Hey everyone! We’ve got a few changes coming. These are good and exciting changes and there should be no major disruptions, but we wanted to let everyone know so they could be prepared if the site briefly looks weird. Additionally, there will be a few hours where no one can make a new commenting account, so if you’re anxious to tell David he’s a moron for ever defaming the AMC 360 V8, you should register now. Details below.
What are we doing?
All the info you need is coming tomorrow, but the short version is that we’re going to be giving our dear readers/commenters/haters more ways to get involved in the community as members, and we’re going to set the groundwork for a new and better commenting system. We’ll be transferring everyone’s account to a system (called Memberful) that will handle memberships as well as commenter accounts. Don’t worry, all of your brilliant comments (and all of your less brilliant ones) will be retained and transferred over and, hopefully, it should all be pretty seamless. The website will remain wide open for everyone to read; this is a car site for the people, after all.
We’ll continue to use our current commenting system for a while as we test Memberful and make sure the sign-up transition works, but we hope to have the much better system up-and-running soon.
What do I need to do?
Right now? Nothing. If you’re a reader and not a commenter? Nothing. If you’re a commenter? Ideally, in a few hours, you’ll be asked to login and then you’ll be sent a new link to make all the server magic happen. The new system should keep you logged in for a while, and you won’t need to deal with passwords anymore.
When you come to the site you should be prompted to sign-in to comment and you’ll get this page:
All you need to do is add your email, then you’ll get a link in your email like this:
When you click that link it’ll (hopefully) recognize that you’ve got an account and this is how we’ll tie the two together:
That should be the last time you ever have to login using the old system. From this point forward, in theory, you’ll only need a link sent to your email. If you don’t have a commenter account but decide you want one it’ll be the above, just without the last step.
If you notice anything not working please email us and let us know. After that, if you can afford to, we hope you’ll sign up as a member to support the site! If every commenter became a paying member we’d have enough scratch to hire two new writers immediately.
So in short:
- Right now, you don’t need to do anything.
- If you’re a commenter, at some point in the next day you’ll probably have to login twice (once in the current system and once in the new system)
- The site will look slightly different and better and you can become an official member if you want!
- That’s it. Enjoy reading and commenting on The Autopian!
Should I be afraid?
Of this? No. Of the world? Also no! Everything is going to turn out just fine.
Is that a picture of a Riley Elf?
Yes!
Can We Go To Jason’s Basement To See How The Transition Is Going…
Will this ultimately be incredible and, potentially, life-changing?
Absolutely.
Photo credit: Wheelsage
Notification of replies to our comments??? Edit abilities?
Does this come with cheese?
I like cheese.
I second the request for cheese
So, I can’t log in from my work computer anymore since I can’t access my personal email. I can only use the default browser on my phone because copy -pasting doesn’t work with the link. 🙁
Isn’t Gravatar kind of a last decade thing?
Had an account there many years ago, and I seem to have deleted it or something.
I need a separate account only to add and avatar? really?!
Well…the transition via memberful wasn’t straightforward as it didn’t recognise my email so I went to register and THEN it recognised my email address and was quite happy to proceed. Confusion and delay…is the Autopian Way!
Has it happened? Did I get left behind? Haven’t been asked to log back in. Too soon?
Unclear, it might just… work?
Can you guys do something about that weird smell in here?
I still want a beige Peugeot 505 turbo diesel wagon. Those things are hard to find….
Gotta, there must have been performance upgrades as well as I have never seen pages load so fast. It’s night and day.
Glad to see Torch putting my donated PCjr to use!!! I offered my PC Convertible, but it only had 3.5″ disk drives and he needed 5.25″….and apparently 8″…oops.
And an Atari 400!
We have run so many system upgrades at work over the years and never once thought to post an explanatory article and video to let our readers know. What a brilliant idea!
Jazel?
???????? I’ve been dreaming of new comments…????
Ok. Emojis don’t work on the comments.
Will we all be issued a pair of Autopian Emergency Underwear in case the upgrade blows our minds and our internals? Jeez, I hope I survive the upgrade. Autopian tighty-whities two sizes too small is probably what David Tracy budgeted for us all…
This all seems too complimicated. All we really need is an edirt function.
Edirt: what’s under your fingernails after working on your Eauto.
I am just excited that the account profile wanted to know my shirt size.
Don’t mind me, just testing to see if this worked?
I thought they stopped making floppy discs?
But will I be able to play the violin after this?
Of course you can!
Will the new system allow you to edit? (see above)
Chello is best
Cello. What an idiot.
Can I take my old account off-roading a few hours before I trade it for the new one? I know it’s a street account with no off-roading ability to speak of but I promise nothing could possibly go wrong!
Will we get legs?
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not in your life, my [religion unknown] friend
What about us brain-dead slobs?
You’ll all be given cushy jobs!
I am only commenting to comment, as I guess I am one
So, how much to have only my brilliant comments transferred? I found $21.32 in change crammed into the transfer case of my fiancee’s XJ, so I can pay.
One of the big reasons why we’re doing this in two steps is that we want to transfer everyone’s comments over/link accounts before launching the new system.
Will it come with notifications, emojis, and the ability to edit?
The upgrade to comments is in two steps:
1. Migrate everyone over to Memberful and make sure the accounts all link up.
2. Roll out new commenting system.
The new commenting system should be more feature-rich and include those things.
I’m thinking the upgrade also necessary to handle the traffic when DT finally gives us the next installment on project Cactus.
Maybe we can start a pool for when the King of Rust will actually post the last two(?) updates.
Something like December 25th for the next one and December 84th for the final one.
Yay!!!