Unofficial Upgrade Guide

Hi all,

I'm currently working on a website to document upgrades for the Mazdaspeed 3.

https://www.mazdaspeedguide.com/

As a developer, this is passion project I wanted to build as I'm currently in the process of doing a major overhaul on my own Speed, after having a bone-stock car since new. I'm new to the world of tuned Speeds, but I'm learning as much as I can from all of you who know more than I do, and I wanted to document my findings along the way.

I plan to use my own artwork to illustrate certain changes.
Currently only have the intake upgrade as an example.

If anyone wants to give any input / feedback, I would greatly appreciate it.
It's currently a work in progress, and I don't expect many to actually use it - but time will tell.

Thanks a bunch

 

This is exactly what I've been trying to accomplish here. It's even on the main page of the forum at the bottom. Offering free member upgrades to document all these options. Wanna post threads here too?

 

The site looks clean in desktop mode but viewing it mobile causes your paragraphs to break up and become vertical.

I liked the animation for the rear motor mount. Really shows how much the motors moving under load.

Are you going to make different sections for different modifications? Are there any documents or other things you need for modifying a speed? I did a write up on here for an oil pan reseal. Feel free to copy that to your site if you want to make a maintenance section. Just give proper credit.

 

I want the site I'm building to be somewhat of a Wikipedia page, where it is curated by the community as a whole. I am hardly an authority on these cars, so I will be heavily relying on the findings of others to construct the knowledge presented on the page. This forum has and will continue to play a huge part in this site's development, so any and all constructive criticism is much appreciated. It is years of learning new things on forums such as these, from members such as yourself, that has inspired me to embark on this endeavor.

Hmm, I thought I resolved the mobile issue. Are you still experiencing this problem? Could you share what kind of phone you're using so I can test the page with those screen dimensions?

Yes! The page as it is currently is a very early draft and is more of a concept. I'm working on an interactive menu that allows for a more curated experience based on someone's existing mods and their future goals - but that's all a WIP. To start off, I wanted to write a vanilla guide that covers the basics (HPFP internals, AP, RMM, intake, etc.) and then have more in-depth guides based on certain modifications, like a turbo section, a suspension section, etc.

The only documentation the site currently has is install guides for all the intakes listed.
https://www.mazdaspeedguide.com/p/intakes/

If click on the part numbers, it will take you to their respective product pages.

I would love having user made guides on the site. As I mentioned earlier, and it's also proclaimed on the site, I want this project to be community built. I am merely the presenter of the knowledge; the information itself comes from people who know far more about this platform than I do. Would be great to have it all shared in one location, in a clean and presentable manner, for all owners to enjoy.

 

Really starting to just sound like you're hoping to take the information from here and put it on another website. While you've got a neat idea and the animations are great, spending the time making guides in the appropriate section (s) here and linking it in one thread rather than taking the info here and tossing it on another site and not linking back to anything here at the very least. which without asking the forum owner for permission first which based on comments this far you didn't and it's incredibly shady and quite frankly inappropriate.

 

EDIT:

Look, maybe this is all just a simple misunderstanding. I am creating a curated experience that makes it easier for owners of these cars to find the information they're looking for. I am not going to be posting threads from here, or any other forum, Reddit thread, Facebook post, etc. to the other site. I would be happy to link to posts, with the approval of the respective authors, but would never want to step over anyone.

My intention is to help people and contribute to our community in ways that fit my skills as a developer. Anything that is deemed as inappropriate will not be a part of the site. Like I said, I want this to be something everyone can contribute to if they want. You would think wanting to help owners and bring everyone in the MS community together would be a welcomed ambition, but perhaps I was wrong about this community - or maybe it’s just you, or perhaps it’s all just a simple misunderstanding; time will tell. Shy of Google’ing the information, this is pretty much the same thing in a cleaner package.

I think you’re assuming a whole lot from the little bit I’ve said without even bothering to ask what it is I’m doing. Maybe you want to assume the worst just to put me down? I don’t know man. I wanted some feedback, and I got it. I appreciate your time.

I hope that clears things up.

 

Meh.

 

I’m sorry ya’ll feel this way about this. I honestly wasn’t expecting an effort to want to help others and guide them to find useful information to be met with apathy. The idea has been positively received everywhere else.

Clearly I’m alone in this; and perhaps I’m being ignorant about it. Could you enlighten me as to why this is a bad idea? I’m genuinely curious. Again, the main intention isn’t about pasting full threads (as you can clearly see, each section is only about a paragraph long), but about collecting the most relevant references about a said topic, like the references on a Wikipedia page. If someone thinks a link to a post is useful, I can add it under a topic. I fail to see how this robs anyone of anything - I would think it would only help people find information easier, but clearly we disagree on this.

If you look at my own build thread, you can tell that I put a lot of effort into presenting information, including individual part numbers, links to where I bought the parts - and I even photograph everything so others can see what the parts look like. My intention is only to help others find information and present it in a clean and intuitive manner.

Please rid me of my ignorance. I only have the best of intentions.

 

Over 6 years ago and a large amount of money later, I left the old forum, and at the urging of many friends who pushed me to do this, mso was created to be the #1 source of information about the Mazdaspeed platform. Little did I know, 3 years later the old forum would be literally shut off and gone.

So much time and effort put into creating and maintaining this forum. So when I see you want or use the information and make your own website, I kinda just don't like it.

 

I totally get where you're coming from. I have no intention of wanting to replace the work everyone here has done - as if that would even be possible. My site is very, very early in development, so I'm throwing a lot of different things at the wall to see if it sticks - have a look at it, if you haven't already.

I've gotten a ton of replies across multiple platforms from users who had a hard time finding information they were looking for (some members of this forum, by the way) - I genuinely think a project like this can be helpful to everyone. Perhaps it's because I don't associate myself with any one website or sub-community; I'm simply just looking at the community of owners as a whole and what could benefit everyone. Your insight on this matter allows me to see things from your perspective, so I appreciate that you took the time to respond. To quote Cicero, I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.

Here's a reply I made to another member's question regarding a suspension setup:
https://mazdaspeeds.org/index.php?threads/non-coilover-suspension-options.14648/#post-103736

My answer to that member's inquiry covers multiple sources from different forums, with links to each respective forum thread.
I don't think that's robbing those forums of anything, but I could very well be wrong about that. If this is bad practice, I would like to know why so I may rid myself of the habit.

 

A lot of people on Facebook, Reddit, and other platforms don't try and search really. They just make a post asking about "Do I need a tune for this eBay CAI?" Or "My car runs like crap what do I do?"

Easy way to search the forums is either by using the search field and narrowing down keywords to specific things.

To make things easier to find here it may be possible to rename some threads to make it easy for others to find. I named my threads on the oil pan reseal or diagnosing electrical systems with the headline
HOW TO:

That makes it easy for people to search for it. Most people want quick easy answers without searching for it.

 

Oh I completely agree. But that's exactly the point I'm making - most people want quick and easy answers, so I'm creating a tool that allows for quick and easy answers, because that would benefit most people.

I quite enjoy digging for information, as it can not only be rewarding, but since I don't know what I don't know, I also don't know what things I ought to know, and I have many of times picked up on things that had never occurred to me during my research; sometimes things that proved to be more useful to me than what I originally set out to find. But like you said, most people want quick and easy answers; that's why I'm keeping things to 1-2 short sentences in length, as opposed to having full threads that involve discussions, various details and nuanced applications, etc. There's no way I'd be capable of, let alone interested in, replacing the plethora of information this forum and those like it have to offer. I'm simply trying to make the information more accessible and easier to find, for most people.

Something like the reply I shared earlier is what I ultimately had in mind, where (like a Wiki page) people can add references to form a consensus. A Google search ultimately does the same exact thing, except it is governed by algorithms as opposed to manual, human curation. This is done in an attempt to solidify the Speed community as a whole, as opposed to operating as separate entities behind virtual borders.

In the end, it may all very well be a moot point and the whole project might fall flat on its face, but I would rather try and fail than to fail to try. I was more surprised by the pushback I received here, juxtaposed to everywhere else. Perhaps it's because the community here feels like they have the most to lose, whereas I think it has the most to gain with how much it has to offer. The FB groups I'm in have member counts raging from 20-40k; this forum has around 6k. Maybe we don't want more users here - and that's fair enough - but that's not why my idea is getting scrutinized. I think it was assumed that I was going to be copy/pasting threads, but that's not the case, and I thought I clarified that in my response. I'm going to take full responsibility if this information was not communicated properly. I have no problem with realizing mistakes, for I'll take a problem that I can fix over one I have no control over any day of the week.

I still think there's a lot in it for everyone, but I won't be referencing anything from this forum if that's what you guys want.

Edit: Spelling

 

First its moot not mute point

Second we tried a wiki on the old forum and it sucked. We are protective of what's here because we have seen what happens to all of the hard earned I do when a site owner goes AWOL. This forum is run by people who care and there is more than one person with the ability to keep it running.

I've seen the questions asked in other places and frankly the which wheels look best threads can stay there. The users on the other sites know to come here when they have a real problem and they get the answers they are looking for

Tldr: that's a big naww dawg from me

 

Thanks for your input. I understand where you’re coming from and what you said makes sense to me, and I appreciate that you took the time to reply. Same goes for everyone else. For now, all I have to offer is my build thread, but I hope to contribute more in time.

Thanks again