@Oldfeller I hear you about the ‘transient’ effect but what can you do other than make great posts that lead people to your site, which is what my plan is which I will outline in a mo.
@Dave, all meta really means is data about data, like metadata. Basically it’s not meant to be a discussion thread but a resource thread much like the tech docs. I thought I’d put it in The Cafe, so I could see how it goes, I got a bit disappointed at first because it seems that some folks didn’t ‘get it’ but that’s OK because I’m going to continue with the plan which is just to post links to articles that I have found exceedingly interesting or that contain info that at least has some kind of authority. There’s a couple of examples already and I think that you will agree that the
http://papers.sae.org/2007-01-4133/ which is a tech document that needs to be purchased but still there is a preview available that covers the premise that changing oil too often can be a bad thing for reasons that I’ll bet not many people would consider. Is this valid knowledge? I don’t know but it’s some serious academia and hard to find.
You know how the net is one minute you looking at a tutorial teaching you how to spray oil onto bikini models for photoshoots, then before you know it you are in a technical document on some obscure web page reading about the most arcane facts about engine oil. Or maybe that happens the other way, I wouldn’t know because it was only an example.
Anyway, if other people catch on and find some excellent technical data or posts, then the plan would be to eventually cull all these brilliant links and snippets, and then place them into a new tech thread all by themselves with no comments from people, just as a resource. Because of the snippets and links it’s quite possible over time that anyone searching for oil information will be linked to the tech thread on your forum and wa la! you have brought people to your site with good content, and that’s really all you can do. And you can give it a new title when it reaches the tech section. Something ‘more than you ever wanted to know about oil’.
For example I notice there is already Rotela discussion in this thread even though there is a dedicated recent thread on Rotella, but if you had checked out the link earlier
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/oilessay.htm there is some really good words about Rotella.
The point of the whole thing is that it’s best left up to the individual to decide for themselves what information they can trust by reading trustworthy sources and then think about it all themselves.
Anyhoo that’s the general plan, I thought it was a good idea.