Best of Oppositelock update

"DasWauto" (DasWauto) 07/08/2014 at 17:45 • Filed to: random words no-one looks at, Best of Oppositelock

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I see some people have wondered what has happened to the Best of Oppo so I'll just shed some light.

I've fallen behind before and subsequently caught up but after ~a year of doing BoO feature the time input required for each post (1-2 hours per post, at least) has gotten to be a bit onerous. Not to go into details but things in my personal life have compounded this demand on my time.

Before anyone asks, I was not paid for my work and while it was discussed, compensation from Gawker just wasn't in the cards. [Please don't take that as a criticism of Jalopnik or Matt; I think he has done and is doing a great job with the site.]

I enjoy(ed) doing the feature because people seem(ed) to appreciate seeing their posts get some deserved attention. It is(was) rewarding, in its own way.

I want to, at some point, continue doing the Best of Oppo, but will have to rethink the way it is done. For now, it is in limbo.

/I think I still have a mostly finished one on my computer, maybe I'll post it tonight.

//added a pretty picture for your time

MonkeePuzzle > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 17:46

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I'll save you time, you search for things I say, you add that to your list, and call it a day

#I'mAwesomeness

Vince-The Roadside Mechanic > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 17:47

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I think you should be paid. I miss BoO.

505Turbeaux > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 17:48

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not to steal your thunder but I would certainly help out ~3 times a week or so if it would keep it alive till your personal issues resolve or what have you. Best of luck with that, let me know, and thanks for the time you have invested thus far

email: tim@cbcads.com

ddavidn > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 17:57

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Obviously I want this to have no negative reflection on you, DasWauto. You've been doing an amazing thing for the community for a long time and I definitely respect your right to take a break indefinitely. Having said that...

I would like to see it come back, so hopefully we can come up with ideas as a community to spread the responsibility of a "best of" post and share the workload. BoO greatly increased exposure for what could have been a completely unnoticed (buried in DANCE PARTY GIFS) but well-written post. Without this recognition boost, I fear motivation to write a well-written article may be diminished. I know people get a little bummed when they put hours into researching and writing, and because they don't want to repost their own stuff they don't get much recognition. It definitely takes the fun out of it, even if you aren't doing it for credit or reward of any sort. Additionally, most days when I'm busy I don't feel like going back through the pages of Oppo to find these, and I know the Best Of posts helped those of us who are busy keep in touch with important happenings without dedicating our entire night to wading through theme day posts and gif parties and get well wishes. I'd like to clarify that all those things have a time and place, and I'm not suggesting we stop them. I just don't always have time to look at them all.

Blergh, am I becoming that guy ??? Anyway, thanks for all you do for us, and thanks for the update! :)

Garrett Davis > ddavidn 07/08/2014 at 18:10

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I will say something to the point of getting some recognition, submitting some of my recent articles to tips@jalopnik.com has gotten a few of my things posted on the FP. Of course any submissions are still at the mercy of the editors, but that's the same with anything.

Garrett Davis > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 18:16

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I just want to say that most everyone really appreciates what you've been doing with these, and I can't even imagine how much work goes into them. I really wish that this could be something Jalopnik could sponsor, but I understand why it isn't.

It always bugged me how many comments you would get along the lines of "Hey, idiot! You missed my post on this day, what the hell, douche?" And every time you have to correct them that this was only for a certain stretch of dates. Then once you start to understandably get behind on your posts, more and more complaints roll in.

It's too easy for these people to forget or gloss over the fact that you're just a fellow Opponaut who's doing something for the community... FOR FREE. I say if you are going to continue this, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to recruit some help, though with too many cooks in the kitchen...

Either way, thank you for all the work you dumped into these!

ddavidn > Garrett Davis 07/08/2014 at 18:23

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Very true, and a good point. Some people are in the groove of writing awesome articles and getting them FP'd. For some others that shouldn't necessarily be FP'd, but are worth reading for most opponauts, things can get buried easily sometimes.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 18:40

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Wow I thought all this time you were being paid to do those. Best of Oppo is literally my favorite part of the Jalopnik community and without it I use the site much less frequently. I had also thought the new Kinja format was why they stopped. Shit, I hope things get sorted out for you!

Garrett Davis > ddavidn 07/08/2014 at 18:40

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True, it's very annoying to see the thing you worked on be buried by memes and "I'm bored" posts. I wish we had a better filter for these things.

Sn210 > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 18:40

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Just throwing this out there: We've developed a pretty good system over on LaLDiecast. Each mod is responsible for doing a "best of" for a specific topic. For example, El Uly does a collection of all the reviews we've done, Mycarneverruns does a review of the best photography pieces we've had, I do a weekly post rounding up everyone's wish list for trades, etc. If we put together a list of volunteers and a list of topics, we could apply the same system to Oppo.

Pabuuu, JDM car enthusiast & Italian parts hoarder > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 18:43

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I really do miss it. It was always a great feeling and a target for me to make the list. It made me write better just so I could make the list sometimes.

DasWauto > Sn210 07/08/2014 at 18:53

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What I've thought about doing is asking everyone to tag their posts with something for the appropriate section of the Best of Oppo; 'Articles' for posts that I might feature, 'photos' for the best of the Rest, 'Discussions' and 'Tips' for their namesakes. That way I could eliminate the time needed to search through every Oppo post over the relevant time span and just go the tag pages instead. Unfortunately I think I'd miss things from people who forget or are not aware of the request to tag things...

Another thought I've had is to get significantly more picky. This though will probably result in more people wondering why their posts are not included.

I've also thought about delegating some parts but then we could get into an issue of differing opinions on where a post should go. That is a tough thing to balance.

I'll have to do some more pondering to come up with the ideal solution...

DasWauto > 505Turbeaux 07/08/2014 at 18:54

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Thanks for the offer, I'm trying to figure out the best way to move forward and I'll keep it in mind.

DasWauto > ddavidn 07/08/2014 at 18:57

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You've captured exactly why I did these posts, there are posts that deserve to be seen and not everyone has the time to browse through the rest of Oppositelock.

I'll try to figure out how best to continue the feature as soon as is possible.

Sn210 > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 18:59

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You could go the more picky route and reduce the number of posts you include, saving you time and motivating the quality if content to increase at the same time. Let us know what you decide, you'll have no trouble finding volunteers to help out

505Turbeaux > DasWauto 07/08/2014 at 19:05

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thanks, just say the word if you need anything

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > DasWauto 07/09/2014 at 01:12

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Appreciate all the time you've given OPPO in the past, and completely understand that it can feel like a heavy load to keep up with along with the demands of... life.

What I've often referred to as "the firehose" of OPPO is hard to keep up with as a reader (especially one with a bad case of FOMO...), I can only imagine what a challenge it can be to keep up with your Best Of series.

We're using Kinja as a forum, but it's not meant to be a forum. It's a blog platform, meant for maybe dozens of curated posts per day, not hundreds of posts by every last member of the community. Maybe we just need to have some daily (and some weekly), scheduled, themed discussion threads that get started at a certain time each day, to keep like posts together and "minor" posts grouped together in one larger post with sub-threads instead of cluttering up the main OPPO feed.

All I know is that it's going to take some creativity from the mods and the community to keep OPPO vibrant while still manageable for people to keep up with. What happened with Live and Let Die Cast is a very good example - a sub-sub-blog that people interested in can frequent, and that compilation threads can be shared to OPPO. This is a special case, but the more we can cut down the total daily posts to a manageable level, the better.

And we still need a better way for "the cream" to rise to the top. A post with a thousand words and/or dozens of pictures should not be so easily lost behind a pile of one sentence or single GIF posts...

Thanks again - looking forward to the next Best of.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > DasWauto 07/09/2014 at 06:25

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I definitely miss it, but being in essence voluntary work I think you should only do it whenever you feel like it. If it's started to drag, then no worries :)

It's a shame the higher-ups couldn't magic up a little compensation for your time if it meant it continuing :S

J. Drew Silvers > DasWauto 07/12/2014 at 20:53

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I just now caught this, but thanks for all you do - sincerely. I know it has to be a huge load for someone who volunteers his time to make it happpen. I miss seeing them pop up on the front page, but I completely understand that things happen and it can get tough to prioritize things. I have no idea how you kept up with it all for so long. I can't devote as much time to it as you have, but shoot me an email if you come up with a way to spread out the load a little and I'll be first in line to throw a few hours a week into it. I really like the tagging idea, as long as people use the tags properly and actually know about them. drew.silvers@gmail.com

DasWauto > J. Drew Silvers 07/12/2014 at 20:58

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Thanks for the support, I've got a couple of offers for help and they're much appreciated. I'll try to start it up again soon.

BlythBros. > DasWauto 07/16/2014 at 15:17

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Hey, just saw this. I've really appreciated the recognition on the Best of Oppo posts. 2-3 hours a week to recognize others' work is impressive, and quite a substantial investment of your time. Thanks for all that you've done up to this point.

Leadbull > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 07/31/2014 at 19:04

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Oppo used to be a dedicated forum. Then Gawker screwed with the formatting a couple of years ago.

Not that I'm complaining about some of the new features... I'm just saying there's a good reason why the website's not being used as "intended".

/yesiknowimthreeweekslate