I can’t believe it’s been over two years since that fateful day: March 32, 2022 — launch day for the humble auto website you’re reading right now. The Autopian. Lots has changed since then, lots has stayed the same, and lots is currently in flux. One thing that will forever remain is our site’s desire to get feedback from you, dear readers. You are what make this site work. You motivate us every morning to crank out the most Double-E articles (Entertaining, Enlightening/Educational) we can think of, and we are forever grateful. Anyway, let’s chat!
It’s been far too long since we’ve done one of these “Let’s Talk” articles with you wonderful readers, so we’ll try to do them more frequently moving forward. If you want to tell us what you’ve enjoyed about our site, what you loath about it, what you’d like to see improved, or if you just want to hang out and learn more about us authors or tell us more about yourselves, please head into the comments and bang on those keyboards.
Jason is in the hospital trying to figure out what’s going on with his recurring fevers, Matt and I are recovering from a huge week at Pebble Beach and Willow Springs Raceway (where Matt worked with our video guy Chris to organize the most epic shoot involving the 2004 Ford Shelby Cobra Concept (Codename: Daisy), a Dodge Viper, a C6 Corvette ZO6, and an original Shelby), and Mercedes is gearing up for her first international trip ever! Thomas is hopefully… you know what, lemme just ask Thomas. He always has cool stuff going on, often involving the ultimate duo: Good Food And Good Cars. From Thomas:
Oh gosh, my weekend plans involve writing some road tests, going for milkshakes at one of Toronto’s oldest ice cream shops, catching the Italian Grand Prix, figuring out what pieces I want to enter for the annual AJAC journalism awards, and possibly driving an original Series 1 Lotus Elise.
What do you have going on this weekend? What feedback would you like to give us? Let’s talk!
Late to the party but I feel like commenting so that “my vote counts”. I signed up fairly early and have followed the guys for many years. I was happy to become a member when it started because I wanted them to succeed. Plus I enjoyed the content.
I guess for me, the reason I canceled my membership (more like turned off auto renew) was because when I went to comment on something a couple of weeks ago, I tried scrolling down but was met with the full page Samsung ad. Ironically on my Samsung tablet… but it was such a large ad that I couldn’t scroll past it because my entire screen was the ad. I felt that being logged in as a member, it was a bit much.
I agree with many of the comments (both positive and negative) and the way I see it: if I pay $ for a streaming service, I do so because I then won’t have commercials or ads. If I’m paying for this site (the monthly price of many streaming services), I expect it to be ad free. (Including no auto play videos)
I enjoy the content, the stories, the articles; particularly the goofy topics that I cannot get from the other automotive sites. Oh, and the comments. Love the comments. I want the team to succeed and I wish them the best. I may decide to renew when my subscription is up but I feel for the price, being logged in as a member should be ad free.
#showerspaghetti4ever
The video in the middle of the article that I cant hide.. and If I pause it and scroll, It continues to play. this makes it difficult to remain low-key at work – the only time I’m on here!
I thoroughly enjoy your site
As a car enthusiasts, I am an outlier since I don’t belong to any clubs nor do I attend any meets or shows
I spend most of my money on things automotive, on four and two wheels
Some might disapprove, but I don’t care, they don’t understand
Somehow being on the site, reading the articles and comments makes me feel connected and I feel a sense of community
It’s a short life we all have limits in our time and resources, I intend to enjoy it and to keep on motoring
Thanks for your work and that of your readers, for all of it
I don’t think you’re all that much of an outlier. I rarely go to meets or shows, I have been part of clubs throughout the years, but I change cars annually most of the time, and the clubs come and go with it. I will happily go on group drives, but am far less interested in meeting in a parking lot to talk about everyone’s cars. Every once in a while sure, but I’d rather be driving. Thanks for being here, regardless of whether you’re a mainstream enthusiast (whatever that means) or not!
Right?
It’s like all about showing off in social media, but no real driving, or even worse showing off when driving
Then there are brand loyalist
Hey I like Mopar, but let’s be honest, there are OTHER cars
Harleys are cool, but a Japanese liter bike will bring you closer to God as fast as you can flick your wrist.
See what’s really cool here is not what you got, but how much love you have for what you got
Lol
Too many words
Couldn’t agree more. I like Toyota, but have owned cars from most major companies, and many not major ones at this point and have enjoyed all, or at least most.
Nice summation by Framed. I came only to comment on the ridiculous small pop up in the top left corner, every damn time I open something to read……it’s making me less and less interested in coming to the site – if the only solution is to buy a membership, then I probably will visit even less. Maybe that’s what you all want – only paying members – but I think that’s a mistake.
When I’m reading this there are 387 comments. Though entertaining and informative, I couldn’t read them all. I had ChatGPT summarize them:
The comments reflect a mix of personal anecdotes, feedback on site functionality, and opinions about content and site direction.
Overall, the comments convey a strong sense of community, with users enjoying the site’s distinctive content while also advocating for improvements in functionality and content focus.
Went to vintage race day at Lime Rock in CT. Great time as always seeing and hearing those old vintage and classic racers pounding down the straightaways.
Did a road trip through the Berkshires down to a holiday party in Southern Connecticut. We took my wife’s 2014 428iX. Always fun driving that on mountain roads.
I didn’t get much car-stuff done on the weekend but still, the little jobs add up. I changed the oil on my 1964 International Harvester 1200C, removed the battery box (for repainting) and started the process of removing the radiator (to fix a leak). I thoroughly enjoy The Autopian!
Thank you for keeping an International on the road.
It is an absolute pleasure! A labor of love, as they say 🙂
I replaced the front wheel bearings in my ’70 1200D today only to find that one of the springs for the self-adjusting brake mechanism on the right side had broken which allowed the engagement pawl to slip and score a groove in the brake drum. At least that explains the noise. Well, one of the noises, anyway.
I love 1969 – 1975 Internationals! It’s funny how sometimes one’s taste can change so quickly: I used to think the pre-1969 International pickups were WAYYY prettier than the 1969+ square-shaped Internationals. Then one day saw a 1971 1110 advertised for sale. After revisiting the advert a few times, I impulsively bought it (sight unseen) and when the owner delivered it to me it took me all of 2 seconds to fall in love with it! 10 years down the road the 1969 – 1975 International pickup is still (and more than ever) my absolute favorite old pickup!!
I bought mine from the original owner just over ten years ago. He was an electrician who used it as his work truck the entire time he had it, only putting it up for sale upon retirement. He gave me all of his documentation including the original form from the day he ordered it from the dealership. It’s in somewhat rough shape after those decades of work but I’m quite happy with it:
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I use it for all of my pickup-related needs but I’ve found it particularly excels at hauling vehicles of various sizes:
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Owning and enjoying an classic/vintage vehicle is a great experience but owning a classic/vintage vehicle with a documented history is really what it’s all about! To me, the story behind a vehicle is just as important as the vehicle itself. I’m also very impressed with my old International’s hauling abilities. She is by no means fast, but she pulls a decent load without breaking a sweat!
You could have said goodbye to my dad before you left him after toying with his heart while playing around with Ford Rangers in Utah last March. He’s over it now and so am I, but it took quite a while.
editGive my best to Uncle Torch. He’s the one who broke the news about all this in that post and he was very supportive after you took off. I’m very sad that he’s sick.
Haha, I had to look up your comment to see what you were referring to.
It’s hard to fit a meetup in those press trips!
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
I’m assuming you’re being sarcastic about me not doing a meetup there. But there’s no time during a press trip!
Next time I’m in Utah, I’ll do one!
Weekend, mowing lawn, cleaning cars, water changes on my glassboxes of water.
The site is doing grate a couple of suggestions:
A mobile app.
Trivia nights restarted.
Some more user stories, the one was going to do was put on hold due to loss of job. Not sure when the roadtrip will happen for that idea.
Any plans to bring the podcast back?
Yes, and more frequently!
I really enjoyed the podcast,maybe you can keep it a member post to try and get some more members too.
The commenting system is one of the few rough spots here. Notifications are buggy, and showing newest comments first causes things to get buried. I feel like there is way less productive reader to reader and reader to writer dialogue going on than there used to be at the old lighting site before Thiel and kinja screwed everything up. Or maybe I’m just getting old.
Better than kinja
Definitely better than Kinja. The old school commenting system before kinja seemed to work great.
Yes. The buggy notifications really get in the way of me insulting people in a timely manner.
One of my main problems(I think it is still happening) is that if I get more than one notification, once I click on one it marks them all as read and the rest disappear. And there doesn’t seem to be any other place to see who replied. So if not all of the notifications are for replies to the same comment, I never see the other replies because I don’t know where they are.
Exactly what happens to me. It doesn’t bother the others because they’re the kind of monsters who have 50,000 unopened emails showing on their home screen.
You guys are doing everything right, except maybe the pop-up videos.
100%. At least let subscribers opt out of the video pop ups. I find them obnoxious.
If I want to watch a video, I’ll go to YouTube. When I want written content, I come here.
I’m going to be sealing up our shed with tar and flashing tape. It gets flooded during the PNW winters.
Automotivelly, or motorcyclelly, I’ll be prepping my XR400R for an upcoming trip. I’ll be doing a few days of riding on some USFS roads near Mt Rainier.
More SWG! More fixing stuff! More Adrian! More technical stuff! I love what you folks do.
I’ve been on holiday for a few days in Norway catching up with friends, but I’m back for a couple of weeks before jetting off to Germany for a week.
Awesome. Where in Norway?
Oslo, but I was only there for a couple of days so didn’t get to explore as much as I would have liked, but that would get real expensive in a hurry.
True. Our currency isn’t worth shit right now but Oslo is still way too expensive for most people. Hope you enjoyed it anyway though.
Thank you. I may not visit it several times a day, like I use to with Jalopnik, but it is visible on my bookmarks bar without using the menu. Makes for a very fun alternative to the usual automotive sites.
Wishing you well Jason and everyone else here.
Can you please not have the auto-playing videos on every page, or put a thing in the page settings so that they are not auto-playing. Thanks.