December 2024
Hello Friends, I hope you've had a good 2024 and things are going well. I'm writing in hopes of raising money to fund some overdue development projects here at "collectordata HQ".
It's a bit hard to believe I launched the first of these sites 23 years ago, and first started working on the project more than 25 years ago!
Some of the code-base is still from that period and the world has moved on. If you've been a visitor to these sites over time you may remember we had a site outage for a couple of weeks a few years back due to a server upgrade which caught me napping. From time to time the underlying system software is upgraded, and if that includes a "major version" upgrade of PHP (the coding language the sites are written in) it can mean the site code failing as the rules about using the language change. Another major version upgrade of PHP is approaching and I'm hopeful that I can be in front of that event, rather than playing catch-up, like last time.
Brodie, Chief FInancial Officer here at Collector Data Worldwide Enterprises. Note E-Type not my car; re-assembling it for a client as a way to make ends meet!
Unfortunately, life has handed me a number of unexpected health and financial setbacks over the past few years, and I really need to "pay myself" to work on these sites as I cannot afford to "steal" possibly billable time from myself--time which keeps the lights on here (sadly, only fairly dimly). In addition to the update for the new language standards, I would love to fix a couple of long-standing "broken" features--and perhaps even add a couple of new features, given the chance. That will depend on how much y'all might pitch in.
I'm asking you to help me accomplish this by donating money to the site. To those of you who have donated in the past (a fairly exclusive club, sadly enough), thank you! If you enjoy this site or find it useful, I hope you might see your way clear to donating what you can. I am not a charity, so unfortunately your donations will not be tax-deductable (assuming that's a thing where you live), but they are appreciated none the less and do help to keep this resource available to you!
As an aside, when these sites were under initial development in 1999 and 2000, running a site like this looked like a viable way to make a living--what with the crazy ad dollars being splashed around at the time...but the "dot com boom" imploded and that was that. Ah, well. It would be a lovely thing, but I'm not sure how it would be possible now, given the cost of everything these days. (But if you have money and a longing to be a patron, I'd be all ears!)
The tasks which I hope to accomplish include:
- Update the site's code to run on the new version of PHP, as mentioned above; this is important
- Fix the "owner's area", which I believe was a victim of the last time this site was knocked offline by a language version change
- Do a limited "performance review" to see how well the database queries are holding up with our larger database, and see if we're still in the bounds of "best practices"
- See if there are better image uploading tools which can be integrated into the site
These sites are so ancient (by web standards) they pre-date smart phones--and so they don't have any concessions to display in a friendly fashion on a small screen (i.e., they're not "mobile friendly"). So a "stretch goal" in this fundraising effort would be to update the design of the sites to make them easier to use for folks visting on pads and phones, without losing the current "feel" of the sites. This would be a big project, probably deserving of its own fundraiser, but it would be amazing to get done.
I don't know if simply entreating folks to use the paypal donate button you can find on all site pages is enough (you can do so right now!), or would y'all be more likely to respond to a "gofundme" (or similar) campaign? I've resisted trying to "monetize" the sites (hence the general lack of ads), mainly because my investigations suggest the monthly revenue would not be enough to cover the administration costs of such a program, or the possible annoyance to you, the users.
I've also considered perhaps trying a "Patreon" memebership model, but it's difficult to determine what the "perks" of various membership levels would be, and if that implies paying for access to certain features, what would remain free for all to use, which I think is an important part of what we do here.
I was approached about selling the sites a while ago. I hadn't thought about it, but was ultimately convinced to consider it and put together a proposal. However, the value I see in the sites was far higher than the group asking about it was prepared (or I suspect even able) to consider. It wasn't an enormous number, I felt, given the thousands of hours of effort and the actual content, but who knows. I am not actively trying to find a buyer, though I would be open to selling, if I could get my price, but have no huge desire to do so and will not be bought out "on the cheap". (Ideally, a buyer would want the sites to continue operating as they have for the last 20+ years, I'm not sure what the motivation would be otherwise, but I suppose that would not be my business.)
Thanks for reading, and please do consider donating what you can, if you're in a position to do so. It would be greatly appreciated!
Roger
October 2023
We're grateful that the Coventry Foundation has stepped up to help us by underwriting much of our hosting cost. If you have not visited their site, I encourage you to do so by clicking their name above. From their website's "vision" statement:
The Foundation has been created by passionate Jaguar® people who donate their time, resources, and services with the goal of better serving the Jaguar® Heritage and preserving the marque for future generations. We aim to leave a legacy for our children's children so that they will be able to appreciate and continue with the work that we started.
Good stuff and it's nice to see folks step up to ensure Jaguar is remembered indefinitely.
I personally have been unable to devote much time to site development (but would like to), as bills come in fast and furious and I need to concentrate on paying work. If you enjoy this site and find it useful, consider using the donate button (also in the left column) to send a bit of money that I might find an hour or two here and there to address site issues. Things which I know need attention:
- Owner's area logins not working
- Ebay links needs updating
- There is a major new release of the language this site is coded in due soon; last time this updated the site was knocked offline for a week--would like to avoid that this time round!
- The site design could use a refresh; mobile devices were not a thing when the site was launched (!) and it would be nice to make this place friendlier for phones and small screens
I'd consider opening a Patreon, but it's not clear other than a warm fuzzy feeling what I could offer as benefits without limited what non-patrons might be able to do. But maybe that is the future? My magic eight ball says ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Roger
June 2022
The sites recently ran out of disk storage at the hosting tier we were using, so had to upgrade to the next more-expensive level. Sigh.
I've been trying to figure out how to arrange things so a bit of how I make a living could reliably come from these sites. There is a lot to do to make things shipshape. I am considering starting a Patreon to try and solicit more donations, but I don't have a clear idea of what benefits would accrue to patrons. Perhaps detailed searching becomes a perk, or the ability to see more than a certain number of photos in a particular time period...
In any case, many thanks to those who have donate--and if you can consider doing so, it really does help!
Roger
January 2022
Hosting bills and domain bills are coming due, so anything you can spare would help a lot.
Noting much to report, my recovery (physical, not financial!) from my stroke has gone as well as could be hoped. Wishing all of you a prosperous and healthy 2022!
I would be amiss if I didn't thank Paul S. here for all of the work he has put in on these sites over the years. Many thanks, Paul, the sites would be shadows of themselves without your stewardship.
Roger
May 2021
A few things have been happening, not all good. I had a stroke in April and am now facing daunting medical bills, so donations very gratefully received! Thank you to all who donate!
We had a site outage on May 11 which hopefully will be resolved by the time you read this. If not, I'm busy trying to apply band-aids!
Roger
January 2020
Welp, 2019 came and went without a ton of progress on the codebase. Part of that is that donations are essentially non-existant, I think there were three or four total in 2019 (!). If you enjoy these sites and use them frequently, considering throwing a few dollars my way, or even set up a recurring payment of a few dollars per period of your choice. It really helps, both in the pocketbook and motivationally.
You can use the donate button in the left nav bar--thank you!
Roger
October 2018
If you're reading this, I've swapped the sites over to an interim code-base, which at least won't die in the middle of the night like the previous version did. (Unless--until?--I make a typo somewhere, of course).
CollectorData?
If you're seeing "collectordata" in your browser bar, using that domain allowed me to build this interim version, without taking the sites offline for weeks.
Even if you are "stuck" on "collectordata" (for example, "xk.collectordata.com"), the various "bespoke" domains ("xkdata.com", to continue the example) will still bring you here when typed into your browser, and any links you have bookmarked should still work just fine.
In other words, "xkdata.com" is exactly the same site as "xk.collectordata.com".
So What Happened?
I originally coded these sites in the early 2000s, and life has kept me from updating them much in the past 15 years--a lifetime in the world of web-servers. Well, that finally caught up to me. (Just to give you an idea of how time-intensive this process is, I have well over 100 hours invested just in updating the sites from that "oh crud!" moment to this "it pretty much looks the same" version--a version which assuredly has bugs lurking in the corners...)
To put that in perspective, I write code similar to this for a living (such as it is), and my professional rate is about that of your favorite mechanic or painter. So it's a significant investment. (Thanks to those who clicked the "make a donation" button after the recent outage! You can find it in the left nav-bar.)
Small Improvements
- Searches should work accurately again.
- The photo uploader should be a lot easier to use.
- You can view more than one week's worth of updates on the "This Week" page.
- The comments form now has a small editor, allowing some formatting without using codes.
- Nearly everything should be a bit more readable.
- There are a lot of improvements in the code, so site might be a bit faster
That said, there are undoubtedly still bugs lurking, let me know what you stumble across.
Future Plans
I will probably need to put in another similar chunk of time to convert these sites to a thoroughly modern base, taking advantage of the tools I work with "for reals" every day. I hope to accomplish that...soon?
That should bring some nice new features for you, faithful site users, which will be most-evident in a mobile-friendly format finally being available, but there will be additional improvements, some visible, some not. I have a long list of "cool" stuff I've wanted to build and maybe a bit of that can come to pass...but I absolutely need to get the sites to pay for themselves a bit more. I would love for this to be a "job", but despite what they promised us in the 1990s, that is unlikely to happen.
(Even if I don't spend any "quality time" working on the sites in any given month, they cost a chunk of change just to pay for space and hosting.)*
So I think we will be moving to some sort of membership/subscription model for the sites. I don't plan on hiding anything, per se, but if you are not a subscriber you may only be able to do a certain number of things per [fill in unit of time] or have restricted search parameters or...as I'm noodling this idea, my aim will be to keep the sites usable for the folks visiting for free, but try to provide an incentive to pitch in a bit to help keep the sites going.
Subscriptions, if and when they arrive, will be modest in cost, though there may be some tiers (mainly to offer a show of support). I may also pursue some advertising; if I do it will be topical. My tentative advances in the past, to various well-known businesses in our hobby, made it pretty clear that there was not a rich vein to be mined there. Maybe that has changed, but...
If and when these changes approach, I'll throw another missive up here explaining how I think it's going to work.
Caveat Emptor
So there we have it. I am a terrible correspondent--but I do read all of my email, so if you want to share your thoughts, please drop me a line--it will be read and appreciated. Unless you call me an arse...I mean, I already know that.
Roger
P.S. I set a "cookie" when you bopped in here, so the bright red notification in the top bar should be quieted...for now!
* To forestall suggestions about hosting: I know there may be cheaper hosting out there, but the thought of the headache--let alone time--involved in moving this site to save a few dollars per month, with all its gigabytes of data and files...I'm going to go have a lie-down