By on October 8, 2008

As promised, we’ve switched TTAC’s layout from all reviews in the left hand column, to every thing we do in chronological order in the left hand column. We made the move because TTAC has evolved from a review only site, to a review and rant extravaganza, to a review, rant and blog farrago. We altered the layout (a retro-mod for those who can remember back six years) because the old format didn’t offer immediate visual evidence that we’re generating masses of new content. In addition, we’ve finally added proper photo galleries (working with it now), which will give pistonheads another excellent reason not to waste their time visiting our competitors. We’ve also reinstated product reviews. And added a stock tracker (suggestions for which stocks to follow would be most appreciated). The nav buttons at the top of the home page should help you find everything, or you can scan the menus on the right hand side. There will be a few more tweakettes in the hours to come, but them’s the basics. Feel free to share your feedback, but we’ve blown the development budget; any appropriate suggestions for improvement will have to wait until the next round. Meanwhile, TTAC’s content itself remains as is: irreverent, cocky, abrasive and honest. I hope you enjoy the new look and functionality.

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37 Comments on “New TTAC Format Sure to Annoy Someone...”


  • avatar
    jkross22

    That Honda stock sure is accurate! Wonder if all those zeros would appear before the decimal point for GM. Oh wait…

  • avatar
    Matthew Danda

    As someone who reads the editorials more than the reviews, I welcome the change.

  • avatar
    TEXN3

    Looks great, and it is nice to click on the main page and not see the same review for a few days.

    May I make one suggestion: clean up the title bar and move “car reviews” and “product reviews” together under just “reviews”. There obviously isn’t alot of products being reviewed.

    Seems like it might clean it up slightly.

    Thanks for the changes.

  • avatar
    gslippy

    I love it – keep up the great work.

  • avatar
    Gardiner Westbound

    Definitely better! New items are readily apparent.

  • avatar

    I’d like to see the carbon fiber mirror on the header (old school!) and put Chrysler LLC on the stock ticker.(joking)

    TEXN3 : May I make one suggestion: clean up the title bar and move “car reviews” and “product reviews” together under just “reviews”. There obviously isn’t alot of products being reviewed.

    Good idea, I second that. At least test it to see how it looks.

  • avatar
    ash78

    IIRC, this is how it used to be, right?

    There was no categorization to the features–everything was listed in reverse-chrono order down the page. Of course, that was back when you were only doing a new piece every day or two (not 10+ per day, like now).

    Nice change, I already like it.

  • avatar
    Redbarchetta

    That stock ticker sucked me in before I realized the site had change. I would suggest swapping Benz for Hyundia since they are having much more of an impact on the US auto market and the Big 2.8’s market share than the germans.

    Lots of Porsche ads lately, your demographics must have really improved, I can’t even afford to click on them.

    Keep the great content coming.

  • avatar
    psarhjinian

    Geeze, the ticker is just salt in the wounds of the domestic marques…

  • avatar
    SupaMan

    Was annoyed for a split second (where the f*ck are the car reviews!) but then order stepped in to quell the chaos and rational thought took over.

    Change is good.

  • avatar
    newcarscostalot

    Just a thought, you might want to put the ‘Latest Car Reviews’ column in place of the ‘Latest News Column.’ The latest news column on the left now mirrors the new format on the right. Kind of odd looking and redundant. In my humble opinion.

  • avatar

    newcarscostalot :

    Agreed. We’re working on it.

  • avatar
    yournamehere

    VW needs to be on the stock ticker. there stock has gone up something like 87% in the last few weeks. i just read they are the most valuable automaker in the world right now. that seems pretty important.

  • avatar
    RGS920

    I think that because this is a global pandemic effecting auto stocks it would be interesting if you added Hyundai/Kia to the ticker. They are on a foreign exchange though so I don’t know if you could add it but let us know! It would certainly give TTAC a greater perspective on how this crash effects world markets.

  • avatar

    You mean there is a format other than an RSS feed? (just joking)

    Tell the boys who serve your ads to speed up their delivery! I swear page loading is zippy for your content but the ads are g l a c i a l .

    –chuck

  • avatar
    Domestic Hearse

    New format fine, but TAKES TEN TIMES AS LONG FOR PAGE REFRESHES AND LOADS as the old version.

    This will probably get resolved, but wanted to point out now so the geeks can get it addressed.

  • avatar
    jpc0067

    Add crude oil and gas commodities to the stock ticker. Oh, I’ll just go look them up.

  • avatar
    Qwerty

    If you are keeping the right side list of news items, which duplicate the news items in the main section then I think it would be nice if the right side ones were not just the most recent ones. You could keep items on the right side as long as people continue to comment on them.

    As it is now, items scroll off the bottom and commentary basically stops. On a day with a lot of news items, some items end up not getting the amount of commentary they would if they were not replaced by other items that get hardly any comments.

  • avatar
    Pig_Iron

    The ticker is ab-fab.

    Top 10 makers, and top 5 tier 1s please.

  • avatar
    joeaverage

    How about an article on why VW stock is going up so sharply?

  • avatar
    1996MEdition

    I like the format, but I have noticed that it is taking a lot longer to load pages…..don’t think it is me since I have not had trouble elsewhere.

  • avatar
    obbop

    Need blinking banner ads for visceral thrills.

  • avatar
    jerseydevil

    i hate blinking or moving banner ads.

    I hate ads that open up all over the place then refuse to go away, then cause u to spend 10 minutes hunting for a teeny tiny “close” button.

    I like TTAC, even with new format. Frankly, i thought the old one was just fine, but whatever.

    Good work, as always. its been fun watching this site morph over the years.

  • avatar

    I agree with Domestic Hearse, the site loads a LOT slower now.

  • avatar
    Richard Chen

    Podcasts can’t be played directly from the main page, you have to be in the related article or the News page.

  • avatar
    Justin Berkowitz

    @Richard Chen:

    We’ve alerted the corporate overlords. Thanks.

  • avatar
    Ingvar

    Three drinks later, and I love TTAC! Yes, I know it’s wednesday, but it’s been a long week thus far, and I come from the vodka belt:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka_belt#Vodka_belt

    I guess it’s the russian in me. Russians always gets sentimental and nostalgic when drunk. But I have to say I love this place. I love this community, I love the people, I love the discussions, I love the argumentations, I love the quarreling. This place only gets better and better. The only problem is that the situations for some automakers only gets worse and worse. It’s not that I’m happy about it, quite the opposite, but it is much fun watching it happening. Like being at a party and seeing a friend being very drunk and making a very fool of himself. Don’t dare watching, can’t help yourself watching… Whatever happens, I hope for the truth being told. And, I say say in these circumstances, as long as bad cars are built, I hope TTAC will be telling the truth about it…

  • avatar
    JuniorMint

    Now that I realize the actual website has changed, and not my ability to successfully navigated it (“WHY DO THE @#$# EDS KEEP LOADING?!”), I love it!

    I predict greater reader numbers all around – I love your quirky headlines, but I can’t tell you how many times I missed an interesting article just because the headline didn’t grab me. Now that we can get a little preview on the main page, it’s perfect!

    Love the headline, btw…That’s the Spirit, Mates!

  • avatar

    YAY!

    New layout Good; fire bad.

  • avatar

    Damn! -double.
    Guess it takes awhile to post.

  • avatar
    MikeInCanada

    Will this new format include additional nudity….?

  • avatar
    Jeff in Canada

    Love the new format. the stock ticker is a good touch.

    Keep up the good work fellas, and I’ll be sure keep occasionally clicking the ads, even if I can’t really afford a Boxster lease for 650/month with 6000 down!

  • avatar
    billc83

    I have no qualms with the new format, but lately I’ve been having some problems loading up the ads. The past few days it was truly horrible; it seems to have gotten better today though, so I guess we’ll see!

    VIVA TTAC!

    [EDIT – Seems to be working fine now. Hooray!]

  • avatar
    Samir

    With the pics loading straight away I find it adds a nice touch to the stories. Sometimes, humrous pics go un-noticed because they’re buried in an quasi-existential type of story that only the caviar crowd cares about.

    I would suggest putting thumbnails of the cars beside the reviews. Or putting up a thumbnail of the latest car anyway, right above the link for it in the right side-bar. It would round out the design.

  • avatar
    Davekaybsc

    Second that VWAG should be added to the ticker.

  • avatar
    golden2husky

    Nice rework. The site seems more processor intensive; my macbook’s processor shows substantially more processor activity but no big deal. This site would be bitchin’ even if read on a Teletype!! The only thing I would suggest is a Page two for the news topics. On some days, the topics drop off the list while good comments are still flowing. Good job to all involved. Like the product reviews, too.

  • avatar
    factotum

    I would turn off comments on individual photo pages. Otherwise, it gets too confusing with each photo having a thread of comments.

    Also, what’s up with the photo resolutions? Using thumbnail-sized photos looks good until you click and expand them.

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