Thoughts on improving the club?

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:20 am

JamesShort wrote:

Scott Johnson wrote:

Who is making sure all the personal info stored online is secure? What do we consider secure?

What I just mentioned is not implemented/live yet.

And if/when it is?

shawnwhipple · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 6:28 pm **Posts:** 603

Scott's question about security reminded me of another reason that we decided to make the forums private when they first went online was the concern of some folks that they might have their warrenty's voided if automakers see that owners were "racing" their cars at autocrosses.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:07 am

Scott Johnson wrote:

JamesShort wrote:

Scott Johnson wrote:

Who is making sure all the personal info stored online is secure? What do we consider secure?

What I just mentioned is not implemented/live yet.

And if/when it is?

It will be transfered/stored with modern security implementations: SSO with MD5 encrypted passwords, SSL, encrypted db uid/passwords in data access layer code, secured mysql/postgress relational db, etc.

JohnByers · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:39 am

shawnwhipple wrote:

Scott's question about security reminded me of another reason that we decided to make the forums private when they first went online was the concern of some folks that they might have their warrenty's voided if automakers see that owners were "racing" their cars at autocrosses.

Weak excuse. I don't see this phenomenom happening across the country with other clubs.

I can see the partial opening arguements over the open the entire thing up arguements, but don't be so afraid of change.

HOWEVER (always one of those) as many others have stated, the economy and the fact that the younger crowd simply are not as interested to drive their cars on public roads let alone autox one are also reasons that participation is going down. I have students who barely bother to get their license when the turn 18 and graduate college because mom/dad still cart them around. Kinda sad actually.

Maximize exposure, get the word out on as many levels of communication as possible and look for ways to minimize costs

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:38 pm

shawnwhipple wrote:

Scott's question about security reminded me of another reason that we decided to make the forums private when they first went online was the concern of some folks that they might have their warrenty's voided if automakers see that owners were "racing" their cars at autocrosses.

The results with your name and car are all public and I think they have even been indexed by google.

shawnwhipple · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 6:28 pm **Posts:** 603

Quote:

Weak excuse. I don't see this phenomenom happening across the country with other clubs.

I can see the partial opening arguements over the open the entire thing up arguements, but don't be so afraid of change.

Easy there dude. It wasn't actually my concern. I was serious that back when the forums were created, a percentage of club members club held that opinion. I personally wasn't worried about it back then. I'm more worried about it now, to be honest. Search engines and data mining being much better these days. If I buy a new car I will probably run it under as some other vehicle name just in case.

I do like the forums the way they are now. I think a closed, private forum has value.
Having said that, I won't get upset if we change the way it is. Will it change much if we open it up? :whoknows:

Probably not much.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 7:13 pm

Not a weak excuse John ask a few of the EVO owners whose warrenty's were voided a few years back.

JohnByers · **Posted:** Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:04 pm

Bernie Baake wrote:

Not a weak excuse John ask a few of the EVO owners whose warrenty's were voided a few years back.

And a few (one maybe?) I recall successfully via the court systems got that overturned. Point is, I know many autoxing new cars and the dealerships aren't sending out PI's in droves to deny warranty claims. I believe that concern is overwhelmingly the exception and not the rule.

No disrespect intended Shawn, just calling it like I see it.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:06 am

You don't need a PI to find out that type of info, thats why some folks don't register under their own name!!!!
Here's some of your google info:

NCR SCCA Forum - Solo/Autocross

www.ncrscca.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=solo

Solo/Autocross The place to discuss SOLO/Autocross News and Events ... 2011 Autocross Schedule « Pages 1 2 » ... By: John Byers · UPDATED 2011 POINTS ...

Future Events

www.buckeyemiataclub.com/future.htm

5th (Thurs) - Monthly meeting at Byers Mazda/Subaru. 21st (Sat) - Annual Winter Hike - Old Man's Cave (John Ness). 28th (Sat) - Car Talk and ... 13th (Sun) - CANCELLED - BMC Autocross School; (Mid May) Progressive Dinner ?. 20th (Sun) ...

THSCC Autocross - Points Event #6 | Facebook

www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=241707835849425

... with the people in your life. THSCC Autocross - Points Event #6 ... Event chairs will be the drivers of Frank, Jeremy Gast and John Byers. Coming off of a very ...

New to site - Autocross.US Forums

www.autocross.us › ... › Autocross Discussion › New to Autocross

7 posts - 5 authors - Jan 26, 2010
John Byers from Wilmington, NC. I have been autoxing for about ten years. I run with the Tarheel Sports Car Club and the occasional regional ...

Still think it's hard to find out if your racing the car????

JohnByers · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:48 am

Doesn't bother me in the least. Why I choose to autox an older, out of warranty car.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:49 am

JohnByers wrote:

Doesn't bother me in the least. Why I choose to autox an older, out of warranty car.

at the thought of John (or Jeremy) giving Mazda like 19 different VINs if he actually HAD a claim to make on Frank...

I had no issues with this as well, but I did avoid purchasing an Evo because of stories I had heard, mainly track/HPDE-oriented anecdotes. After all, autocross isn't real racing---it's all about car control, right? :wink:

JohnByers · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:59 am

I know some people would (maybe) have a valid concern of loosing their warrenty due to using their car in a manner the manuf. wouldn't approve of. I personally wouldn't buy a new car to autox or use at track days if that was a concern of mine

YMMV

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:13 am

JohnByers wrote:

I know some people would (maybe) have a valid concern of loosing their warrenty due to using their car in a manner the manuf. wouldn't approve of. I personally wouldn't buy a new car to autox or use at track days if that was a concern of mine

YMMV

The Evo thing is a hoax/scare tactic. No one can corroborate it plus it's illegal so it didn't happen

.

JohnByers · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:15 am

JamesShort wrote:

JohnByers wrote:

I know some people would (maybe) have a valid concern of loosing their warrenty due to using their car in a manner the manuf. wouldn't approve of. I personally wouldn't buy a new car to autox or use at track days if that was a concern of mine

YMMV

The Evo thing is a hoax/scare tactic. No one can corroborate it plus it's illegal so it didn't happen

.

Much better way of describing that than me!

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:46 am

1. To Scott's question about security. I think we need to have some peer review on some aspects of any future solutions and I think the security side would be one of those. I have a lot of experience on that from a design perspective and I am sure others here do as well.

2. I think prior automation efforts (initial website and this forum) came about mostly due it being a small group of people "just doing it". I think there was little or no requirements and that made it easy for it to get done. I think Mary and Carl just did the website. I believe Jason was already running a phpBB for something else and just setup the THSCC one mostly on his own.

3. There is a lot of things the club needs from an automation point of view, but a quick way to kill any project is to try to do it all at once. The list of requirements (and expectations) grow to the point that it just becomes difficult to do with volunteers who are not paid or will just take forever to finish.

So my point in all of this is that we have to walk a fine line between trying to reach to far and not far enough. For those of you in the software development business, It think we should use an Agile concept of developing and deploying small chunks and then to build upon that as we go. But at the same time I think there are certain minimal requirements that have to be met (such as the security side). Making the project too big is going to kill it. Break it up into smaller deliverables. Refactor solutions as needed as you integrate them.

I think we can implement a new or revised forum solution without having to bind that to membership automation from day one. Now that does mean that if we want to continue with a members only area, that until we automate membership side, someone is going to have to continue with the nightmare of validating requests to get into the members only section as well as removing those who have let their membership lapse. But continuing a manual progress for awhile might not be bad if there is a fix on the horizon.

Richard

THSCC Forums

Thoughts on improving the club?

Who is online