The moderators should consider creating new subforums to collect threads that now are showing up here and there. The recurrent issues with the plug-in Prius that deserve subforums of their own include spare tires monitoring and protecting the 12V battery There are probably a few more.
why did gen 4 prime get the whole forums breakout, but gen 5 only got charging? there are other differences from the gen 5 hev.
Those threads can be just made stickies. I believe because Toyota was acting like it was a separate model at the time.
Stickies don't solve the problem. The problem is that because these threads show up in scattered subforums, it's easy for new members to think they've read all they can about a problem after reading only the threads in one or two subforums. For example, there are recent posts about the 12V battery whose authors were apparently convinced that they were raising a newly-discovered problem. If there were a 12V battery subforum, that couldn't happen. Subforums here should be like subfolders in data directories. Every once in a while, I realize that my accumulated files are not not well reflected in my folder tree. For example, some project-related files should have been organized by tool, or vice versa. Or, for example, a folder has enough files of a certain kindred that those files deserve to be segregated into a subfolder or a sibling folder. I try to reorganize things so that I can consistently find what I want to see in the first place I look for it. I do this for myself, but the benefit would be even greater if someone -- like a new member here -- had to find stuff without having been around while it accumulated.
They show up in scattered forums because the subforum names are vague, and invite overlapping interpretations. Should 12V topics go under technical or troubleshooting? Subtitles can give clearer idea of where a topic should go. Then there is the issue when a site grows, and there is a wall of forum options. This should have been posted in PriusChat Website Questions | PriusChat The site also has a search function. Not doing a search before creating a new thread is an issue for many boards. Priuschat doesn't have it prominent though. Make it easy to spot, and more may use it. The site just followed the past layout used since the gen2. With a long term and stable population of users, we've just grokked where specific topics go. 12V issues and spare wheels aren't limited to the new model. With the gen5 bringing in new people, some updating is needed. I think subtitles will help. They can call out where the 12V and spare talk goes, then add stickies. But this is Priuschat. @Tideland Prius is our only moderator. I don't know if he has the permissions to make such changes. The site owner, @Danny, has been mostly absent for several years now. Occasionally he pops in for things like the gen5 introduction.
When you do that reorganization for yourself in a private folder tree, it affects only you. It would be a different matter to reorganize PriusChat subforum structure with a large number of existing threads, many of which contain links to each other, may have been linked to by other people (or other people may have saved links in their history or bookmarks), links have been spidered and saved by search engines, etc. There are ways to do such reorganizations without leaving a mat of dead links (such as making the site recognize old URLs and generate redirects to the new ones), but that might be a heavy lift or not the best use of time when the site is run by a small number of people with limited time and problems like the wiki history not working remain unfixed half a year later.
Feel free to start a new thread with those two topics, collate the threads and then report it and request that it get made "stickied" or "pinned". Those two can show up in the troubleshooting forum.
I'm a contrarian. More subforums mean more confusion about where a message should go. Sometimes (often?) people just dump a message wherever because of analysis paralysis. Tags allow related messages to be found, but it doesn't look like this board uses tags. Clear subject lines are best. Search is your friend.
