How it works
The community
Mecafile is written by its readers, like a wiki. Anyone can read everything. A free account lets you add and correct defects, vote and take part in the forum. Trust is earned: the more useful your contributions, the higher your reputation, and the more weight your votes carry.
Contributor levels
| Level | How you get there | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Visitor | No account | Read every defect, recall, bulletin and forum discussion, in your language. |
| Member | Create a free account | Add and edit defects, add a missing model or generation (checked by a moderator), vote, post in the forum. |
| Reputable contributor | 50 reputation points | Your confirmations and disputes now count towards the seal. |
| Moderator | 500 reputation points, or appointed | Correct model sheets, approve or reject new models and generations, merge duplicates. |
| Administrator | The site editor | Everything moderators do, plus appointing moderators and running the site. |
Reputation
Reputation points are shown next to your name. You earn them for work that improves the archive:
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Write a new defect, or edit one (each saved edit) | +2 |
| A model or generation you added is approved | +2 |
| Vote on a defect written by someone else (first vote on it) | +1 |
| A defect you wrote earns the seal | +20 |
| You were one of the confirmations when a defect earned the seal | +3 |
| Forum posts | 0 |
Seal points are given once per defect, even if it loses and regains the seal. Forum posts earn nothing, so reputation reflects the quality of the archive, not how much you talk.
Votes
- On each defect you can confirm it (you know it is real and correctly described) or dispute it (it is wrong, exaggerated or badly sourced).
- You can change your vote or withdraw it at any time.
- Every member can vote, but only votes from reputable contributors (50 points and more) count towards the seal. The author of a defect never counts on their own entry.
The Mecafile seal
- A defect earns the seal when at least 5 reputable contributors confirm it, and confirmations outnumber disputes at least two to one.
- A defect becomes disputed when at least 3 reputable contributors dispute it and disputes equal or outnumber confirmations. It is then flagged to readers.
- The seal is not permanent: if a sealed defect later becomes disputed, it loses the seal. Every change is recorded in the defect’s history.
Entries from archives and official data
- Anticars: entries from the Anticars guide (anticars.com, 1998–2003) were imported with the seal, credited to Anticars.
- Mecafile: some entries are written automatically by Mecafile from official data (owner complaints filed with NHTSA in the United States, roadworthiness test failures in the Netherlands and Great Britain). They carry the seal and cite their source.
- Both can be edited and improved like any other defect, and the community can dispute them: if they become disputed, they lose the seal.
Moderation
- Moderators keep the catalogue clean: they correct model sheets (names, years, engines, markets) and approve the models and generations members add, which stay hidden until approved.
- They merge duplicates, such as the same generation added twice under two names.
- Defect texts are not moderated in advance: like a wiki, they are corrected by the community, and every version is kept in the history.
Good practice
- Cite your sources: recalls, service bulletins, press articles, garage invoices, owner reports.
- Describe the defect precisely: symptoms, affected years and engines, typical mileage, cost and repair.
- Stay factual and courteous. No personal data, no advertising, no defamation of a garage or a person.
- Write in your own language: everything is translated automatically for other readers.