Worked on this for over a year, looking for feedback.

[Aleksey]

My problem is that the tools section is far too limited to account for my collection (that's not meant as a humblebrag), and it missing many tools needed for jobs. I was just wondering if there's a way to grow the database through user input and moderation/crowd-editing. But I get it.


Search for my own data is useful, but what really excites me is the idea of global search. If I've done something before, I pretty much now know how to do it. If I need to replace my water pump, though, I'd love to search for that and see the tutorials other users have written. I'm imagining a rating system so you know which guides are useful and which are worthless. (Again, Allreceipes.com for fixing shit.) It could even cross-reference the tools in the tutorial across the tools in my personal toolbox.


I'm thinking far out here, and I totally respect if you're building toward a different product. I'm just excited about what you've got and I'm thinking out loud.

Agreed on toolbox, I was trying to go all out while making it and had a very complex version up at some point (semi working) but the amount of tools and relationships is so freaking complex that in order to display every different input model to user you have to pretty much shoot him in the face with data.

That's why I decided to scrap it, make it dumber and add tools that have common characteristics (size/weight/etc). Obviously it won't cover everything but it's something (for now).

I'm all up for custom input but again mapping get's lost and data becomes 100% useless for 'smart' operations.

Yes, I totally want to make this super smart and 'social' that's one of the main goals but it will take a while.

I actually use Gas Cubby (bought by fuelly, I think they'll start syncing soon) and wouldn't consider switching to a simpler system. Gas Cubby gives some real nice analysis and charts. I don't feel like you should try to build Maintenr in to a mileage tracking product as robust as Fuelly or Gas Cubby, though. That's why I suggest piggy backing on their system. But, I totally get the difficulty in relying on an outside source for data when their structure could change, or the service could go away completely.

I would pull out Gas Cubby and use it to update the log book in Maintenr with a (once a week or month) odometer record. In the end, all I care about is giving Maintenr the true mileage of my vehicles so alerts for service are accurate. A simple log book achieves that.

Yup agreed, but I'm wondering what does Gas Buddy do that's super fancy? I can build simple data sheet with base points and do some easy math to get your average MPG and do some sort of trend analysis (you filled up x times, you usually get x amount of fuel and spend x amount of in)?

I'm thinking even if I can't use that data to adjust estimates right NOW, I can use it later.

[Ocell]

I'm not looking into custom input because that will pretty much make it impossible to crowd source anything. Or if you are checking your vehicle into a mechanic who uses Maintenr but have 'oil change' in a different language we are pretty much screwed.

Mapping is important and will benefit users in the long run.

Yup, that's the goal! Still a long road ahead but I hope you can understand if we allow 'free for all' entry we will just be another dumb application that dies in few months.

I can probably build a search just for your data, want to give me an example of what would you search for and what would you want to see (from your own data)? Just so I get a feel of how you are thinking about it in your head.

Hope I'm making sense, thank you for checking it out!

My problem is that the tools section is far too limited to account for my collection (that's not meant as a humblebrag), and it missing many tools needed for jobs. I was just wondering if there's a way to grow the database through user input and moderation/crowd-editing. But I get it.


Search for my own data is useful, but what really excites me is the idea of global search. If I've done something before, I pretty much now know how to do it. If I need to replace my water pump, though, I'd love to search for that and see the tutorials other users have written. I'm imagining a rating system so you know which guides are useful and which are worthless. (Again, Allreceipes.com for fixing shit.) It could even cross-reference the tools in the tutorial across the tools in my personal toolbox.


I'm thinking far out here, and I totally respect if you're building toward a different product. I'm just excited about what you've got and I'm thinking out loud.

[TSI]

Awesome! I'm in.

[Ocell]

Great idea, I have to think about it because A) it's a third party service and B) how do I mix data between internal tracking and Fuelly.

If I added a simple log book and some basic calculations would you consider dropping fuelly? Maintenr works on mobile (and fast pretty fast).

I actually use Gas Cubby (bought by fuelly, I think they'll start syncing soon) and wouldn't consider switching to a simpler system. Gas Cubby gives some real nice analysis and charts. I don't feel like you should try to build Maintenr in to a mileage tracking product as robust as Fuelly or Gas Cubby, though. That's why I suggest piggy backing on their system. But, I totally get the difficulty in relying on an outside source for data when their structure could change, or the service could go away completely.

I would pull out Gas Cubby and use it to update the log book in Maintenr with a (once a week or month) odometer record. In the end, all I care about is giving Maintenr the true mileage of my vehicles so alerts for service are accurate. A simple log book achieves that.

[Aleksey]

I wonder if Fuelly.com has any way to tie in to their system (API?). It would be great if I could tie my Fuelly account to Maintenr, and link vehicles for automatic syncing.

I just dug in to one of my old cars (http://www.fuelly.com/driver/ocell/glc) and see that there's an RSS feed available for each car's data. That could be a good way to automatically get mileage data in to Maintenr, without reinventing the fuel/mileage user frontend.

Great idea, I have to think about it because A) it's a third party service and B) how do I mix data between internal tracking and Fuelly.

If I added a simple log book and some basic calculations would you consider dropping fuelly? Maintenr works on mobile (and fast pretty fast).

[Ocell]

Agreed.

Funny thing I got bunch of these requests, so I will be looking into it. I assume on per vehicle basis, you should have ability to enter umm how many gallons, price @ gallon and current odometer?

Is that it? :???:



:pimp:

I wonder if Fuelly.com has any way to tie in to their system (API?). It would be great if I could tie my Fuelly account to Maintenr, and link vehicles for automatic syncing.

I just dug in to one of my old cars (http://www.fuelly.com/driver/ocell/glc) and see that there's an RSS feed available for each car's data. That could be a good way to automatically get mileage data in to Maintenr, without reinventing the fuel/mileage user frontend.

[Aleksey]

Surely. Have you thought of putting in a built in VIN decoder, or linking to parts lookups like realOEM or BMWfans? What about names/nicknames for individual vehicles?

Of course, but my resources are limited at the moment. :(

Nicknames for vehicles sound like a good idea, thanks!

[Farbin Kaiber]

Surely. Have you thought of putting in a built in VIN decoder, or linking to parts lookups like realOEM or BMWfans? What about names/nicknames for individual vehicles?

[Aleksey]

I noticed no ability to put my 323i in on the dropdown list when adding a vehicle.

323i has been added, thanks for bringing that up!

[Farbin Kaiber]

I noticed no ability to put my 323i in on the dropdown list when adding a vehicle.

[Aleksey]

What I thought of first when I added my vehicles was the almost certainly inaccurate mileage estimation. It is really hard to estimate the individual driven mileage of multiple vehicles, and if that is what drives the service notifications, I'd be in trouble.
Granted I haven't spent too much time on the site yet, so shut me up if this is available, but it would be a great feature if we could track actual mileage and maybe even fuel usage, too. I know there are other sites specifically for this, but with inputs of current mileage at just two different points in time a rough estimate could be calculated for the next service date. And the more data points are added, the more accurate the prediction would become.
And if you actually do this for a year, even if just once a month, you could have a seasonal prediction of driven miles for the following years, making it easy to estimate how many seasons your winter and summer tires will last, amongst all kinds of other cool shit.

Agreed.

Funny thing I got bunch of these requests, so I will be looking into it. I assume on per vehicle basis, you should have ability to enter umm how many gallons, price @ gallon and current odometer?

Is that it? :???:

I'm now a member!

:pimp:

[KI4UJO]

I'm now a member!

[Conki]

What I thought of first when I added my vehicles was the almost certainly inaccurate mileage estimation. It is really hard to estimate the individual driven mileage of multiple vehicles, and if that is what drives the service notifications, I'd be in trouble.
Granted I haven't spent too much time on the site yet, so shut me up if this is available, but it would be a great feature if we could track actual mileage and maybe even fuel usage, too. I know there are other sites specifically for this, but with inputs of current mileage at just two different points in time a rough estimate could be calculated for the next service date. And the more data points are added, the more accurate the prediction would become.
And if you actually do this for a year, even if just once a month, you could have a seasonal prediction of driven miles for the following years, making it easy to estimate how many seasons your winter and summer tires will last, amongst all kinds of other cool shit.

[Aleksey]

Are there plans to make the data sets grow with custom user input? For instance, I'd like to add some tools that aren't in the system. Once I do that, others could get access to them. This is how gdgt.com worked when it first launched. (I know this isn't a trivial system to consider or implement.)

I'm also hoping that eventually I'll be able to search through tasks for my vehicles and see the information (tools and parts needed) and tutorials that other users have created. Is that the end goal for the site or is it going in a different direction? (Think allrecepies.com for cars)

I'm not looking into custom input because that will pretty much make it impossible to crowd source anything. Or if you are checking your vehicle into a mechanic who uses Maintenr but have 'oil change' in a different language we are pretty much screwed.

Mapping is important and will benefit users in the long run.

Yup, that's the goal! Still a long road ahead but I hope you can understand if we allow 'free for all' entry we will just be another dumb application that dies in few months.

I can probably build a search just for your data, want to give me an example of what would you search for and what would you want to see (from your own data)? Just so I get a feel of how you are thinking about it in your head.

Hope I'm making sense, thank you for checking it out!

[Ocell]

Are there plans to make the data sets grow with custom user input? For instance, I'd like to add some tools that aren't in the system. Once I do that, others could get access to them. This is how gdgt.com worked when it first launched. (I know this isn't a trivial system to consider or implement.)

I'm also hoping that eventually I'll be able to search through tasks for my vehicles and see the information (tools and parts needed) and tutorials that other users have created. Is that the end goal for the site or is it going in a different direction? (Think allrecepies.com for cars)