Seeing the other thread about the stolen car getting returned after people read about it on the web made me recall my idea to set up a "posse network". I came up with the idea a long while back when I was still frequenting MNSC with all its members blanketing the Cities rather well. With how prevalent text messaging, picture mail, and data plans are on cell phones these days this may be ever easier. Here's how it works: Several key members volunteer to be "dispatchers" and maintain a list of member cell numbers or mobile device emails. If a member has a car stolen these dispatchers put out a bulletin on the distribution list to all other members with make, model, color, license plate, etc. for what is essentially a civilian BOLO. Some may even choose to ride out and actively look around for the stolen vehicle. At any rate it gets the word out fast because, just like kidnappings, the first moments are critical. Of course there is a bit more to it, like rules of engagement to ensure the safety of our members and to allow law enforcement to do its job. You'd also want to make sure to screen members enough so that you aren't just letting thieves set up an early warning system. Even if they did get onto the DL it would only tell them they were being hunted. Anybody like the idea enough to help me get it going?
sounds like a good idea, and i'll volunteer to dispatch. were you thinking of this just as a mnsubaru thing, or car people in general? if it were just 'us' it could also be used for club announcements ie 'spring meet today 12noon... xyz address', or spur of the moment meets/events. maybe have different levels of messages people could sign up to get so they could select if they want to get misc things, or just the stolen car alerts. so what's a good database for the info, and how would it run? yahoo messanger, aim, email? is there already something like this going on?
I really like that whole Forum update things sent to a cell phone.. There are places you can send messages to groups. Via TXT which i think everyone has now. (i know you don't carpet muncher)?
Ok, if you are going to do this, a better idea would be to set up a site where people could go to report thefts...location, plate #, etc. Then have a location based RSS feed that enthusiast sites could subscribe to. That way only pertinent information is displayed for your group's region. If you make this just for MNSubaru, I see it being not very useful. But make something that can be incorproated by everyone from every car club in MN including motorcycle enthusiast sites, and you would probably have a pretty nice dragnet of eyes. Then, when the RSS feed puts the ticker across your favorite car site's pages, you can bet that everyone viewing the site would call someone they know to say "Hey, be on teh lookout".
Kind of like an "Amber Alert" for cars? That's a good idea. You'd have to make each site you want to be affiliated with provide a link to it - or even better, a ticker across the top of the frontpage of whatever forum. That wouldn't be too hard to set up, and then if the site wants it, they just have to "subscribe" to it via their own forum ... does that make sense? Also, i know it's silly, but you could make a facebook group or something that would put out alerts that people who use facebook can see. Just a suggestion, I'm not saying facebook as a definite answer... but just saying you should use the social networking sites to your advantage.
Yes, basically Amber Alert for stolen cars. And you could easily setup a simple, cut and paste code for webmasters to simply add to their templates for forums.
The RSS feed is a good idea but would require a PC or a phone that can support an RSS feed or similar. I was looking at the cell phone idea because it gets out quicker (not everyone camps the forums often enough to see it right away) and would catch people while they're possible already out and about. I envision people stopping to get gas, being stuck in traffic, heading out to a movie, or just out for a drive getting a text alert and instantly being aware of the situation. Automating the process is useful but would have to be safe from any sort of spamming. Linking it to an authenticated forum account would be helpful. It would also give incentive to people to be active on the forums and/or take part in their local enthusiast community. Of course requiring your own cell address to be registered in order to take advantage of the network may cut back on some spam. I'd also say require people to show proof of ownership of the vehicles they register with like some forums require when selling a car. Localization could be done using a Google Maps interface referencing member ZIP codes. That way it could expand to a nationwide system and still be used for metro areas. You can pretty easily set up districts where certain outstate people may have a stolen vehicle and it will alert the nearest major metro area in addition to nearby cities. Another issue would be misuse of the system. For instance a guy is having a fight with his girlfriend and puts out an APB through the system to find where his girlfriend took off to, see where she goes. It would also mean liability to the members who find the car and call it in to police if the system were misused. Would we need legal counsel to draft some sort of rules? I just like vigilantism I guess...
RSS doesn't require anything special for a website to display. Google's personalized main page does it all day long. I used to have an RSS of Fark.com on the front of t3hw00t. Creating the ground work would be pretty simple. You give your location and make/model/year/color of car stolen and Lic plate if possible. Then, the RSS is automaticly created by whatever software you choose. You could likely just make a forum, in the forum create a bunch of subforums for regions or states or something (it'd take a while) Then use a plugin to create RSS feeds from different forums. Sites could subscribe to (subscribing to RSS sounds more complicated than it is) and then would put the RSS ticker for the region they are in on their front page. As soon as someone reports a theft, the RSS is updated and then the next time a site with the feed gets refreshed, the ticker displays the feed.
lol the car is foe sale on ebay lol http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1991...224323793QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item330224323793 dont flame me if it was said yet
