As you may have noticed, we’ve rolled out some changes to the site and that started with a transition to a new login system that supports offering memberships. Many of you signed up! It’s incredible, and it’ll help keep this site going. We’re about 75% of the way to our December goal, and it’s only been a week, so if you’re on the fence it would be an awesome time to help support us and get some sweet swag. The change hasn’t caused too many issues, but it isn’t perfect yet. We’ve still got work to do and I wanted to let everyone (members and non-members) know what’s going on and what’s changing next.
THE GOOD
- The site is way faster! Memberful, our new system, is a lot leaner than what we used to use. Average load time is now 50% of what it was just a couple of weeks ago.
- The system is more resistant to spammers and we can more easily ban them from the site so they don’t keep popping up. It’s not perfect, but it’s much better. We still have moderation on just in case someone sneaks through so you may see your comment end up in moderation. If you do end up in moderation we’ll get it going as fast as possible.
- Most people have been able to transition to the new commenting system without any issues.
THE LESS GOOD
- There were a couple of commenter account transition issues, mostly centered around people using a different email than they originally signed up with and the accidental creation of a new account. If you are signing up fresh this shouldn’t be an issue.
- There are still the odd commenting sign-up issues, please email me if you experience something strange.
- We originally planned to use our current commenting system for a while and link everything back up so you can see your old comments/profile page. The amount of work to do this is roughly the same as just launching the new commenting system, which leads us to…
THE FUTURE
- We’ve been testing a new commenting system and our plan is to roll that out as fast as possible as opposed to upgrading the old one and then immediately tossing it out in favor of the new, better system. The new system has live notifications, better threading, rich media (emojis at the very least; we want to allow images, but we’re concerned about copyright stuff at the moment), upvoting, and a bunch of other features you’ve asked for and, frankly, we should have.
- We still want to give people a chance to transition their old accounts and user names while they can so we’re not going to do this immediately. Additionally, we want to test it now that Memberful is live to make sure there’s no weirdness we didn’t expect.
- Our estimate is that by mid-January we can have the new comment system rolled out and ready to use.
So far, everyone has been extremely understanding and patient and we’re extremely grateful. We’re a small staff with a small tech partner who’s used to building dealership websites. I can’t promise everything is going to work perfectly. I can only promise we’re doing our best, and never give up on striving to improve.
Feel free to hit me with some questions below and I’ll do my best to answer.
Photo Credit: Alfa Romeo via Wheelsage
I recall editing a comment when I signed up. Was I drunk or beta testing?
Based on that opening image, are we talking Alfa Romeo levels of reliability with the new system? I’m guessing that won’t be the case, although I would still stop by every day!
So it looks like my account transferred, but I still don’t see a way to see my old comments. Is this just part of the awkward transition phase or did I goof something up?
The site is loading much faster than before. I did lose access to my old account with the transition. It was easy enough to just start a new one.
I’m personally in no hurry for images / emoji in the comments. I’m not a big fan of scrolling through pages of heart eyes smilies because the article shows a good looking car, or the same stupid .GIFs that I’ve been seeing since the Fast and Furious movies were about cars.
Your Google Pay process didn’t work yesterday. At least I hope since I hit it 3 times.
Today I sent you a nice crisp Benjamin.
I’m just surprised that in the Year of Our Savior David Tracy 2022 there isn’t an already premade software package or service that just works for this kind of thing.
I’m looking forward to the new commenting system. I don’t like having to scroll through everyone’s comments instead of just having the best ones at the top.
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Really appreciate the transparency. You guys are doing great, keep going!
Matt, I can’t help but notice the new system is missing “a fix for always eating RootWyrm’s Morning Dump thoughts.”
And where’s the “increase comment word limit to 25,000” we agreed on?! Do I have to reneg on my promise to not make any of you try to be my editor?
We compromised: 15k words.
Ah! Somebody remembered to warn Torch to upgrade the 48k machine, right?
I found an old Spectrum 128 with the built in cassette player and just mailed it out to him.
Oh good. All I have spare here is a 286/16 with 2MB, and I worry that much power would cause his head to explode.
I don’t want to give up either of my Commodore PETs (certainly not the working one), but I might be willing to donate my C16 to the cause.
You guys rock. Since I can’t post an image…
“Shut up and take my money!”
All I want for Chrustmas is an edirt button…
Yes, that should be a part of it!
I don’t want just the edit button, but also the actual function!
Merging accounts and changing lanes to other platforms are rarely smooth trips, so don’t worry about bumps in the road along the way.
Looking forward to notifications!
The updates are looking good.
I have sign in issues as I have privacy mode/cache off on my home machine so have to log in each time with the email link. As a test I turned on caching and no issues.
Just curious if an App is in the future? That will make mobile access easier.
Keep up the good work.
Hmmm… good question. Not now, but maybe?
You can farm it out to interns or there are groups that do this for you. I see it as year 2 goal.
I am happy to pay for the membership considering I check this site daily.
What’s that girl who makes lots of money working from home gonna do? She’s a part of this community damnit!
I feel bad for all the bots losing their jobs to new technology. It just doesn’t seem right.
Poor Paula…
COTD
Really like seeing this all go down. Just got employed aftrr 6 months and Christmas is coming so i will probably join in the new year
Congratulations!
You folks are doing great. Quality content and a clear passion for what you’re doing. Thanks for the periodic updates like this. A slow rollout is much more forgivable if you keep your audience informed.
And +1 on the “cloth” membership idea.
This is awesome fellers!!!!! Keep up the great and hard work you peeps are doing for US, the gearheads, with all of our warts, fungus etc. Etc
Well, at least I can say this site beats out all others. All of youz from Beauberry to Mercedes and to the janitor get a hearty thanks from me. And thank you for being here and tolerate a lot of our shit.
Hey team ! Website is great, articles are great, still preaching for for a 2 to 5 €$£ digital only membership for us poors/foreigners, please take our money. Went back to the article and there is roughly at least 1/4 of the comments asking for it, again, take the money.
Would love to be able to support you / get access to the full content.
Also, regarding comments, a way to edit comments and a way to flag hateful ones would be great.
Not sure about the embedded images in comment, it can quickly go wrong with people overfilling their comments with GIF, 15pictures of their car, and other stuff and make it ugly to read.
We’re working on a “cloth” membership for early next year.
Good newwwss ! You’re all the best !
How about a “Burlap” membership! (‾◡◝ )
Oh look at Mister Fancy with his Burlap!
I have is this loincloth made out of plastic! It’s a loinplastic!!!!
Meant to say “All I have is this loincloth made out of plastic! It’s a loinplastic!!!”
Thank you. I, and seemingly many others, want to support you guys but can’t run to £10 a month.
This place is great. Thanks to all for making it so.
“Mexican Blanket Seat Cover” level
Somebody said “Rubber Truck Floor Mat” level in another comment section. I like that one too.
Musty horsehair?
How about MB-Tex? And I agree with not hurrying any of the roll-outs; Stability trumps Shiny and New eight days a week.
I’m holding out for the Rich Corinthian Leather membership
Here you go:
https://autopian.memberful.com/checkout?plan=86606
You need “wet okole” level.
Not “rust”? 🙁
This would the ‘fine polyester houndstooth upholstery’ membership level, right?
The value of good journalism has become so skewed over the past few decades that I’m really not sure what good writing is “worth” anymore.
I’ve become so accustomed to all the news I could want being freely available online, but I know that’s not sustainable. Quality writing should be encouraged, so good professional writers should be paid well for their work. Internet advertising is not what it once was, so I don’t expect ads to be able to fully fund my news sources, so it’s only logical for the end users to contribute. The only question is: How much?
Ten bucks a month initially sounded like quite a bit. I can get a whole year of Car & Driver for $10… but C&D is only published once a month — The Autopian is putting out content every weekday. So it’s more like a newspaper when it comes to frequency and quantity of content. Of course, your daily newspaper subscription includes printing the whole thing out on thin dead trees and dropping the whole thing on your sidewalk (usually in a puddle) each morning, so that’s not really a fair comparison either. I think the closest example I can think of is years ago when I subscribed to my local newspaper on my Kindle. I’d get a nice collection of articles electronically each day. I think the subscription cost a couple bucks a week, which… is pretty darn close to $10 a month.
And y’know what? I think I just talked myself into becoming a subscriber!
Y’all are obviously working your tails off, and it shows in the tight, well-rounded result.
What were we discussing?
I’m curious about the image copyright concerns. Plenty of sites, including that old lighting site, allow images to be pasted in the comments. Why would there be a concern?
IANAL but it is certainly a legal gray area.
Let’s say there’s a copyright-protected image that relates to a story being published. The old lighting site and its G/O peers would sometimes write an article about such an image without including the image itself. The copyright-protected image requires licensing, and that is an added expense. Often, sometimes after some grumbling from the commentariat, a kind commenter would post the image in the comments after finding it at another source (presumably another news outlet who paid to license it).
Is there really much of a difference between including an image in the body of an article and including it just a bit lower in the comments? Especially when those commenters are anonymous and could be employees of the site itself? Especially when anything in the comments is actually hosted by the publishing site rather than just linked back to its original (as is the case with the Kinja commenting system used at the G/O sites)?
I won’t pretend to understand all of the nuances of copyright law as it relates to internet commenting, but I know enough to understand why website owners would want to tread very carefully.
For people like me, it would be easier if you spelled out “I Am Not A Lawyer.”
I couldn’t stop reading that as “I Anal,” which is interesting but not necessarily relevant.
Thank you for this reply, because I was trying to figure out what his anus had to do with all this legal jibba jabba 🙂
I had the same reaction you did the first time I read that abbreviation online, wondering about what it meant before reluctantly and very cautiously googling it. Now I use the abbreviation myself so as not to deprive any other readers of such a journey.
The thing is, virtually every image is automatically copyright these days. If it’s an image you made yourself, that’s all the permission that’s needed. Otherwise, it all depends on what the owner wants. Creative Commons (CC) images are ok so long as you abide by their particular license restrictions (e.g. provide credit). Some are free but only for noncommercial use. Commercial picture archives want you to pay them. Most owners probably don’t care if you’re not making big bucks off the image, but there is no guarantee of that. If it’s got Mickey Mouse in it, it’s restricted until the heat death of the universe. Exceptions apply, YMMV, void where prohibited.
I didn’t see editing your own post, will that come?
Will the new system allow an avatar without signing up with that other service (gravatar?)
This is Exactly why I no longer have an Avatar here, I refuse to sign up/create yet another B.S. account so I can have an Avatar? Really Autopian? Really, for an Avatar? つ´Д`)つ
I think so?
I made a gravatar account like ten years ago (can’t remember why) and I have never logged back in, never changed anything, and the thing still works and also pops up unexpectedly from time to time. Gravatar is the only dependable thing on the entire ‘net.
Does the new system have profiles?
You guys have been doing great. Things rarely go as planned, but the staff have been conscientious and very helpful throughout. I’m looking forward to the roll out of new features whenever it’s ready for prime time.
Luv yous
It’s not often you see something like this built from scratch, so congrats for what’s been achieved website-wise so far.
As soon as there’s a digital-only subscription for us Antipodeans and other metric system users I’ll be right there!