David and I realized it’s been a big, wet minute since we all just took a moment to check in and, you know, chat, see how you’re feeling, what you’re liking, what you’re frustrated by, all that. So let’s take care of that right now, why not, with a little Autopian Reader Chat! We have a little window of time here before we have to record our podcast – did I mention we’re starting one of those? Well, we are. But we’ll announce it more formally soon, but you know I can’t keep secrets from you, baby.
Just to let you know we are listening to some stuff, I can say that we are working with our tech team to try and improve the experience here; we’re looking into speeding up loading times, getting a way to edit comments, add pictures, and more. I don’t have a clear timeline just yet for those, but things are happening, and I want to thank everyone for being patient with our tech issues as we try to win an auction for that 16K RAM expansion module that should really speed everything up, finally.
More importantly, we just want to know how you’re feeling about the stories, the pace of content, what you’d like to see more of, future dreams and aspirations, keto-friendly microwave recipes, hot stock tips, erotic dreams, your current project car achievements, tools you can’t find, and whatever else you want to tell us.
So, have at it! We’ll all try and chime in!
Holy crap, a functioning comments section interface! Already off to an excellent start. See you never, Kinja.
I’m so happy to see you guys get to start your own thing. Look forward to watching the site grow. This looks like all the best of Jalop, with the drama trimmed out, and ya’ll’s own spin on it!
About the new-old TopGear (Jezza, Cap. Slow & Hamster) that they were my 3 favorite idiots. Now this was said in jest/with love b/c those 3 + Andy are what made the show….
Likewise Since I’d been hearing / seen results from good & likable content creators fleeing JP (Will, Steph, Fancy Kristen, a certain Sweed, Mercedes and several others), FOR literally years, easily the past 5 years, when I’d read JP, BY FAR the best articles were you two lovable idiots (Torch + Tracey) And easily 1x per week I’d think to myself, “Why don’t these two idiots leave and start their own thing?
I’m so happy that you Have broken out and started your own thing And bringing in a stable financial partner in Beau is a huge (business sustainable perspective) addition too!
Suggestions (each is in a spirit of “if you haven’t already…”)?
1. Stay agile and if you haven’t already leverage an Agile framework to help (like Scrum), to stay close to your team (or teams) and bring clarity to your vision and product(s) we get to enjoy. This includes opportunity for frequent and honest feedback like this.
2. Figure out how to remain financially solvent, come up with some hypothesis’, run lean A / B experiments and see what works (and as importantly what doesn’t)
3. Balance feedback for what idiots like me want with what You (Torch, Tracey, Beau + your team want)
4. Have fun! 🙂
I love the new site, despite 30-second page loads, and 5-day password recoveries(you’re supposed to write them down?). I like the fact you guys are paying more attention to content, then secondary stuff. Hey, remember porn started out with rope-start web pages(with a manual choke), and look where they are now.
Mr. Tracy is going to end up in Psychotherapy when he finds out how expensive L.A. is, and that they out-lawed Iron Oxide there, long ago. He’ll be back to Michigan, but in the mean time you need a man in Detroit.
I bought an Optima battery a couple days ago just because they sponsor this site.
Just thought you should know.
A few recent comments on other articles are good candidates for a “flag as offensive/spam/something else” function. This site is big enough now, and has enough engagement to attract the spammers, scammers, and trolls… Growth is a mixed blessing, it seems.
You all are doing an amazing job, and 99.8% of the comments section is value-adding, which still amazes me! When you are able to implement some kind of moderating or flagging system, it’ll just be icing on the cake.
Thanks!
I’d like to see bigger, more useful reply-indent indicators. It sometime hard to figure out which level I’m at.
Reply text should be bigger too.
Could the replies be make more compact by putting the like button to the side?
Reply oblong square here should be above other replies, slow picture and links, but at least I am not reading about bike from Ralph and the content is so much better.
The appreciation for the content and suggested sure upgrades have been covered pretty well. How about reader supplied content? Plus side more free content, minus side, you would have to review and act as gatekeeper. I don’t know that I could commit to a full time gig, but like writing about this stuff, experiences, knowledge, car related funny stories. Guessing there are others out there as well. User engagement, Yay!
I’ve loved the articles so far, like the poaching of writers from other sites, like the content, the engagement/community. I wish there was more articles so I could check the site periodically throughout the day and see new stuff, but I recognize that that’s certainly not feasible so soon in the site’s life and I’d certainly not want you guys to start doing outrage editorials out of fabricated reasoning like the other site devolved into over the last couple of years.
I love what you guys and gals are doing and I’m very happy with the quality vs. quantity of content. I realize that a handful of really good articles per day is probably not the best way to make ad dollars, so I would be totally onboard with a Patreon to support the site.
Otherwise it’s pretty much what everyone else said – edit button, notifications, yadda yadda. Keep up the good work!
Only one small request… A few less poops jokes. From the morning dump to the shitbox showdown along with all the one-offs poop jokes… surely you editors can help punch up the comedy without a trip to the toilette each time.
For gods sake put in a next/previous button on the “News” page of stories. The absurd list of page numbers at the bottom navigation has not made sense in web design for 15 years, it is just embarrassing to see something so primitive on the web today. Here is an explanation of how pagination is done:
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/11/pagination-gallery-examples-and-good-practices/
Good content deserves better… (and editing comments would help as well)
I’m late to this party. Just got home from the mid west. I’m going out to acquire a mongoose, because I think that’s the next thing after snake. If this story has a title it is “In My Next Life I Shall Build Squirrel Toilets” it’s a real old house let your imagination wander. Not sure what comes after mongoose.
I find the morning dump too small.
Not enough reviews.
I’m ok with the comment possibility now and the slow loading speed.
The website only updates basically during the European night, so it feels like you don’t care about us too much.
You’re not talking about F1 (Elizabeth is doing an interesting job on your previous website, you should hire her) or sports in general.
Had a really fun (actually the opposite) adventure getting my Niro back from the shop.
I get word it is ready to go a couple days after the expected date, which is fine. Delays happen, and a 2-3 business day delay is nothing. I go to pick it up, and the paint is good, all the pieces seem to be there, and everything seems fine. My ride leaves.
I pay the deductible, take the key, and go to the car. It doesn’t unlock on approach or when I click the fob button. I take it back in, suspecting they need to program the fobs again or something. Turns out, they’ve managed to kill the battery. This is the PHEV and had 13 miles of electric range showing once they charged the battery a bit, which made me wonder why the aux battery saver (charges that battery off of the main traction battery) didn’t kick in, since it will kick in whenever I leave the car parked for more than two days.
Guy has it running and walks away. I hop in and the dash has error messages for AEB and smart cruise. I go back in and tell him. He tells me the guy who needs to recalibrate those is gone for the day. Asks if I can leave the car. I tell him I can bring it back, but my ride is gone. I’ll bring it in after work the next day. That’ll only give the tech a half hour before his quitting time, but it should be pretty easy.
The next day, I realize the remote start app can’t find my car. So I bring the car in and tell them that is another problem it has. They say they probably can’t fix that, but they can set up an appointment with a Kia dealership and ensure it is charged to my insurance. They take the car back to calibrate.
After about 45 minutes, the tech asks if it’s alright for him to drive it a couple miles, because the easy calibration is not working and they need to do a different one. I tell him I want it to work, so please do. Eventually, he pulls the car up and I am told the problem: they just didn’t reconnect the sensors. I guess that is the same fuse as the modem, because my app can find my car again. I take another quick peek at the car. The front passenger fender looks a little funny. I take a closer look and things do not seem properly connected. Sure enough, they did not reattach that fender correctly. So that has me there another 10 minutes while they fix that.
I feel like all of this could have been avoided with a pretty quick check of the vehicle. Someone moved it out of the repair bay with warning messages and ignored them. I think that disconnected or poorly connected wire drained the battery. The fender was a little less obvious, but I am not sure that it was wrong before the sensors were reconnected.