I know: some of our Best and Brightest think we lower our editorial tone and surrender the moral highground when we point out the deficiencies of other automotive websites. (While others like a good cat fight.) Well, in this case, Hemmings Auto Blogs (notice the spacing) gives us a backhanded hat tip. "As much as I’m not a fan of of AOL and its online empire, and as much grief that TTAC gives the site, I still read Autoblog daily for my dose of new car news, and anytime Autoblog links to one of our posts – as they did the other day when they were equally as puzzled by the shorty Voyager as we – we still get a ton of traffic." And it is the latter fact that makes all the difference. But don't take my word for it. "Want to get your site mentioned in the Saturday shoutout? Have you not been paying attention? It’s simple: Link to us, send us lots of traffic, and we link to you." As Dinu01 said (and thanks for the link), "I understand the concept of supporting other bloggers, but this feels dirty for some reason." [NB: TTAC does not base its blog roll on traffic, or sell space on same. We only recommend sites we deem worthy of your time.]
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Well, they at least put the truth out there for all to see. It’s the way things work.
RF:
[NB: TTAC does not base its blog roll on traffic, or sell space on same. We only recommend sites we deem worthy of your time.]
I don’t read scads of other car sites or auto blogs. I have an interest in many different subjects, so in order to take good care of all of my little tomato plants, I’ve narrowed the auto stuff down to one single site: TTAC. I go to a Prius-centric site for Prius specific issues, but I don’t read them every day like I do TTAC.
As with other sites of other interests/subjects, over time, and to save time, I have developed a natural resistance to taking the Yellow Brick Road (links), even if a link is deemed worthy of my time.
Ultimately, I have to be the judge of that, and in my experience, it’s rare that a link is really worthy. It’s not a slight against TTAC, because I do this with all blog/news sites that I visit.
For example, this time I did click the “shorty” link. Not a clear enough picture of the minivan. I saw reader comments, but didn’t have the time to dig into them. This is a prime example of how a “supporting link” really didn’t enhance the original statement or my understanding of it (or of the world around me).
Oh yes, I missed something somewhere along the way. What does “NB:” mean? Thanks!
NB means nota bene, literally meaning “note well”. A more accurate translation would be “take note of”.
On another note:
This idea of “I’ll rub your back if you rub my back” just feels “dirty”. Screw journalistic integrity and high standards, let’s see the hits count grow. Too bad, b/c their list of the 100 ugliest cars of all time was a somewhat entertaining read…
The shorty Voyager looks familiar … although I prefer what the French have done:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_1007
I don’t have a problem with TTAC critiquing other blogs. They are part of a pretty new medium that is still developing its professional (re: ethical) standards. How else can you improve the breed without discussing what is and isn’t working? And in the absence of some kind of professional association, competition between blogs is really the only way to get that discussion rolling.
My sense is that the major auto blogs have a lot of overlapping content. It can get quite incestuous. I suppose a certain amount of cross-pollination is inevitable, but it seems like some blogs try harder than others to provide some value added. Alas, sometimes the main value added comes from the quality of the comments sections. Here TTAC and Jalopnik stand head and shoulders about Autoblog.
“[Blog critiques] are part of a pretty new medium that is still developing” Really? I don’t read Gourmet magazine to see how Food & Wine is doing, and I don’t care what Time thinks of Newsweek. I read ANY blog to get their spin on what’s happening in their particular area of expertise, not some childish rant on how “We’re great, and they’re not.”
TTAC apparently needs to reacquaint themselves with the purpose of a comment board–which is to let readers critique a blog for accuracy and quality. Properly monitored, it does just that; you screw up, and your readers will let you know much faster than a dead-tree, old-school magazine.
So, please–talk about cars and the car biz. Leave the whining to others.