Welcome to the new Grassroots Motorsports website and forum. There have been a lot of questions about the new site and board, so we're going to try to round them all up in one place. Read through these FAQs for a rundown of the most common questions, and if you haven't visited grassrootsmotorsports.com lately, be sure and check out the new site.
Why the change?
Lots of reasons, but here's the big ones:
1. The old GRM site was getting pretty old. Underneath, the code was a mess, and the parts you saw had a lot of issues, too.
2. Throwing out the bailing wire and duct tape holding the old site together allows us to do a lot more, and a lot of things better.
3. There have been a lot of good ideas suggested for the site, and with a new approach we can make more of them happen -- many of your ideas were already baked into the new site.
Why didn't I know this was coming?
Beats us. We sent e-mails to everyone with more than 500 posts on the old board asking them to take this one for a test drive in the weeks before we launched it. We also put up a post on the old board to provide folks with a sneak peek in the week before the change, then put up multiple posts and stickies on the old board before the changeover.
Well, why didn't I get an email?
Several possibilities: Perhaps the e-mail address on record for you on the old board was out of date. Maybe the notification e-mail was routed to your junk mail. Maybe at some point previously you rejected e-mail from us.
Why do I have to re-register?
Because we started fresh with a new database. The user info in the old database was often out of date, and it was filled with more than 10,000 spammers who had snuck in and were waiting to exploit the system.
The good news is that one registration now allows you to do anything on Grassroots Motorsports. Besides using the board, you can post comments around the site, add tech tips and events, and do a lot of other things, too. Even the store knows who you are and tries to fill out the form for you. Your registration is valid on the Classic Motorsports site as well.
Why don't you just use [[insert name of your favorite board]]?
Because one of the primary goals of the redesign was to fully integrate the board with the site. No off-the-shelf board will do that, at least none that we're aware of. And by fully integrated, we mean across two publications, including events, blogs, clubs, online articles, tech tips and whatever else we dream up.
It looks funny on my machine
Funny is subjective, but if you think something is broken, contact Baxter either through his profile or the "contact" link at the bottom of the page and let him know your browser, operating system and screen resolution. He'll look into it.
Can the column to the left be shrunk?
Short answer: No
Long answer: There are a number of reasons for the column being that size, and it's doubtful they'll change. We'll try to take advantage of that space and do something interesting with it.
Where do I edit my profile?
There are several ways to get to your profile.
- The "community" link on the left-side navigation bar is one way. Besides giving you a link to edit your profile, that shows a list of everyone. You can view them on the map, too.
- If you're logged in, you'll also see a "My Profile" link in the left-side navigation.
- Clicking on a user’s avatar will take you directly to that user’s profile. If it's your profile, you'll see an "edit" link
Where's my post count and title?
Post counts have to be transferred manually. If yours is important to you, contact Baxter and he'll move it as soon as possible. Once it's moved, you'll see it appear on your profile first. After you post a couple of times it will update your title, and your title will begin to appear on the board by your name.
How do I quote a post?
If you're logged in, there are two ways to create a quote. At the bottom of every post you'll see a "quote" button. That will copy the complete post. Above the reply box in the formatting tools you'll also see a quote box. That one allows you easily cut and paste a snippet of a post into your reply.
What happened to my moving avatar?
We'd like to say it was a mercy killing, but it's really a function of the board resizing avatars to fit. If your avatar is more than 55 pixels wide it has to be resized. If it's an animated gif, resizing it kills the animation.
How do I bold/italicize/otherwise format a post?
There's at least three different ways to format text in a post. Clicking the ? help icon in the post formatting controls gives a rundown on some of the more common ways. Although it's unfamiliar in a board context for many people, the Markdown syntax (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/basics) is -- for the most part -- very intuitive, fast and easy to use. You can also use basic HTML, and we've created some buttons to handle common formatting, if you'd prefer to use them.
How do Personal Messages work?
Go to the profile of the person you'd like to send a message to, and click the "send private message" link. Your message will go straight to their e-mail address on record.
Why can't I have a space in my username?
Your login name cannot have spaces. It's a security feature. However, once you're logged in, you can set a display name in your profile.
Why are the avatars so small?
Because they fit. Beyond that, keeping them a manageable size decreases load times, creates more room for the post, and makes them less annoying to the people who hate them.
I have an 800x600 monitor. Are there any plans for a smaller version so I don't have to scroll?
Maybe.
How do I view new/latest/last posts and topics?
There are a lot of ways:
1. Up top you'll see "Latest Topics": That's all topics from the last 24 hours
2. Next to it, you'll see "New Topics": That's any topics that have seen action since your last visit.
3. In the topics lists, any new topics -- topics which are new or have been added to since your last visit -- have a star next to them
4. If you click the star, it will attempt to take you to the first new post since your last visit
5. The right-side "last post" column links to the last post in the topic
6. If you have "preview board posts and topics" turned on in your profile, the topic lists show a preview of the last three posts in each topic
I can't log in. It says cookies aren't enabled, but I know they are?
This is a flaw in Internet Explorer 6's cookie handling which has cookies for our two sites conflicting with one another. There are a few possible solutions:
1. Use a different domain. If you're using grassrootsmotorsports.com, try www.grassrootsmotorsports.com, or vice versa.
2. Clear out any classicmotorsports.net cookies.
3. Upgrade to a better browser. You'll be glad you did.
Where's the search function?
We're working on that. It would probably get done sooner if we didn't spend all our time updating post counts.
What happens to everything on the old board?
It will all be available, including your PMs, as an archive, as soon as we can get that set up.
Will there be alternate board schemes with different colors?
Possibly, but unlikely.
Will there be signatures?
Maybe.
Where are the readers' rides?
In the all-new Readers' Rides section, where you can do more than comment on them; you can rate them and sort them, too. Yes, we'll be working on the layout of those pages. In the meantime, here's a tip: click on the car image for a full-size version.
icon is your friend. To insert a photo you can use the camera icon, simple HTML, or markdown.
