You know what’s something time does better than over half the cars in my fleet? Moves. Forward, even, unrelentingly, unstoppably. Since the Autopian started, that time has been chugging along for six months, a hemiyear, even. Holy crap. How does this happen? So, we figured we should maybe take a chance to reach out and see how everyone is doing, how you think we’re doing, and what we can try to do to make it better. I’d say you can call us terrible names, but I don’t really think we need a special call to do that.
Since we’ve started we’ve grown both our regular staff and contributors; sadly, today Mercedes and Thomas are out, with Mercedes getting ready for her wedding (Mazel Tov!) and Thomas probably on one of those ayahuasca retreats or some shit. He’s Canadian, who the hell knows what he’s doing?
Oh, and David is still in Australia, where I assume by now some determined koala has made him their lifelong mate.
But I’m here, Matt’s here, and lots of your favorite contributors are, too! So, please, ask us questions! Suggest things you’d like to see! Want more spammers on the site because you love both sexy pictures of willing ladies and making so much money at home? We’ll see what we can do! I can complain to you that I need to find more time to write things! You love hearing me complain, right?
We have more videos coming, more stories, more everything, but what matters is you our Autopian community, so let’s talk, everyone.
We’re just getting started.
UPDATE: To address some things I’m seeing a lot, we’re working on images in comments, comment editing, and notification. Same goes for site loading speeds. We see it too, and we want it fixed as much as you do! I’ve already maxed out our servers at 128K of RAM but if it has to, I’m willing to move it to an Apple IIgs, which can have at least a meg of RAM. Also, 4,096 colors!
After having been a Jalopnik fan from the very beginning I still log in every day but only find or two articles worth clicking on.
However, with The Autopian I click on every story and read most of them.
Take from that what you will.
Great job so far, loving it! Especially some of obscure and lighting related stuff.
I just have a question about monetization. How are you all making money? I don’t see ads on the site, but I run heavy ad blocking on my network and browsers. I turn it off for sites I really like so they can continue to be around. Do I need to unblock anything specific for the Autopian?
One of the best things I have seen on this site as it has grown is the variety of content. While I love most of it, there are some articles I skim or skip, not because I think they’ll be bad, but because they aren’t my particular interests. You don’t try to pull any tricks to get engagement from people who aren’t interested in a topic, which I really respect.
I especially like that the voices here approach things from a variety of angles. As interesting as a conversation among different versions of Jason Torchinsky might be, the viewpoints looking at vehicles from design, engineering, collecting, driving, and repairing sides really make this site interesting. Otherwise, we risk this becoming a site entirely devoted to taillight erotica.
“Otherwise, we risk this becoming a site entirely devoted to taillight erotica”
Are you trying to say this wasn’t Jason’s ultimate goal all along?
This is more podcast-related feedback, but here goes.
1 -> If there’s any room in the budget you guys would tremendously benefit from a part-time producer/audio engineer who can at least get everyone’s mic on the same level for publishing. I know Zoom is very convenient but it can be hard to hear certain people at times and then you have your ears blown out when it switches back to Beau who has an actual microphone and seems to be laying the master track.
2 -> Minor organizational thing, but with the double-publishing it can be hard to discern the actual episode order (at least on Spotify). Even just adding “The Autopian Podcast #11” would help a lot!
As others have said – content is A+, 100% good to go. Just needs a little polish!
Performance has improved considerably since the last time you did this. A what car should I buy suggestion weekly would be fun (I know it would have to be different from that other site). But adding a poll for each suggestion would make a huge difference and make it more fun and engaging!
Otherwise keep up the good work, I spend too much time on this site lol
Can’t believe it’s been six months. I’m pretty sure I have read every single article during that time.
Keep the mix of culture, engineering deep dives, historical looks, and general insanity – and although I have no problem with an occasional touch on political matters thanks for keeping the focus where it belongs rather than hitting us over the head with constant and strident “you need to think this way” pieces.
The staff is awesome, and I do need to give a quick shout-out to The Bishop – whoever you are, I’m hoping to bump into you at a SoCal Autopian gathering someday. Heck, I want to meet all of you!
Feel free to keep poaching some of our old friends.
I really appreciate the community and the general state of the commentariat – stupid spambots aside, but we can ignore them. Here’s hoping things don’t go toxic like at so many other places.
Keep up the great work, and find some non-“herb”ish ways to make yourselves some dough in the process – you deserve it!
OrigamiSensei- I really appreciate your comments on the articles; the whole idea is to get people to engage and glad that you are!
The sense of community is great, it’s a real ‘safe place’, divergent opinions are treated with respect and kindness, which is very rare on the internet.
However (a small one), conversation within the comments can die pretty quickly. A notification of a reply to a comment would keep topics live for much longer, build the community and get you many repeat hits on pages.
I maintain my earlier assessment, great job, love the site, will come again and again.
That said, I don’t know if it has to do with load times or spam bot control, but for a while, the “Older comments” and “Newer comments” were gone and I didn’t notice an appreciable difference in load times. I really dislike having to use those links to load more comments. When you take those load times into account, it’s worse than loaded the full article and all comments at once. It’d be nice to switch it back, as a quality of life thing. That said, I’ve seen fewer spam bots around. Some of them were tedious, others were hilarious, but I doubt many of us miss them, so good on that!
Aside from some of the technical bits of making a site work (that you are fully aware of) I’d say the development of the content has been great. Quality has stayed high first off. The new contributors that have come on have added new and interesting voices/styles. The new car reviews have been great to see. That they haven’t been the run of the mill numbers comparisons, but often times a serious dive into the engineering has been welcome. I can get skid pad numbers everywhere, but why a platinum turbo encabulator is important is another story.
It’s always important b/c to effectively eliminate side fumbling. Jeeze.
I’m sure someone’s said it, but pictures in comments. That was always one of the best features for interactivity on Kinja and I would even stand for Imgur-hosted image link support WordPress-style.
I still don’t like the name “The Morning Dump,” even though the column itself is quite good. Vague grossness first thing in the morning just isn’t for me.
I’m trying to think of an alternate name (constructive criticism!) but my best one, Early Rider, is already taken by a company that makes bicycles for kids. Anyone reading this could feel free to chime in, though.
I’d say maybe “early apex” myself, but that’s mostly reflective how I feel about my own abilities first thing before coffee…
Yeah that name really worked for me either.
Hard agree here. This is the only reason I feel weird showing friends the site. It’s too crude for a not-great humor payoff.
How about Pre-Ignition or Jump Start?
“Daily Miscellany”
The hot morning stream?
The big morning column?
The Morning Choke! Need an extra something to get up and going? Tug for a rich mix of content to start your day off right. Don’t do it for hours though you’ll damage something.
“Since the Autopian started, that time has been chugging along for six months, a hemiyear”
The scientific definition of a hemiyear is 345 days, 392 days, 426 days, 5.7 months, or 6.1 months depending on how frequently you remind people you measure things in hemiyears.
“He’s Canadian, who the hell knows what he’s doing?”
I assume it’s Bobby Orr’s birthday or something? (I’m joking. It’s the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.)
“Oh, and David is still in Australia, where I assume by now some determined koala has made him their lifelong mate.”
Personally, I suspect he brought the ute in for inspection and was immediately arrested.
I’d pass around the hat for bail money, but Viggen ownership means I’m gonna need it myself sooner or later.
“We have more videos coming, more stories, more everything, but what matters is you our Autopian community, so let’s talk, everyone.”
That’s an interesting one. Now to be clear, I’m trying to offer constructive criticism, not bash you guys. But the semaphore video just… it was somewhat difficult to watch. It wasn’t necessarily anything you guys or the owner did, but the editing. It felt very disjointed and a little incoherent at points. I feel like a lot of the good was lost in cutting it down to 5 minutes.
Obviously, you already know a lot of us want you to hire Stef and Kevin. Please.
Past that, keep up the good work!
I really love this site and have completely forgotten that it even existed. I like the mix of content you guys are offering so keep it coming! You’ve already addressed my biggest issues (notifications, slow load speeds, etc.) so no need to rehash them.
I wouldn’t mind a ‘what ___’ should I buy’thing. Cars, boats, bikes, planes(?). I liked seeing your wild suggestions. Especially if there’s followup with what was purchased.
Yeah if Thom McPharland was on here I would never have to visit the old site again.
Him and Graverobber are the only reason I flip back and forth
It would be awesome to see some motorsport content, not necessarily F1 or Indycar (though that would for sure be enjoyed) but coverage of weird or obscure racing events like, Speed Week, local rally events, one-make Changli race series, DT’s race to fix cars before they disintegrate, etc.
Overall really enjoying the stuff y’all have put out so far
I’ve been racking my brain on what to add that hasn’t already been said. I have two comments.
1. Anything you can do that directly engages the users would be a great addition. ______ of the day, The Autopian answers your questions, here is my dumb opinion what’s yours? That kind of thing. I like the writing and I like the content (though some of the authors get a little TOO locked into their niche) but sometimes I don’t feel like I am really engaged. I think a lot of that has to do with how much work it takes to know if people are engaging with your comments, but you know this.
2. The other thing I would add is that getting in touch is really hard. I had password troubles I couldn’t solve with the tools and it took a direct connection with an author to solve it. I know at least one other person has the same issue but without a direct connection. There is no “tech support” and there isn’t really any way to get a hold of you guys except the tips address.
Any chance of getting notifications for comment replies? Also removing the max-width CSS on the main DIV? I’d like to use more than 10% of my screen width to read your articles, please :p
I really enjoy all of the original content. It’s a breath of fresh air that The Autopian is not just regurgitating manufacturer press releases. I know it’s not easy to do original content. It’s the hard path that most of the web does not take. So kudos to everyone for being original and interesting and not following the herd.
Sure! David will bitch about it, but that’s good for him.
One thing that you guys are kind of doing on the podcast, but I’d like to see as a weekly article, is a mail-bag/advice column. Just setup an ask-autopia email address and answer a couple of vaguely transportation related questions each week. You can let the staff choose questions they’d like to answer so the same person doesn’t have to write it each week.
I like this. Anything that directly engages the reader is a good choice.
… yeah this sounds safe.
No CarTalk-style “what’s broke” though, at least not right now. Because that’s literally going to turn into “ask RootWyrm. Someone who remembers the PN for a 1996-2002 Ram 1500 5.9 PCM off the top of his head can figure it out in 5 minutes.” (It’s 151AF for US/Canadia but that’s neither here nor there.)
I second this, I sent an email to DT early on suggesting a column “ask the mechanic” he thjought it was a great idea, not that it’s happened yet lol
Reader engagement is great!
I want to extend my kudos for this site living up to my expectations! I admit, some of the articles are a bit too long for me to get all the way through, but that’s a me problem.
The comments here have also been up to snuff. Staying polite, and on topic…it’s great. I do wish there were a few more features, but I suspect they are on their way.
Really enjoying the site so far, as has already been said and commented on site speed is more 2CV than Bugatti Veyron. It probably doesn’t need to be the latter, Mk7.5 Golf GTI speed is probably enough.
I’d settle for Chevy Caprice.
Speedwise, less ChangLi, more EV.
Contentwise, the opposite.
“We see it too, and we want it fixed as much as you do! I’ve already maxed out our servers at 128K of RAM but if it has to, I’m willing to move it to an Apple IIgs, which can have at least a meg of RAM. Also, 4,096 colors!”
Delightful. I remember lusting after the IIgs when it first came out. How quaint.
This site is rad. I’ll admit that I don’t necessarily read every article (some of the “heavy wrenching” ones are just a bit much for me), but I certainly won’t complain about the small minority of content here that isn’t for me. Taking into account all of the articles that I DO enjoy, I probably spend too much time here as it is.
I love the writing style your writers have going on. It’s almost conversational in tone while still being informative and easy to read. When you have fun writing a piece, it really shows in the end product! Keep having fun doing what you’re doing, and your audience will continue to have fun reading about it all!
I’m not super interested in video for its own sake, but for features that just can’t do a subject justice in black-and-white text I would be open to it.
If you do decide to fiddle with the user interface, please keep the RSS feed. I love being able to throw an RSS feed into my reader and know that I’ll see all of the updates from my favorite sites. I know it’s old technology, and many new sites are ditching it, but it’s still quite useful.
And here’s my longshot suggestion: I wouldn’t mind hearing a little “inside baseball” about the old German lighting site. I’m very curious about what it was like to work there, how everyone got along with each other, and what the motivation was behind some of the directions it took (like the SHARP pivot to video followed by an almost immediate pivot away… and the continued obsession with those ridiculous slideshow listicles). But that’s more of a “guilty pleasure” thing for me to want to know about the behind-the-scenes goings-on and probably not in the best interest of an automotive site.
what the motivation was behind some of the directions it took (like the SHARP pivot to video
Ad views.
followed by an almost immediate pivot away…
Ad views.
and the continued obsession with those ridiculous slideshow listicles
Ad views.
Things are going well here! Personally I really enjoy the more unique content (such as Davids adventures, wrenching write-ups and random pieces about speaker manufacturers) less so the new car news and reviews. Obviously this reflects my personal taste in cars and maybe isn’t entirely viable for a website to be successful. I see an opportunity for this site to be more of a culture site then a news one, like I can go anywhere and see the news about the latest Super Duty but nobody else is covering ‘revolutionary’ truck bed cover ideas or rusty piles of Australian metal. Either way The Autopian is on the path to success and I’m glad to be here early to see it.
Why does every article take 10 seconds to load?