You can’t live with them but you can neither live without them: rules. They’re necessary to make sure that Autogespot keeps it fun for everybody. That’s why we now publish a small refresher for the advanced spotters and an all together list for the new spotters.
Thank you for reading this article. This means that we’ve drawn your attention. Of course we don’t like to delete your spots but sometimes there’s a good reason why we delete your spot. We will explain our ‘delete reasons’ in this article.
-Carrera rule (‘Carrera regel’ in Dutch): we would like to see at least two photos of a driving and four photos of a parked car for the Porsche 997 and 991 Carrera. This are very popular cars and some spotters use this model to boost their number of spots, that’s why we had to set this rule.
-Continental GT rule (‘Continental GT regel’ in Dutch): meanwhile this rule isn’t only for the Bentley Continental GT but also for the (Continental) Flying Spur and Continental GTC. This also includes the Speed versions, but NOT the Supersports versions. Next to that tuning and limited models are ruled out, because these models aren’t spotted that often. Just like the Carrera rule we only accept at least four photos of a parked car and two of a driving car. We don’t accept ingenious cutouts of the same photo to reach the limit of four photos.
-Track rule (‘Circuit’ in Dutch): of course you’re allowed to spot cars at a racing track but you’re not allowed to upload these spots. This means that you can’t upload cars spotted at the paddock, in the pit street, at the associated parking lots or access roads. There’s an exception for the Nürburgring which you can read further on in this article. Spyshots can be uploaded when you’ve spotted them at the track, as long as you check the spyshot box in the upload screen.
-Dealership/automotive company (‘Dealer/autobedrijf’ in Dutch): you’re allowed to spot at a dealership or automotive related company but you’re not allowed to upload these spots. This includes window repair companies, automotive material companies, wrapping companies and other automotive related companies. A carwash is no problem. You’re not allowed to upload cars from visitors to a dealership. Of course you can’t take photos but you’re not allowed to upload them to Autogespot.
-Double (‘Dubbel’ in Dutch): back in the days, when we still had the double rule you could only spot a car in a specific city once. Nowadays, the double rule till exists but only applies when you’ve already spotted that car before. You can upload every specific car only once. When your spot is deleted with this reason this means that you’ve already spotted this car before.
-Own cleanup (‘Eigen schoonmaak’ in Dutch): spots that are reported by yourself are deleted with this reason. This can be used to clean up your own list of spots.
- Own terrain (‘Eigen terrein’ in Dutch): Own terrain, respect the owner! Don’t climb over fences, photograph over fences or climb in bushes to spots someone’s car. You’re allowed to spot on the public streets but when we think that the privacy of the owner is infringed we will delete the spot for this reason. When you’ve made ten photos from the same angle we’re pretty sure that you didn’t have permission to spot the car on the owner’s private property and this means that we will delete your spot too.
-Event (‘Evenement’ in Dutch): photos made at meetings, events and gatherings of clubs are not accepted. Also cars that are exposed with promotional goals (in front of shops, in shopping centers etc.) are under this rule.
-Spyspot / no spyspot (‘Spyspot / geen spyspot’ in Dutch): you can upload spyspots on Autogespot. When you uploaded a spyspot which actually isn’t a spyspot you’re spot will be deleted for this reason and you will have to reupload the spot without checking the ‘this is a spyspot’ box. On the other hand when you spotted a spyspot but didn’t check the box when you uploaded the spot, the spot will be removed for this reason and you will have to reupload it and check the ‘this is a spyspot’ box.
-License plate (‘Kenteken’ in Dutch): the owner indicated that he doesn’t want to expose his license plate on Autogespot. You will have to reupload the spot and remove the license plate on your photos. You still do need to fill in the license plate field in the upload screen even when the license plate isn’t visible on the photos.
-Quality (‘Kwaliteit’ in Dutch): there are two reasons why your spot can be removed under this rule. The quality of your photos isn’t high enough, this could mean that your photos aren’t sharp, there’s a lot of noise on your photos, we can count the pixels on your photos, there’s a colour wash on your photos due to a wrong white balance or you’ve been too creative in Photoshop. With that last reason we mean that your photos still need to look realistic. When most of your photos aren’t sharp we suggest you reupload the spot with only the sharp photos. With Quality we also mean the quantity of your photos. Monotone photos (six photos of the back or only the front of a car), one photo of a car, only the front and/or back in a big city or just a piece of the car. Same goes for blurry rear or front photos. Please note: you will almost always get an extra explanation when your spot is removed under the ‘kwaliteit regel’.
-Fake (‘Nep’ in Dutch): you upload a Porsche 991 Carrera S but in the end it isn’t a real S but just a normal Carrera. Your spot will be deleted because it’s ‘fake’. This goes the same for the AMGs which aren’t a real AMG, replicas of a Ferrari or Lamborghini or converted Audis.
You’re almost at the end of this article so here’s a picture of a hamburger.
-Not spotworthy (‘Niet spotwaardig in Dutch): actually ‘spotworthy’ isn’t even a real word, but it just means that the car you’ve uploaded isn’t accepted. This can be because the car is too old, we accepted it back in the days but not anymore or just because we simply don’t accept this model. Examples of such cars are the Volkswagen Golf R32, Nissan 350Z, Honda S2000, Audi S1/S3, yeah, some people really upload these cars to Autogespot.
-Nürburg rule (‘Nürburgregel’ in Dutch): despite the fact that the Nürburgring is a track, you can upload some of your photos to Autogespot, although there are some strict rules. We definitely won’t accept these models in Nürburg and Adenau: Opel Speedster/Vauxhall VX220, Porsche Carrera S/4S/GTS/Targa, Cayman S, Boxster Spyder, 996 GT3/RS, 997 GT3/RS, Lotus Elises, Exiges, Mitsubishi Evo's, BMW M3 E90/E92/E93/F80 Coupe/Cabriolet/Sedan/Edition/CSL/CS (with exception of the M3 GTS), Ford Focus RS/RS2009/RS500 and some tuning models. All other spots from Nürburg and Adenau are individually assessed and this means that we can still delete your spot when it’s not interesting enough. You can spot a lot of cars at the Nürburgring so that’s why we want to be very strict in allowing spots from this region. You can’t upload spots in Adenau made at the entrance of the track at Breidscheid. In Nürburg you are not allowed to upload spots at the roundabout in front of the entrance of the Nordschleife, inside the gates at that same entrance and at the paddock of the GP-Strecke.
-Reupload (‘Opnieuw uploaden’ in Dutch): you’ve reported this spot yourself because you want to reupload this spot with other/better photos. It can also happen that your spot is deleted for this reason when something went wrong in processing the photos or when you didn’t fill in the license plate field. It’s required to fill in this field. For some reason spotters won’t fill in this field but this definitely is required to upload your spot to Autogespot. When your spot is deleted under this rule you are allowed to reupload your spot.
-On request owner (‘Op verzoek eigenaar’ in Dutch): when your spot is deleted with this reason, the owner indicated that he doesn’t want his car on Autogespot. You’re not allowed to reupload this spot without a license plate or to fill in another license plate in the license plate field to avoid the message. Please have respect for the owner’s decision.
-Old model (‘Oud model’ in Dutch): your spot will be deleted with this reason when you’ve spotted a Porsche 996 Carrera 4S for example. Unfortunately we can’t expect spots from this model anymore and your spot will be deleted with the reason ‘old model’.
- Place name (‘Plaatsnaam’ in Dutch): we would love to see the correct place name when you upload your spot. This means that you when you’ve spotted a car at the highway you upload it to the city or town closest by. Cities like ‘Autobahn’, ‘Snelweg’, ‘Autostrada’ or ‘Somewhere near Rotterdam’ are not okay, but ‘Highway’ and ‘Rotterdam’ are okay. Are you visiting the United States or Canada? Please fill in the State because some cities are located in more States.
-Too big / too small (‘Te groot / te klein’): it’s possible that the photos you’ve uploaded are too small. Otherwise the uploadscreen isn’t great at handling photos of 32 Mb. Tip: upload your photos with a width of 1024 pixels and a maximum size of 1Mb and they will be fine.
Finally there are a few things that need some extra attention.
-You will receive an email for every deleted spot with the reason why your spot is deleted. Sometimes you will find an extra explanation why your spot is deleted. Haven’t you received an email? We’re sorry, but you’re responsible for filling in the correct email address in your profile. Check your spam box and add us to your safe addresses.
-It’s not okay to just reuplad your spot when we deleted it, unless your spot us deleted with the ‘reupload rule’, you received an email from us with the request to reupload it or when the automatic generated mail says you can reupload the spot.
-Autogespot is no playground. This means that you can’t upload photos from Google Streetview, photos of your die cast models, your teddy bear collection, your holiday to Lloret de Mar or creations in paint.
-We love to see beautiful and qualitative spots, so keep in mind that you upload your best photos and ask yourself the question whether it’s worth uploading your photos. Also keep in mind to focus your photos on the car you’re uploading, it’s not okay to upload your first photo with a more attractive car to get some more attention.
-Do you have a question? Please send an email to feedback@autogespot.com. It’s much easier for us to answer your questions instead of receiving an angry email because we’ve deleted your spot. Keep in mind that you’ve accepted our rules when you upload your spots. When your email isn’t answered it’s possible that we haven’t received it, our answer ended up in your spam box or the tone in your email was so hostile we aren’t responding.
