#rant Unfortunately, now the famous Autogespot exotic car spotting site become nonsense and trash.

03 Sep 2018

Just like what I expressed my opinion about many of the car communities in Facebook. I normally don’t like to diss places, people or sites. But I’m now going to tell the truth about the famous Autogespot exotic car spotting site.

I started posting spots on Autogespot since mid-2017. Back then, my reputation was little since I don’t have many elligible spots to post. But now, when my reputation was big and I was already well-known by Autogespot members, now all the nonsense and cruelty comes down.

I don’t know who dare to did this, either because they were filled with hate, jealousy ot what so ever it was. But what mostly Autogespot didn’t realize is what they did can damage their reputation as a site.

Here are reasons why I think Autogespot is nonsense/trash.

1. One false claim, and there goes your spot.

The number one problem in Autogespot. Reports. Any reports of a spot as dealer or event will be straightly removed without wait. ‘Dealer’ or ‘event’ were 2 fatal words to be used on any reports. You use it on someone else’s spot (or vice versa), will spark an incident which results in the said spot being removed.

2. They are ready to remove any spots and/or take massive actions, without checking the truth, or sometimes even under false statements.

This is one notable thing that me (and some of my ExoticSpotter.com) friends hate about Autogespot. The admins will remove any spots/do anything even without checking the truth, or even under false statements.

So even if you post a legal exotic car spot (e.g. a Ferrari F12berlinetta at Plaza Senayan shopping mall) but then someone reports your spot as an event, there it goes. No complaints, no questions, no feedbacks. That’s it. Which proceeds to the next reason.

3. Feedback? Complaints? Questions? Forget it, it's useless.

Questions, feedbacks and complaints are the things that will be helpful to the site and its users. But when I use them, it seems useless.

Most of the time you’ll be ignored, unless you’re an important, really high-ranking member of the site, or you can get an admin on your side (which is really difficult). Or even if they read your questions, feedbacks or complaints, they’ll mostly force you to admit defeat even if it was not your fault.

4. Instant defamation, if somehow you (shamefully) got banned (could happen)

Getting banned (even for dumb/stupid reasons or something you didn’t do), is always something you should avoid on Autogespot (or even some other sites). Because if you do get banned like I did, you could got instant defamation. Your spots that got featured, either in their front page, Facebook or Instagram, will be removed from their posts, and all your ‘Spot of the Day and Spot of the Month’ badge will be stripped.

This once happened to my friend who was a former Autogespot member, and he quits just because of that.

5. Aggressive community (moderate)

Yes, this was a problem too, but I can tolerate and solve this (as they are not as bad as Facebook). I’ve seen people who makes insults/use profanities on some of my spots and also make false reports/claims. But it was in that time when my friend (who is an admin) is still around. With him gone, I don’t think it’ll be the same anymore (I bet that it can get out of control just like Facebook.

6. Silly spot uploading rules.

In Exoticspotter.com, the rules were quite lenient, as you can upload a spot-worthy car even if the pictures wasn’t too good (as long as it’s not blurry or bad). You can also even edit the pictures as you wish before upload.

In Autogespot, the rules were more strict, but some were silly and weird. Despite they allow more types of cars (e.g. Camaro SSs. Mustang GTs, AMGs, the BMW M Series, Audi RS series and so on), and a full model/version name of a car (e.g. Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Reiter Engineering GT3 instead of the standard Lamborghini Gallardo category in Exoticspotter.com), most of these were considered silly as they were considered quite unnecessary and could waste potential, for example, I think none of the spots like what Carguyken918’s posted here won’t be accepted just because they were only one (or two), but his spots could just be accepted on Exoticspotter.

Examples:

If you failed to get a clear shot of the front or the back of any car, or they’re blurry, your spot will get removed. The front and the rear must be clearly visible, or else.
You need 4 (four) Shots of the car if the car you spot is a Porsche 911 Carrera S (997 and 991), or a Bentley Continental (except limited edition Continentals such as the GT3-R).
You need at least 4 (four) shots of any car if you spot the car in popular car spotting areas such as Beverly Hills, London, Dubai, Monaco, Cannes, Paris, Zurich, Geneva and so on.
Cars going to any event or dealer were not allowed. Even if they were on public streets. (These however, were often abused by the people who reports my spots)
Uploading the car without its license plates (to protect privacy) is not allowed. If you do blurred the plates, it will get removed. You can sent a copy of the photo with the license plate visible to feedback@autogespot.com in the past, but this trick does not work anymore.
Edited photos were critical and was not recommended. If you do overedit pictures for the best crisp and optimal quality, they can remove your spot. Once my friend in Exoticspotter.com did that (he thought the edited shot was fine) and he got banned for 5 days.
Camping (or even going to a place where bunch of exotic cars always gather/drive around) was not recommended. Going to a place/hotspot where exotics tend to appear (in my case: Plaza Indonesia, Pantai Indah Kapuk, Plaza Senayan, Pantai Mutiara, Senayan City, Grand Indonesia) and uploading so many spots from there will cause your spots to get removed. Example is what happened to the spots at Pantai Indah Kapuk last Sunday, where all of them were removed.

P.S. For comparison, you can see the spots that had been reported with false claims. Be prepared as there is a lot of them! (Consists about 85% of my spots on Autogespot)

*If they were still on the site, that means they’re in danger now

And below is all the spots from last Sunday that were previously on the site but were removed:

Unfortunately, tolerance will no longer exist for this. I’ve been banned for 2 weeks due to the false reports. And it’s also all about time before the defamation happens (unless there is luck). I had fought all the recent false claims, however if I lose the case against them, that means it’s the end of my Autogespot career, which translates to: account closure.

I once joined the site because of my admin friend… now I’m nothing with him gone. I’m done.

What’s your opinion about this? Do you agree or disagree? Feel free to share your opinions by commenting them below.