[Tyger]

Originally Posted by sandsmuseum

So, I am getting ready to clean up the Registry and make some changes.

Please let me know what you think of the following:

I will no longer display(!) the VIN in the compilation. I will provide the serial number portion only.

I plan on converting the database to include the complete build date (found on your sticker inside the driver's side door). Right now I only include the build month and get the year from the VIN, a bad assumption on my part.

For the compilation display, I will sort on the new build date. I will watch to see if the serial numbers are sorted correctly as a result and make changes if this is not(!) true.

What other sorted displays do people want to see besides chronological order? Does anyone want a general search capability? Are there any format or data entry changes people want to see?

Finally, the tough decision. I am still leaning towards wanting to have the full VIN when a new entry is created. I want to include the check digit. The reason I want to make it difficult(?) is to keep fake data from being entered. I know most of us could create a full list of legitimate numbers but hopefully if you are smart enough to do that you won't. Whereas the less intelligent might want to but will find it too difficult. Am I being overly paranoid? Since I will not be displaying the full VIN, most of you should feel comfortable doing this?

Should anyone want the VIN on display, I can always provide a check box that causes the checkdigit to be a blank when displayed. In any case, I will not provide the full VIN to anyone beyond the data entry stage.

Thoughts before I burn the midnight oil?

Michael

I think you will be doing yourself (and us) a favor by posting at least "Section Four" of the VIN, which is everything after the check digit, starting with the Model Year character. If you only include the last four digits, you will end up with different cars with the same last four, meaning that sorts using the last four will not be in chronological order after the first model year.
You might notice that a lot of your entries so far did not bother to include a build date (probably because they didn't know where (or care) to look for it, so I would be wary about using that field to sort on.
You should definitely ask for the full VIN when people enter data which will certainly help weed out spurious entries.