Forum Suggestion

[Super Dave]

I know this is probably not possible but one can always hope.

I am fairly new to the forum and I bet there are many other people here who are fairly new to the forum who have the same problem I have. I wish all forum members could know how frustrating it can be when someone mentions they used #105, #205, #7, #23, D170, D108, D101. We newbies have no idea what products these are and have to open up another browser window and look up the product just to see what forum members are talking about. Knowing the actual name and the number of the product is so much more helpful. I know there are at least 2 different forum posts that list all of these products but going from the post you are trying to read and then going to the post with all of the product listings can be frustrating at times.

2 suggestions...

A) I wish the forum had a thin vertical bar on the right hand side of the window that listed the product numbers and names. I know it would be a tight, if not impossible fit. It sure would be nice to read a post and just look over to the list on the right to see what D110 was without opening another browser window. As you can see below in the example the type size could be really small and still readable.

Example...
D128Quik Int. Detailer
D156 Synthetic X-press Wax
D170 Hyper Dressing
D180 Leather Clean/Cond.


B) I wish you could hover your mouse over a number like #205 and a small pop up would tell you the actual name of the product such as Ultra Finishing Polish

I am sure your coders will want to execute me after reading this, but us newbies could sure use the help. Thank you for a great forum!

[Top Gear]

Re: Forum Suggestion

I agree with the sentiment, having gone from not knowing these products by number to knowing many of them, but not all. I think the #s shorthand can go too far with a lot of pros and regulars who post, and so I try to clarify what I'm talking about when I catch myself doing it. A product key and "hot" links would help the SEO of the website, as well, but parsing hot links and their pop-ups can slow down the server significantly. A good performance solution is to transform such keywords upon submitting the comment, such that "UP" gets transformed to "UP (Ultimate Polish)", "#205" gets transformed to "#205 (Mirror Glaze Ultra Finishing Polish)", etc.

On the other hand, it's an informal discussion forum, not a brochure, and while threads get repeated and products can be confusing, learning curves are not a bad thing. I frequently refer to the main product pages (consumer & professional). I will dare to say that many of the products are somewhat interchangeable, judging by various comments. So, it's not like any of us have to be informed on every single #product, and also, many approaches and comments bring the same numbers up over and over. In some cases, you can pick your line and ignore others...except when you can't

Still, too many people post things like, "Try #105 and if that doesn't work try #100 or #101." First, it must be nice to have an unlimited budget, storage, and time to try large arrays of products, but more to the point, comments like that are almost meaningless, so are rarely helpful to the OP. Tell me WHY, not WHAT. I don't need a list of products, but an explanation in English of why I would buy any of them in the first place - some of this stuff ain't cheap, and if it's no different from what we've already got, then it could hurt our perception of Meguiar's. This is why comments from Michael Stoops are greeted with such thanks and respect, because he takes the time to explain why one thing is different from another, and how to use it