By ARBA * February 16, 2019
Blogs
Channels
Garages
Other
- We respect each other.
- Publishing obscene or offensive content is forbidden.
- Only unique content must be published.
- Publishing photos and videos of others' cars or motorcycles where license plates are seen, or which display people without their prior consent, is forbidden.
- Every user is personally responsible for everything they publish.
- Only one account may be linked to one user.
- Advertising is forbidden. Exception: private advertising in channels of the Marketplace category, or car service registration in "Service". Advertising of companies or professional services in Marketplace channels is forbidden.
User Garage is a virtual garage where the user can add/remove/change their cars.
Blog is the user blog about their car.
Within the app, every registered car has its dedicated blog.
Channel is the community uniting users with similar interests.
Any user is offered three sign-up methods:
- Email. Credentials: email and password.
- Facebook and Google.
In any case, the user has to create a Username for fast access to his profile through the following link: https://arba.app/username
Username has to contain at least 5 characters.
To get full access to all app functions, add your car. If you do not want to show your car for some reasons, you could add your dream car to the category "Wished Cars".
If you created an account via email and want to switch to authentication via social media, please contact support. Your issue will be resolved shortly.
Userpic. We highly recommend using either your photo, or an image that features or impersonifies you. Please do not upload a photo of your car; we have special capabilities for this.
Contact details. All contacts you specify will be displayed in your profile, except for email and telephone. These two fields are always hidden and can be used by the support team only in case of access restoration (if needed), or for sending news.
PRIVATE mode. At any time you like, you can make your garage closed.
This way, only your followers will see your account, cars, and blogs. New followers will have to submit a request and wait for your acceptance. However, your cars (photo, brand and model) will be seen in Members of channels you joined.
If this mode is disabled, all requests will be automatically accepted, and blogs accessible in the blog list by brand.
Language. Set automatically, depending on software localization settings of your device. Default language is English.
The Language field is used to mark your posts in order to recommend them to users speaking your language.
Currency and Mileage are tags you can use in blogs. They are seen in the post, provided that the values are specified.
Followers are users that follow (are subscribed to) your Car Blogs. They can see your new posts in the "Blogs You Follow" feed. You can delete them by clicking "Following".
Followings are users you follow.
Rating is a calculated indicator depending on your app activity. A complex algorithm evaluates the number of your posts, their popularity, channels you follow, app visitation (continual everyday visits double new rating points).
Total users rating (channel members) determines the channel rating in the category.
User rank in the country directly depends on the rating.
A user can add unlimited cars or motorcycles to their Garage, by clicking "Add". For your convenience, you can divide your vehicles into four Groups:
1. Vehicles (currently used vehicles)
2. Previous (previously owned vehicles)
3. Wished vehicles
4. Test drives
Groups can be collapsed. The group that a car belongs to determines how your posts will be headed. For instance, "Johnnie Smith drove Toyota Celica in Amsterdam", if this car belongs to "Previous".
Any vehicle can be easily moved between groups — for this, just click "Edit".
Daily competition. Every week, the algorithm randomly selects 4 cars from public garages. Car blog popularity (number of posts, followers, and likes) increases the chance of gaining a nomination.
The car nominated for the competition cannot be selected again earlier than 30 days after the competition.
The winner is decided by users within 24-hour voting. Election of the winner takes place at 12 AM UTC.
If two or more cars have the same number of votes, the car that received a vote last, wins the competition.
The winner gets a special sign that appears on the Vehicle Page in Garage. Moreover, a dedicated post will be published on the channel "Car of The Day" (ARBA Official channel category). For the next 24 hours, the car photo (with the blog link) will be on the app's main screen.
By the owner’s request, their car can be disqualified at any time.
A car blog is created for each car registered in the app. The blog is accessible from Garage by clicking "Blog".
Car page also contains a gallery. All photos in the gallery have the 16:9 ratio. The first photo in the gallery is the blog cover image.
The car may get to the list of blogs categorized by brand, only if there is at least one post in its blog.
Cars can be sorted by date of the last post, or by popularity (factor depending on the number of posts and likes).
Cars and motorcycles are displayed separately.
From BLOGS, the user can go to the user/car search screen by clicking "Search". Search by name, or filter by brand/model/region (Сountry / City).
There are 5 types of posts available:
1. Text (plain text)
2. Photo (max size 1280x1280)
3. Video (YouTube link)
4. Location
5. Record a ride
All types can be accompanied by a text comment and tags (Mileage, Expenses, and Duration).
Any post can be published privately (switch on "Only you can see the post").
For private posts, the user can manually set time — both in the past and in the future.
Click "Record a Ride" in your car blog or first click "New Post" in blogs or channels and then select the appropriate post type. Allows for recording a route (trajectory and speed). After finishing recording, the app generates an image of the mapped route with four movement parameters (time, distance, average and max speed). When saving a post, the user can click "Share" — by doing this, the user will be able to save the image (H:1280, W1080) on device or export it to other apps, after saving the post on the channel or blog.
The size is Instagram-friendly.
Channels have rich functionality for collective user communication.
Any user can create their own channels. All new channels appear within the "New Channels" category.
Once the channel becomes actively operating, attracting followers and filled with posts, ARBA Editor (@editor) starts managing channel categories with consideration of channel admins' preferences.
1. Car Clubs: real car clubs with constant follower gaining (usually, in the same region). For this category, appropriate are channels "Super Channel for Car Clubs" with specific capabilities for such communities.
2. Owner Communities: enables communication between owners of certain brands, models, or even classes. Users can be based in various locations. With that, users can set restrictions so that only owners of certain brands/models could join them.
3. Annual Events: enables coverage of key annual automobile events. Free participation, high-grade coverage content welcomed.
4. Photographers: designed for author's projects, professional automobile photographers, and novices. Main requirement: projects must be directly related to automobiles and/or motorcycles.
5. Marketplace is the set of channels where users can advertise purchase/sale of their belongings. Automobile market professionals are not admitted.
6. Other categories that allow for grouping channels by themes which are not subject to general rules.
7. ARBA Official are channels created and managed by ARBA Editor (@editor).
To create or join a channel, the user has to have at least 1 car. The user may not join any channel without a car in Garage.
The user who creates a channel becomes the channel admin. Channel admin can delegate admin rights to any number of channel members.
Channel posts are read-only available to all users.
Admin grants rights to publish posts. If the channel is Read-Only, then it is only admin who can publish posts.
The channel may be either private or public. To join a private channel, the user has to submit a request. Once the channel admin accepts the request, the user will be able to publish posts on the channel.
Every channel has a publicly-available member list. The list contains the following strings: username — car (car selected when joining the channel).
Every channel has an unique name based on which an ARBA app invite link is formed:
https://arba.app/join/channelname, where channelname is the name of the channel ("Channel Name" field).
The channel admin can set the following member restrictions: location (Country / City) and car (Brand / Model). If there are no filters set, users from all regions and having any cars / motorcycles can join the channel.
Every channel has a rank in the category it belongs to. This rank determines how channels are sorted within the category. Rank is calculated based on the total rating of all channel members.
The list of channels joined is displayed on the user account page.
From HOME or Channels pages, the user can go to "My Channels" where they will see the full list of channels they joined. To leave a channel, the user has to remove it from this list by swiping left and then clicking "Remove".
Channel admin can remove members by clicking "Assign admins or set ranks".
Channel admin cannot remove another admin. For this, they have to demote another admin first.
Advanced Functions of Channels
Super channels for car clubs and communities have the following specific capabilities:
Events are "channels in channels", created to schedule and host member meetings. To create an event, click "New Post" and flag "Event". An Event has a logo, own feed, name and date, and own member list. Only active members of the "parent" channel can join an Event.
Event admin is the user who created an Event. "Parent" channel admins are also Event admins. By clicking "Events" or "Archive", the user can go to the full list of future or previous events respectively.
A Super channel admin can archive an Event that already took place, or unarchive an Event.
LIVE Sharing Location is activated both on a super channel, or on the Event page by clicking "Map".
After switching to the map, the mode is activated automatically, and user location becomes seen to other channel members who visit this page. The function provides live support to member meetings. If the user closes the map without turning off Live, then the "Map" button will be highlighted in green, and a green sticker will appear in the bottom menu. Live can be turned off either on the map page, or by clicking "Location" above "Map".
Live turns off automatically in three hours.
Only channel members can use this function.
Chat. Channel member can use it for instant messaging. To open the chat, the user has to click "Chat" on the channel main page. Only channel members can use this function.
Ranks. Super channel admins give channel members badges (blue, silver, gold) in the form of text labels or stars (1 to 3).
These badges are seen both in the member list and nearby the post author's userpic.
Recovery channels for mutual-help communities have the same functions as super channels do, but with some design distinctions.
These distinctions of the channel design are aimed at adapting the following process:
- If a channel member needs help on the road, they click "New Post" and flag "I need help" instead of "Event".
In this case, a post and an Event are created. The user publishes location, describes the issue, and attaches a photo.
Channel members receive push-notifications and then can confirm their intention to help by joining the created event. For this purpose, the "Join" button is replaced by "Assist". To switch your channel to Recovery channel, contact @editor.
On the "Service" page the user can see the list of Garages. The app accesses location to show nearby service centers. In the list, service centers are sorted by distance.
We have collected service centers data and embedded them in the app for your convenience. The data were captured from public sources, so we cannot guarantee their accuracy or relevance. Please check data before making any decision.
Sometimes, representatives of these centers add them to our app. Contacts and services data of such centers are quite accurate. We call these centers Partners and prioritize them in recommendations.
Any user can rate and leave feedback about the garage.
The user will be offered to specify which services they assess.
The rating is calculated as the weighted average of all users' ranks.
Garage Page Creation and Management
Any service center can create a page in ARBA and become our Partner. For that, go to "Service", click "New" and fill out the form.
Service center admin can edit the page and update contact details, schedule, brand/model list, and service list.
While editing, the admin can add other representatives — engineers, managers, customer service agents, etc. Added representatives get right to specify their service center instead of a car on channels.
Service admin and representatives can keep the blog of their center.
This blog can be seen only on the service center page.
If you found your service center page and want to manage it, please contact @support. We will ascertain your authorities and grant necessary rights.
Content Management // ARBA Police
ARBA maintains compliance and greets assistance in content management.
If you are an active user ready to help us, please contact @support, and we will consider granting you rights to control the content.
ARBA Police users are app moderators. They can consider user complaints, delete posts or comments that violate app rules, or suspend user access for 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, or 1 month.