Farewell OppOG

"Kar Wai Wong" (kingawesome467)
11/15/2020 at 15:22 • Filed to: goodbye

Obligatory reflective goodbye post. Oh, we having a massive end of the world shitpost party? Whoops. I’ll probably be asleep as the plug is pulled anyways.

I generally don’t like talking about myself, cos I feel like the response is Internet strangers going: “You do know we don’t really care about your life?” But whatever, this will be soon wiped anyways, we’re all feeling sentimental. Actually, I’m still relatively new to Oppo, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was in April 2018, but I have been a regular reader of Jalopnik since summer 2013? (I apparently just missed their “golden years”.) I found I enjoyed commentating, so I decided I wanted to try writing full posts. But no matter how fun I find the writing process, I feel it’s pointless if no one reads it, so I my own secluded little blogger in the sea of millions was out (plus I’d have to self-promote somehow and-ughhh). Looked at Car Throttle, but longer article posts seemed to be restricted to staff-written news. Drivetribe looked both promising and like a sinking ship: Empty abandoned tribes seemed to outnumber regular members five to one, and one of the promoted (not sponsored) front page shares that day was a guide by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! about !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Than I thought about Oppositelock, previous experiences being baffled at what it was and why did they used to always appear in my Jalopnik feed?! But it felt like the perfect fit, being an FP fan, the single feed means everyone can easily see everything new, and the community feels a lot more knowledgeable and appreciative of the smaller niche areas of car enthusiasm, as oppo sed to the other sites where the members seemed more younger and... casual? (I don’t know to describe it, I hope that doesn’t sound mean or elitist, enthusiasts are enthusiasts.)

Speaking of self-promotions, here’s a few of my favourite posts, expect to see some remastered and posted elsewhere:

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This was my favourite for a long time, which is weird, as I would do a complete rewrite today. Maybe it was that sweet thumbnail. I did so much research for it, but I clearly didn’t do enough! It’s littered with minor errors, and I did indeed find a lot more sporty VW trims since. I think a new version could fill a short book, but in the meantime, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ! I blame this post for my new excessive research habits.

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Too often the most popular one is one that the creator didn’t think was too great, so I’m really glad that my biggest hit is also what I consider to be my best post, even if not my favourite. And thank goodness, it went through 3 major rewrites, to somehow get !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 37.9k views, was stuck on the Oppo sidebar for about a week, and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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I’m proud of every single one of my “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ” posts, and although I think my newer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was much better written, Chevrolet takes the cake for the crisis it gave me. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to try and understand it! I’m not sure how helpful it was in hindsight though. Toyota, Volkswagen and Chevrolet are what I consider the Big Three of massive complicated global lineups, and I got one down!

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My current favourite, I love the idea of FCA being a bumbling idiot with a raging hate boner for logos. However I would change the alternate timeline renderings to be much more obvious and comical, rather than the more realistic approach I went with.

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The post itself is fine, but it’s my second most commented on Kinja post, and the most if you exclude my own comments, currently at 43. (My !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was a question that invited comments anyways.) Those numbers aren’t mindblowing, but the comments are a huge reason why I do these. Pageviews are nice, but for the most part it’s just a number with no tangible difference. But the comments, that’s the lifeblood of Oppositelock and Kinja, and I’d rather spend hours making a post that gets 100 views and 15 comments, than 1000 views and 3 comments (well to an extent). And it may seem a bit trivial, but I’m really happy and grateful that I haven’t had a post left hanging with zero comments, and thus makes me feel bad when I read a great post, but have nothing noteworthy to comment.

I don’t post all that often, so I guess that makes me more of a lurker, and to be frank, the fact I try to primarily create longer high-effort posts makes me feel somewhat isolated, with all the short off-topic posts that form a sizable amount of Oppo, which I don’t personally care much for. (I am not saying I think off-topic stuff should be banned, far from it.) Therefore I’m currently unsure of Oppo’s possible transformation as a standard forum. But nonetheless, the community here is amazing, and has formed memorable moments for me, like !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to the respect and annoyance of everyone else, or when !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! made !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as a response to a question I posted 10 days earlier, or when I inadvertently caused !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! major suffering as they !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , or even people just reading my stuff.

As for the future, the Opposite Lock DriveTribe (the Space?) is looking quite enticing for me, although the community and comment engagement still feel very weak, hopefully the new influx of Opponauts leads to mutual benefits. And after getting so used to the more word processor-style Kinja editor, the Hyphen’s coding-like editor feels like a major step back for me, but I’ll wait until development has mostly settled down on the Hyphen before a full judgement. And I’m sure cross-shares between the two are going to get tiring very quickly, but I’ll try to make an effort. I have a habit of starting new pieces and sitting on partly-completed drafts, and I should really get round to them. So thank you Oppo for putting up with my long-winded ramblings and slightly off-course tangents, my never-ending stream of tyypos and amateur MS Paint creations.

Now what on Earth am I going to replace Jalopnik with!!!???

DISCUSSION (7)

Derpwagon > Kar Wai Wong
11/15/2020 at 15:28

the hyphen would love to have you.

Kar Wai Wong > Derpwagon
11/15/2020 at 16:01

I signed up pretty early! But unlike many others, it doesn’t feel immediately comfortable for me. Neither does DT really, but I’ll give my best shot. Goddammit Hulk Hogan.

Derpwagon > Kar Wai Wong
11/15/2020 at 16:06

We have a team of folks working on making it the best possible place it can be. It’s still young :)

scoob > Kar Wai Wong
11/15/2020 at 16:36

Love your films dude

Longtime Lurker > Kar Wai Wong
11/15/2020 at 22:11

I liked your every single vehicle posts.

Kar Wai Wong > Longtime Lurker
11/16/2020 at 05:29

I do too, I’m planning my first post-Kinja post to be another entry , though it will be a little different from my regular ones.

Stef Schrader > Kar Wai Wong
11/16/2020 at 05:54

See you at the next site! None of them feel like a perfect fit for me right now, either, but I’m glad everyone’s staying in touch through a handful of different landing spots.