05 - Website Overview

This article is meant as a quick over-view of what's in the website.  The best way to organize this material is by reviewing the material in the navigation menus as an outline as this is the way you will access the information most of the time.  Please see the article on navigating the menus for help learning how to use these.

(Note: click on any image to enlarge it for easier viewing)

About -- Home Category to which we return

Home Page - This is where we will keep general announcements.  They are currently arranged in a slide show format.  You can advance the slideshow manually or stop it with your mouse.

TMGA Introduction - Description of the purpose of the Touring Motorglider Association and for this website.

TMG Motivation - An article describing why we fly touring motor gliders and why we believe it's some of the best flying possible.

Guidelines - Generic guidelines and our legal disclaimer for the website and the materials we post.

Online Users - List of online users and this page also includes the total number of members, the most that have been online since we installed the new website, and our newest member.

Staff - We use this section of the website to show our board members, editors, and others that are directly helping on the website or with the TMGA organizational matters.  This makes it easy to get in contact with them.

Community -- This is the prime section of the website where our members come to share, exchange information, have conversations related to TMGs, the TMGA, or related areas.

All Activity - When selecting 'Community' this is the homepage.  It shows all of the recent activity on the website in reverse chronological order (newest on top).  This is a good way to surveil what has been going and get caught up quickly.

Forums -- The is the prime location where conversations between members occur.  Members start topics and others join in with replies.  Each member can set the frequency with which he wants to be contacted regarding forum updates and whether he/she wants an e-mail or a website notification.

TMGA Forum Collection - This the prime container of forums for conversations between members related to TMGA and TMG activities and information.  Don't worry if you don't find the best location for a topic, moderators can move it if a topic belongs elsewhere.

Hangar Flying -- If in doubt, start your topic here.  This is a potpourri of information exchange and topics of interest.

Aeronautical Q&A -- This is new experimental forum.  Questions are posed and answers are suggested.  Members vote for the answers they think are best and ultimately the best answers are determined in a crowdsource method.  It works great for software engineers ... let's see how it works pilots, owners, and enthusiasts.

Event Planning -- We use this category to include topics related to planning and executing meetings and fly-ins.  The actual events will be announced in the Events Newsletter and will be posted in the Calendar section.  Major events will have a sign-up sheet. 

Products, Services,  & Reviews -- People start topics related to reviews of products and services of interest to pilots and owners.

Website New Features, Feedback, & Suggestions -- Here people can post requests for new features, feedback on current ones, and suggestions for the future.  It's not a bad place to post bugs or problems so others can see the workarounds or comment on them.

Motor Glider Specific Forums -- Collection of motorglider specific forums, for example: Grob, Phoenix, Fournier, Ximango, SunDancer, Pipistrel, and etc.

Touring Motor Glider Engine Forums -- Collection of forums related to the most popular engines used for Touring Motor Gliders.

Newsletters -- IPS normally balls these blogs, but we limited our blogs to the following topics and are calling them newsletters.

Chairmans Corner -- Chairman writes a newsletter 3 to 4 times per year and posts it here.  We also try to send it out via an e-mail service as well.

Events Planning & News -- As events are planned we try to post the details related this event in this newsletter.  This materials also relates to events materials in the appropriate 'Forum' and 'Events' areas on the website.

Webmaster Updates -- Newsletter blog with updates related to the website and its plans.

Member Maps -- Maps showing members who have signed up to be mapped, the fleet of TMGs, and flight instructors.

Chat -- Chat amongst members that are online ... faster than e-mail and possible to include multiple parties.

Search -- Advanced search capability for finding specific information.

My Activity Streams - Different subsets of activity streams to make it easier to find recent content of interest.

Unread Content
Content I Started
Content I Follow
Members I Follow
Content I Posted In

Library -- Prime collection of resources and information related to Touring Motor Gliders.

TMG Compilation - A table of the prime touring motor gliders currently available either new or used.  If you think of others that should be included, please let us know.

TMGwiki -- Collection of articles related to touring motor gliders.  This is similar to a wikipedia in that the members can create and edit articles to help us build up our knowledgebase.

File Exchange -- Members can post files and make them available to members to download.

Legacy Knowledgebase -- In our previous websites, we used a formal knowledgebase software offering from KBPublisher to create articles and exchange files.  It has thousands of entries and it will take time to migrate the materials from the legacy knowledgebase to the TMGwiki and File Exchange above.  So the legacy knowledgebase is included here until the transfer is complete, which is likely to take months.

Gallery -- Collection of photos, images, and videos shared by our members.  This is quite a resource.  See the related article in this guide for how to upload to the Gallery.

Events -- Major area of the website where specifics are posted related to the TMGA events.

Calendar - Generic calendar built into IPS allow us to post events.  It also shows member birthdays, for those that shared it.

Events List - List of events from the generic calendar.

Fly-In Event Sign-Up Sheets -- One or more Google Sheets as Sign-Up sheets for various upcoming events.  Sign up early even if you put uncertain or unlikely so we can keep you posted.

Classified Ads -- Classifieds are popular for our members to help them sell or buy motorgliders or related equipment and services.  Our previous website helped to sell over $1.75M worth of motorgliders.

Motorgliders for Sale -- Section for new or used motorgliders.

Services, Parts, & Accessories -- Section for services, parts, & accessories for TMG pilots or owners.

Wanted to Buy -- Section where people can list what they'd like to buy.

Payments -- Section of the website where we can collect payments.

Store -- Our prime store site where we offer memberships, merchandise, and pre-purchase tickets for upcoming events.

Donations -- Section where we offer opportunities for members to donate to our cause, in addition to the membership packages.

Orders -- Shows your orders.

Manage Purchases -- Helps to manage open orders.

My Details -- Addresses and other details.

Help -- Category where we offer documentation, tutorials, and help information for the website.  It's also where you can contact technical support.

TMGA Website Guides -- Written materials prepared specifically for this website.  This particular article is a good example.

TMGA Website Video Tutorials -- Collection of YouTube tutorial videos.

IPS Manuals -- When IPS publishes generic manuals that we deem might be helpful, we will endeavor to post them here.

Generic Computer Advice -- Collection of generic computer advice that might be helpful.  For example, how to take a screen shot on your device.