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Hey, I’ve been gloriously out of the reach of the internet for 5 days. I caught up and read most of these. BTW, I really enjoyed Torch’s brochure art piece.
I still have joy in my heart.
No one except delivery people wants an esprinter. Now the max pack/range Brightdrop, I’m all in one.
Hard to determine how much effort you should be putting into attracting non-community readers versus community readers. It seems like some actions would attract the former while shunning the latter or vice versa.
I personally read all of the noted low-volume articles except for the one about the Lexus (not a fan).
I’m sorry y’all, I was on vacation and away from my work computer with its ever-changing selection of Autopian tabs.
Of all the ones you’ve mentioned the LFA post is the one i legitimately had little interest in. Expensive non-manual car i will never own: Pass.
Some of the others are videos which i rarely watch at work (i’m not implying my entire Autopian consumption occurs at work, but i’m not NOT implying that…), and i don’t have time for a whole podcast right now, despite being very interested in the subject.
don’t beat yourselves up, i have most of these articles open in one of 10,000 tabs and i will get to it eventually….
“Your articles are very important to us, please stay on the line for the next available non-ADHD addled brain-cell.”
I agree on the podcast. It’s quick to read an article sometimes. It’s not always quick to watch a video, and that can be disruptive.
Huh. I meant to read the LFA post. No new ground, but I always like reading about them. I enjoyed the Sprinter article. I generally skip anything podcast or baby related as both are pretty outside my interest.
I actually enjoyed the CS about the commercial thing. I did read Mercedes’ diesel thing,but one basically knows the answer to the question being asked without reading too.
Of all those listed above, the only one I didn’t read was about the LC 500. It’s not my kind of car and never been on my radar. But after reading KGurrier’s accolades, I will go back and read it. They made Thomas’ review sound so elegant that I am now compelled to go back and read it.
I will admit that there are some articles I scan through and if they don’t hook me right away, well, sometimes time is short and there are other demands I have to deal with. But I spend a lot of time on this site. My laptop and browser don’t readily cough up statistics as readily as my iPhone does (based on time and battery usage) and I don’t read this site on my phone. I’ve tried. It doesn’t do well on a small screen. At least mine.
It sounds like you get all kinds of metrics on your site and the articles posted. To me, the one metric that would stand out would be the number of comments. That seems to show engagement to the point readers will take the time and effort to comment.
But I am not running your site and am certainly not qualified to counsel you on how to run it as a business. I have minor peeves, typos, grammatical errors, etc but none of them are disqualifying.
Anyway, you all keep doing you and being true to yourselves.
I’ll also go to bat and say the Lexus review was possibly the best piece I’ve ever read from Thomas, and maybe even the best car review I’ve ever read in 25ish years. Absolutely beautiful wording, so tactile and nothing flowery. A great mastery of both writing and editing. Everyone gets a mulligan right?
Some of these I don’t remember seeing at all. I pretty much ignore podcasts and most videos. So that’s a factor ( I live a hundred and something from Monterey, my sister used to live there and her husband was director of SCRAMP so of course I was at Laguna Seca. Other than the cost of driving there it was free. Now that my sister has moved, it turns out that it’s sort of expensive. Who knew?
On the other hand Woodward is apparently north of the Canadian border in the far away from any oceans. I understand that the nearby lakes are great, but not actually oceans.
That one about which Pontiac options photos would look good as paintings — how did I miss that? That’s the content I am here for. I mean, I am always scanning the utopian, hoping to be the first to comment on the long piece on Robert Rotenberg‘s “Chrysler Airflow” or why there is a beautiful rose named “Chrysler Imperial” really, it’s one of my favorite roses. Those posts are in the works, right?
I ignore all of the podcasts and videos. I want to read, not watch or listen.
Me too. The websites I frequent basically are replacing what I can’t get in printed paper form.
Robert Rauschenberg’s not Rotenberg‘s.
Stupid autocorrect.
Anyone else not see the list at all? I see headline, topshot, Matt’s bio, comments.
This is a post that’s only visible to members.
…and that’s how I realized I missed my renewal date.
Clickbaity headlines makes me want a long puse from the site, like “not what you think” (well what do I think then?) or “my car blew up” (they almost never do that in reality) or “then this happened” (just yuck!)
You are not very often guilty of any of them, but also not never…
Generally I’m quite content. Wish I could afford paying for it.
HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THAT THE HEADLINES ARE REACHING TO BE TOO BROAD AND NEGATIVE?
If you had just said, “here’s a cool exploding car commercial from the 60’s” I would have been more likely to click. Instead, it sounded like it was going to be a laborious critique of car commercials then and now.
Likewise, the LC500 review could have just said “We had a couple awesome days in an LC500”. The headline makes it sound like a melancholy diatribe about why no one wants a certain class of car.
A lot of us are browsing the internet for fun escapism, not long-winded essays about how the world was better in the old days.
Surfacing old content is great if the content is fun – but it’s less fun when it looks like the article will endlessly belabor the state of things.
In general, I enjoy the fact the autopian allows for longer posts than other car sites. However, there are a lot of articles in the last six months that have gotten so long and rambling that I just give up – and I’m a fast reader. It has started to feel like people are getting paid by the word.*
*Except Adrian. He makes every word and image count. His posts are gems.
okay, point taken, but there’s no need to yell, I’m right here
It was meant to be an overly broad, negative headline 🙂
The data geek in me wants more information. Are the numbers from just people browsing the site? Are any of these linked to publications outside the site? Are there charts? Do you classify the articles by type (car review, news, art, etc.) for analysis? If so, what are your best performing subjects?
Sorry, analysis is my thing so there are always questions.
I don’t read articles with comma splices in their headlines. Use a freaking semi-color or make two sentences!
More semicolons; I think that’s you meant, but I find the idea of semi-colors to be intriguing as well. Unless you mean beige.
Colors that aren’t colors, like magenta or Congo Blue are fascinating.
Damn auto correct on the phone!
Stop, stop, I can only get so semi-erect.
So Mr. and Mrs. Clause were getting a divorce. As everyone knows, there are no lawyers at the North Pole. So they got a semicolon; because semicolons are used to separate independent clauses.
C’mon, I thought the one with David’s son was lovely. You people are heartless.
LC500… I haven’t driven it, but I don’t entirely get the love for it. Maybe wait 20-30 years and one movie franchise later and it will be the next Supra.
I really should know better than to skip a Torch article. Even when the headline doesn’t grab me, I am smiling by the end. Oversight corrected, +1 view for Jason!
I’m not sure if this is the point of this article – but now I want to read all of these just to be a contrarian! Please keep doing these least popular stories!!!! 🙂
Surprisingly, I read most of those – missed the crocodiles. Surprisingly because I was travelling like a madman last month for work, and I feel like I spent far less time than usual around these parts. I was only home four days the entire month of August, between work and flying up to Maine for a wedding then driving back by way of Alabama for a couple day work gig.
Good analysis. I happened to go through a busy stretch at work and I was very selective on what I read, and it’s true these didn’t make me click. I also think that if the subject matter is clear from the headline, I’ll make a split decision whether I invest the time! Diesel, Lexus and Monterrey are not that high on my list.
Also, it bears saying again and again: this is how sites should be run, with honesty, pulling your readership in, and actual smarts.
I’m sad to learn the exploding car didn’t hit. I so enjoyed that video (and didn’t really need the article except that it surfaced the video) … having scripted videos for the Big 3 and been on the shoots, I totally relived all the on-set anxiety of not just making the video happen but appeasing the client personalities/egos at the same time