The End Is Near

"TheHondaBro" (wwaveform)
11/17/2015 at 15:55 • Filed to: None

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

While it might be a while before it happens, this could spell the end of all sub-blogs, including Oppo.

I’ve only been around here a little over a year, but I can tell that is this is a very valuable community with great people. When/if the end comes, we shouldn’t stop.

If Oppo comes to an end, we should migrate the community to a new website, a website just for us.

What do you guys think?

DISCUSSION (68)

RallyWrench > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 15:57

You hosting? Can I bring beer?

deprecated account > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 15:58

but the real question is “what site?”. there’s not a ton of options out there besides good ‘ole bad ‘ole kinja.

TheHondaBro > RallyWrench
11/17/2015 at 15:59

My get-togethers are usually BYOB (Bring Your Own Banana), but I’ll allow beer.

Future next gen S2000 owner > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 15:59

Kinja'd!!!

El Rivinado > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:00

If Oppo gets shut down, I will never visit Jalopnik ever again and I will boycott everything that Gawker does, their websites, and their people. This community helped me a lot, and I don’t want to see it go by the wayside.

I say we should get another website, or at the very least, try and have weekly CAH games to keep us all together in some ways.

djmt1 > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:00

Wait, what? I thought they were just making some writers redundant. Now they’re killing the only thing that makes Kinja note worthy.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:01

With any luck the Jalopnik writers will stand up for us. We are a pretty major source of FP material for them, after all.

TheHondaBro > deprecated account
11/17/2015 at 16:02

Oppo is essentially an open forum. We can migrate to the Oppo subreddit, or create our own website.

TheHondaBro > El Rivinado
11/17/2015 at 16:02

Friday CAH and Caturdays!

TheHondaBro > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
11/17/2015 at 16:03

Yay free labor!

not for canada - australian in disguise > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:03

Well, time to start a Car Throttle account and spewing about how much I LOVE(!!) snapbacks, memes, and 2JZ swaps.

deprecated account > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:04

I just meant the current Admin/Author/Reader system and the x-posting system and all that other stuff. As much as Kinja sucks, I can’t imagine (literally, I’m not being negative here) Oppo without Kinja.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:04

We stand outside Gawker HQ with signs saying “the end is near!”

TheHondaBro > deprecated account
11/17/2015 at 16:05

Don’t worry, we can make fun of Kinja in spirit.

TheHondaBro > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
11/17/2015 at 16:06

While burning effigies of Dick Denton.

DasWauto > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:07

Don’t fear-monger please. If something were to happen to Oppo I would at least expect some sort of heads up from the Jalopnik crew. If it puts your mind at ease, the mods have received no such communication.

I’ll message Patrick to get something more concrete for you.

deprecated account > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:07

I suppose so.

Do you know of any other platforms besides Reddit that would be similar to Kinja?

Tareim - V8 powered > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:07

I’m starting to spend more and more time on oppo so I wouldn’t know what I would do with all the extra free time if oppo were to disappear

RallyWrench > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:07

I mean, I can get you bananas. I can get you bananas by 3:00 this afternoon. There are ways, bro.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > deprecated account
11/17/2015 at 16:07

Wordpress has significantly better blogging tools than Kinja ever did if we want to have a hub besides Reddit.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:08

I will miss Indefinitely Wild, I liked the different take on the out of doors by Wes and his urban to wild transformation.

I get more out of the oppo sub blog than places like Facepalm.

PatBateman > DasWauto
11/17/2015 at 16:09

The sites that are being taken down... Aren’t they the professionally written ones?

Let us know what PG says.

CalzoneGolem > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:09

I don’t think oppo or any of the offtopic blogs are going to get cut. I’d be far more productive at work if it were to get cut though.

deprecated account > Aaron M - MasoFiST
11/17/2015 at 16:11

Does it have a similar authorship/adminship system to Kinja?

Gamecat235 > PatBateman
11/17/2015 at 16:12

Yeah, all of the shuttered blogs are ones with paid writers and contributors. Perhaps the great kinja talent search experiment is over? We’ll have to wait to see more.

DasWauto > PatBateman
11/17/2015 at 16:13

Yeah, they are. The only bit that worries me though is the step away from offering Kinja as an open blogging platform to others. This is what Oppo exists on, essentially on the same level as the main sites now, and what our offshoots (LaLD, Cigar Lounge, etc) have been set up in so I don’t know if their intentions are to stop the creating of further new sites or to cut back entirely to their main sites.

Will update when I get a reply.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:13

I doubt it will get shut down. I'd miss it if it did, but tbh I'd be a lot more productive, so...

Sam > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:13

I don’t think they’ll cull us. We write a good 25% of the articles on Jalopnik.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > deprecated account
11/17/2015 at 16:14

The system differentiates admins, authors, contributors (limited authors) and editors (some control over posts written by others but not full admins).

Chris Clarke > DasWauto
11/17/2015 at 16:14

I’m not sure if the Jalopnik staff is always privy to certain Gawker inside information. Many of today’s changes caught many unaware. I doubt our community sites will be taken away, but the wording in the memos in ominous for the kinjaverse.

Justin Hughes > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
11/17/2015 at 16:14

I was going to post that myself, as one of their free laborers. :)

But seriously, the FP staff does seem to genuinely appreciate the contributions from Oppo. It may be free content for them, but it gets clicks, which means ad views, which means money. If Gawker is all about the money, it’s worth keeping Oppo around.

If Gawker doesn’t see it that way, this community should absolutely move. There’s already a Facebook group, and I’m sure some forum could be set up for Oppo refugees.

deprecated account > Aaron M - MasoFiST
11/17/2015 at 16:15

Oh, sounds better than Kinja then!

Patrick George > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:15

The end is NOT near. I am told there are no plans to shutter Oppo or change it in any way. If that were the case I would fight against it tooth and nail, but thankfully, it is not.

If you have any questions, please let me know! OPPO NEVER DIES!

Aaron M - MasoFiST > deprecated account
11/17/2015 at 16:17

It’s been the gold standard for a while, at least since Blogger was bought by Google and then neglected. Several big sites run on a Wordpress backbone, the ones that come to mind for me are TheTruthAboutCars (at least to run their commenting system) and TechCrunch.

DasWauto > Chris Clarke
11/17/2015 at 16:18

Patrick replied saying Oppo will be fine at least. Being the EIC at Jalopnik I imagine he is at least in the know more than some. I’ll make a post on Oppo with his message.

PatBateman > Gamecat235
11/17/2015 at 16:18

I worry, though, that the other amateur sites might follow suit. Who knows.

I don't want to go to reddit. Don't make me go to reddit.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:21

At any rate, they can’t dissolve ALL the sub blogs. The Railyard and LALD for example were created by users via a little-known Kinja feature. They exist as non-commenting accounts and are NOT the property of Gawker Media.

PatBateman > DasWauto
11/17/2015 at 16:22

I’d personally expect sites like GT and Oppo to stick around (especially Oppo, considering some of the stories here make it onto the FP, thus adding essentially free clicks). I could see how the sub-blogs of the sub-blogs (CL, Salad Bowl, AA, LaLD) would get the axe, though.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Gamecat235
11/17/2015 at 16:23

You know, if they were smart, they would have just turned all the sites that they shuttered today over to a select group of unpaid moderators and let them continue on just like OPPO does. They’d remove the paid writers, which they were going to do anyway, but they potentially keep many of the readers and the communities at large on Kinja, just a click away from the main GM sites.

Instead, they’ve basically told thousands (millions?) of readers and contributors to go find a new home.

Party-vi > Patrick George
11/17/2015 at 16:23

ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

wait, how did you get in here?

Justin Hughes > Patrick George
11/17/2015 at 16:23

The FP has our back! Thanks!

Brian Silvestro > DasWauto
11/17/2015 at 16:24

to be fair a bunch of people got let go today from gawker and the only “heads up” they got was...no wait, they didn’t get any

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Patrick George
11/17/2015 at 16:25

Well that’s a relief.

I mean if they’re getting rid of kinja, we already got swapped from .jalopnik.com to .kinja.com, you have to wonder about the www.oppo portion of that equation.

Do you know if behind closed ovens is going away? That’s my whole reason for going to the Jezebel site and it’s under Kitchenette. In an unselfish version of this post, it’s always in the “most popular post” carousel in the top left.

scoob > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
11/17/2015 at 16:26

BRB, heading back into the city to do this

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Gamecat235
11/17/2015 at 16:26

“This destination reaches over 697K monthly people”

https://www.quantcast.com/kitchenette.je…

DasWauto > PatBateman
11/17/2015 at 16:28

Yeah, the offshoots might have to reach out to Nick Denton and co to get clarification on their futures.

crowmolly > Justin Hughes
11/17/2015 at 16:28

Kinja'd!!!

Chill, Nasty Nick! Oppo is Jalopnik’s bitch!

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > PatBateman
11/17/2015 at 16:29

(a response I wrote to Gamecat)

Instead, they’ve basically told thousands (millions?) of readers and contributors to go find a new home.

DasWauto > Brian Silvestro
11/17/2015 at 16:29

True, but I’d think the EIC of Jalopnik would know more. PG has said Oppo will be fine at least. I just threw a post on Oppo with that message.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > PatBateman
11/17/2015 at 16:31

How much does a blog like LaLD actually cost Gawker to maintain? I guess it’s death by a thousand cuts when you add them all up, but it seems like the benefit of having all these people on Kinja, one click away from all the GM sites, is a better option than sending them away in search of another platform.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Patrick George
11/17/2015 at 16:35

Thanks, Patrick. I’m not alone in my belief that this is one of the finest communities on the interwebs, and I’d hate to ever see it go away.

PatBateman > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
11/17/2015 at 16:38

I really have no idea what it would all cost. Server space, additional IT personnel, yada yada.

If GM is basically trying to tighten the belt and pull in higher profits, trimming the edges of Kinja would be on the table.

SVTyler > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
11/17/2015 at 16:41

Pinkham once said that he has 150+ Microsoft Word pages of stories saved up so I can’t imagine GM would let all that content go to waste by completely killing off the feature. Maybe they’d just move it over to Jez’s main site?

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > SVTyler
11/17/2015 at 16:43

I would hope!

Though I’m sure there are agreements in place where Pinkham would have to turn over the content and not use it independently if it was shut down/ they were canned.

Anthony Miller > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:45

NOOOOOO I just wanted to become an author on OPPO :(

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:46

I’m not convinced that they’ll ever get rid of OPPO

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > PatBateman
11/17/2015 at 16:46

Still seems like a terrible idea to send hordes of active users on your platform packing for other providers. Now, what we might end up seeing are ads and link to GM site stories on all the Kinja pages...

and 100 more > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 16:55

It’s funny how Oppo kinda exists without association; it’s not a main blog, but it’s not a sub-blog anymore either...

Oppo is like the homeless squatter in Apt. 3A that everyone knows is there, but nobody bothers to kick out because he keeps to himself and doesn’t cause any trouble, and the landlord can be a dick sometimes, so screw it, plus he knows a guy who has good weed when you need it, though he swears he never touches the stuff anymore, only drinks occasionally, and only when he’s depressed, and then the conversation dies because you can tell the depression is right there, lingering under the surface, and just acknowledging it is like admitting that The Bogeyman is real, and you really don’t have the audacity to propose that he go find some help somewhere because you have no idea where someone in such a position would even go for help, and you’re frankly not willing to look into it yourself, considering he probably wouldn’t go anyway, and for what its worth, he has a genuine spark in him that you can see, in the way he moves up the stairs and ducks into 3A, that lets you know that this guy is damaged, sure, we all are, but he’s on the mend, and he’s making his way back from something horrific, and he might not be there yet, but he’s got the drive and for fuck’s sake, he’s getting there, and who are you to tell him how to live his life, when by all means and measures, this guy seems like he may get there all on his own given half a chance, and so you smile at him, and you let the conversation drop, and you tell him, “Well, gotta be going now... hang in there, buddy!” because goddamnit, you wanna see him succeed, and you wanna see that metaphorical flower sprout from the crack in the sidewalk, and you want to see that man claim his glory, and step naked and free into the sunshine some day, and bask in his own self-actualized existence.

Oppo is kinda like that.

deprecated account > Aaron M - MasoFiST
11/17/2015 at 17:09

Hmmm... Hopefully this will all just blow over though.

SVTyler > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
11/17/2015 at 17:29

I dunno, all of the stories are submitted to his personal, non-Gawker email and Twitter so I’m not sure who technically ‘owns’ the stories. Either way, if worst comes to worst BCO has such a following he could probably completely start over and compile enough content in a week to fill months of new BCO’s (or whatever he would call the new feature) on another site.

PatBateman > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
11/17/2015 at 17:36

I'm surprised we don't already have that.

DrJohannVegas > TheHondaBro
11/17/2015 at 18:10

At first I was like:

Kinja'd!!!

Then I read Chris’s post, which suggested to me that nothing was really going to happen, except that Gawker was going to stop marketing Kinja as an open blogging platform (in other words, save money on marketing). Then I thought about all the productive hours of my life I was gonna get back from not having Oppo, and I was like:

Kinja'd!!!

pip bip - choose Corrour > TheHondaBro
11/18/2015 at 05:39

definitely.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > SVTyler
11/18/2015 at 09:20

I admit I’d probably follow it anywhere, I eat that post up weekly.

Stef Schrader > Justin Hughes
11/18/2015 at 23:04

Kinja'd!!!

Word.

Stef Schrader > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
11/18/2015 at 23:09

We just can’t quit you.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Stef Schrader
11/18/2015 at 23:12

Me? Am I really that valuable?

Stef Schrader > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
11/19/2015 at 01:49

Everybody is, man. Everybody.