As I mentioned in a previous post, Justin and I had a sit down with the boffins who serve the server and manipulate WordPress (WP) on our mutual behalf. While we discussed all sorts of pie-in-the-sky stuff, we eventually brought it down to a “here’s what we can afford to do” shortlist. There are only two large alterations afoot. First, we will have photo galleries, dammit. WP can create a thumbnail gallery, but it lacks convenience (browser back button? no way!). The cumbersomosity of the WP system would aggravate the B&B and kill rather than encourage page views (yum!). So the guys are building a system that’s similar to, say, Autoblog’s. The other, even more significant change: we’re going to run ALL items in the center column. In other words, there will be 15 (up from 10) posts in the center stack in chronological order, regardless of catagory (editorial, review, blog). Our hard core audience has been asking for this for years (the original TTAC format). And so it will come to pass. There are other bells and whistles in the offing: the return of product reviews, a “Best of TTAC” box, a “view all comments” button (all comments on all posts in chronological order), search by author, direct email to authors, etc. Unfortunately, I can’t open this post up for a “wish list,” ’cause our development budget’s tapped out. But now’s a good time to tell us what we’re doing wrong, and what we can do to make sure we don’t screw-up in the future. Meanwhile, thanks for reading.
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Meanwhile, thanks for reading.
You’re welcome. ^_^
Those changes sound good, and the Autoblog-like image gallery is a great idea.
All of these ideas sound pretty cool, I’m looking forward to how they pan out with the B&B.
Sounds fine by me. I’ve been missing a “search by author” function since forever. And direct e-mail sounds fine, but I don’t want my e-mail adress published. You will have to find some way of re-directing them through TTAC.
RF
Great site
But, your top priority should be to keep it up and running. Also when viewing an article the menu should not delete other options so you have to return to home to read them. (did that make sense?)
Keep up the good work.
Ingvar:
And direct e-mail sounds fine, but I don’t want my e-mail address published. You will have to find some way of re-directing them through TTAC.
No, no. You’ll be able to click on the author’s byline and send THEM an email.
TTAC will never violate its readers’ privacy and/or share your information with a third party.
“No, no. You’ll be able to click on the author’s byline and send THEM an email.
TTAC will never violate its readers’ privacy and/or share your information with a third party.”
Thank you. I thought so too, I just wanted it cleared up.
I’ve been intending to send TTAC a suggestion for a search-by-author function for a long time. Usually I can tell who is writing a blog or editorial just by reading it and not looking at the byline. Everybody has a different style and it will be good to be able to catalogue works by their creators.
Everything else sounds like TTAC is heading forward in the proper direction.
Regarding thumbs galleries, they’re my favorite because no amount of adobe flash will ever beat the “ctrl+left-mouse” control that opens new tabs in the browser, and the “ctrl+W” that closes them. Once you get those controls down, you can sift through pages and pics much faster that way, although it does not look as elegant.
Cool! Substantial improvements!
Here’s another request though (sorry!):
Instead of having oh… 91(!) Volt Birth Watches, and 48 Bailout Watches, do you think that maaaaaabe you guys could forego a couple “Watch” posts per day and condense the content down to one post on each per day. I mean… seriously. It’s out of hand.
One thing nice in Autoblog format is replying to a topic within (it indents replies to a comment so that dialogue can go on and not be lost in they myriad of comments not directed at anyone).
I remember reading something many months ago about a TTAC Forum, but I guess that has been put on hold? That was something I was really looking forward to
Vorenus:
Instead of having oh… 91(!) Volt Birth Watches, and 48 Bailout Watches, do you think that maaaaaabe you guys could forego a couple “Watch” posts per day and condense the content down to one post on each per day.
Hey Mister, wanna buy a watch? Seriously, it’s who we are and what we do. Our niche. And the developments happen so damn fast we pretty much have to break it down to stay current.
thetopdog :
Yup. Forums on hold.
I personally would like a TTAC contact page that allows for individual emails to TTAC personnel.
Sometimes it would be nice to email someone without the entire B&B being in on the issue.
I am not asking for an idividual’s private email, but a TTAC email so it stays issue oriented.
It would be nice sometimes to email Justin or Jonny or MK…or really any of the characters, individually.
Just a nice thought.
I really love how TTAC is laid out now.
Please keep the page loading fast & reliable (as it is now) and the content interesting. Even the advertising is minimal & well placed.
The only thing I’d really like to see is a breakdown of who to contact for issues instead of a generic contact form. Another idea might be to flag posts (spam or abuse).
Outside of that, keep up the great work!
For the sake of the TTAC authors it would be interesting if you could post a wish list of cars you would like to test drive. You might find obliging readers or dealers who would let you take a clandestine test drive. That would help you maintain your independence from junkets.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. It would be great if the comments were numbered. I return to certain articles, especially “Death Watches” numerous times during the day. Numbering would save the trouble of scanning and scrolling to find where I left off previously. Apart from that, my thanks and compliments on an imformative and entertaining site.
search by author, direct email to authors,
That’s great I was wondering about this, I think I mentioned it in an email.
I just have one request, that the site not crash after all these changes. I would rather have the same old reliable TTAC than a new Microsoft-like crash happy and glitchy site with a few new features people rarely use.
Keep the great news, editorials and reviews coming. That’s what makes everyone keep coming back, all the other stuff is just icing.
@jaje: I really like how the comments are right now, and not having a reply function like Autoblog. It’s not hard to type the persons name in… plus the Autoblog function doesn’t always work correctly or people forget to use it.
Now, a qouted function would be fine so that you could directly qoute the person you’re speaking too. However, this would be cumbersome on rather long posts.
Overall, I like the clean approach TTAC has right now and even like the categories of articles and how they’re seperated (editorials, reviews, news).
May I ask why there is going to be function to see all comments of all articles (at once)?
Comment ratings would also be good, particularly if you can sort by them.
Mr. Farago, can you make some smileys available?
Sometimes are needed and it’s really annoying not to have them.
A quote button would also be nice.
If you can effectively mix the blog part of the site, with the ease of posting of a forum, you’ll have a winner here.
Forum?
Rather than trying to get WP to do the photo thing poorly, why not use a good photo site that can feed a WordPress blog? Flikr has some great tools that allow you to integrate Flikr photo galleries into blogs.
A feature that I would like is to be able to find what posts I commented on. So that I can go back later and read further discussion.
Not sure if this is the place to comment on this, but as there are no forums, I suppose it is…
The biggest thing I would like to see implemented is actual photos of the vehicle being reviewed in the reviews, instead of just press photos (which is what the majority of the reviews seem to contain exclusively). I realize TTAC isn’t alone in not bothering to have the reviewer snap some shots of his test car, but it would improve the reviews a healthy margin to see exactly what the reviewer is talking about when they reference certain design elements or interior choices.
A quote button would also be nice.
Yes, a quick-quote would be helpful. Heck, even the ability to blockquote+italicize with a click (like bold and italic do now) would be good.
Either that, or an optionally-threaded comment section (the method that Slashdot.org and other slashcode-based sites use is very helpful) would be useful to track sub-discussions within a thread.
Rather than trying to get WP to do the photo thing poorly, why not use a good photo site that can feed a WordPress blog? Flikr has some great tools that allow you to integrate Flikr photo galleries into blogs.
+1. Good idea. Flickr’s tools are very well-done.
I’d like to add that it would be helpful to be able to see a history of our own posts, so that we can check which threads we’ve posted in.
I don’t want to sound all boring and stuff, but please, no emoticons. I like this site a lot and really appreciate all of the seriously well-thought out comments regarding the business of automobiles. Smiley faces getting shot and blowing up all over the place would detract from that.
I was wondering which format was going to emerge as the “winner” for the comments. Will it be the “Show page #, Show All” version or like it is now where all comments from one article are displayed at once? If I had a vote I would want all comments displayed at once. If others don’t care for that, maybe it could be a setting each user could set for themselves?
I would also be all for having pictures from the actual car tested to be displayed. It doesn’t have to be part of the actual review because not everybody is a professional photographer. It could be part of the “stars” page. This would be a perfect place for dealers to get an attaboy for providing the cars without adding to the overall clutter on the page. (you know, one pic could be under the dealer’s sign, another would include a pic of the dash with the dealer’s name over the radio display, etc)
Also, wouldn’t it be cool if the “stars” page listed the primary competition that the reviewer considered? This would obviate the need for the reviewer to name them all during the review. They could just say the car was better/worse than others in the segment.
I thought about asking for an observed fuel economy number somewhere in there since this is an ever increasingly important number. But then you’d have to have some sort of driver ID with it: hoon, half-hoon, grandma. For TTAC I’m hoping most reviewers fall into the hoon category which makes mpg’s kinda meaningless.
Lastly, since there will be all this content added to TTAC, will it be possible for users to select what they’d like to view and what they’d like to ignore? What I mean is, if I’m not interested in the opinion pieces but like the news stuff, will I be able to deselect editorials so that they don’t even come up on my ‘home’ page?
And thanks again for all your hard work. This is by far the best automotive-based website hands down.
I agree with netrun about keeping the comments clean of avatars, signatures, emoticons, etc.
+1 on no emoticons.
Two other things that I hope you don’t dredge in here from various forums I’ve seen: Pics and moving gif’s next to user’s names, and a bunch of pics in their signature lines. It really has nothing to do with the content on hand.
Yep, add me to the no emoticon list. Their inclusion usually dumbs down the content by at least 30%.
I yearn for critical reasoning. Not AOL derived drek.
Ditto with the no emoticons.
This is hands down the best automobile review/news site out there and 99% of the comments are written by intelligent car buffs, auto workers, engineers, car salesmen, international car fans…and R8 owners! (Curious – how many speeding tickets so far?)
So many blog sites are beyond ruined with the overuse of Texting “English,” pointless emoticons, flames and attacks at others, and pointless plugs for porn/social networking/spam sites.
This site is “for real” and all of us know that RF and the rest know how to make an excellent site with limited resources.
Oh yeah – I second the car wish-list idea. It seems like a great way to have other readers give their 800 words…and encourage Take Two and Take Three reviews.
(I don’t mean to ignore the part that the posts shouldn’t be a things to add/change to the site, but I hope that a wish list section wouldn’t require any major changes to what you are already working on.)
I just wish the comments could be numbered as they are in the NYT website. Would be much easier to refer people to previous comments that way
How about a measured amount of cheesecake? It can make you sick if you over do it, but damn, it is tasty on occasion.
I never meant signatures, avatars and that stuff.
Only some emoticons.
I agree with you, this site is for real. And I like the discussion level.
I happen to think that adding some “emotion” would enrich it. That’s it.
I can add more things I’d like.
I agree with netrun about keeping the comments clean of avatars, signatures, emoticons, etc.
Agreed. Wholeheartedly.
RF: How about galleries for authors?
I’d love to share the pics I took of a ZHZ ‘vette and the black GT-R this week in Park City, UT.
Oddly enough, given that I’m passionate about images of cars (as a look at my own site reveals) I could care less about a photo gallery here. To me the whole concept of TTAC is words. Your prose is of the highest quality and is, as we would expect, filled with Truth. So gallery links would not really enhance the site so much as dilute the brand… to borrow a Faragoism. Stick to what you do best – relentlessly.
My only gripes about photos on this site are:
1. Your car reviews almost always use manufacturer supplied images. Which rarely reflect truth.
2. I miss the rotating banner images of the TTAC of yore. Some of those detail shots of classic cars were awesome.
Keep up the good work.
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
I agree that emoticons are generally annoying, but I have yet to find a way to express laughter through text. “Haha” looks stupid, and I refuse to ever type “LOL”. An emoticon of a smiley face laughing is the most efficient way in my opinion
Then again, laughing via text may not be necessary
TTAC Puberty Watch #1
jaje :
One thing nice in Autoblog format is replying to a topic within (it indents replies to a comment so that dialogue can go on and not be lost in they myriad of comments not directed at anyone).
I disagree with this. I don’t read Autoblog, so maybe they were the only ones who “got it right.”
But in general, I feel that the indentation only works if the members pay attention to which “reply” button they are pressing. Not enough people do it right, so every reply ends up being a reply to the prior person’s post.
And that serves to crowd the text to the right for longer threads, which makes the whole site messier and harder to follow along.
Oh, and add me to the list of people who are not thrilled at the over-use of avatars and emoticons.
It’s more challenging without them, but if I want to be unique and expressive, I can just do it with my words.
:)
Sorry, couldn’t resist!
;)
Oh, there I go again!
And that serves to crowd the text to the right for longer threads, which makes the whole site messier and harder to follow along.
Have a look at Slashdot for web-forum threading done right. You can use it, disable it, or customize how it behaves, which is handy. And the reply console makes it easy to note whom you’re replying to.
Autoblog’s system is pretty weak, by comparison. But hey, it has avatars!
psharhjinian>
I _hate_ slash dot layout. I don’t want to customize it. I want to read the article, read the comments & get out.
TTAC is much superior in organization to slashdot, not to mention it makes my laptop in power save mode crawl.
The message takes precedence over the medium.