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I've had similar experience with the Subaru forum I visit. However, if you spend any amount of time on the site, you'll go crazy with people asking the same dam

• ShabbyDoo 18y ago
  I've seen some forums that have a special first post that acts sort of like a wiki, but stuff still gets lost in the deluge of topics. I have a vehicle which is the first model year of a re-design. In mid-year, Ford apparently decided to change the design on the door lock actuator. So, I blindly found a part that was supposed to be for my model year, and it turned out to be wrong. I'd love to have a "forum topic" in the vein of what you're proposing. I'm imagining a decision tree with places for people to comment, add photos, links, etc. It ought to have Wikipedia-like community categorization. There should be a topic for "My Ford Explorer's door lock doesn't work" which would walk through diagnostic steps along with part identification/repair procedures. People post stuff like this to automotive forums all the time, so it's no stretch to think that they would add their knowledge to the tree as well (with attribution to encourage ownership). I like the idea a lot. Forums are a sloppy hammer used to attack community problems that are sort of like nails. From a monetization standpoint, you can't do much better than a "how to fix X" forum since most repairs involve the purchase of parts/tools. And, you'll know exactly which parts people likely need depending on where they are in the decision tree. So, you ought to get really good click-thru rates for advertising.