#1977mopeds

“No Keys”

1978 J.C. Penney Pinto

“Blastavus” by Brett Epp

1980 Batavus Grand Prix

Peugeot 103 powered

Today is a huge day for us, as Garage is getting a major upgrade.  We launched the current Beta version a little more than a year ago.  It has grown in leaps and bounds. Both in Builds, and people using it.  When we originally launched, we had to make a necessary sacrifices to get it out the door and in peoples hands.  Over the last year the Garage Team has been working on rebuilding the whole thing from scratch.

Lets take a minute and start first with the Garage Team.  It is all done by folks from within the Moped Community.  The Team consists of Tyler Brekke, Caleb Larsen and Daniel Kastner.  Logo work was done by Noah Love.  This whole project was done with spare time, cross country meetups, and late night hackathons. It has taken a while, but you are going to like what we came up with.

The landing page now has a bunch of great info right off the bat.  It starts off with a featured build, which will be changing from time to time, and then goes right into a grid of the top Builds.  You have Top Build, Most Likes, Most Views, Most Comments, and Trending.  This whole page is updated real time, and is constantly changing to what the coolest thing happening in Garage is at the moment. Under that, you can see the Newest and most Recently Updated builds.  From there we show off the Builders.  

Heading from the Main page, we are going to delve into some new features. The first thing we did was break up the experience a bit and focus more on the Builder, without the Builder, there would be no Builds right?  Now you can view both Builds, and Builders.  Once you find a Builder you like, you can Follow that Builder.  This is a huge improvement over the last version.  When you Follow a Builder, you can keep track of all the great projects that they are up to.  When they update their Profile, and or update a Build they are working on, you get a notice in your brand new News Feed!

The News Feed is where you can easily keep track of the Builds and Builders that you want to keep tabs on.   You no longer have to go back to see comments and likes on your builds, and or check on another builders builds to see what has changed since you last looked at them.  If you are Following a Build, any time a Build gets updated, you get notified.  Also in the feed, when you get a new Like or Follow, you get notified.  You are also now able to see who is Liking and Following, so you can Like or Follow back. You can Follow either Builds or Builders. So much great info flowing into your News Feed!

This brings us to your Profile.  We give you the ability to customize your Profile, and share a bit about yourself. Both with images, and a small Bio. You are also able to share directly with your Followers from your Profile. A simple post to your News Feed and anyone following you will get the message. Great for sharing anything you want.   If you are a Business, you can use your Profile to share with the world what it is you do.  Your Builds, and anything else you would like to show off are all laid out in your Garage.

This brings us to the meat and potatoes of Garage.  Sharing what you are building.  No longer do you need to wait until your Build is 'finished" before you posting it up.  Realistically, is anyone ever done building?  You can start a Build with as little info as you would like.  A name, and what you are up to.  Folks can follow your build through the whole process.  Any new pictures, or parts adding will send a message to your Followers News Feed letting them know what you have been up to.  They can also post comments and questions right there on your Build, so you can get tips, or share info on how you do what you do.

The Build creation is much slicker now. We have upgraded the image uploading to a new Drag and Drop interface that even lets you drag and drop your order.  For the first time also, you can add parts to Garage that were not formally listed.  If you are the first person to use a part, you have the option to Add it on up to your Build.  This will add the part to the Garage Database, and will be available for other Builders to use.

More is coming, as always.  Thanks so much for using Garage, and growing our community.