Our Twitter handle: TTAC. Go figure. And there’s a bit more housekeeping I need to share with y’all. Our man Niedermeyer (the younger) is heading over to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for a couple of weeks. He’ll be posting car-related material from the country whose motto is Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc (Independence – Freedom – Happiness). During that time, our posting pace may slow slightly. Your patience and support are, as always, most appreciated. Hey! With the big GM news on Monday, we ALMOST made a million uniques per month this week: 996,962. With a bit of luck, we’ll crest that number during the next shoe dropping debacle. I hope to have some other big news for you next month, including enhanced features for Friends of TTAC (Người bạn của TTAC). At the very least, we’re talking avatars and the ability for you to see all comments on all posts on one page, with instant access to the relevant thread. Of course, you gotta donate some money to the cause for those bells and whistles, but you don’t gotta do nothin’ to get the same TTAC for nothin’. Meanwhile, please use the comments below to give us a heads-up on what you’ve been enjoying on the site recently and, yes, what sucks. Which means the anti anti-flaming TTAC policy is suspended FOR JUST THIS POST. Go play. Have fun.
Podcasts and Mr. Baruth’s reviews, ftw.
Tweets FTL.
Hey, what happened to the “Shutting Detroit Down” video?
I’ll throw in a few bux for the enhanced TTAC – I read this site more than any other car blog, and appreciate the content. Seems like the site just keeps getting better – maybe you should have stopped paying your writers a while back.
Oh, and since the anti-flaming policy is suspended:
You guys suck!
Where’d Jonny Lieberman go?
i can’t find you guys on twitter. is it still april 1?
thetopdog
The fact that our payments went away might have had a lot to do with it…
The good news: things are changing behind the scenes.
What happened to the latest edition of Hammer Time titled “Freeze”? I clicked on it and it disappeared as I was directed to a 404 error message.
John R :
http://twitter.com/TTAC
Any suggestions how to use Twitter effectively?
baaron:
Freeze was a duplicate post. Doh! New Hammer Time later today.
Twitter’s not my thing, but if it helps keep the site viable then by all means go for it.
Otherwise, just keep the fine editorials coming… that’s enough to keep me tuned in…
@Robert Farago
Not especially. This thing is kinda slow to respond to certain kinds of requests I’ve noticed.
If you’re just starting out (which it looks like you are) it takes a minute to…assimilate? I’m not surprised I didn’t find you on my first 3 attempts.
Frankly, I’m not sure how Twitter ties into the purpose of TTAC. Maybe if there’s a car show or event that calls for up-to-the-second updates. But on a daily basis, what else is there to say that you don’t already cover?
I honestly don’t know. But then again, I think Twitter is a kinda stupid invention anyway.
Some of the prose have been buff-book turgid lately. Seriously, leave the puns and overly-clever metaphores alone. I like to be able to understand a sentence on the first read.
Frankly, I’m not sure how Twitter ties into the purpose of TTAC. Maybe if there’s a car show or event that calls for up-to-the-second updates. But on a daily basis, what else is there to say that you don’t already cover?
Conversation.
Twitter can go two-way easily, quickly and widely more easily and across a lot of ‘methods’ (phone/sms, blackberry, pc, terminal, etc). It’s a very good way to facilitate a forum without the cruft and overhead of Facebook or the LiveBlog sessions we’ve done recently.
I second Seth L.
Also, I would have preferred far fewer, better digested pieces on the PTFOA episode, and same for deathwatches. (But maybe you should kick up a questionnaire so that you can see numerically where your readers stand. Or maybe you can get a statistician (there must be a good statistician among the readers) to figure out from the numbers of comments what readers want.)
I LOVE Piston Slap. I love just about anything from PN.
My comment about fewer, better digested pieces woiuld probably apply as well to what’s going on in China and India. Give me the big picture every now and then; all the details I can do without.
I continue to marvel at the way we remain civil in the comments section, even when the conversation turns to that Brobdingnagian bugaboo, global climate disruption. Good work!
I used to be able to search the site for my handle to find my old comments and any responses to them. I can’t do this any more. Will this be coming back?
Good to see that TTAC keeps moving forward, despite the current lack of ad revenue and the fewer blog posts that followed.
You, sir, are extremely stubborn (in a good way!), and I certainly hope that things will improve soon. Wouldn’t mind doing a few more free reviews for you if I come across something worth reviewing.
Farago should come out of his subterranean bunker and make a few television appearances. Neil Cavuto’s business show would be a perfect fit.
If Ray Wert is an industry expert on CNBC, why the hell not?
Come on Robert, let’s light this candle.
Robert,
Glad you finally took my advice. While, I hate twitter, it is a great tool.
a program called tweetdeck can really make twitter hum.
I was anti-Twitter, too, until TechCrunch succinctly summed it up as a way for people to interact with their favorite brands. There’s a rumor at TC that Google is in late-stage talks to acquire Twitter for more than $250 million. That’s not much in Bailout Nation, though. Heh.
Think of Twitter as instant notification when TTAC posts a new story, or as just another way of getting to TTAC if you’re away from a computer but have your mobile.
We need more car reviews!!!! Old cars, new cars, foreign cars, any kind! That is what I like best about this site.
Twitter – it’s a mile wide but only an inch deep.
If I change to ‘ihatetwitter’, will I be banned?
If twitter helps the site, great. I will stick with my rss feeds (on the desktop) and gmail updates on my blackberry.
Then again, I guess I’m one of the few USA’ians on the internet who uses neither facebook, twitter, linkedin or myspace. I use orkut, but only once in a long while.
I also still hang out on text based bbs’s.
Cleverness = A
Writing = A-
Quality & Moderation of comments = A
Range of subjects = B+
Reviews = C (see objectivity)
Cribbing from other websites = D (do it way too much)
Objectivity = F
Get off the GM=bad Toyota=good joyride, and you might have something. Otherwise, it’s just another “Automotive-TMZ” site, but with better writing.
BTW – Twitter sux. Don’t bother, it’s a fad.
Follow request sent. Wanna tweet on Ann Coulter falling for Car & Driver’s April Fools joke?
Using twitter effectively isn’t too difficult. It’s meant, based on its character limit, for very quick, off-the-cuff comments. So, simple thoughts, comments & incites that pop into your head when writing an article, reading a news blurb, seeing something odd, funny etc. that are too short, inane or immature for a TTAC posting make great tweets.
I DO love this site but since the North American car business started to drive south there have been 10 financial articles for every one about cars.
Any chance we can move the needle back the other way just a tad?
It would help to number the comments like the NYT does
Get off the GM=bad Toyota=good joyride
Do you even read our posts? Venza? Tahoe? Malibu?
I’ll echo the sentiments of others – too many bailout articles, many with little real news, and too shrill. We get that you don’t support the bailout, but don’t expect all of us to hate it with equal venom.
The comments are tending more and more towards politics. I’m of two minds about it – OTOH the comments are mostly intelligent and from both left and right. OTOH, I come here for news about cars and the car industry. I don’t know that it’s possible to prevent conversation from getting political (or even entirely desirable) but more focus on cars might curtail it a bit.
Love the used car reviews. Love Hammer Time.
Now I think you are on the right track regarding paying for enhanced access.
I might be interested in supporting, if TTAC would take a vow and not delete every post that expresses a different opinion.
cardeveloper
Low blow and completely off base.
Once again, our posting policy has NOTHING to do with censoring opinion. It is simply a way to keep the comments on message (i.e. not let them become about TTAC) and maintain civility (you can disagree with anyone about anything, as long as you don’t insult them personally).
That’s the way we roll.
RF,
Twitter is another communication channel, there are a lot of “automotive folks” on Twitter, if you spend some time you will quickly find them, and some will follow you, if you follow them back.
We have #carchat every Wed night from 8 to 10PM 140 characters at a time.
Avatars are okay but I would not recommend allowing graphical sigs. Every car site, gaming site, etc. that allows huge graphical signatures is almost unreadable because it is hard to find the text between all the graphical garbage.
I think you should consider toning down the political comments. Comparisons to communism and Nazis are not just absurd, they put the site on the road to Yahoo groups territory. There are now some articles where the first couple pages of comments are political crap that has almost no value. There is a reason why all large message boards isolate political arguments to a politics only forum. You could try a politics articles once per day and try to keep the comments in other articles relatively politices free.
I like Mr. Langs’ material and Mr. Schmitts’ material, the most.
I still think TTAC should take-over beaterreview.com and do something with it.
ditto to GOLF4ME
Cleverness = A
Writing = A-
Quality, Moderation of comments = A
Range of subjects = B+ always be more
Reviews = (B-)
Cribbing from other websites = D (do it way too much) (Everyone does it)
Objectivity = F (D+) seems to be an imports bias
Get off the GM=bad Toyota=good joyride, and you might have something.
RF is not ANTI GM, he calls it the way he sees it and is fairly consistent on his opinions from poor GM leadership to the future of electrics, just most of the posters on this site seem to take a great amount of glee in the current state of affairs of GM and Chryco, not good for what ever reasons.
As for Tweeting
Who gives a whoot
Need to get RF some paid talking gigs, some interviews, syndication, whatever Autogurus do, Good Luck
Robert,
Isn’t it a bit disingeuous to claim 996,962 uniques this *week*? This site is plugged into Quantcast for direct measurment and it’s sitting at 395,000 per month (not week). Anyhow, hope things work out with the new owner.
Robert,
you deleted my post the other day calling for the heads of toyota’s management, demanding their employees take a pay cut, and for them to declare bankruptcy. I’ve seen other very similar posts deleted, suddenly they are there, and then they are gone. I’ve sent you links from both sides, and only one side gets “published” and of course it’s the side showing the D3 as total screw ups.
Someone please explain why when toyota sales fall 39% it’s a bad economy, but when D3 sales were down 25%, they should immediately be shut down.
I’ve said it many times before, this economy is going to take down a lot more then just D3. It’s going to suck everybody’s wages down and we’re getting dangerously close to hyper inflation… bad combination.
I blame Obama.
Not quite sure what he is to be blamed about but accusing him seems to be the latest fad.
Carry on.
good luck in nam;
perhaps a post or two titled:
the truth about bikes
nickaziz
My bad. I mean per month. Text amended.
@ cardevloper: Are you referring to your comment,
“Damn, sales down 28%, they just don’t get it, their management is a bunch of bumbling idiots, their workers are lazy, nobody wants these pieces of crap. We should encourage all of them to file for bankruptcy.
That’s what everybody was saying with the detroit 2.x were down 25%. Where are the cries for the exec’s heads?”
Perhaps you were looking for your comment on a Toyota story instead of this Honda story:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/hondas-january-sales-down-279/#comment-1227232
I’ve been linking to your entries on twitter for months… I am really pleased you joined the fold. One huge suggestion is to use a service like http://twitterfeed.com to automatically feed blog entry links into twitter. I would enhance it with your “human” twitter updates.