A brief programming note that I have been slow in approving comments because I have been on the road for a few days. I thought an app on my smart phone would let me approve pending comments but something didn’t work properly. Am still trying to figure out why.
In the first six months of 2024 Indie Auto has had more “visitors” than in all of 2023, so perhaps some of you don’t know that this website is a solo operation . . . and I do it in my spare time with my left hand.
The tiny size of Indie Auto’s operations can apparently perplex some readers.
The error that led a new reader to leave in disgust
Recently someone who had just stumbled upon Indie Auto took the time to submit a comment even though he stopped reading a story after only the fourth paragraph. He found a grammatical error and insisted that this “leads me to question the accuracy of everything else in this article.”
Actually, the error was simpler than that — I accidentally left out a word.
The reader went on to say this: “Maybe you consider it nitpicking but sentence structure and proper grammer (sic) can make or break someone’s first impression of a site and it certainly broke it for me.”
I am not going to slam this guy for railing with indignance but then misspelling the word “grammar.” Errors happen, particularly when one is writing quickly and don’t have someone else to proof one’s work. However, this incident reminded me about Mike Spinelli’s take on sanctimonious readers (go here). Mike was the founding editor of Jalopnik.
Road trips mean more car photos . . . eventually
But I digress. I recently bought a 2017 Toyota Prius V so tested it out this week on a car-camping trip up to the Canadian border.
Along the way I took a few car-oriented photos, which you’ll be seeing once I have time to edit them and write some accompanying text. Which could take some time. One of my weaknesses as a blogger is that I start off with the intent to write something short but end up doing a much longer story.
Part of the problem is that in the social media era, a lot of readers apparently don’t have the patience for longer stories. In addition, longer stories have more moving parts — which means more potential for errors to sneak in.
Which leads me to one more point for new readers. Indie Auto often reposts older content on the front page. However, the story is always given a fresh edit and often expanded if I (or readers) have come across new information. Sometimes I will decide that my take hasn’t withstood the test of time, so I will revise it. This is why a reposted story may be worth reading again.
This concludes my “brief” programming note.
You are doing a very good job for a one man band. Your site maintains it’s professional look and viewpoint. I can’t imagine running a site like this if I wasn’t retired. My own blog is much less professional, since it’s an experience, emotional, and opinion based site, not much fact checking going on over there! Recently I committed to a long series of articles for another well known website, that has taken a lot more time than I had anticipated, and taken some of my energy away from producing my own site. Critics? Well critics are gonna criticize, some people are just that way. Congrats on your expanding readership.
Jose, thank you for your kind words. I’m glad to see that you are sharing your writing with a larger audience. I also get the challenge of writing freelance while keeping your website going. Can you cross post or mildly recast at least some of the content?
My experience has been that publishing even a small website can take more time than writing for others. For a while I tried doing freelance writing on auto history topics, but the articles I submitted elsewhere had a high rejection rate — even with a website that heavily relies on volunteer submissions. So I gave up and have stuck to posting here.
Yes, indeed! I am very impressed with your work! There is another one-man band out there who could relate! His name is Richard Lentello, and he is running an actual print magazine, The Crankshaft! It is a phenominial periodical with excellent photography and articles. Reach out to him, and maybe both of you writers and jack of all trades can give each other tips and leads!
Congrats on your Prius and am looking forward in hearing about your camping trip to the Canadian border. Good thing it is a Hybrid, as I wonder how many bears and moose have access to EV chargers? Chuckling…
Happy Motoring!
Dan
…in fear of a backlash, yes, I am aware there are mispellings and grammatical errors….those were intentional as to show support of your excellent work!😀
Thank you for your encouragement, Daniel. I had not heard of Crankshaft magazine so have added it to our bibliography of links. Referrals like this are always appreciated.
One thing that makes Indie Auto different is that its focus isn’t collectible cars, but rather an unusual form of automotive history that mixes scholarly seriousness (e.g., detailed citations) with counterfactuals and satire. In some quarters this approach is controversial . . . which may help explain why some of my freelance articles have been rejected.