An introduction for new users

What is Autopendium?

A place to for people who love and own old cars to share information, and keep a record of their vehicles.

How does it work?

First, register and add your vehicle. There's no limit to the number of vehicles you can have on the site, but they must be at least 20 years old. We've got nothing against new cars as such (it's hard to feel much one way or another with many of them, to be honest), it's just not what this site is for.

Then you could add some photos of them, relevant resources (clubs, websites, suppliers), or add to your vehicle's running report. 

What's a running report?

Just like in a car magazine, a running report is a way for you to keep track of your vehicle's progress. It can be as simple as short snippets of news, or much more extensive entries, with photos, keeping track of the progress of a restoration or customization (have a look at my Volvo Amazon for an example of the latter).

Where is everything?

We've tried to organize the site so that information is where you're likely to want it. So if you're looking at a particular model, all the books, clubs and and websites relating to that model, should be right there on the page. Similarly, when you've registered a vehicle, all the resources for that particular model should be there on that vehicle's main page.

You can also use our search to look for anything more specific.

What if the model of my vehicle isn’t there?

No problem -- assuming the marque/manufacturer is there you can add the model yourself. If the marque isn't there, you can add it by clicking here.

How can I help?

First of all, invite your friends to join the site, and add their vehicles. autopendium will work best if it's a vibrant, active site with lots of vehicles and regular users.

You can also add resources, histories or snippets of information about any model. After all, it's people like you who are the real experts.

The website sometimes seems a bit slow, or throws up errors

At this very early stage in the website’s life, we’re still ironing out some of the bugs and improving it -- shaking it down, if you like. Give us a few spells around the track to get things right, and be reassured that we get sent an email every time you see an error, so that we can solve that problem as quickly as possible.

So will I lose what I enter?

We’re backing up your data twice a day to an off-site location (which is itself backed up) to avoid the loss of data, but we are dealing with computers, and things do go wrong. Even paper records get burnt sometimes.

Who owns the data I enter?

You do. By entering data on the site, you're obviously giving us only the right to publish it (otherwise it couldn't appear on the site), but you retain the copyright (and it is important that the stuff you enter is yours), and if you ever decide to leave, we'll remove your personal information (user and vehicle data) from the site. Check out the terms & conditions for the full legal spiel.

What if I want to leave the site for good?

No problem. We'll miss you, and all that, but it's your choice. At the moment you'll need to email us, and we'll remove all personal information from the site (see above). You can even take a copy of all your personal information with you. See, the FAQ for details 


Last updated: Thu Apr 12 16:43:23 +0100 2007