How Can I Improve JRitS Roundup Posts?

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
02/20/2019 at 20:00 • Filed to: justrolledintotheshop, Reddit, kinja

Looking for suggestions on how to make these weekly “best of” !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! better. Got any ideas?

With somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 posts per week, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! subreddit is a pretty active place. It’s a lot of fun putting these roundups together, but it’s a lot to go through sometimes, and I’ve had to find creative ways to streamline the composition process. I’m open to suggestions...

My first question is, are these posts too long? I feel like they’re too long. I keep wanting to spotlight just 10 or 12 entries, but damn it’s hard enough trying to whittle these posts down to about 25 entries! So much good stuff out there...

I’m almost tempted to drop the brake and tire entries, but nah, I think those need to be a recurring feature. I know some redditors like to comment (on reddit, that is. I haven’t seen any complaints here) that they are tired of seeing those kind of posts, but I think they’re the most important repair/maintenance items and should continue to be shared. At least as a PSA. Besides, they’re a great way to bookend these roundups.

I’ve been noticing a lot of oil/sludge posts on JRitS, but I’m not sure that I can count on there being one every week to include as an “obligatory” post. And I can’t think of any other regularly-posted items to add to the weekly tire and brake entries.

In case you’re wondering, the “week” referenced in the title of each roundup post begins and ends at midnight (Saturday night/Sunday morning) EST, and I’ve been scheduling these posts to go live Sunday afternoon. How’s that working for everyone? Should I change the publish time?

I gotta admit, Reddit’s videos are a constant source of frustration for me. Almost every week, I find myself encouraging readers to “click link for video” because I can’t figure out how to embed them in Kinja. Best I can do is a screenshot. The Reddit posts do have embed links, but I can’t get it to generate something that I can use here. Any ideas on how to make that work (without going to all the trouble of trying to download the clips and re-upload them to YouTube)?

I’ve been working on trying to include more quotes from the uploaders in the interest of clarity, and less of my own puns/comments. Are the pics, videos, and quotes clear enough, or do you think we need more explanations of what we’re looking at in each entry? I don’t want anyone to be afraid to ask questions here. This isn’t just a place for knowledgeable people to point and laugh; it’s a place to learn, too. I know I’m still learning...

Anyone having trouble with embeds or other items displaying on these posts? I know there’s still an issue with inset links not displaying when visiting a page from a comment permalink, but it seems to be working just fine whenever I load a post normally. I doubt that any of you are visiting the post from a comment permalink (unless you’ve already read the post and are returning because Kinja sent you a notification). So do I need to provide text-only source links, or are the inset links good enough?

What about the related sorties module down at the bottom? Is it just clutter at this point? I think my introductory paragraph makes it clear that this is a weekly feature, and since older posts can be found through the tags at the top of the page, maybe it’s time to stop plugging older roundups. Thoughts?

And I dunno about you but I hate the new redesign Reddit adopted last year. As you may have noticed, all of my source links are pointing to old.reddit.com instead of the new www.reddit.com. Is anyone having any weird compatibility issues with the old format? Do I need to post links to the new one?

Anything else on your mind? Questions, comments, criticisms, AMA. I hope these roundups are as fun for you to read as they are for me to compose. If it ever does become too big a task for me to keep up with every week, I hope I’ve encouraged you to check out that subreddit on your own. JRitS never disappoints.

DISCUSSION (19)

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 20:10

i think they are fine as is... i could do without the videos tbh

but thats mostly coz i only watch videos if i have my cans on so i usually skip those anyway

(that may very well be just a me thing)

For Sweden > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 20:11

Include posts from meow_irl

Kinja'd!!!

jimz > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 20:13

fine as is. I read all of the entries.

Brickman > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 20:18

I love it how it is. I sit down on a Sunday afternoon with a cup of coffee and try not to spit it out over my keyboard of the questionable horrors I see.

facw > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 20:18

I like them as is. The top improvement would be having the videos actually embed (either directly or through an embedded reddit post). I did look briefly to see if it looked like there was a good way to do this, but I wasn’t seeing it.

Urambo Tauro > For Sweden
02/20/2019 at 20:20

More cats; got it.

Kinja'd!!!

Shop cat is watching.

Urambo Tauro > facw
02/20/2019 at 20:28

On desktop, clicking the embed link just produces a spinning icon. On mobile, tapping the same link shows the icon briefly before revealing the embed code. I tried to copy that embed code and plug it into Kinja’s HTML on desktop, but it wouldn’t work. And I’m sure as hell not gonna attempt to compose all these roundups on mobile lol.

I’ve thought about just converting the videos to GIFs instead, but that of course leaves out the audio ...

Alfalfa > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 20:29

Nothing they're perfect

facw > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 20:34

I get the embed code on Windows, but kinja strips out the video parts (wisely, a few years ago they didn’t tamper with the HTML as much, and it was just asking for cross-site scripting attack). I was hoping they had an easy to locate video file that could be acted on it, but it seemed like more trouble than it was worth.

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 20:56

No need for the posts, whenever I need to waste time I’m on Jrits. Thanks for introducing it to me :)

Seriously tho, they are good as they are. Maybe include a bit less video posts are they are tedious to embed and annoying to go look on at reddit.

MM54 > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 21:19

I like them how they are, really.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 22:08

I love them as is. Some Sundays it's the only reason I get on oppo if I'm otherwise busy.

shop-teacher > Urambo Tauro
02/20/2019 at 22:18

I love the round up. I have no idea how to fix the video embeds, but I can deal. I don’t really do Reddit, I frankly just don’t get it, so the round up is the only way I get to see this gold. I look forward to it every Sunday.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Urambo Tauro
02/21/2019 at 05:32

daily?

i86hotdogs > Urambo Tauro
02/21/2019 at 08:41

Keep up the great work bud. I think a small explanation on certain posts would help. A shredded tire doesn’t need too much explanation, nor does milky white oil coming out of a drain pan. B ut posts like the porosity on the Mazda head could have used a little deeper dive. It took me a minute to figure out exactly where it was coming from (albeit you did circle the location; I’m usually hungover on Sundays). Always include customer comments or interaction ; those always make me chuckle “Customer denied service” *rod sticking out of oil pan*. You’ r e doing the lord’s work.

Urambo Tauro > pip bip - choose Corrour
02/21/2019 at 10:07

LOL not gonna happen. I usually like to pop in every day or two and add the latest and greatest to a draft version. But t here have been times when Saturday comes along and I realize that I had n’t even started yet. It’s discouraging when that happens, and tempting to just take a week off instead. But by the time I’m halfway through putting the post together, I’m hooked, and eager to share the ridiculousness .

Urambo Tauro > i86hotdogs
02/21/2019 at 10:19

Thanks! Yeah, t hat’s part of why I need to know if the inset links are showing up. Sometimes the title of the original post gives it away, and I want that to be underneath the image/video so that anyone who wants to guess first, can, befo re scrolling down for the ans wer.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Urambo Tauro
02/22/2019 at 10:48

I think changing the times would be great. I’d love this as a weekday thing,

Urambo Tauro > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2019 at 11:20

I might consider shifting the publish time if I get more requests to do so. But if you’re suggesting a daily digest... yeah, no . lol