Almost exactly a year ago, I received a phone call informing me that the founder and editor of The Truth About Cars, Robert Farago, would be leaving the site. Robert and I had already discussed (in theoretical terms) the possibility of such a move, and he’d mentioned that I would be in line to replace him when the time came. Still, nothing could had prepared me for the actual realization that TTAC had become my baby. A year later, the shock is still wearing off.

Looks like Ed is away on his secret weekend project. Writers, send your stories to me for publishing. It’s going towards 4am here in Beijing. I’ll publish them tomorrow. B

The car. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness inCARnate. Let us celebrate our unalienable rights, in a TTAC kind of way.

TTAC is a 24/7 operation, spanning most continents (except Antarctica, but we are working on it.) Nevertheless, there are occasional gaps in our coverage, and such a gap is now. Our Dear Leader Ed Niedermeyer is on a secret mission this weekend, and he may not be able to log in all the time. Which means: Yours truly is alone manning the ramparts of TTAC. Even I may be interrupted, because my presence is DEMANDED by members of the German community in Beijing to cheer on the Teutonic team from a German restaurant owned by the former military attaché of East Germany. I have no idea about soccer (that’s probably why they expelled me.) I hope Germany will lose so that I can focus on more pressing matters.

Anyway: Coverage will be spotty this weekend. Writers: Don’t send your stuff to Ed, send it to me. Thank you!

(Might as well get used to the Ed-less weekends: His secret mission will extent through all of July weekends, or so he mumbled.)

Our dear leader, Ed Niedermeyer, is in an undisclosed location to fill the TTAC hopper of car reviews. On Wednesday and Thursday, he’ll be putting several new cars through their paces while taking notes. (Ray LaHood: You didn’t hear that.) Which means: We are home alone.

It’s been a tumultuous several weeks here at TTAC, as we’ve moved headquarters and lost our managing editor, all while the industry continues to flop about in dramatic fashion. And we’ve been barely keeping up with the latest developments in the world of cars, because behind the scenes we’re preparing to introduce a brand new lineup of contributors to our ongoing quest for automotive truth. We still have a few details to clear up before we make a full announcement, but suffice it to say that I’ve had the exquisite luck to ask some of my favorite automotive writers to join the TTAC team and have them say yes.

[Ed: According to Google Analytics: 90% of TTAC’s readers come from the US and Canada. India accounts for .28%; China .27%; Brazil .24%]

According to Alexa, about half of TTAC’s readers come from the U.S.A., the other half comes from the rest of the world. An amazing 12 percent come from India, must be Sajeev’s extended family. We have a sizable contingent of readers in South America, despite the dearth of articles about the booming auto industry down south. This is about to change …

Due to developments beyond my control, you, the Best and the Brightest, will be exposed to a whole load of BS today. Nothing but BS. All day.

Ed Niedermeyer is probably too humble to say it, so it’s left for me to say: TTAC has been doing exceptionally well over the last few months. Thank you.

Yesterday was another record day: 122,000 views. Thank you, Jack Baruth for having written the 2011 Mustang review. It pulled in readers in droves. (Today’s Mustang GT review is developing into another scorcher. And thank you, Ford, for making the cars available.) Thank you, Paul, for writing another classic curbside classic about the Honda Prelude, and about the illicit substances you had sworn to keep away from your son. Thank you, Paul, for writing the runner-up traffic generator, about Honda’s high-revving, mid-engined whacky pick-up.

As you see, the most read topics on Thetruthaboutcars.com are as eclectic as our readers. Which brings me to the secret of TTAC’s success:

Both Niedermeyers, the younger and the elder, are off and away on some family thing for the day.

BS, assisted by Cammy Corrigan somewhere in Great Britain, is home alone! So if you miss Ed’s wit and Paul’s curbside classics: Don’t despair. They will be back. Tomorrow.

I’m off to see some seedy bar in Beijing for Friday night. During that time, all TTAC commenting policies are not in effect, so fire away.

But wait until daddy BS is back.

As TTAC moves into its next chapter, it’s important that we revisit a topic that has long been a defining factor in our site’s success: our comment moderation policy. TTAC strives to provide the very best discussion on all things automotive, and in order to maintain decorum and high-quality online discourse, we’ve always moderated comments. This will not change, because—as a visit to most other car blogs proves—it’s the only way to prevent otherwise interesting conversations from devolving into ad-hominem, flaming and general unpleasantness. To help combat the internet’s endless supply of insulting, angry, incoherent, thoughtless, unfunny and generally annoying commentary, I’ve enlisted longtime TTACers Jeff Puthuff and Daniel J. Stern to help patrol our community. If you step over the line, expect to hear from one of us. Meanwhile, hit the jump for a little more detail on on community expectations and behavioral standards here at TTAC.

Now is the time to clear out the cobwebs, dust off the servers, tidy up the code, and polish the site. The frenzy of breaking (bad) news, sales and takeovers, and flamewars has somewhat subsided and we take this time now to vet some ideas we’ve been kicking around.

First, are you, our loyal readers, satisfied with the number and time of postings? More specifically, do you prefer the way we do it now with a bunch of postings made early in the morning, a few an hour until around noon PST, and then a posting or three in the afternoon; or, would you prefer we schedule the posts to publish every hour throughout the day? Does the current method give you enough time to read the article and participate in the comments?