The NSX Registry

Lud · 24 August 2001

I'm working on setting up an NSX registry. Owners will be able to enter all kinds of info on their car if they like, including mods, service history, dates owned, etc. etc. I've got a few usability questions relating to security, etc.

I'm planning to do the broad categorization by:

Country
.|
.+-Year
.....|
.....+-Car Number

Would people rather see Car Number as the full VIN or just the serial number?

If only serial number, should I require the full VIN to enter a car in the registry to help ensure accuracy but have it only DISPLAY the serial number (i.e. nobody else would ever see the full VIN)?

If access to edit a car's records are password protected, what happens if the car is sold? What if someone inspects a car for a potential buyer or runs a carfax and finds out it has been wrecked - they are not the owner but would need to be able to edit the car's record.

Anyway I'd like to get some input from you guys on these issues.

...I guess it would also be good to know if people are really interested in something like this or not...?

[This message has been edited by Lud (edited 24 August 2001).]

Veleno · 25 August 2001

I think the Registry is a good idea!

Your plan for the serial and VIN are good, just keep it that way.

To help with accuracy, you should require the following:

1. By posting in the registry, the owner agrees to update the information every 6 months(or every quarter, etc...), or whenever they feel the need to.

2. If the owner fails to update their information(give maybe a 2 week time frame to do so), they relinquish the information to you(Lud), you'll change their password, and you'll note on their info page that the information is only accurate up until that date.

3. It would be a good idea to have some sort of timeline system that shows mileage and mods (if any) done/recorded at certain dates. That way we can see the true history of the car as time goes by.

I wouldn't want the information to be taken off/erased because it wasn't updated, simply because it's statistical information for us, and should the new owner try to register it, they'll know something about it's history.

This brings me to my next point. You should have it so that in case someone tries to register with the same VIN/Serial that's already been registered, the system will deny, and they must email you for more info, and what to do next. This can help with the "update" part of the registry if the car has been sold.

Hope this helps a little, and if it's confusing, excuse me because in 6 hours I'll be saying "I DO."

------------------
Richard
NSXTASY

ilya · 25 August 2001

***and if it's confusing, excuse me because in 6 hours I'll be saying "I DO."***

And you're on PRIME??? Good GOD MAN! You're more hooked than I am.

Congrats!

lemansnsx · 4 September 2001

Subject: NSX Registry??
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 14:47:07 -0400
From: Andrew Henderson
To: [email protected]

Forgive me if this has been asked before or has an obvious answer in the
FAQ that I am overlooking:
Besides the list of salvage/wrecked cars in the FAQ is there a registry for all known NSX vehicles somewhere? I know it would be a massive undertaking but I had to ask...
Cheers,
Andrew Henderson

Great to see that a registry is finally in the works - I think that over time it will be a very valuable resource!
How will privacy issues be addressed? For example:
1. Celebrity owners.
2. Potential owners who are glad to see the history of a car but then want it deleted when the car becomes theirs.
3. Owners of cars with problem histories who don't necessarily want the world to know.
4. A means of contacting people without divulging personal identifying information.

and on, and on...

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The NSX Model List Page

Lud · 5 September 2001

Those are all very good questions and I welcome suggestions on any/all points. I guess my personal feeling is that it all boils down to #4.

lemansnsx · 5 September 2001

Originally posted by Lud:
Those are all very good questions and I welcome suggestions on any/all points. I guess my personal feeling is that it all boils down to #4.

I think that if you want more

feedback you should bring this up in the general discussion section. I would have missed the topic if you had not linked to it from a thread in a different section. I (and I'm guessing many others) rarely look in the NSX Prime section...

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The NSX Model List Page

lemansnsx · 5 September 2001

Originally posted by lemansnsx:
I think that if you want more

feedback you should bring this up in the general discussion section. I would have missed the topic if you had not linked to it from a thread in a different section. I (and I'm guessing many others) rarely look in the NSX Prime section...

Of course, we should also look at how those who have gone before us have done it:

The Lamborghini Registry
Pretty basic, not much owner information, no means of contact, etc.

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The NSX Model List Page

Lud · 31 October 2001

Per lemansnsxs's suggestion I moved this topic to the General discussion forum.

lemansnsx · 31 October 2001

Originally posted by Lud:
Per lemansnsxs's suggestion I moved this topic to the General discussion forum.

I just finished my first attempt at a form to collect the information - good thing it's a slow day at work! - but it is not ready for "prime" time yet. I'm going to dig out an old Access db that I had done a while ago and dust it off then put it and the form on the web. More to follow as long as work doesn't get in the way...

flaminio · 1 November 2001

Personally, I think an "NSX Registry" is a great idea. I wouldn't worry too much about making it perfect the first time 'round -- it'd be best to get something going, and then improve upon it as seen fit.

-Bob

Lud · 1 November 2001

Originally posted by flaminio:
Personally, I think an "NSX Registry" is a great idea. I wouldn't worry too much about making it perfect the first time 'round -- it'd be best to get something going, and then improve upon it as seen fit.

-Bob

Hmm... Ok I'll finish up what I have so far and try to get it posted this weekend for comment. I'm also interested in seeing lemansnsx's ideas.

BB · 1 November 2001

Originally posted by Lud:
Those are all very good questions and I welcome suggestions on any/all points. I guess my personal feeling is that it all boils down to #4.

I think you should offer a means of contact. Let the owner have the option of including their e-mail address, phone number, etc as optional fields-- they can give as much or as little information as they feel comfortable with.

Another option would be a web-based person to person message system that lets someone converse with the owner without them having to provide their identity or actual e-mail address.

Or if that's too much work to setup, then have the system store (but not display) owner's email addresses. If someone wants to contact an owner, they fill out a form on the web site introducing themselves and asking a question to the owner. The server would then forward the message to the owner's actual e-mail address. The owner could then choose to respond or ignore the message as they wish. This should be an optional feature.

I think we should be able to come up with a better registry than those Lambo guys and I'm willing to help program the stuff if you want. At work I recently finished up a 20,000 lines of code web-based CBT system so I have lots of experience here.

[This message has been edited by BB (edited 31 October 2001).]

lemansnsx · 1 November 2001

Originally posted by Lud:
Hmm... Ok I'll finish up what I have so far and try to get it posted this weekend for comment. I'm also interested in seeing lemansnsx's ideas.

You've got mail.

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The NSX Model List Page

NSXForEver · 1 November 2001

This is a great idea.

Obviously, the Car table should be the main record - keyed on the VIN (don't have to display it, though). The owner list is important, but the registry should focus on the cars. The owners of a specific car should be a simple one to many relationship (actually many-to-many - I'll explain in a minute) and should be similar to the setup for listing mods. In other words, the owner list should simply be a part of a car's history/timeline - like a modification. When a car changes owners, there should be no issue about re-entering a car's record. When a new owner wants to add their car, they need to check to see if the VIN already exists and if so they only need to attach their new owner record to the existing car record. If their car doesn't exist in the list, then they would need to add that as well. It would be nice to allow previous owners to post their owner record for the period of time that they owned the car.

So, you could have a car table with VIN, Year, Color, mileage, etc. Technically, the VIN has some of that data in it so it's a judgement call as to whether all of the data should be duplicated with a field.

Then, you could have an owner table that would only include demographic data about an owner. Keep it generic since an owner may have owned more than one NSX. Then, you could have a bridge table (that's what I call it anyway) that ties owners to cars. This table would need to have the VIN, the OwnerID, the years/month purchased, and the year/month when ownership was terminated.

I would do mods and events(wrecks, mechanical failures, major maintenance) in a separate table to keep it flexible. The add event page could have a drop down box with an event type so that the timeline could display that info properly. I don't think a separate table for each event type would be neccessary unless you determine that the data for each is vastly different. I would have to think about that some more.

This setup will make queries a bit more difficult but the system will be very flexible. The only thing to figure out would be who has permission to alter the car data? Once a car is entered, should the record be locked? Maybe you could allow the current owner to alter certain fields like the mileage.

I can envision a pretty cool interface that displays a graphic of the car and a horizontal time graph with icons representing significant events in the cars history. Clicking on an icon brings up a detail window with more information about the event. Flash and Shockwave are also options for representing a car's history. I have experience in both if you want to do that at some point. A simple html interface would probably be a good way to start, though.

Sorry this was so long.

Matt

BB · 1 November 2001

Matt,

You make some really good points. i.e. having generic user info separate from the cars since one user might have multiple cars. I also like your idea of having a list of events associated with each car. One question I have though is do we think this "events" feature would actually see much use? For example, how many owners who had crashed their car would want a permanent record of that on the web for anyone to lookup?

Regarding pictures... Do we allow one picture per car? Or multiple pictures per car?

Regarding shockwave and flash I would say no. That stuff is best left for advertisements and people who want to promote stuff. It slows access to the site down and is really only neat the first few times you visit the site. After that it's just annoying. Plain old HTML is just fine.

Lud · 1 November 2001

Good ideas so far... Some of them may not be practical but let's keep it in brainstorm mode right now and we can pare it down later.

lemansnsx - that form looks like a good start for sure.

I'll try to bring it all together sometime this weekend for a demo. Keep the ideas and suggestions coming in!

NSXForEver · 2 November 2001

Originally posted by BB:
Matt,

You make some really good points. i.e. having generic user info separate from the cars since one user might have multiple cars. I also like your idea of having a list of events associated with each car. One question I have though is do we think this "events" feature would actually see much use? For example, how many owners who had crashed their car would want a permanent record of that on the web for anyone to lookup?

Regarding pictures... Do we allow one picture per car? Or multiple pictures per car?

Regarding shockwave and flash I would say no. That stuff is best left for advertisements and people who want to promote stuff. It slows access to the site down and is really only neat the first few times you visit the site. After that it's just annoying. Plain old HTML is just fine.

Thanks for the comments,

I agree about HTML vs. Flash/Shockwave. If a site gives me a choice, I always pick plain HTML. I just thought I would mention that I am comfortable working in Flash and Director(Shockwave) in case you guys decided to go that direction. I think an HTML interface will do just fine.

As for multiple pictures for cars, I like that idea. It wouldn't be too hard to add that functionality. Watching the changes that a car undergoes throughout it's timeline would be interesting.

Concerning the events system, I am not sure whether owners would report damage events, but I don't think it would hurt to have it there.

I am looking forward to seeing the prototype.

Matt

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2000 NSX-T #49
Silverstone/Black
9000 miles
No Mods

lemansnsx · 5 November 2001

Originally posted by Lud:
lemansnsx - that form looks like a good start for sure.

Somehow or other I left a field off that form that I sent to you. I had made a drop-down list for the source of the information in the listing. I think it is important to know if the info was submitted by the owner or harvested from an online classified or dis-interested third party.

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The NSX Model List Page

NSXocto · 5 November 2001

Has anyone seen the Ferrari list?
Is it still on the web?
I looked into it a few years ago.
I can't remember where I saw it but it had car, state, town, name, I was suprised how much personal information for each car's VIN
...But no info on condition of car's repair history- would have been too long.. LOL

lemansnsx · 5 November 2001

Originally posted by NSXocto:

Has anyone seen the Ferrari list?
Is it still on the web?
I looked into it a few years ago.
I can't remember where I saw it but it had car, state, town, name, I was suprised how much personal information for each car's VIN
...But no info on condition of car's repair history- would have been too long.. LOL

Here is a link to the data entry form for the Ferrari 330 registry: http://www.330register.com/form.cfm

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The NSX Model List Page

NSXocto · 5 November 2001

Here's another one from Ferrari that might be worth a look.

Dino Register at: http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/dinoregister/

Lud · 5 November 2001

Hmm. This is getting move involved than I originally anticipated. It may be another week or so. I am now doing it as a true database system, which I think will be worth the effort in the long run.

lemansnsx · 5 November 2001

Originally posted by Lud:
Hmm. This is getting move involved than I originally anticipated. It may be another week or so. I am now doing it as a true database system, which I think will be worth the effort in the long run.

Ahh, the dreaded scope creep!! I know it well...
Yes - in the long run the effort will be well worth it!

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The NSX Model List Page

Lud · 16 November 2001

The scope Creep is now officially way out of control!

I just wanted to assure everyone I have not forgotten about this.

Designing the Registry to work the way I want, along with a revised classified ad system and some other things are really pushing me towards fundamentaly new site architecture. So, the site is likely to undergo a major renovation towards the end of the year which will incorporate a number of changes, including the Registry section we have discussed.

I do not want to get into promising anything specific until it is actually ready because I don't believe in "vaporware," but I am really excited about it and I think everyone will be happy.

lemansnsx · 16 November 2001

Just curious what databases you have looked into for the registry? Obviously Access is not up to the task but what else have you looked at? Have you considered hsql?

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Andrew Henderson
The NSX Model List Page

[This message has been edited by lemansnsx (edited 16 November 2001).]

The NSX Registry

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