Flight Club is going by the Wayside

"RyanFrew" (ryanfrew)
11/18/2015 at 13:58 • Filed to: None

....and other less interesting news about Gawker media in a recent announcement. Apparently, gawker.com is pivoting to become more of a political site, which will make it an even bigger cluster f*ck than it already is. Gross. Disappointed about Flight Club, though.

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DISCUSSION (20)

Justin Hughes > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 14:01

It seems Jalopnik and the other sub-blogs are sticking around unchanged. Plus we have PG’s assurance that not only is Oppo sticking around, he’ll fight to keep it if Gawker gets other ideas.

RyanFrew > Justin Hughes
11/18/2015 at 14:05

Yeah, Flight Club is the only subblog that appears to be going away. In true Wired fashion, they even misspelled it in the article.

TBH, I wouldn’t care much if Gawker dropped Oppo, so long as the community went elsewhere. From a technical perspective, Oppo is pretty easy to duplicate without Kinja. I could throw up a Buddypress blog with Disqus commenting that would outdo Oppo in a heartbeat. It’s just the community....

CalzoneGolem > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 14:08

We could simply move to /r/oppositelock

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 14:11

Less talk, more programming.... Get to work!

HammerheadFistpunch > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 14:13

Kinja'd!!!

Yesterday was full of these stories. Sad times for a few great sub blogs.

TheHondaBro > CalzoneGolem
11/18/2015 at 14:16

That’s true. Kinja is just a glorified forum.

ttyymmnn > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 14:23

As much of an avgeek as I am, I was always somewhat disappointed with FC. It never seemed to get the attention it deserved, but it was also slow in producing content. I thought that Paul and Chris did a good job with it, but once they were sent packing it pretty much died. You get out of something what you put into it, and it seems like Gawker was never really supportive of the idea of a general or commercial aviation blog. However, there are a few stalwart avgeeks here on Oppo, and we try to keep the aviation stuff coming whenever we can. Keep an eye on the #planelopnik , Chris’s aviation blog , and Aviation History (shameless plug) and you won’t miss anything.

McMike > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 14:25

The company also seems to be cutting back on development costs with its proprietary blogging platform, Kinja.

Does that mean they’re going to leave it alone for a while?

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > McMike
11/18/2015 at 14:28

Na just that the “improvements” will be done on a much lower budget.

Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna > ttyymmnn
11/18/2015 at 14:32

I agree with this. I loved the Commercial Aviation articles a lot more than what they have now. I still follow Paul on Instagram.

Ash78, voting early and often > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 14:38

Long live #planelopnik in all its forms.

In good news, Chris Clarke says he’s working on some new ideas, so I’m sure we’ll all know about it on Oppo soon.

BKosher84 > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 15:05

Don’t worry, when shitting rainbows and unicorns becomes the “it” thing I’m sure Denton will turn his attention to reporting on that instead and completely revamping the format of Gawker Media again.

kanadanmajava1 > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 15:08

Politics? Annoying. I really hate politics.

Patrick George > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 15:12

The good news is Foxtrot Alpha is going nowhere. Tyler’s been doing great work and will keep doing even better.

The OTHER good news is Jalopnik will still cover insane plane stuff, it will just be on main Jalopnik.

Chris Clarke > Patrick George
11/18/2015 at 15:32

Since you’re EIC now, can you approve that raise for Tyler?

JDIGGS > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
11/18/2015 at 16:00

really I thought it was shareware because it’s been such a turd in the past, searching useless, picture uploading and other errors. Hah, I guess its good enough now tho eh? Little bit mean but a little bit true.

SubiSanchez > RyanFrew
11/18/2015 at 16:34

Well I do hope Oppo does stay. Where else am I going to be able to say the answer is Miata?

RyanFrew > SubiSanchez
11/18/2015 at 16:35

People say that on Reddit all the time. Also, do you know why we say Miata is always the answer? Because I literally didn’t figure it out until last week.

Chris Clarke > Ash78, voting early and often
11/20/2015 at 14:49

Since this has come up more than once, here’s what I’m up to.

First, I started my own blog Aviation Buzzword . Second, I’ve also been writing for PopularMechanics . And of course I’m still trying to add content to Planelopnik which I always share to Oppo. All this is done while still maintaining my full time work creating awesome flight training content.

Sorry if there’s any overlap, but trying to get exposure to as many as possible. Since I just decided to start writing earlier this year and have never been one for shameless self promotion I never thought to advertise or bring it up on Oppo even though that is where I got my start.

I’d love to work an angle with some of the general aviation wisdom from you dad at some point if I can figure that out. Thanks for keeping up with me.

Ash78, voting early and often > Chris Clarke
11/20/2015 at 14:55

Thanks, Chris — I’m sending him the links and a quick email, hopefully he’ll reach out to you at some point (his most common handle is “readbackcorrect”). Depending on how busy he is with consulting and dealing with aging family, he might be able to contribute.