Enhancing the DHL section of our forum

[Roehm3108]

Don't know about the copyright issues involved, but I wonder if it would be possible for the moderators (or a nominated member) to monitor caravans that come up in areas such as ebay, gumtree or trading post, and add pics of models not already recorded, into the DHL section, so that the pictorial history is enhanced when people are looking at van models. A recent case to point, an Airstream was on ebay, which came and went very quickly. It was a bondwood version. The same has happened with other brands, of which we had no references.

Would be interested to hear what others thought about it.

Ray

[cobber]

G'day Ray,

A good idea... and anybody with nothing else to do is able to do it .
Don R apparently hasn't got much to do because he often does post ebay photos in the appropriate thread.

I suppose the ebay description and date claimed by the seller would have to be verified because they don't always get it right, but what you are suggesting would add more 'vans to the gallery and help people identify and date their vans...... 7/10

Cobber.

[Roehm3108]

Darn - only a 7 from cobber

Thought it was worth at least a 9!!!!!!!!!!! You've been watching too much of that Dancin' show!!!!!!!!!!

[Franklin1]

Once upon a time, it was very easy to copy photos from those other websites mentioned. Now, it's a convoluted process for both the ebay and Trading Post sites. Gumtree is the only one that still allows me to right click the photo and "Save as.." a photo directly to my computer.

Both ebay and Trading Post require a multi-step process of "Copy...Paste...Save as" for each individual photo. It's a real pain in the butt, and takes a lot of time to get all the photos of any one van.

I still collect photos for my own collection, but I'm much more discerning about what I collect now. Not only do I have the complicated process of collecting them, I also then have to go through the usual rigmarole of resizing them and uploading them to Photobucket before pasting them into a forum thread.

Like cobber says, anybody can post stuff into the DHL thread. You just have to weigh up whether your effort is worth it for the six people that will read it.

My understanding of the Copyright laws is that you can make copies for "research purposes" without violating the laws. Whether this means for only your personal research, or includes research on an internet forum (which is what the DHL really is) is something that the highly paid barristers that MarkT has waiting in the wings, will tell us if we are ever taken to task over what we do.

cheers,
Al.

ps. Ray, have belatedly answered your PM (as well as PMs from others ).

[seeshell]

Hi Ray

I agree with Cobber and think the idea really has merit. I'd be more generous with my grading though - 9/10!

The number of people visiting the site is steadily increasing. And per Geoff, people cruise the site to advertise or find vans to buy or even resell. The site is becoming a reference not only to Australian enthusiasts, but others from overseas too. It seems when you go online to look for info about vintage vans here, all roads lead to Rome - that's a great endorsement.

I think that the moderators have a lot to do already (thankless and often invisible though it may be) to keep the site ticking along well, and to ensure there are events like the Nationals. Great job on that front!

A nice feature of your idea to enhance the DHL area is that anyone can do it. It can be a small bit of citizenship for more of us to take an active role in doing something to build the site that we enjoy so much and often rely on for information or expertise. I'm guessing though there would need to be some kind of organisation so that there wasn't a lot of wasted effort - per Franklin1's post about how hard the pics on some sites are to get off (there's ways and means of making that simpler! )

It was so exciting to find there are others out there with the same interest (reference one of a thousand hyperactive posts from those with less than three stars...) I often feel I'd like to help, but don't feel I have knowledge to do so (though it's been pointed out that our little bit is often all there is!). I'm sure there would be others who feel the same way.

I'd like to "do my bit", and along the way learn more about lantern roofs, shapes, materials, and the original builders. Happy to be drafted to some good/useful purpose!

Waiting for my Land Girls/Munitions Factory assignment (that's one for the nerds, Don!) -

Seeshell

[Don Ricardo]

Evening all,

Good to see you all talking about how to enhance DHL! Music to my ears!

And I think I agree with everything that's been said...

I do trawl through some sections of Ebay quite regularly to collect pics of V V's to add to the collection on DHL, and as Franklin1 has commented, that process is now more time consuming than it used to be - but still possible. I don't have time to work my way through the more general sections of Ebay, or the Trading Post or Gumtree, but if somebody mentions something interesting on the forum I do go searching for it. The only exception is that I don't bother with photos of vans I can't identify, either via the description from the seller (which is often wrong) or my own knowledge - there are three of those on Ebay at the moment

As Cobber said, it is open to any forum member to collect photos and add to DHL, and any contribution in that department would be very welcome, even though according to Franklin1 there are only 6 of us who will look at your work...

If you need an explanation on how to copy the photos, send me a PM and I will provide some instructions. Although it sounds as if Seeshell may have worked out some shortcuts??

Regarding copyright, I think we are OK collecting photos from for sale advertisements. I have read somewhere that if you publish something on the internet, you have basically made it available for anybody to use. Every now and then a case is recorded where somebody objects to a photo of them on the internet being used to advertise something they don't approve of, which suggests it's a bit of a free for all out there on the 'net. On the other hand I think we need to be careful using photos which are marked copyright, and if I use them for the purposes of research (which rightly or wrongly is how I view DHL) I always acknowledge the source, and I think we all should.

So...anybody is welcome to add to DHL - the more we are able to add the more useful a resource it becomes. If you come across something but are not sure how to transfer the info to the forum, let me know and I'll follow it up (time permitting).

And Seeshell. Please report to the DHL office at 0800 hours sharp to be given your assignment for the day. There's no way your Land Girl experience should be wasted - you can become a Lane Girl instead! But don't worry about the Munitions Factory - there are no bombs on this forum, just tender plants needing a little bit (or a lot) of TLC. ;D ;D ;D

Remember:


(With apologies to the ladies of the Women's Land Army.)

Don Ricardo

[Roehm3108]

That's a great likeness of seeshell you put up there DR!!!! Looks EXACTLY like her ;D

The reason I raised this issue is because despite member being able to put up pics of vans on the DHL forum, some very interesting vans do fall through the cracks and are never seen again. I think of a small Quest advertised on gumtree recently and a brilliant Viscount on Trading Post at the moment. My thought is that perhaps this would be better co-ordinated through a specific member, who has the time/inclination/interest in doing such a task. I think of someone like a certain member who loves a particular brand of petrol

If some members have difficulty posting pics, haven't got the time or aren't sure if a particular van may be of interest for the DHL section, then they could simply relay the link to this person, who would then act on it.

That doesn't mean that members themselves can't post items of interest, just that it might pick up a lot more than are caught at the moment.

Ray