Ah, what could be a better way to start off the holiday weekend than another email from someone outraged over the site(s):
I placed my information on your site concerning my Austin Healey # HBT7Lxxxxx and I was not able to edit the information I meant to say xxxxxx is my cars real number. Later I find out this information is put out all over the internet search sites, that is my personal business, you have violated my trust in your website. This information is meant only for those fellow Healey owners on this site only. If you can’t remove the information from these search engines I will have to take action and I will have to withdraw my information from your site. Believe me I will talk to each and every Healey owner, about your practices. I would give you a phone number, to reach me, but I am afraid it also would be plastered all over the internet like my Healey information was. Let know what you are going to do about this matter.
Sigh.
-
Where in any of the information on these sites does it suggest that this is some sort of private owners-only club? The sites’ raison d‘être is exactly the opposite of that, and while I welcome owners I do not, nor do I want to, cater exclusively to them, as much as that pains a few of them.
-
Folks must arrive at this site somehow (via a google search, perhaps?) and (I imagine) browse a bit before they enter their information, if they do. I thought it was apparent that nothing is hidden here; everyone can see everything. My hope is that the sites’ openness and non-exclusivity foster enthusiasm among those who aren’t owners–and encourage them to join us on our journey to bankruptcy and ruin, er, enjoying our cars!
Do I really need to let people know that search engines crawl these sites (just like the rest of the internet)? I go through reasonable pains here to allow people to be anonymous–owners as well–and to provide ways for people to get in touch without revealing any personal information. That said, if you decide to sign your name to a comment, it will be picked up eventually by google and others, I imagine.
-
Would the outraged of the world please quit with the blowhard stuff? I tend to smile, not tremble.
-
Has no one ever heard the adage about flies, honey, vinegar and all that? I normally try to work with people when they get their underwear in a bunch, but I’m far less inclined to when it’s Internet Tough Guy on the other line.
All that said, I removed this car from the Healey site. I used to fret about losing track of cars in this fashion, but at this point I could give a rat’s behind. Keeping track of a single car with an unpleasant owner just isn’t worth it. I’m posting this little missive so I can point future angry folks here without having to type it all up again. Shades of the (apocryphal?) bedbug letter!
I need a vacation! Anyone want to float me a trip to Goodwood?
What do you think of the idea of subscribing to buy a calendar (or calendars)? The thought is to allow me to get the calendars printed by a “real” printing press, which would lower the unit cost enormously, while enabling me to judge the print run and fund some of the printing ahead of time.
Instead of a calendar costing $20 plus shipping, it would probably bring the price down to $10 + shipping, and perhaps even a quantity discount (1 for $10, 2 for $16, 3 for $20, that sort of thing).
I would have to figure out a minimum quantity and a way to refund via paypal if enough weren’t sold by “press day.” In other words, if I needed 50 pre-orders to create a specific calendar, and only 20 came in for the Healey version before Nov. 15, I’d refund those folks–but if 70 people had pre-ordered the XK calendar, that one would definitely be a go.
Your thoughts welcome.
I’m currently working on a few things as I find the time. Here’s the current list:
New Features
- New & improved interactive color charts
This is going to be pretty incredible but is also consuming a lot of time. I’m hoping to roll out a test version in June.
- A light redesign of the site(s)
This is mainly to allow a bit wider layouts, clean up search forms, place common navigation in obvious places, etc. The general look and feel will remain very similar.
- Some small, unobtrusive ads
In an effort to find more time (ie pay myself/others) to accomplish some of the items on this list, and more. Ads would have to be at least generally on-topic and from reputable businesses. Get in touch if you might be interested. Of course, I have to figure out how much to charge, a complete mystery in many ways.
- Component tracker
A way to enter engine, body, gearbox numbers without knowing the car number. For example, I have an XK140 block in my shop, it should be on here in case the car exists and it could be matched to it.
Fixes & Completing the Incompletes
- Allow the early Series 1 E-Types to be entered without the “1E” prefix
- Database stats on all sites
- General knowledge articles about the cars covered (from Wikipedia, most likely) on all sites
- Finish the license plate project
- Easier entry forms (especially photo uploads)
Things I’m Thinking About
- Creating a registered user feature
The main purpose here would be to allow you to log-in for purposes of on-site bookmarking (for your favorite cars/photos), entering comments without re-filling in name fields; and other similar convenience items. There would be no charge, use it or not as you wish.
- “Likes” on photos
Not sure about this…but possibly a way to add a facebook-style thumbs-up for great photos, and some way to share with users the photos which are most liked. (Not thinking of it as a popularity contest but rather as a way for people to not miss some great content.)
- Unknown cars album
This would be a place to add photos of cars where we don’t have the chassis number. I’m reluctant to add this as it’s not all that valuable as a resource, in some ways, and I fear folks might just use it to dump photos they don’t want to spend the time entering with the right car.
What else should be on this already ambitious list?
You can now get selected RSS feeds from the “latest news” page. Look for the orange RSS icon on the sections which now have feeds.
Thanks to everyone who has added cars to the database! Looks like the next “even thousand” landmark might be 1,000 Big Healeys.
If you are on the XJ220 site, or the XJ-S site, you can now search for the six-digit serial number using the box in the left nav without having to enter all of the VIN.
Very soon we’ll be kicking off an exercise to gather everything that can be known about factory color information and put it all in one place. This will include not only the color photos you can currently see on some of the data web sites, but factory color codes, aftermarket codes, modern cross-references, interior color information, factory paint swatches, notes about period painting practices, the ability to sort by year, model, color family and much more, hopefully in an easier to comprehend display with the ability to add notes about specific colors.
If you think you can contribute to this project, drop me a line and I’ll add you to the small group who is working on this. If you have done research on a particular color or colors, own (and are willing to scan or have scanned) original factory color charts, or whatever may be your interest, we’d love to have your help, no matter which model or time period you may be interested in.
Visit the calendar page to preview (and purchase!) the 2010 Calendars.
(You know, I could cut the price in half if I could guarantee selling enough calendars to have them printed on a press, rather than using “on-demand” printing. But the quantities I would need to sell would be daunting, about ten times what I sell now. I don’t have a good feel for how many people refrain from buying a calendar because the price is just too steep. Would I gain a ten-fold jump in sales by cutting the price from $20 to $10 apiece? I have no way of knowing.)
The 2010 Calendars are being proofread and should be available in the next couple of days. You can see that on the calendar page. As always, they will be $20 each, of which $5 comes back to us to help support the site.
Thanks to the efforts of the good folks at Xclusively Jaguar, we now have every XJ-S Cabriolet online at xjsdata.com. This amounts to 5,013 cars, of which only about 100 were already recorded here. This is just tremendous and we really appreciate the open and friendly communication–and effort–put in by Bleasie and his colleagues.
