When you log in to this august site next week, it will look different. For the first time in … well, a long time.
I know, you’ve heard talk of a redesign before. I’ve even seen mockups! But for a variety of reasons, things never moved past the planning stage.
Now, however, our corporate parents are leveraging a partnership and TTAC will be getting fresh new duds.
You probably have questions.
Here’s what I know:
- You’ll need to reset your password after the update in order to continue commenting.
- Old comments WILL migrate over.
- The site will remain operational during the migration.
- I will be monitoring my inbox and the tips inbox for specific questions from you all.
- The migration should be complete early next week. I’m being intentionally vague on timing because unplanned things happen, but I’d expect that even if we run into problems, the migration will be complete by mid-week at the latest.
- Old articles will migrate over.
- Some things will change, but the basic user experience shouldn’t change too much. Comments, tags, categories — all the little things you see should remain, in one form or another. Fast facts will remain part of car reviews, for example. The site will LOOK different, but by and large, it will navigate mostly the same.
Change can be both welcome and difficult at the same time. Putting aside the business concerns and opportunities that a redesign brings, I’ve been of two minds on this. Part of me thinks it’s far past time, just from an aesthetics standpoint, for TTAC to update. While the site has changed over time — some Wayback Machine sleuthing from before the time I was a semi-regular reader shows that the site has looked different in the past, but not all that dissimilar to its current form — it hasn’t truly had a radical change, to my knowledge.
On the other hand, the current site’s familiarity sometimes seems nice and comfortable.
That said, I’ve seen how the new site will look, and the design is cleaner and less cluttered. And more modern.
I’m struggling to find a good automotive comp. I think the change is more like the C8 Corvette than say, the retro-themed Mustang redesign from all those years ago. The shape is familiar, and the mission is the same, but the engine has moved in such a way that makes the car so much better.
It takes some getting used to, though. A mid-engined Corvette? No manual?! Yet the car is better than before. Albeit a lot different than the previous gen. Or all the previous gens that came before.
I hope that’s how you’ll think of TTAC the same way — with fond memories of the past, but understanding that the new vehicle is so much better.
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
[Image: TTAC/VerticalScope]
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Ah. A solution looking for a problem to fix.
I disagree. TTAC’s look is long in the tooth and that is costing them viewers. Will the new look help address that? I guess we’ll see.
I suspect it’s more the crappy content that’s costing them viewers. I’m almost ready to pull the plug… maybe the refresh will also mean some better content?
I never want to see another “article” comparing steering wheel covers or wiper blades.
Sorry — the SponCon helps pay bills, whether you like or not. It’s a necessary evil.
The layout is ok, but a refresh would be nice. The current comment system and videos bouncing around are horrific though. Ask your owners to go buy whats left of left lane news and get it running again, that site had a great comment crew for years.
The deck chairs have now been properly rearranged… now how about doing something about the Russian propaganda trolls derailing all the comment sections?
The commenting part of this site has always been behind the times, hopefully the update finally address this.
I am worried about it changing to a “click mining” system that several other sites seem to like.
>Click “see comments”
>Click “see all comments”
>Click “log-in to comment”
>Enter log-in.
*Site refreshes*
>Click “see comments”
>Click “see all comments”
*Button didn’t work*
*Site refreshes*
>Click “see comments”
>Click “see all comments”
>Submit comment about 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis.
*Lunch break is over*
Let more salespeople write “unbiased” articles.
This is long past due! You all don’t see it, but the WordPress content management on the back end of this site is busted, and bad. Looking forward to a smooth operator.
Coast to coast, LA to Chicago.
Will there finally be clickable links ? Pretty much every message forum allows them except this one .
Also formatting, like boldface or italics. Can’t currently be done even with HTML.
Announcing that any transition will be akin to the introduction of the mid-engine Corvette demonstrates a frightening grasp of reality.
ToolGuy – July 15, 2022
Please remove the ad-blocker-busting ads, or at least cache the damned things so they don’t suck down data with every! Page! Load!
Let’s hope we can post a photo – even a low res one – sometimes a photo goes a long way. I wish we could highlight text as well. I get the product posts as they pay the bills but maybe those annoying video ads need to be rethought or at least let us post small video clips…
I have to add that I believe some topics are written in a way to purposely drive political bickering and the resulting clicks. Articles that can be tagged to presidents (both past and present) for example typically generate far more traffic than car related content. Even when the story started with some connection to cars the bulk of the comments quickly devolve from the topic at hand to political posturing. And yes I’m aware I’m guilty of doing so at times.
Looking forward to the reboot!
Fully agree with your second paragraph!
After just getting part of my shoulder rebuilt, I’ve finally recovered enough to start easily typing again…time to play catchup on the site! And who knew that even with a right shoulder that is still mobility limited (and hurting) will allow easy wrist shifting with the MX-5? Mazda – advertise that!
Totally agree with golden2husky’s second paragraph as well. As much as Tim and the rest can say “that’s not why we do it…”, the proof shows otherwise. I’ve been coming to this site for a very long time, but I was finding myself even before the surgery, coming here less and less. I love Corey’s posts because I also read a lot of automotive history books and sites. The Junkyard Finds can be priceless with what’s found. And I get that reviews can be tough to snag during the pandemic, but this car was built on that and it needs to go back to that. But when we have months upon months of “masks on the factory floor” and “Biden/Trump support/oppose something vaguely automotive” and then it turns into 48 hours of a handful of people posting the same opinions over and over again that were posted in every article for years now, it turns unreadable. There are PLENTY of political and news sites where you can post into your echo chamber until your fingers fall off. But clicks = ad dollars and the TTAC overlords know that so it will continue to happen. No one on this site is going to change each other’s opinions with a post in an automotive site’s comment section. So let’s just get back to cars.
Changes besides the above?
1. More reader input. I would recommend setting up an e-mail account where all of us could post for reviews of our daily drivers and the beloved Rental Car Reviews. You guys could review them, offer suggestions, and I would even say add your .02 to the review as well. If you like what you see, post the review.
2. Comments – ignore button. Upvote/downvote/flag for removal. Display the user name to whom you are replying next to our user name.
3. Video games/hardware for driving games. Review the latest driving games/simulators on PC and consoles and also the driving game hardware like steering wheels.
That’s it for now. Reached maximum time limit that I can use the arm in this position! There is still some good and hope in this site that things will improve (at least it isn’t that slideshow trainwreck Jalopnik has turned into, and a lot of comments stay in grayed out purgatory forever for some unknown reason) but changes do need to be made. I think the car part of “TTAC” needs to be really beefed up, even if it takes rentals and further being real nice to the automakers to get more press fleet cars and demos.
Best wishes on your recovery. And agree with the vast majority of your recommendations.
You will see more reviews — I got behind on writing up test cars, and I am working through that. So you’ll see more as I have time to play catchup. And Chris has some in queue, too. Stay tuned.
Also, I promise you we don’t do political news for “clicks and money”. Doesn’t work that way. We cover it because it’s either news that affects the industry (and in some cases, we’re the only, or at least of one of the few, outlets covering that stuff) and/or because one of us has a need to rant. I see the same paycheck twice a month no matter how many clicks we get — articles are approved based some combination of relevance to the industry/newsworthiness/a strong opinion by the author/et cetera.
Even if we run fewer op-eds, we’re still going to cover political news that affects the industry. It’s in the site’s DNA. And we know some of our readers aren’t just enthusiasts but industry employees (OEM workers, dealership grunts, et cetera) and they care about it.
One possibility would be that viewers/readers over the world actually get adverts that are relevant to their particular locale. I get that the ads are there to make revenue, but seeing an ad for LHD Toyota in horsepower and gallons could be replaced by a local Toyota in Kw and liters. Contrary to perceptions, American vehicles aren’t sold in a lot of countries and vice versa, we have vehicles that will never see the light of day in America. So if the “mothership” is all consuming and all-knowing, should it be able to localised the advertising?
I believe a good portion of the advertising is automated, and I am not sure who it can be more localized. I suspect if you’re not letting your browser know your location, it will be LESS localized. The trade-off you make for privacy.
I agree that too many articles seem to be slanted towards strictly political bickering. Yes the auto industry is highly regulated, so politics matter. But some articles seem written to primarily set off political controversy.
The fact that these columns too often get far more comments (and clicks?) than do the far superior ‘car only’ columns written by predominantly Corey are worrisome.
More Corey. Or pay him more. More from Chris, Jo, and Bozi would also be appreciated.
The ability to go back and edit comments and to immediately view the newest comments or replies would I believe be beneficial.
I do not recommend being able to post ‘thumbs up/thumbs down’ and other forms of criticism regarding postings. It only leads to more bickering.
More, much more car reviews. Including rentals, and reviews by the B&B (a phrase that I have not seen used lately). Reading about the daily driving experiences of those who regularly visit and/or comment on this site would be much appreciated.
Hire find a columnist who can write on the retail and wholesale aspects of the industry. Steve Lang and Mark Baruth previously did this and provided useful information.
Find a way to reduce/eliminate trolling. It is pretty much accepted fact that ‘a Russian troll factory’ used at least one ‘sign in’ name to post prodigiously on this site. That they have not posted since the Russian ‘incursion’ into Ukraine is rather telling.
There are more reviews to come from myself, Chris, and others, and Jo is still working up some posts. Bozi is still welcome here but has busied himself with other work. Same with Bark. Steve Lang moved on long before I got here.
It’s cute how people are offering input for a design that is about to launch.
(The time to solicit input was a long time ago, but of course that didn’t happen because Management.)
Just lipstick in a pig. This site is pure garbage. A cesspool of russian propaganda and maga misinformation. Pull up the site to get auto information and you get hit with all of this crap.