Made the front page of DT... again

[AkioOhtori]

It is much more terrifying the 2nd time because I didn't know it'd happened the 1st time until way later.

First post that got shared was the 2nd installment of the 1st cheap car challenge. I was wondering why that one had so many more views than the others (14k) and I guess now I know. Badges and shares both send DMs, which I didn't realize, so I didn't catch the "shared to the main page" DM until much later.

Today the Project Dumpster Fire post got shared to the front page for the US and I think is scheduled to be on the UK one too? Unclear but I think I remember seeing a message about that.

Thing is, this amount of exposure scares me. I like my stuff getting read, but also acknowledge my writing and wrenching skills. Which is to say I am happy with my skills at both, but by no means a professional at either. Also I have this (perfectly rational) fear that one day this is all going to blow up in my face...

Anyway... hooray they like me, they really like me.

[ttyymmnn]

@akioohtori They shared my Yellow Blue Angel post to the FP. I got thousands of alleged clicks, but very few comments. Maybe because it was a plane post?

[Just Jeepin']

@ttyymmnn Maybe DT has lots of readers without accounts?

[ttyymmnn]

@just-jeepin That, or there just isn't the same level of interaction as here.

[AkioOhtori]

@ttyymmnn Yeah I've noticed the engagement numbers are very little clickthrough. With the embedded videos in my 2nd road trip post I can sort of independently track views. With 2k views on my DT post I got...

9 views.

At least one of which was probably me haha.

So yeah... unsure on that one. I know Jalopnik is/was unusual in reader engagement. My old saying is/was "never read the comments" but I had to amend it to "never read the comments except on Jalopnik/Oppo". Frequently the comments are better than the article, and that is just unusual. Comment sections are supposed to be seething cesspool's of hate speech, somehow making everything political, and spam-bots.

[davesaddiction]

@akioohtori Did you sign up for their contributor program yet? I know it's not much, but might pay for some gas and parts (and could be a pathway for a second career at some point in the future, if that's something you'd consider).

[AkioOhtori]

@davesaddiction I probably will at some point, but I wanted to get a few more posts under my belt beforehand. Sounds like they review your posts and comments and go from there. Also they'll probably want me to start using my real name and I don't know how I feel about that haha. (Not that it is hard to find, but still...)

[Vondon302]

@akioohtori cool and congrats!

[davesaddiction]

@akioohtori Yeah, I get it. But I figure that since you put your face in photos out there, and with facial recognition as good as it is these days... Still, there's something to be said about being able to have some control over what comes up in a simple Google search.

[Rusty Vandura]

@ttyymmnn This much strikes me as likely.

[RamblinRover]

@akioohtori re: clickthroughs, I read your posts at work and generally don't watch the videos, because I usually only check in to videos that lean podcasty or are music while I'm working, and read posts at breaks between items on my work schedule. Maybe that's unusual, but I don't imagine I'm the only one - even among us here - reading and not watching.

Which is not to denigrate that you made the video, I just have to admit I haven't watched it.

[CB]

@akioohtori You write good stuff, I’m surprised it’s taken this long for you to get shared like this.

[AkioOhtori]

@ramblinrover No for sure, I'm the same way and don't usually watch videos. Plus on these particular posts the videos are at the end of a long post, so that is two strikes against them haha. Still just some statistics to compare to the DT numbers.

And nah no worries on that. I make the video for us (the three of us who went on the trip) and no one else. Only reason I post them is because of the staggering amount of time I put into them.

[Jb boin]

At the moment posting "interesting" comments on DT is hard as you can't put multiple images, embed videos or even use hyperlinks (you can at least paste links in the middle of the comment).

[fintail]

I've had a few of my diecast reviews pass 5K "impressions" or whatever they call it, always kind of amazes me.