Can I Make A Suggestion For The Forum?

All-Star comments - we get a lot of incredibly helpful and important comments from people that just make you think, "Wow! Everyone in this country that's thinking about becoming a truck driver really needs to read this!" So I'm going to go through and start marking comments as "All-Stars" and those you will be able to sort by user, by date, and by topic.

Any way we can cut to the chase and just have a permanent "All Star" status pre-assigned?? Just saying . . .

Jopa

You Sir, along with several others would be among the first assigned that status :)

Ok some excellent ideas!

Like in the forum homepage have a section called "top threads" where we can move the most helpful and most relied threads so they don't get lost easily. Just a thought

At this point I do have a mechanism only I can see where I can "rate" the topics on a scale of 1 to 10 but I'm behind quite a bit on it. However, when you view the forum topics by tag the order you'll see them in goes from highest rating to lowest. I love that idea because that way people can find the best stuff on any topic right away.

What you're proposing is another great way of doing it......just "All-Star Threads" that people must read. I love that idea.

maybe a category or search that shows subscribed threads the same way as the normal view but only filtered for the threads I'm most interested in at the moment and most actively want to follow.

Like a "favorites" kinda thing, eh? So people can individually mark a thread as "favorite" and then view them all in one place. I also love that idea.

Both "All-Star Threads" and "Favorites" could be added to the forum homepage or a menu that's easy to access.

I'd like to be able to subscribe to a thread without having to reply

I've had that mentioned in the past but the reason we don't do it is because this will quickly go from being a forum to being a distributed email conversation. Tons of people will subscribe to threads right down the line and we'll be sending hundreds or thousands of emails a day. But with the idea above about being able to mark threads as "Favorites" will put all your most important conversations in one place.

I haven't looked yet, but I'm not sure how to unsubscribe from a thread if I decide I'm not quite as interested in a conversation as I originally thought I would be

When you view the main page you'll see the "subscribed" button on any threads you're subscribed to. Click it again and it will ask you if you want to unsubscribe from it. I need to improve that feature to make it clear how it works.

Would also be nice for members to have the opportunity to share what company or school they are currently at in their profile and show it in their posts if they choose to share. I think it gives some context to understand where some are coming from when giving opinions on certain things such as companies or schools.

Indeed that is a good idea. I can add that as an option, no problem.

Another idea I have is a timeline of events. We love it when people come in and let us know they've passed their CDL exams or made their first run solo. Getting started in trucking is so extremely difficult that the milestones along the way are so much fun to celebrate! I mean, I don't care who you are....passing that final CDL exam and finally earning your CDL is such a thrill! So I'd like to let people create a timeline of their achievements - starting CDL school, passing the permit exams, first time behind the wheel on the road, passing the final CDL exams, getting hired with their first company, making their first real run with their trainer, completing training, of course hauling your first ever run solo, and finally reaching that one year mark as a driver.

So everyone will be able to check off items as they accomplish them, put the date, and even add a photo to each event. When you click on someone's profile you'll be able to see their timeline. But on top of that I'd like to make a complete timeline that shows everyone's events together in one place. So that's definitely on the list.

Great ideas! Keep em comin!

Section on LTL and LTL companies.

Hey I saw your email and I started a reply and got sidetracked. Gotta go to the dentist this morning but when I get back I'll respond.

By the way....I love the idea.....but I have some concerns about how many people will ever get that kind of opportunity coming out of school. To this day you're the one and only student I've ever come across that landed an LTL job straight out of school. Have you come across others? I want to present every realistic possibility I can to new drivers but I'm not sure how realistic LTL is. It seems like you might have stumbled across the lucky break of a lifetime.

Actually, it's pretty common to get a job with an LTL company in my location - as a student driver or without any CDL A. The other guy in my trucking school class (there was only two of us for the night school) also got on with an LTL company as a P&D driver. Most of the guys I've talked to that have just a few years at my company were not truck drivers previously. I can think of at least 4 individuals out of the most recent batch of new hires that were walk-ins off the street - no CDL A. There are plenty of job offers in my area from numerous LTL companies for student drivers, or folks off the street.

LTL companies tend to congregate in areas. Where there's one, there's more. I had 1/2 dozen LTL companies to choose from when I graduated from trucking school. There are a lot of LTL companies in the NE, because of the population density. Lots of LTL near cities by major freight lanes out West, or in certain areas in the Midwest like Indianapolis. Location is key, but there are plenty of locations.

Lots of these locations usually have a high population density. What I'm getting at is there are a lot of people who do have LTL as an opportunity, certainly enough to justify talking about it as a general opportunity, without thinking that you're being misleading. As long as folks know that they have to be in an area that supports that opportunity, then why shouldn't that opportunity be publicized and shared for those who are by these terminals? If somebody would've told me from the beginning, I wouldn't have possibly missed this fantastic job for my family, and the time I get to be at home, while earning a comfortable income.

Times have changed. LTL is now a viable option for drivers with zero or very little experience. And there are plenty of LTL pockets in the country where an opportunity is waiting for a lot of potential drivers that might not want to go OTR.

How about instead of email you SMS like when you subscribe to a topic it texts you the new post and you can reply via text message... Kinda like facebook

How about instead of email you SMS like when you subscribe to a topic it texts you the new post and you can reply via text message... Kinda like facebook

Go a littler further with following a certain persons posts lol I'm kinda just ripping off Facebook lol

A TT Wiki? The original Wikipedia is self managed - anyone can start a new topic or make changes in an existing one. Yet Wikipedia still remains accurate and authoritative.

You know the same topics keep coming up. Currently there's a discussion about the Grapevine north of Los Angeles. Instead of the periodic "How do you drive on (fill in the blank)?" or "What equipment should I buy to be able to live in a truck?" The Wiki can handle these.

A like button would be nice sometimes you agree with a comment but have nothing constructive to add.

A TT Wiki? The original Wikipedia is self managed - anyone can start a new topic or make changes in an existing one. Yet Wikipedia still remains accurate and authoritative.

You know the same topics keep coming up. Currently there's a discussion about the Grapevine north of Los Angeles. Instead of the periodic "How do you drive on (fill in the blank)?" or "What equipment should I buy to be able to live in a truck?" The Wiki can handle these.

Wow........that is an awesome idea. I don't know Wikipedia's actual structure in detail, but I know for instance that Linux software takes contributions from anyone that would like to contribute but it has to be approved by a chain of command before it's implemented. We could create pages or "living documents" on subjects and allow anyone to contribute. If it's helpful information we add it on to the document.

I love this idea.

A like button would be nice sometimes you agree with a comment but have nothing constructive to add.

I've considered that but I'm not sure how useful it would actually be. It would be nice to submit a comment that people like, but whether or not it's one people should like is sometimes a different story. You can get one person that goes off on something and suddenly here comes the cavalry! I thought about using it as a rating system of sorts but I'm not sure if it would be effective or not.......

I totally agree with the premise of having it but I'm concerned about cluttering up the forum with things that really aren't helpful. I'm torn on this one.

A TT Wiki? The original Wikipedia is self managed - anyone can start a new topic or make changes in an existing one. Yet Wikipedia still remains accurate and authoritative.

You know the same topics keep coming up. Currently there's a discussion about the Grapevine north of Los Angeles. Instead of the periodic "How do you drive on (fill in the blank)?" or "What equipment should I buy to be able to live in a truck?" The Wiki can handle these.

Wow........that is an awesome idea. I don't know Wikipedia's actual structure in detail, but I know for instance that Linux software takes contributions from anyone that would like to contribute but it has to be approved by a chain of command before it's implemented. We could create pages or "living documents" on subjects and allow anyone to contribute. If it's helpful information we add it on to the document.

I love this idea.

A like button would be nice sometimes you agree with a comment but have nothing constructive to add.

I've considered that but I'm not sure how useful it would actually be. It would be nice to submit a comment that people like, but whether or not it's one people should like is sometimes a different story. You can get one person that goes off on something and suddenly here comes the cavalry! I thought about using it as a rating system of sorts but I'm not sure if it would be effective or not.......

I totally agree with the premise of having it but I'm concerned about cluttering up the forum with things that really aren't helpful. I'm torn on this one.

Brett, I think it's safe to say with the amount of input from the good people here, you have your hands full brother lol.

I do kinda agree with you about clutter though, a "like" button will really do more harm than good but I think being able to make a favorites section could be helpful. I'm curious if there's maybe a way that the software can pick up on key words in a thread and then put them in a specific folder ? In the topics section, people can write about a particular trucking company, training etc. Is there a way that in the regular forum which is the most visited area that maybe it could sort threads automatically?

I'm curious if there's maybe a way that the software can pick up on key words in a thread and then put them in a specific folder ? In the topics section, people can write about a particular trucking company, training etc. Is there a way that in the regular forum which is the most visited area that maybe it could sort threads automatically?

Well I wrote the software that runs the forum so I'd have to add something on. But nobody on Earth can parse information and tell you what it's about like Google. The search engine at the top of each page is Google's search engine except it only searches our site. That's the best automated way of figuring out where to find something and it's pretty awesome. As well as I know this site, sometimes I use that search engine to find things quickly.

But there's no real effective way of sorting them automatically. Not in a way that's going to be truly helpful to people and within a million miles of what Google is doing. Topics can be tagged and I can apply ratings to them for sorting within the tags but nothing that's automated.