The Autopian didn’t exist 30 days ago. It was just a dream shared by two car-loving weirdo journalist buddies and an absolute badass of a car salesman. But the dream is becoming more real everyday thanks to you, our dear readers. We’re finishing up our first month of existence, and we’re delighted to say that we’ve reached 1 Million pageviews. Thank you!
What does this mean? I’m not really sure. But I do know that, if you’d asked me a month ago how many folks would be reading our site after 29 days, I wouldn’t have guessed a number anywhere close to seven-digits long. Nobody knew what an “Autopian” was, we had no background in launching sites, and we weren’t partnering with a media company — this has been a jump into the unknown. Scary, in some ways, but we’re just happy to have you, our amazing contributors, and our partner Beau by our side.
The Autopian has a long way to go before it’s the website Jason Torchinsky and I want it to be. He and I are the only two full-time staffers right now (Thomas Hundal has been crushing it, though), so we’re an incredibly small team, and there’s only so long we can continue at this pace before we wear out our cylinder walls (I’ve been pouring zinc additive into Jason’s Diet Cokes to get him to hold up a bit longer). That’s just one of the many things we need to figure out. The user experience/commenting system could stand to be improved, I’d really like to build a stronger community, I think this place could stand to get even nerdier content-wise, and on and on.
But despite our growing pains, and despite the fact that we’re still a far cry from being anything close to profitable, we’re growing. Sure, we’re barely 5 percent of what the big-dog sites are size-wise, but our outlook — as engineers at my former company Chrysler often said — is “directionally correct,” and for that we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts (basically, our hearts’ oil pans).
P.S.: The Autopian has adopted the Toyota Manufacturing Process for article-production, so that means our team lives by “Kaizen,” or “continuous improvement.” So please keep sending in your feedback, either in the comments below or at tips@autopian.com
P.P.S.: Just a reminder that the two people in charge of running The Autopian are these two nutjobs — I mention this video so you’ll realize how much of a miracle all of this is:
From Torch:
David pretty much said what I’m thinking here as well: A month ago–actually, a leap year-February ago, not even a real month–there was no Autopian, and if you approached someone and asked if they were an Autopian, chances are they’d have sat you down and suggested you seek out your clergyperson, and likely requested that you let go of their arm because you’re gripping pretty tightly.
Now, though, everything is different! We live in a world where The Autopian exists, and I can see this amazing community of car dorks forming and somehow the world feels like a slightly better place.
We have so far to go still, and, sure, it’s a bit exhausting, but that could also be because my doctor said something about zinc poisoning? I guess I should look into that.
More importantly, thank you all for reading and supporting us and being the reason we do this. We can’t wait to do even more.
Congratulations to you both and everyone who contributed to the articles at The Autopian!! Bourbon and 5W30 cocktails for everyone!!!
I absolutely adore the site. You guys were always the best part of that other place, and the best part of Autopian. I love the inside looks into design and industry goings on. The deep dive into gt suspension failures was especially cool. Killing it!
Absolutely loving the new site. Would it be possible to do a design dive into what makes certain cars timeless classics? 32 ford, 57 Chevy, 67 Camaro, 911 Porsche, etc. What makes the icons of the auto world stand out? Why are they so different from the rest of the daily drivers of their time?
Careful with that anti-zinc rhetoric, Jason, the world would be very different without it! https://youtu.be/U1iCZpFMYd0
I’m so glad you’re off to such an impressive start! You guys have really been cranking… please don’t burn out! Maintain yourselves like that guy maintains his Evo… Strict rest schedules are vital to keeping us all entertained in the long haul. Keep it funky, and keep it fresh!
Careful with your anti-zinc rhetoric, Jason. It could be a whole lot worse!
https://youtu.be/U1iCZpFMYd0
I was thrilled for you guys when I saw the announcement and even moreso for myself when I refreshed the page and saw a flood of actual articles, not “coming attractions”. Keep up the good work but definitely pace yourselves; it’s too early to burn out! Stay funky, y’all.
This site has three things that make it much better than J@#*|?|k.
1. An generally positive, snark free attitude
2. An open and inclusive comment scheme
3. Jason
4 No math requirement
An edit button would be nice. Is there onne?
Shine on you crazy diamond(s)
🙂 As long as it doesn’t turn into “welcome to the machine” 😉
Bets on David getting the reference? (Without asking Torchy)
Oh, it is a little slow. But I like to think that’s because it’s running on Torch’s Atari ST in his basement.
yup, if you guys can fix the slowness of the site (which is a lot better than when it first launched), this site will be the only site that i visit!
i’ve noticed that the first page i click is served really quickly, but then any subsequent pages take a bit longer, so not sure if it helps.
maybe upgrade from the Atari ST to a Atari Falcon?
I love this site. Yes, the comment section needs work. Abs I’d like to be able to search out article types like shitbox showdown to see them all. But, the content is top notch. Put in a donate tab and I’ll throw money at it to keep it going.
That’ll do pig, that’ll do
Congrats, you guys are doing great. I’m still thinking about that Ford GT article. Not to mention all the other interesting things I didn’t know I wanted to know about. Keep it up!
L.J.K. Setright (no “w” needed)
😉
Oh crap – that Setright comment was posted in response to Brummbaer, yet it managed to double up like something powered by Kinja
Happy to contribute at least a couple hundred of those page views.
I do have one request. Could you please set aside a few articles during the week and post them on the weekend?
Congratulations!
I accounted for at least 0.0001% of that, so I’m feeling pretty proud here too.
It’s been an impressive debut! Will there be a party of some sort on April 31st to recognize the first month?
This reminds me a bit of when Hooniverse was born after some sort of widespread disgruntlement at Jalopnik. However, I think the Autopian came into being with a much, much larger & more rabid readership, which hopefully indicates much more traffic than Hooniverse gets (no disrespect meant to head blooger Jeff & the rest).
Jason: let’s start a website
David: sure thing, after I take care of these 55 code violations for my jeep junkyard
Jason: I’ll bring my changli over to haul parts
David: let’s call it autopian
Jason : ok thanks we hit 1,000,000
Sounds right!
All I can say is…Thank you!
Ok – absent an edit feature I have to do it this way:
Open a Patreon Account.
Congratulations!
I’d like to say, it’s been fun having you both [chiming in] to all posts. It adds some additional color and depth. I can imagine this level of intimacy will wain as you grow to 10m and 100m, but please figure out a way to keep that as you grow.
Comment system needs help. Growing pains.
Waiting for my heat stake article….
Stoked for you guys. The voice is clear, the identity is solid, the future is bright.
You folks are off to a tremendous start. I especially love the “inside baseball” type articles on car design and engineering (But that’s in my professional interest as well). And, honestly, the post today linking the Jeep Wagoneer and the birth of video games is just the right amount of esoteric wackiness that I can’t find anywhere else.
I may be a bit biased though, you guys DID just do a lovely write up on my own car. That right there was a delightful thing to be a part of, so thanks!
Congrats! Glad it’s taking off as expected, I’m excited to be in for the long haul here!
I’m really excited about what comes next for this site and this community, but you guys really need to breathe a little. Please please please please don’t burn yourselves out. I for one am not going anywhere, and I‘m willing to bet a fair amount of my neighbor’s money that there a large number of readers here who feel the same.
Ditto here. Pace yourselves Torch and DT. I’m also pretty sure most readers are here because of the quality not the quantity. Can’t wait to watch this new site flourish!
Guys, you’re doing a great job and I hope it continues to grow and strengthen. I’m looking forward to seeing diverse voices and opinions in both the articles and the comments, and I thank you for the increase in using metric conversions in brackets in a lot of the articles.
Obviously profitability is of supreme importance, so whilst it goes against everything I would normally like, I think you have more opportunity for advertising. I love that there are basically no ads, but as long as we don’t end up in page loading hell or autoplay video ads, I’m good with more ads on the site, because it’s what keeps the lights on.
And I can’t imagine you want to go down a subscription path, but if you set up an quarterly/annual contribution option, I’d happily sign up to support. Back in the day we’d buy magazines every month, and they had plenty of ads, so I’m fine with the idea of contributing so that we can keep getting great content.
Ah, March 32nd seems like just yesterday… who’d have guessed it would only take until March 60th to reach this milestone!
“Build it, and they will come.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3c_pJ_CLJQ