Author Topic: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!  (Read 51825 times)

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Offline Paul Jaray

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #75 on: November 17, 2015, 04:21:59 AM »
Magnette, this place is something more than just points and guesses and allow me to reply to your observations ...point by point (pun intended  :D )

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I have been a member for a few years but hardly ever go on to this now because having got over 20 points i am defined as an expert, and that means I am stuck only answering really obscure one off cars etc which is no fun as I never know any  of those.

I read your posts and you are indeed an expert. You did not solve just easy cars but often obscure ones too...but you are the 'hit and run' solver: you guess a car and if it's not, you move to the next. All legit of course, but the challenge can be found also approaching to the solution with several questions, following your intuitions, doing a little search and, of course, with a bit of sheer luck. You need time and sometimes a good library helps, but, as you pointed out, there's no much competition and I'm sure you know at least 8-10 cars that are now in the Expert section.

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Frankly the site is attracting too few people, as it relies on a small handful of people keeping it going because the whole premise is that it is only for an elite few who know every little obscure car and are called experts.  If they get good enough to earn 200 points then they become even more rarified and never get a chance to answer anything ever again except the most extreme obscurities.

True, it is attracting few people, but the right ones! Here I found the people who wrote some of the books I collect, some true car historians, collectors...even the builders of some of the obscure cars I love or their relatives. This should give you the idea of this place: not only a site where you see a picture of a car and you try to recognize it (as you can find everywhere, from Facebook to dozens of nice websites), but a sort of meeting point, where you can not just prove your knowledge and improve it, but also interact with the real world you are interested in and take (and give) what you can. There are several cars you don't know? Good, here you know they exist and someone is presenting them as a challenge for you...at the end of the process, there will be several cars you know more! And it works also if it's not you the one that solves them!

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I am no expert - I did manage to answer one car from the 'black hole' but generally have little knowledge of the cars in the expert pool, and without cheating - which defeats the whole object, and I don't want to do that - there is little point in going on the site.

Clearly I am not the only one as whenever I do go online - I've tried to do so more of late as my work hours have changed for the moment - O'm generally one of two or three people on the expert pages and it feels like the site has virtually no traffic.

For what I already wrote, cheating means do not seize the spirit of this place: you recognize 300 cars? You are not better than anyone, you just had fun in the process and let others learn something new. Who cheates, loose the good part from his side (I don't think he will get the thrill to spot a puzzle if he just finds it via Google Search by Image) but the others still will learn more.
Don't get afraid about the traffic, it follows its rules: sometimes there is a lot of movement around here and you can't just keep the pace, and other times it's quite slow.

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This thread is supposed to be welcoming new members and was started in March 2010 - it has a total of 71 replies (72 now with this) and in five and a half years that must be worrying.
True, but we never 'forced' new members to present here first and they seldom do...it's their choice after all and not a measure of the new arrivals.

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I belong to another forum group elsewhere and that just invites people (including me) to post pictures and others to answer the - no points, no banning people from responding to other answers.
It is mostly Americans, and I'm British, so I tend stay back if an easy British car is posted, to give them first go, but we deal with (postwar) production cars from everywhere ...
Me too, but I ...don't see the point (pun re-intended  ;D). I see a picture of a Stanguellini on a website and I write down: hey, it's a Stanguellini! Then everyone moves to the following picture. That's just my opinion, but I can't see not the challenge in reporting just what you know, nor the improvement in my knowledge on the subject. These websites are fun, but in a different way.
You "stay back if an easy British car is posted, to give them first go" means you know exactly what I'm talking about.
The point system is not a real way to define who knows more because people like me, that joined the site from the early years, when there was no separation between Rookies and Experts (and Pro board wasn't even born!) and all the biggest sources where still in use (now you have to reach the other part of the world to find an obscure source!) have (and received) a huge advantage. Furthermore, if you can spend many hours in the research, you'll be able to score more than someone who is much busy with the real life.
And still that little number in your profile makes you try to improve, to keep going and to better your score.
Here you won't be banned "from responding to other answers". You'll be banned if you act against this place. We have to protect the hard work some of us is doing (and did) to build and keep running this place. Few people ever get banned, and there was always a valid reason. This is the most friendly forum I ever joined, you won't read arguments of any sort and full freedom is granted in the expression of any point of view.

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Not sure who will read this - it isn't a thread that attracts much traffic - but this site is only attracting a few people and I can't help feeling this is because the rules automatically preclude people looking at the rookie cars, and because not all of us have the time to trawl through everything that has ever been posted over the years to make sure it has never been posted before.
Don't worry about reposts, we exchange PMs with the posters to advise them and he'll decide if keep it running or replace it.
About rookie's puzzles, well, it seems that they are not solved in that section and they ALL reach the expert board.  ;)

Offline Carnut

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #76 on: November 22, 2015, 12:09:51 PM »
You're right Magnette in that we really could do with more members, but there are other sites which cater for easier 'mystery cars' and this one is supposed to be for those with a bit more knowledge.  I try to post quite a few relatively easy puzzles aimed at exactly members like you as it is important for people to feel they have a chance.  Almost 100% of my puzzles are pictures from the Internet and can be found with a bit of Googling.

That said, thought has been given to a way of involving people more than is possible at the moment but no real solution has been found yet; we're fully open to ideas though!

If you want to post a puzzle there is our Search facility so you don't have to trawl through any archives!  Just enter the car's name or some other salient fact (like the builder's name if it's a one-off) and you should get either the puzzle it was in before or news that there is no such car on the database.

The database here is second to none so for anyone with an interest in the rare and unusual it really is essential reading, so please don't go away!
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Offline 72Must

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #77 on: December 05, 2015, 06:12:57 PM »
I think the current format of the site is good ,thanks to a lot of hard work by many people.. The power of the internet has brought real car "nerds" from all over the world here . If there was a way of publicising the sites existence ,it would probably attract some more "nerds"!. No doubt, for the guys who have been on here since the beginning ,puzzles were easier then,that's the nature of the beast , but I'm always amazed at the never ending supply of puzzle cars which turn up. Consequently the site is turning into an important database of vehicles. It's always interesting when people add new photos & information to old puzzles too.The latter is good ,as I think accuracy is worth striving for & makes the database more credible.

Offline Otto Puzzell

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #78 on: December 06, 2015, 04:35:49 AM »
What doesn't help this site at all is when members post ads about winning prizes by solving puzzles on other sites. In other words, using his membership here to draw members here to his own site.

As this site belongs to Ultra, it's not for me to say if the ad stays or goes.

Edited for factual content.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2016, 11:53:41 AM by Ultra »
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Online nicanary

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #79 on: December 12, 2016, 07:10:02 AM »
1500 members!!!!! I've been waiting for this moment for some weeks now. Watch out Mark Zuckerberg, we're on your tail......
I must be right - that's what it says on Wikipedia

Offline Oguerrerob

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #80 on: December 12, 2016, 07:31:02 AM »
1500 members!!!!! I've been waiting for this moment for some weeks now. Watch out Mark Zuckerberg, we're on your tail......
Good one! :lmao:

Offline jaribecker123

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #81 on: July 25, 2017, 02:15:28 AM »
Hey, I'm Jari Becker, Nice to meet you all

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #82 on: July 25, 2017, 03:50:20 AM »
Hey, I'm Jari Becker, Nice to meet you all

Nice to meet you too, Jan. Welcome. This is a very friendly site compared to many on the internet and we all hope you will enjoy it. Feel free to answer any puzzles you wish and to set your own in due course if you want to. We need active members - please don't disappear because you find the puzzles too hard!  Let us know if this is the case, and we may do something about it. Constructive criticism is always welcome.
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Offline das_mittel

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #83 on: June 29, 2018, 01:58:47 AM »
Hope this is the right area to introduce myself! Glad to be here  :)

Is being able to post a new topic a privilege locked from new members until they have a certain post count? I couldn't find the aforementioned SMF button to post a new car puzzle. Any help/insight would be much appreciated, thanks!
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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #84 on: June 29, 2018, 04:21:24 AM »
Hope this is the right area to introduce myself! Glad to be here  :)

Is being able to post a new topic a privilege locked from new members until they have a certain post count? I couldn't find the aforementioned SMF button to post a new car puzzle. Any help/insight would be much appreciated, thanks!

Good morning and welcome. Hope you enjoy the site, which was started in the US but has now become very much an international community.

I can see no reason why you cannot post a puzzle, although my IT skills are legendary on Autopuzzles for their absence. Maybe you simply needed to post something, anything , and this has now been achieved. Is it a puzzle which you are considering, or an automotive topic on another section of the site?
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Offline Wendax

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #85 on: June 29, 2018, 05:10:06 AM »
Welcome to AutoPuzzles, das_mittel!

In order to post puzzles of your own, you must have reached Expert level, see https://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/rookie-autopuzzles/updated!-puzzles-rulebook-please-read-before-posting-in-this-puzzles-a-6857/
This can be reached quite easily (as far as "easy" can be a suiting description for our puzzles), as puzzles usually start at Rookie level. There only Rookies are allowed to answer, so you are protected from our Experts and Professionals. Enjoy this addictive site.

Offline das_mittel

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #86 on: June 29, 2018, 01:22:20 PM »
Mmm, I anticipated that some level lock was in place. Thanks for the warm welcome everyone, I've posted my first guess ever! My end goal would be to post my very own challenge  :D

Thank you for the recommendations on reading the rules too, I read one for the general site (and answering/posting challenges) but somehow missed the one for rookie puzzles, d'oh!
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Offline Enzo Rhode-Hagen

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #87 on: January 19, 2020, 05:28:37 AM »
Hi,
Enzo Rhode-Hagen here, and yes, this is a pseudo ;-)
I am French but I am currently living in Bruges, Belgium.

I have a long time unexplained passion for cars and bikes, and lately with my wife we spend more and more time in prewar motorcycles meetings around Belgium.

Like some of you already wrote, I thought I already knew 1 or 2 things about car, and then I found this forum. On top of allowing me to know some new cars, it also helps me refine my Internet search skills.

Have fun,
Enzo Rhode-Hagen

Offline austrosplit

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #88 on: September 04, 2020, 06:59:28 AM »
Hi everybody,  :)

i just registered yesterday and wanted to introduce myself.
My name is Alex, i am 28 years old and a big fan of aircooled Volkswagen cars, especially buses.
I stumbled over this site during a research - and AP immediately helped me to solve a mystery that hunted me for the last 4 years!
You won't believe how happy i was!  ;D ;D ;D

So as i am living in Vienna - Austria, i am highly interested in coachbuilders that were based in my hometown, especially the ones that worked with VW cars.
I am part of kind of a "research team" together with 3 friends who are also deep into the VW Bus scene. Two of them recovered the only known surviving Kohlruss VW Bus (1954) in an Austrian forest back in 2012. The third on is a guy from UK who brought the - currently only known surviving - Kohlruss Bus back to life between 2014 and 2016. In Summer 2016 he drove all the way from UK to Grossglockner VW Bus meeting in Austria - in that bus and on its own axle.
Together, we really search a lot about buses built by Kohlruss, Schreiner & Co. We collect vintage photos, locate still existing companies that used such buses back in the Fifties and Sixties and collect witness reports and all kind of other information. Of course also about Kohlruss' VW/Steyr beetle/baby mixes, where we gladly also have contact to a collector who still owns a handful of these cars today. Some day we might plan to publish a book with all of our research, who knows, time will show..
A tiny preview is already available on my website or in relevant forums where i posted it back in 2016..

Anyways, i would be very happy and thankful to receive any kind of information regarding VW coachbuild work from the 1950s, especially concerning Austria - but of course also the ones from other countries. It doesn't matter if it is Weingartshofer, Karl Schreiner & Söhne, Brentenwerke, Kohlruss, Kastenhofer, etc... all hints are welcome!

Maybe we can exchange some knowledge - contact me via pm, mail or on my website ;)

I am looking forward to be part of AP and hope that i can gain more knowledge in general - concerning all coachbuilders in general by taking part in the unsolved riddles.
It only can get better, as i am really just focused on the VW based ones so far, but as i said - willing to learn.

Have a nice day,
Alex
Highly interested in the work of coachbuilders from Vienna and Austria. Especially the ones that modified VW buses of the early 1950s. All info highly appreciated!!!

www.austrosplit.com
A father son project, restoring a 1967 Volkswagen Type 2 Bus

Offline Oguerrerob

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #89 on: September 04, 2020, 07:05:30 AM »
Welcome to all newcomers! Enjoy the site

Offline Carnut

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #90 on: September 04, 2020, 08:08:17 AM »
Welcome to AP Alex.
You're the second Alex from Vienna we have here on-site: you probably know the other one, a Vienna model shop ower whose name here is fromwien. If you know only a fraction of what he knows you'll know a lot!
There's a huge amount of information about VW here on site. You'll find it by using the Search facility and entering the name of the coachbuilder you're looking for information about.
Happy puzzling!
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Offline austrosplit

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #91 on: September 04, 2020, 11:13:30 AM »
Thank you guys!  :D

No, i don't know fromwien so far - but that might hopefully change in the near future.  ;)
And of course i already spent several hours using the search-function.  :P Really interesting and helpful stuff here on AP!
Highly interested in the work of coachbuilders from Vienna and Austria. Especially the ones that modified VW buses of the early 1950s. All info highly appreciated!!!

www.austrosplit.com
A father son project, restoring a 1967 Volkswagen Type 2 Bus

Offline 727

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #92 on: November 20, 2020, 04:50:13 PM »
I wanted to create my first puzzle today for a challenge but there is no option to create a new thread in the Rookies category, does it require a certain number of points? I cannot find any information in the Help tab or in the thread descriptions. Where can I find this info? Thanks.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2020, 05:21:36 PM by 727 »

Offline Carnut

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #93 on: November 20, 2020, 05:44:00 PM »
I'm afraid Rpokies aren't able to post puzzles.
First you have to become an Expert then you can post them at your leisure.
I think the only place where this is explained is in the very first post on the Experts board.
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Offline 727

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #94 on: November 20, 2020, 06:14:03 PM »
Thanks. A bit disappointing. I am more of an observer than an identifier and personally I'd highly discourage this usage of points or any kind of ranks on this forum (or any other forum, for that matter). I'd like it to be open to everyone and people should be considered equal. Any 'rookie' can be an 'expert' without publicly having to shout 'look at me, I am an expert' under their avatar and without having to gather these 400 points just to get basic forum posting rights. I'm only interested in certain vehicles and 400 points would take years. Right now I have quite a bit of good puzzles to post and I'm unable to do it because of these restrictions. This system categorizes users and blocks their actions. And it will encourage cheating techniques to find the car details to get these points or tags, medals, username colors, whatever. I do not think this is a good method to welcome new members but this is just my feedback. Please understand the fact that not everyone is interested in every vehicle posted in here and people have different taste in transportation. I observed that members are basically 'working' for points rather than making it a fun hobby. Losing these ranks, people will lose interest in getting a better tag and will be equal to everyone else and will post in whatever they're truly interested in, and when and if they feel like it. And there would be many more active puzzles to solve or analyze because everyone can post. Having identified North Korean transportation for the last 10 years I would say there is no such thing as an 'expert' or a 'professional' or a 'master' in unknown vehicles unless you personally observed the ID tag of the vehicle in question. But a master in Googling? Sure.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2020, 09:55:24 PM by 727 »

Offline Carnut

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #95 on: November 21, 2020, 04:33:09 AM »
Actually you only need to solve 50 puzzles to become an Expert, not 400!  It says that under the Rookie section heading on the Home page but if you only read the heading about the Experts on the Home page it could perhaps be confusing..
Then an Expert needs to have solved 400 points to become a Professional.
So you're not so far off becoming an Expert and being able to post your puzzles, which we would all welcome.

The reason we have to have different levels and the ability to solve puzzles depends on which level you are at is that we have some members here with astonishing knowledge and early experience showed that if all of us could reply to all puzzles it's only 4 or 5 puzzlers who would solve almost everything as soon as it initially appeared. Few puzzlers would then come here as there would be nothing for them to solve apart from the puzzles that are so difficult even those who know practically everything can't solve them. 

Whilst posting puzzles is also fun the biggest amount of fun for most of us is searching for the solution to a puzzle.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2020, 04:35:10 AM by Carnut »
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Offline 727

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #96 on: November 28, 2020, 05:43:31 AM »
Something weird keeps happening when I delete a comment, it ends up in the News, Information and Feedback category as a new thread for some reason. Has anyone else experienced this?

Offline Wendax

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #97 on: November 28, 2020, 06:10:27 AM »
Yes, that is a security feature in order to avoid accidental deletions. When you delete a post in the News, Information and Feedback category (again), it is gone for good.

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #98 on: November 28, 2020, 06:22:25 AM »
Ah, thanks Wendax, that explains it.

Offline Romantic Technofreak

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Re: Hello and Welcome New Members!!!
« Reply #99 on: December 09, 2020, 10:38:17 AM »
Hi, I would like to introduce myself. I am a 62-year-old German aircraft enthusiast and use to collect aircraft pictures. While going after them, I often see pictures of beautiful  or interesting cars or other technical items and often download them as well. So, I like to have an archive, but sometimes it is impossible to properly sort it. Because the denomination is not given or unsure. Often it happens that I find an aircraft I cannot name, and in this case I know where to turn to. For a long period, I had no time to update my car archive. Also in this case, some pictures remain not properly labeled. I hope for your assistance to solve these problems.

Regards, RT