Perhaps the biggest news at Indie Auto’s world headquarters is that posting has been slower of late because my wife recently had foot surgery and I am spending most of my time in a caregiving role. We have become acutely aware that our house is not very wheelchair friendly. However, I have enjoyed making fake engine noises when driving the wheelchair down the main drag hallway.
Thank you to recent donors
A belated thank you to recent donors. Due to a good mix of new donors and old friends, Indie Auto is keeping its head above water financially despite rising costs. New readers may not know that we depend entirely on reader support. This is partly to protect our journalistic independence, but also so that we can make fun of advertising (go here and here) rather than deluge you with it.
Facebook posts have been glitchy
For the last few weeks I have not been able to consistently post new Indie Auto content on our Facebook page. However, I have been able to continue posting “best-of-the-Internet” content. Perhaps I will find a technical fix. If not, I am not going to be too bothered by it given Facebook’s checkered corporate behavior. If American democracy fails, I suspect that a key reason will be because of self-serving, social-media monopolies.
New website on hold
A variety of technical problems have put a new website on hold. That’s the bad news; the good news is that preparation for it has greatly improved the readability of older Indie Auto content, which I have had to manually reformat page by page. This has been a giant time suck but ultimately worthwhile. Like other auto history websites, Indie Auto reposts old content. However, we update and expand our content in response to reader feedback and new research. Continuous improvement is a key part of our journalistic approach (go here for further discussion).
Fastest way to reach me
I continue to be busy enough that if you want a quick response from me, the best way to do that is in a comment rather than a message to the editor, which is a more complex process. Of course, that doesn’t work with a confidential message. Not the ideal situation, but that currently reflects the art of the possible. Thank you for your patience.
When you find an article lacking
I view auto history as a team sport, so your feedback and suggestions are appreciated. However, please remember that Indie Auto is a solo operation done on volunteer basis. In other words, this is a gift of my time to you. In addition, even though our articles tend to be unusually long for auto media websites, one story can’t cover everything. Also note that I strive to not duplicate what you can find elsewhere. For example, other major websites tend to do a good job of covering gearhead details, so I will focus more on corporate strategy, design and marketing. If you think something more should be added, that’s why we have comment threads!
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
i had a compound ankle fracture a few years ago so i ache for your wife’s situation. Get well soon, and I will stay a supporter.
Spell check woudl be nice.
Mark
Thank you for your support, Mark. It looks like my wife’s recovery process is going to take quite some time, e.g., she is still wheelchair bound and has been hesitant to use crutches.
Regarding spell check, I haven’t come up with an affordable way of adding it to this website’s platform (if readers with knowledge of websites have ideas, I’m all ears). Another platform that I have been investigating a switch to do does include spell check but I have recently gotten bogged down in technical difficulties. They may be resolvable but they also take time away from the care and feeding of the existing site — and the latter needs to be the priority. So unfortunately I don’t have a satisfying answer for you in the short term.