FAQs

Q: What is this website?

It’s very simple. When you see some jerk parked across two parking spaces, or an able-bodied individual taking up a handicapped parking space, or whatever, leave a Jackass Card on their windshield, take a picture of their idiocy, and send the picture to us. We’ll post it where the world can see what douche bags these people are. As an added bonus, the jackass card refers the driver to this site, so they can feel ashamed or, even better, send us hatemail and/or physical threats.

Q: Do I have to use the provided Jackass Card or can I use my own devious creation? Do I need to leave a card at all?

No, and no. Be creative. Just remember that you are responsible for whatever communication you leave, not us. And leaving the card is preferable to leaving nothing, because we’d really like to piss these people off. Really.

Q: Why didn’t you publish the picture I sent you?

We try to publish pictures in as timely a manner as possible so as to increase the odds of your jackass seeing it. We receive many photos, however, that we choose not to publish for various reasons. There could be legal issues involved, or privacy issues, or we just don’t think they were parking like a jackass.

The most common reason is that it is a photo of a vehicle parked crooked in a handicap stall but not affecting anyone. Those with physical disabilities often park off to one side or crooked in order to provide room for getting their apparatus in and out of the vehicle. For this reason, we normally do not publish these pictures unless it is very obvious that they are being jerks about it.

So don’t feel bad if your submission doesn’t get published. Just keep snapping.

Q: Is it legal to take pictures of people’s cars?

Sure, as long as they’re in a public place and you don’t make money off the photos. The guideline is not to take a picture of a vehicle where the owner can reasonably expect a degree of privacy. Stay away from driveways, for instance. Wal-Mart is a friggin’ gold mine, though. We do try to obfuscate the license plate number, but we are not required to do so.

Q: I just found a picture of my SUV on your website and I’m going to sue your sorry ass.

Well, that’s not really a question, but we’ll address it anyhow. If the picture was not taken in a public place, please contact us and explain the situation. We’re not unreasonable people. But we’re not going to take a photo down just because your pride got injured. That’s the purpose of the site, jackass.

Q: Who owns the pictures on this site once submitted?

Everything on this site is considered public domain. Please don’t upload pictures for which you would like to retain ownership. The public is welcome to copy, modify and redistribute all content, including the concept of the site itself.

EDIT 01/05/2010: Circumstances have inspired us to license the site content under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license. This basically means you are free to copy and redistribute the content for noncommercial purposes, provided attribution is given to youparkedlikeajackass.com. You are also free to modify or build upon the content, provided the modified work is released under the same or similar license.

In other words, be cool.

Content published prior to 01/05/2010 is still public domain, we suppose, but we’re going to try to watermark everything going forward. We know, we know. We’ve totally sold out, blah blah blah. If you ever try to run a blog like this, you’ll understand.

Q: How on earth do you find the time to do this?

As you can imagine, we get a lot of email. A common theme we’ve noticed since starting the site is that people tend to think we spend hours and hours patrolling the streets and maintaining the website. Newsflash: this site relies on user-submitted photos. Sure, the admins take some pics. We want to have fun, too. But we don’t drive around all day hoping to catch someone. And neither should you. Most people have a cell phone with a camera that’s with them at all times, and most people frequent businesses with parking lots. The opportunities are everywhere.

The website itself took around five minutes to set up, and it takes about two minutes to upload a pic and write a title for the post. That comes out to about ten minutes a week. The domain and hosting cost eight dollars a year. So no, we don’t dedicate all our resources to this. It’s a hobby.

Q: What exactly is a ‘douche bag’?

Yes, we use the term gratuitously on this site. At times we forget that not everyone is familiar with its proper use. Literally, it is a feminine hygiene device, the details of which we’d rather not go into. In slang usage, it refers to an arrogant jerk who should be smitten with plagues of biblical proportions, much like the drivers of the vehicles in our photos.