that has been added this long weekend.

If you click on the Forums tab you will see an added tab in the drop down. Its called "Popular Content". If you click on that you will see a list of the most popular threads for the last 3 weeks, 3 months and last year. When in there, there is a button on the right that will switch it to most liked posts.

Check it out here http://gearheadcentral.com/index.php?find-popular/content

James

 

Thanks Alexisdv20. The plan is to keep it updated to help new members and help regular members keep up to date on any changes.

James

 

Ads. I wanted to let everyone know that I'm not a fan of a forum littered with ads. Some get carried away and it takes from the look. I had one small ad on one forum style but not all of them. This one is one that didn't have them. I just added one that goes under the first unread message for non members only. The only ad a member should see is in the conversation (private message) section.

So for non members, then will stop seeing that one ad when they sign up. Simple.

James

 

Above the first post of a thread is a "watch thread" button. If you post in a thread you will be watching it and will be updated when a new post is made. If the thread is interesting but you don't have time or don't have anything to add to it at that moment, you can "watch" it. Just click that button and then you have two options. One will just let you know on site about new posts in that thread. The other will email you when there is something new.

At the top of the page you can click on your name and then click on watched threads. This will bring up all of the threads that you are watching. This helps you find the threads that interest you.

James

 

This is for new and old members alike. We just added a new feature. That is online status. On the upper right of your avatar you should see a green dot. This is the online status. If it is red the member is offline. If you want this turned off, just click on your name on the navigation bar under the forum name and in the drop down you will see a check box to turn off the online status for you.

Mine will be on so If it is green then I should be online.

James

 

By clicking watch (just above the first post in this thread) you can watch this thread. What that does is give you an alert anytime there is a new post. Just like in threads that you have posted in. That will keep you up to date on new features as well as old ones that you might not have known about.

James

 

Thanks CobraMike. I'm pretty laid back about most things. As long as people are not attacking each other I'm pretty good. Only topics I'm not a fan of are politics and religion. I find they start too many cat fights on forums.

I have been on forums for many years. My favorite forums had great members and just some basic common sense rules.

I hope to make this an enjoyable forum with lots of great members, sharing knowledge with others.

Jaames

 

If you look at the top navagaion bar, you will see "Shop". We now have a shop to try out. It allows you to use your forum money to buy some forum items. One thing you can do is change your name to blue, green, purple, red and pink. Let me know if you want other colors added. Will look for other things to add as well.

James

 

Your welcome and welcome to Gearhead Central prey!

James

 

Your welcome. We now have some changes to the forum that came with the update. One of those changes is in the members area, you will see a list of members that have a birthday today. You can also see the memeber with the most posts, likes and points.

James