One of my favorite comments I get from PR people, journalists, other publishers, et cetera is that they can’t believe the community we have here. That’s what the Internet used to be about, but too many publications got sold to people who didn’t understand that a site like this can only thrive with readers who care. It’s why so many of our peers look at the quality and number of comments we have and express some mix of shock, envy, and disbelief.
This is a good week for media in general, because we celebrate the fifth anniversary of Defector. While this site may have formed under different circumstances and with slightly different goals, the success of Defector was encouraging to those of us who felt there had to be a way back to websites that didn’t suck.
In his celebration post, Tom Ley (who was the one who encouraged us to do a Velour tier, btw) wrote that he wants people to think of it like opening a bar that “welcomes patrons into a place where they might have a few laughs, learn a few things, and pass the time a little more pleasantly than they otherwise would.”
This feels right to me. I want this place to be a fun place to “pass the time a little more pleasantly” than you otherwise might. At the same time, I think we all have an ambition to grow this place and make it more than it is right now.
To that end, we’ve made two strategic hires:
- Brian Silvestro, our new News Editor, who is already making a huge difference when it comes to keeping us up-to-date on what’s happening.
- Griffin Riley, our Video Manager, who is continuing to expand our video offerings.
These last two weeks we’ve experimented with increasing our daily production a bit, while also improving or adding some site features (Night Panel, Glovebox). We’ll also be replacing the current Consent Management Platform (CMP) that a few of you didn’t like with one that should work a little better and be a little less intrusive.
The site’s looked great to me this week, but I’m curious what everyone else thinks. How are we doing? How are you doing? What could we do better? What should we do more of?
Photo: Ford
Personally, I love that you publish articles throughout the day. Websites that dump all their content for the day at once don’t encourage checking the site multiple times a day like you do. 🙂
I generally have low expectations of everything, it keeps me happy. I like the clean simple site design, if it would load faster it would be perfect.
I absolutely love this awesome site! It’s so amazing…I actually read every article and comment. This is basically one of the only few sites I read anymore. I have loved it since the beginning. Keep up the wonderful work! The only thing I would say is I would absolutely love to PAY YOU for an Autopian T-shirt. Take my $$$!
Overall, great!
My one complaint is that I’d like to use night mode, but it still has a few problems.
So although I normally prefer dark modes, for now I will continue to squint at the glaring white background of the normal site.
So glad to be a member, this site rules! Fav contributors are Adrian, Griffin, Torch, and DT. Love the tenor and tone overall: great to read in a civil environment. Adding Griffin has instantly upped the video content quality.
Now, the nitpicks:
Honored to make your top four!
I like the new “member” badges and the Glovebox. And, yes, totally stoked that you hired Griffin!
Glad to be here!
Loving the influx of new blood, and always up for more Stephen Walter Gossin (especially if it involves a Jaaaaaaag).
Everything’s great, no notes.
My suggestion? Scrounge up all the loose change from everyone’s cushions and send Mercedes out to do more motorcycle stuff. I love her enthusiasm for all things moto, especially since she has an appreciation for the oft-overlooked smaller end of the market.
Please allow login’s using a password instead of 2-factor with the email code.
I typically read on a computer, often – and not a phone, so the extra work of finding my phone and then entering the code is tedious and I’ll often just go elsewhere. Will probably unsubscribe if this doesn’t get fixed.
Otherwise love the guys and their quirky takes…very fun.
Oh…you guys need a new logo…the fuzzy, teal one SUUUUUUCKS….
Been broadly happy with the place so far. Always been a big fan of the combination of more car-centric content, and of more generalized transportation stuff. Only thing I would change is a small matter in how names work in the site account settings.
Far as I can tell, there is no distinction between screen name and actual, legal name when you sign up an account. This means that I’m posting here as “Sploch”, but when I get mail from y’all for signing up, they sent it to my address as “Sploch” and not my real actual name which caused some minor confusion, since that package also did not (for some reason) grab the apartment number either. No apartment number and no real name made it difficult for the mailperson to deliver, and for me to find.
Since you asked, can you PLEASE fix how the comments section works?
I have asked, politely I think, before. But they still show up in an illogical order.
I would like to see the oldest ones first, so I don’t embarrassingly repeat something someone already said. Often more eloquently than I might.
Yes, this is a great community. Helpful at proposing solutions to problems and so entertaining in sharing stories.
I enjoy reading every contributors’ contributions.
And sometimes, the sheer volume of what is posted overwhelms the amount of time I have to read them. Even as a retiree. I’m not saying post less. I am learning to be more discerning about which articles to read. And which to skip. Or go, “okay” and not read past a few paragraphs or five. So, this last paragraph is not a complaint. It’s a good problem to have.
So, don’t change much. But fix the (expletive deleted) comments mechanism!
Autopian, I asked you to do the dishes. Got home to find the sink is still full of dishes. I’m not mad, Autopian, just… disappointed.
Keep doing what your doing please. Would love to see a little more Murilee Martin (that saucy minx) in the mix and please bring in some Australian content. Well missing since Lewin left the building. The ultimate would be Wade from Garbage time!
Grateful for this site and community, especially at a time when news is bleak and exhausting. And screw the free content model – you get what you pay for.
Suggestions box:
– load speed still an issue
– reminder when membership expires would be helpful
– the more connections to IRL the better.
– would love to see grand tour style, long form trip content. I know, families and stuff
Love the site. I’ve been a member since the beginning, and it’s been great.
I’m glad to see you’ve hired a Video Manager.
I know you’re pushing for a video presence, and I might even be subscribed to your YouTube channel. However, I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to watch a video all the way through. I, personally, cannot watch a shakey video from a hand held phone. It makes me dizzy and my head and eyes hurt. I last tried the Jeep unboxing, but I just couldn’t.
Get a steady-cam mount.
Or, watch something like Vice Grip Garage and see how he uses tripod placement, what must be small magnetic mounts for inside the engine bay, and with very very limited, slow and steady, handheld sections when needed. Please. I want to like them.
Great feedback and I appreciate it. Peeking behind the curtain of vid production and how we do it: we’re VERY lean and mean and jump around a lot on tight schedules which means there’s not a lot of time for set up, meaning less opportunity to stabilize a gimbal and less time to set up a tripod for a multi-cam wherein one holds a wide shot and the other is floating with me to pick out the details. That being said, we’ll never say never.
I’ve already thought about how I want to attack the Jeep build and, since that’ll be build content, that has the opportunity to easily justify setting up a tripod and burning through memory cards and occasionally grabbing a second cam to get detail shots. Always room to improve and I’m getting more gear every day! Thanks for the feedback
Love how this site is politically neutral. Toxic Politics have kept in all aspects of online life. Great to come to a place that you can just enjoy your non political interests
I’ve loved the evolution of this site, I love the content and the subscription to avoid ads, the discord server and comment section of the articles have been great, and I genuinely think every writer has been awesome.
That said, need to get Jason to bring back the world’s worst series. I was enjoying that one a lot.
IMHO, most enthusiast sites (cars, planes, etc.) have been taken over by AI or just plain bad writers who aren’t knowledgeable or enthusiastic about the topic at hand. Their also rife with ads and pop-ups and pay walls, and other forms of evil.
I for one find the Autopian to be a breath of fresh air in the cloud of smog that is modern ‘journalism’.
Kudo’s to you, keep it real.
Love the site, and I’ve noticed the number of posts has jumped over the last week or so – but the quality is still up there which is great.
One minor nitpick, it’d be great if you included metric conversions for mass and length, as these two I find aren’t super easy to convert in my head. Mass is especially troublesome as when I highlight a given value in Google Chrome on Android it automatically thinks you’re talking about the currency and converts it to dollars.
And engine capacity. Cubic inches also need to be shown in litres.
My one small criticism is that when I read the word ‘Mercedes’ on this site, I immediately assume you’re talking about the incomparable Ms Streeter. If you’re talking about the car manufacturer could you please refer to it as ‘Mercedes-Benz’ just so I don’t get confused?
Otherwise I spend the first few sentences of the article wondering what V12 powered hoopty Mercedes has just bought, and then get disappointed you’re talking about some boring car company.
My favourite of all is Mercedes Streeter: she has amazing abilities to come up with lot of interesting topics and to write in a way that keeps you reading to the end. She’s one of main reasons for coming to the Autopian.
Now, just a little feedback…
Anyone noticing the irritating issue withe video clips inserted in the articles?
I don’t know why is it absolutely necessary to play them automatically everytime I click on anywhere in the article. I had to right-click on the video clips to pause. One morning, I was surprised to see my computer not switching into sleep mode all night long because one of the video clips was playing in the background. I had to look for the Autopian webpage that plays the video clips and disable them.
Recently, I found a plug-in to disable the video clips from playing automatically.
Sometimes, the smaller video clip would flash in the upper-left corner when I scroll up or down or even type in the comment. Really infurating and distracting.
Hopefully, this will get fixed soon.
Thanks.
Having a subscription to the Autopian is one of the best birthday gifts I’ve ever received. I’m happy with the direction you’ve gone and I’m very excited to read about David’s new Jeep journey. Honestly I’d love to see some merch options. I’d totally buy some license plate frames for my cars and I’d love to see a “Random art by Torch” section.
Right. How do we get merch? Is there a link?
Most YouTubers actually make the most money from merch and Patreon these days.
Agree. Merch, please!
Thanks for building an excellent site! I’ve been a fan and reader since long into the old site and am happy to help support it (this is also the only one I pay for a membership). Keep up the great work.
Been coming here since day 1 (and reading David and Jason’s work over at the other place before that), and come here every day. Now a subscriber and it’s worth every penny. You even published something based on a tip I sent which is a first for me. Makes me feel like I’m one of you. I was so happy that I went and bought one of the Hot Wheels Protons that Jason wrote about.
I don’t read every story, because I’m in the UK and not every story is relevant. But I read about 98%.
I have my favourites – Uncle Adrian (of course), SWG’s amazing tales of rescuing vehicles, Mercedes’ fantastic deep dives into obscure stuff (like the Napier Deltic trains that were built where I live), the suspension stuff by Huibert Mees (even though it usually makes my brain hurt), and of course everything that David and Jason write.
Keep up the great work, there really is nowhere like this for car culture on the internet. Everyone else is all “here’s yet another squillion dollar supercar” and I’m just so over that. But taillights and nerdy details? Feed me more of that, I can’t get enough.
Thanks, everyone.
Edit to above : I do have a few suggestions though.
Several thumbs up for second item. I just skip the blank rectangle, not knowing what I missed by not enabling tracking…
I might be imagining it, though I think there’s occasionally been a link to the same video embedded in the article’s text, which I’ve used? Or, maybe I just copied relevant text and then searched for the video on my own…too many late night reads to recall which way I found it.
But, yeah, adding in a non-tracking link would be appreciated.
Learn to do mental math. Problem solved.
Please be less condescending. That is very difficult for many people, and actually impossible for some. Thank you.
To clarify, you’re saying that where we have a supplementary Instagram reel, you’d prefer it to be a YouTube link?
Yes.
Or provide a YouTube link in addition to the instagram (or tiktok) thing.
I dig it.