Also what becomes a reccomended part? Who makes the call? 100 people giving feed back, 10,000 miles covered? By who? Does one persons good feed back warrent it to be "reccomended"?
Driving styles can take very different tolls on parts. One mans good part is another mans ebay crap.
No doubt create lots of discussions of why XYZ part is not recommended. Person A says its good. Person B says don't bother, failed in 500 miles.
Some may have bad experience of said part, others good.
Personally I think it is a can of worms, best kept shut.
It strikes me that you have benefited massively from experience and guidance on what parts to use and where to obtain them (either shared openly on the forum or first hand from the admins) - it seems a bit selfish to not share that knowledge with future naive Omega owners.
Clearly there are some caveats
- OOF needs to include disclaimers in any advice given
- The owner profile is changing - A few years ago a sizeable minority of members were driving £10K cars and paying main dealers to 'service' them. Now the newest cars are 13 years old and worth pocket money either owned by enthusiasts or 'cost conscious' (tight fisted) owners. The enthusiasts are happy to fit the best parts, the cost conscious will fit pattern every time.
Maybe recommended threads should be set up as polls. If you see a recommendation you don't agree with you would then get a chance to flag it without getting lost on page 23 of the comments?
But it's shared all the time? Not sure how it's not being shared? Or how
I'm personally restricting it?
If someone posts up asking about New Shocks, Belt, tyres ect, everyone gives their opinion, including me. It's all there in a single thread, people recommend various elements, some dating back from when OOF was founded. Eg cam sensors being GM only, to new stuff where we suggest some parts on test, or more recently success stories such as Meyle?
That's how the forums work, I personally don't see the point in another big list that needs to be maintained and discussed about what goes in it.
Just put your thoughts/opinion into a newbie or long standing members thread, job done. Why create more work/effort/maintenance?
OOF has been around for what, nearly 10 years now? When I first bought my 2.2 in 2005, it's never been dealer serviced. So I don't think the approach to parts has changed that much, if at-all. Just best value for money, which has always been the case for any recommendation.