May the road ever rise up to meet you, Oppo. Farewell.

"Derpwagon" (Derpwagon) 11/15/2020 at 18:55 • Filed to: None

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This is somewhat more emotional than I thought it would be after spending all day spamming shitposts.

I became more and more disenfranchised with Jalopnik as the ‘old guard’ of writers departed for pastures greener, and Oppo became my home. I would spend every workday, and some weekends browsing through the content, the shitposts, the photodumps, and everything else.

I became a regular reader of Rufant’s tales of travel throughout Australia. I read Akio’s adventures all over the United States (and through Canada). I became a somewhat surprised fan of a lifted minivan from my neighboring state. I read every single This Day In Aviation History until they’d repeated twice. I read about a neat clean old dodge pickup in Canada. I saw new cares to users come, and those same cars go. I bitched about Jalopnik shadow-banning me (I’m still grey to this day.), and saw others do the same. I read about loss, heartache, joy, discovery, new experiences and new adventures. About wagons, vans, trucks, cars, motorcycles, and never-ending Smart Car adventures. I saw a bus get bought. I read about people’s journey through life, sometimes harrowing, other times joyous. I read about Toby, and a delightful old Sunchaser.

Through it all, I met and became a part of a community of people that, in some ways, bests the forums of old. The ‘structure’ (or lack thereof) of Kinja allowed us to post what was on our minds to one common space, rather than threading it separately through subcategories and sub-forums, making sure that you saw whatever was on someone’s mind, shortly after it was on their mind. I think this is so much of what made Oppo great, and drove as much conversation as it did.

I’m equal parts thrilled at the prospects of The Hyphen (and ecstatic to be supporting it by hosting future merch and forwarding 100% of the profit on Oppo products to keep it running), and devastated that the site that’s been such a large and, despite being in my mid 30s, formative portion of my automotive enthusiasm.

I know that people will keep on keeping on, and I’m greatly looking forward to seeing people continue to make Oppo the community is on The Hyphen, and to some extent DriveTribe.

So, this is it. This is my last submission to Oppositelock on Kinja. I’ll miss this, and I’ll miss everyone who for whatever reason chooses not to make the migration to at least one of our new locations.

I hope to see you all again. And may the road ever rise up to meet you.

With my absolute best wishes,

-Brett

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Derpwagon 11/15/2020 at 19:57

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Amen brother, well said and thank you....see you on the other side :)

onlytwowheels > Derpwagon 11/15/2020 at 20:20

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Stef Schrader > Derpwagon 11/15/2020 at 21:57

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Man, well said on Oppo’s appeal. I love seeing totally random stuff next to longer adventures and whatever someone else found interesting that day.

Good shitposts. See you around!