E9 registry site now live!!!

[jhjacobs]

Okay, so I tried to do my part to populate the registry with another coupe for which I have full documentation (but don't own). I didn't want to fill out the email address and user name as "the owner" because I am not in fact the owner.

Spent about 20 minutes sifting through records, populating fields, posting images (including VIN plate), only to have the entire record erased when I finished (b/c I did not fill in the three required fields).

I'm definately NOT complaining, I just want to do my part to help populate the registry and I hit a brick wall. It may be a good idea to seal the registry off to only those who own these cars (for privacy) or spam-bots. However, there will always be coupe-owners who don't particpate in this registry for whatever reason. If we (members) have reasonable knowlege, there should be a way we can enter information as non-owners, right? maybe the record has an asterick indicating that only some information is known, or the record is published without owner's consent.

After the initial surge of new records that populate the registry over the next few weeks/months, maybe a senior membership committee can be in charge of reviewing submissions by non-owners, or second parties? THat way, no bogus or erroneous entries make it in and pollute the records. Four or five semi-knowlegable members could be involved via email and publish the data, or archive it if it is insufficient or sketchy.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have three or four solid records sets to coupes I have either inspected, driven or inquired about.

Bottom line is that we'd be better off with less records if opening the floodgates would compromise the integrity, but if we can trust the sources and put some things through committee, maybe we'd really expand the coverage.

This is very helpful input. Just so you know, your email is never going on any public mailing lists and if you mark it private / "do not allow contact" it will be completely respected. The only thing that might happen is they we may contact you if there is some issue with a record (duplicate VIN or some type of data field question). We ask for an email as a why to identify the owner and a unique person and so that we can potentially address registry related matters. We had not anticipated the notion you bring up of collecting data about cars in a general sense. I am now starting to think that we might need a second, unoffical sub-registry that allows users to submit any information about "known" or "seen" coupes, including asking/sell prices, without as much qualification.

 

[jhjacobs]

Registry Photos

The registry now has a direct photo upload capability. Before you can upload photos you need to submit a registry entry and wait for it to be approved (we are doing several times everyday right now). You can upload as many pictures as you want; the first image you load will be the default image for the simple list format. The detailed record will show them all in a tiled format and they can individually be viewed by clicking on them.

As you upload images, we strongly encourage you to use small file formats / lower resolution (<200K bytes preferred). We are auto sizing down to about 600 pixels wide in your browser; a bunch of huge image files will make viewing records very slow and it will not produce better results.

Thanks!

 

[larkinca]

I love the registry. Thank you!

 

[timt]

Thank You

Dan & JJ and any/everone else involved in this project ... thank you. Back from holiday so catching up to do then will add my car for posterity.

 

[jhjacobs]

Another Status Update

Thanks to everyone for getting the registry populated The positive feedback is very heartening and makes the entire project worthwhile. Also, many of you have provided some great feedback and suggestions and we are trying to address as many of them as we can. I think we have about 40+ entries right now. We are continuing to debug and tweak the system to make it better and better. Some of the recent enhancements and planned enhancements include:

Enhancements:
1. You should receive an email notice containing the information you submit.
2. Once the record is approved you should get another email telling you it is formally in the registry.
3. We have been enhancing the admin tools.
4. We have a pull down list for country and state/province. Only US and Canada are in the list (sorry).
5. We have a direct image upload tool. You can only use this tool after your record has been approved - this is an anti-spam/porn feature. However, you can provide two image links during submission (non-upload). We have no limit on the number of images you may upload; they will show up as a thumbnail gallery when you click on a specific VIN number of a record.
6. We have enhanced record editing. You may edit any time after you submit a record.
7. We have added a "Lost Password" tool.

Plans:
1. We are working to make it easier to specify the "default" image for the simple list view; currently it is the image with the lowest alphabetic name unless you use and image link. We are working to control the image names so that the first image submitted will be the default.
2. We are trying to get pagination working. We are struggling with a strange bug but I suspect it will be finished within a day or two.
3. We are going to add some summary information data on the home page. This make take a few weeks to complete.
4. We plan to enhance the search tools.
5. We are going to add sorting tools for the main list to allow each field to become the primary sort key.

The notion of allowing non-owners to provide records is something we are trying to figure out. We current use the VIN and Email as a "unique" identifier. We may be able to allow for more generic information to be submitted or we may create an alternate non-official registry. The challenges come in the form of administration and information integrity. Personally I would love to collect lots of data including sale prices observed. However, this may actually be something to address on the e9coupe.com site.

Keep the suggestions coming! :idea:

I want to give a special thank you to those who have contributed to support the operation of the registry. Our costs are not very high, only about $150/year but we truly appreciate the support. We are going to add a "supporters" page to provide appropriate recognition.

 

[dang]

JJ and Tom, that stats chart on the main page is a great idea! The site is really starting to show its potential now...

Dan

 

[verde2002]

uploading photos

How do I upload a photo of my car from my computer? I do not have a url address as requested. My photo is on a file in my computer.

 

[acat2002]

JJ and Tom, that stats chart on the main page is a great idea! The site is really starting to show its potential now...

Dan

+1 That was a fantastic idea!

 

[lip277]

The Registry is great. I appreciate the efforts it has taken (and will take) to do this. I entered my car earlier (I think I was the 4'th or 5'th to do so... )

A couple of thoughts (and observations) - None

• A- Would it be possible to have the default display for the cars in order of VIN? I think right now it is by model (as the 2.5 shows at the top).
• B- I was not able to get the 'drop down' model filter to work with IE8. Firefox 3.5.4 works fine.... I don't know if that is my machine or more generic.
• C- Speaking of 'drop down' - would it be possible to also include the country and color in that activity (maybe just have the headers across the top of the page do that)?
• D- At the bottom of the page (where you can select the page) - would it be possible to include a 'show all'?

Again - Thanks.....

 

[dang]

The Registry is great. I appreciate the efforts it has taken (and will take) to do this. I entered my car earlier (I think I was the 4'th or 5'th to do so... )

A couple of thoughts (and observations) - None

• A- Would it be possible to have the default display for the cars in order of VIN? I think right now it is by model (as the 2.5 shows at the top).
• B- I was not able to get the 'drop down' model filter to work with IE8. Firefox 3.5.4 works fine.... I don't know if that is my machine or more generic.
• C- Speaking of 'drop down' - would it be possible to also include the country and color in that activity (maybe just have the headers across the top of the page do that)?
• D- At the bottom of the page (where you can select the page) - would it be possible to include a 'show all'?

Again - Thanks.....

The VIN sort will be taken care of with each column header being a sort button. (planned) Country and colors will also be taken care of with updates. A "Show All" selection might work now, but I doubt it would be a good choice once we have hundreds of listings. The browser problem is always good feedback and will be dealt with I'm sure. There's a big list! ;-)

I'm speaking for JJ and Tom, I'm just watching...

Dan

 

[jhjacobs]

How do I upload a photo of my car from my computer? I do not have a url address as requested. My photo is on a file in my computer.

This function should now work. Here is how the system works.

Once you submit a registry entry you should receive and email with the details. At this time it is in a pending queue. As we see these entries show up we go in and review to make sure that there are no major errors and more importantly that it is not porn/spam. During this pending period, and anytime thereafter, you can actually go back in and update your entry - you will need your VIN, email, and password you created. (If you lose your password there is a simple button get retrieve it through email). During initial submission you can provide an image URL but you can't upload images.

Once the registry entry is approved it will appear in the formal list; you will also receive another email indicating this. After it is approved you can go in to the "Upload Images" tab (login required) and pull files from your disk; we have no limit on the number. I think the image with the lowest alphabet name will appear as your default image; we are working to make this selection easier. We can also fix it manually if you send a note to us. Only one image is displayed on the primary list but if you click on the VIN you can see the detailed record and the complete gallery you submitted.

I plan to add some FAQ or drop down help/info functions...

 

[jhjacobs]

+1 That was a fantastic idea!

The first cut of the summary chart is now working! We plan to make it all hot linked for summary reports. Also, in the registry listing the "E9-Models" entry is a pull down list that provides quick search. We expect to enhance these functions as we go.

We have added support for the 2.5cs (never even new it existed).

We are actively trying to figure out how to add the ability for un-official entries like Ebay and advertised cars, cars from other lists / records, etc. We probably don't want these treated as official registry cars but the database can take them and sort / display accordingly. Probably the most controversial thing we are kicking around is the addition of two fields: Asking/Purchase Price and Year. We may also add a field for car condition (1-5 stars). While we certainly will never be able to settle the "how much is this coupe worth" question we may be able to provide some interesting statistical data to fuel the controversies. :twisted:

We are also hoping to provide some canned summary reports that can be downloaded. We need to make sure that these do not violate any privacy concerns so the reports may be somewhat sterile but I think we have enough data to make them interesting.

All of the feedback and support is really great and helpful - keep it coming! We are doing our best to respond to all inquiries and consider all suggestions but we all have day jobs so if we overlook something, don't respond, or respond slowly, it is not intentional.

 

[jhjacobs]

The VIN sort will be taken care of with each column header being a sort button. (planned) Country and colors will also be taken care of with updates. A "Show All" selection might work now, but I doubt it would be a good choice once we have hundreds of listings. The browser problem is always good feedback and will be dealt with I'm sure. There's a big list! ;-)

I'm speaking for JJ and Tom, I'm just watching...

Dan

OK. Country is easy. We'll get that knocked out. Colors... I just found my official factory colors chart for all BMW which includes coupes and 2002's. I think we can get this put into a pull down list too. I hope no one has painted their coupe a non-standard color... that could be grounds for being banned from the registry :twisted:

 

[jhjacobs]

The Registry is great. I appreciate the efforts it has taken (and will take) to do this. I entered my car earlier (I think I was the 4'th or 5'th to do so... )

A couple of thoughts (and observations) - None

• A- Would it be possible to have the default display for the cars in order of VIN? I think right now it is by model (as the 2.5 shows at the top).
• B- I was not able to get the 'drop down' model filter to work with IE8. Firefox 3.5.4 works fine.... I don't know if that is my machine or more generic.
• C- Speaking of 'drop down' - would it be possible to also include the country and color in that activity (maybe just have the headers across the top of the page do that)?
• D- At the bottom of the page (where you can select the page) - would it be possible to include a 'show all'?

Again - Thanks.....

A. This should be addressed soon. Lots of sorting stuff being worked on.
B. We did this intentionally as a snub to MS. We like Chrome. Seriously, we'll figure it out.
C. That's the idea. Just a bit more planned work.
D. Should be possible to have a show all. Keep watching.

There are site enhancements being added almost daily. It is not really possible to update this thread with everything so I recommend hitting the registry site regularly to poke around.

 

[jhjacobs]

Fine with me, but how about adding 2000C/CS coupes?

Bill - 2000 C/CS are supported. Now, who is going to register one? Consider this to be your personal quest! :mrgreen:

 

[Bill Riblett]

Thanks John, I did see that. I am gathering info to post for the 3 cars I still have as well as the 5 I have parted out in years past:
70 2800CSA
67 2000CS
73 3.0CSA
67 2000CS
66 2000C
I'm still looking for VINs for some of these.

 

[HB Chris]

Which year is correct

I have noticed that several coupes with VINs after mine, 2250609, built May `73, that are listed as `72 models. They may very well be registered as 72s, but I wonder if the owners have the actual build date from BMW. It adds some confusion when someone is trying to establish the year based upon the VINs in our registry.

I have also had trouble logging on, after 3 or 4 tries it usually lets me in but not always. Glad to see so many owners adding their coupes!

 

[TodB]

Registry

Any way we can get the date posted/last modified on the Registry view?

 

[jhjacobs]

I have noticed that several coupes with VINs after mine, 2250609, built May `73, that are listed as `72 models. They may very well be registered as 72s, but I wonder if the owners have the actual build date from BMW. It adds some confusion when someone is trying to establish the year based upon the VINs in our registry.

I have also had trouble logging on, after 3 or 4 tries it usually lets me in but not always. Glad to see so many owners adding their coupes!

I also have some trouble logging in. We'll take a look at this and see what might be happening - I see exactly the same thing so we should be able to troubleshoot it - I thought it was just my fat fingers.

The VIN / build date is another thing that confuses me. My coupe is a 3.0cs with a 1971 build date and a 1972 VIN. Go figure. I am wondering if Karman was sporadic about starting and finishing builds for individual coupes. I suspect there are some experts here that can shed some light on the topic.

 

[jhjacobs]

Any way we can get the date posted/last modified on the Registry view?

Request in the queue. Should be simple.