I'd like to do a top twenty list of auto enthusiast websites
Maybe if that's not easy, and more need to be added to show just how damn good they are ans how much others are respected, and have inherent unquestionable awesome content, maybe a top 40.
But here's the part where I'd like help.
There are hundreds, maybe a thousand websites that would qualify for such a comparison to judge the best of, and to do it right... no job worth doing deserves less than that. And no website where someone is working to deliver entertainment, should be forgotten, ignored, or dismissed without a good contemplation to see if they've got the goods.
I don't work like most "top ten" list yabos... I don't google up a couple lists, then take the best, and make up my own. Nope. It's not about making the list for just another post. I've got about 39,000 posts, I'm not making posts just to ad to that.
I'm making posts to respect the builders, painters, creators, racers, riders, artists, photographers, veterans, airplanes, designers, manufacturers, tanks, cars, tires, rims, writers, movies, photojournalists, magazines, skaters, bikers, legends, icons, winners, fighters, and enthusiasts.
Well, I'm also making posts to share the humor, the ridiculous, and the warnings to avoid the morons, damn assholes, suicidal freaks that want to kill you on their way out, and idiots that are not easy to discern while on the road unless you know what to looks for (politicians election campaign bumper stickers, and the "energy drink" stickers) because stickers are for sponsors, not for bumpers.
What do you think about offering up a dozen of the best, that you're completely loyally following like a dog chases a ball?
Would getting those, and your ratings, (best to worst? scale of 1 to 4, and maybe "I'll die without it" and "YOU MUST SEE THIS") and then choosing for myself be a good method?
OR
Just open the door to votes on a list of 100, or 200 and the ones that get the highest ratings get to the top of the list, and then, those that get the best ratings get a top 25 list, but first, everyone takes a look at those, and then ranks them?
Why? Well, I might give Hot Rod.com the highest, and so might 50 other people, BUT, the other 50 have never looked at it... so, it might rank in the middle, BUT if then everyone takes a look at the ones the ranked highest from the original 200, or whatever, and are now narrowed down to 40 best, and with those people that have never heard or seen these websites get to take a look, and also everyone can compare these, and give one last ranking, each of the best gets a look at by everyone involved, and truly, none would be unseen by anyone, so they all have that chance to make their mark.
Then the semi final list would be ranked by 1-25. By everyone involved, and we'd give #1 to the website that had the most #1 rankings from the most people involved. and the #2 would go the the site with the most #2s, and the 2nd place of the #1s, (like 30 people chose HRM as #1, but 15 chose Chromejuwelen as #1, and 40 chose Chromejuwelen as #2, and 4 chose HRM as #2, and 10 chose Dean's Garage as #2, 15 chose it as #3, and 10 chose something else as #3.) Then we'd easily see that the most votes for a site at one rank would make it that rank, unless another tied for that rank, but also some people chose that other as the rank higher.
Yeah, I can't easily communicate with a typed out paragragh what I mean, and maybe charts and Ven diagrams would help, but I don't have that ability to figure out how to do all that.
I can though, just say, what do you think, and how many people and websites need to be involved to make this a legit fair well rounded list of the top 25, or 40... or is there a better way that you know of from college classes on statistics or some other metrics method of ranking sites?
Should I instead post a list of the top 40 sites by their Alexa ranking? But doesn't a method like that then include sites that no one knows of? That no one has seen? That a few diehard fanatics of auto enthusiasm would absolutely not have on any list because they are too damn focused on one topic, like rims, and have NO coverage of all the other cool stuff we like to see in a auto enthusiast site, like news, photography, cars, planes, etc? I mean, that site about rims might be the iron bound encyclopedic A to Z of all hot rodding rims and nothing else compares for size, variety, research etc,... but no one ever looks at it for fun, they only use it rarely for research.
So, this is the type of thing I contemplate when walking... how to do a really good list of the best, and what method to use, how to avoid coming up with the same damn list everyone else has who just took some google ranking and made a list based on that?
Or would a well intentioned big project like this simply be too damn ponderous to complete, and fail due to lack of participation?
Maybe if that's not easy, and more need to be added to show just how damn good they are ans how much others are respected, and have inherent unquestionable awesome content, maybe a top 40.
But here's the part where I'd like help.
There are hundreds, maybe a thousand websites that would qualify for such a comparison to judge the best of, and to do it right... no job worth doing deserves less than that. And no website where someone is working to deliver entertainment, should be forgotten, ignored, or dismissed without a good contemplation to see if they've got the goods.
I don't work like most "top ten" list yabos... I don't google up a couple lists, then take the best, and make up my own. Nope. It's not about making the list for just another post. I've got about 39,000 posts, I'm not making posts just to ad to that.
I'm making posts to respect the builders, painters, creators, racers, riders, artists, photographers, veterans, airplanes, designers, manufacturers, tanks, cars, tires, rims, writers, movies, photojournalists, magazines, skaters, bikers, legends, icons, winners, fighters, and enthusiasts.
Well, I'm also making posts to share the humor, the ridiculous, and the warnings to avoid the morons, damn assholes, suicidal freaks that want to kill you on their way out, and idiots that are not easy to discern while on the road unless you know what to looks for (politicians election campaign bumper stickers, and the "energy drink" stickers) because stickers are for sponsors, not for bumpers.
What do you think about offering up a dozen of the best, that you're completely loyally following like a dog chases a ball?
Would getting those, and your ratings, (best to worst? scale of 1 to 4, and maybe "I'll die without it" and "YOU MUST SEE THIS") and then choosing for myself be a good method?
OR
Just open the door to votes on a list of 100, or 200 and the ones that get the highest ratings get to the top of the list, and then, those that get the best ratings get a top 25 list, but first, everyone takes a look at those, and then ranks them?
Why? Well, I might give Hot Rod.com the highest, and so might 50 other people, BUT, the other 50 have never looked at it... so, it might rank in the middle, BUT if then everyone takes a look at the ones the ranked highest from the original 200, or whatever, and are now narrowed down to 40 best, and with those people that have never heard or seen these websites get to take a look, and also everyone can compare these, and give one last ranking, each of the best gets a look at by everyone involved, and truly, none would be unseen by anyone, so they all have that chance to make their mark.
Then the semi final list would be ranked by 1-25. By everyone involved, and we'd give #1 to the website that had the most #1 rankings from the most people involved. and the #2 would go the the site with the most #2s, and the 2nd place of the #1s, (like 30 people chose HRM as #1, but 15 chose Chromejuwelen as #1, and 40 chose Chromejuwelen as #2, and 4 chose HRM as #2, and 10 chose Dean's Garage as #2, 15 chose it as #3, and 10 chose something else as #3.) Then we'd easily see that the most votes for a site at one rank would make it that rank, unless another tied for that rank, but also some people chose that other as the rank higher.
Yeah, I can't easily communicate with a typed out paragragh what I mean, and maybe charts and Ven diagrams would help, but I don't have that ability to figure out how to do all that.
I can though, just say, what do you think, and how many people and websites need to be involved to make this a legit fair well rounded list of the top 25, or 40... or is there a better way that you know of from college classes on statistics or some other metrics method of ranking sites?
Should I instead post a list of the top 40 sites by their Alexa ranking? But doesn't a method like that then include sites that no one knows of? That no one has seen? That a few diehard fanatics of auto enthusiasm would absolutely not have on any list because they are too damn focused on one topic, like rims, and have NO coverage of all the other cool stuff we like to see in a auto enthusiast site, like news, photography, cars, planes, etc? I mean, that site about rims might be the iron bound encyclopedic A to Z of all hot rodding rims and nothing else compares for size, variety, research etc,... but no one ever looks at it for fun, they only use it rarely for research.
So, this is the type of thing I contemplate when walking... how to do a really good list of the best, and what method to use, how to avoid coming up with the same damn list everyone else has who just took some google ranking and made a list based on that?
Or would a well intentioned big project like this simply be too damn ponderous to complete, and fail due to lack of participation?
I would have nominated https://petrolicious.com/ for their stunning video productions. But, since the went subscription, my viewership has waned. Your's is my first on this bookmark list, followed by https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/, https://bringatrailer.com/, https://jalopnik.com/, http://theoldmotor.com/, https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/, https://www.motor1.com/ and https://silodrome.com/ . However, I may remove jalopnik because the millennial that run the site are way too left-wing for my taste.
ReplyDeleteI'll double-down on the Jalopnik comment, they have gone full-suckage, intensified by their constant ads linking to the radical leftist, hyper-racist Gawker stool, The Root.
DeleteOf the thousands of sites and channels available, there's only so many you can watch.
ReplyDeleteSo the choices would be subjective and dependent on sites you happened to stumble on, and nationality in some cases.
And who's to say what's the best?
Though Leno's channel should be in there, because never did a man with too much money spend it more wisely.
Being a proper enthusiast with in depth knowledge seals the deal.
true, a couple dozen is about all the time a person could have a day to look through.
DeleteThey are only a bit subjective, but, good is always commonly understood, wet is always wet, and bright is always bright. Somethings are on the border and could go either way, but most things are easy to agree on as good quality od not so good.
Who? US! The more people that weigh in, and rate the same sites, the more rankings that agree that one site has more quality than another, well, all those are things that say that one is the best after a poll that rules out any of the sites considered as not being seen by all.
Any site that makes the top 25 or 40, however many a good list needs to include, will be checked out after making the semi final list, and then no site in the top 25 or 40 will be only known by some.
A consensus will be the best way to rank sites, as that shows that a lot of people agree. Then it's not just one person's opinion, then it's not just one person's favorites.
I think, that no matter how many there are, even tens of thousands, any that are good will be on someone's favorites. Really good stuff isn't kept secret, and the word does get out. Even my site... which is only a blog, not a dot com, not paid for by a company or corporation, and has never been advertised, has been learned of by a lot of people - most anything good will have been discovered by people one way or another. Anything good enough to make a legit top 50 list will be known by a lot of people.
I doubt a good top ten would have any surprises that no one knows.
Leno's multiple ways (magazine articles, you tube vids, etc) of publicizing cool cars make him highly rated too, as are the quality of his choices of vehicles to feature. His variety is limited though. He sticks to featuring cars that drive to his shop, doesn't show atvs, doesn't do stories on historical stuff, airplanes, trains, skateboarders, and the people and artists in the car enthusiasts world. He's more focused.
Some sites are only for bikers, some only for mechanics, some are just about off roading jeeps. There are a lot of sites that are good, but only about one thing. Like Shorpy, the best site for big old photos.