On average, TTAC runs 12 stories a day consisting of features, reviews and news. On average, virtually none of those are about TTAC.

Let’s change that.

Over three years ago, I contacted Jack via private message on Facebook with a question:

Would my skills as a fashion blogger be of any interest to TTAC?

A few months had passed since I was let go (with everyone else) from my previous – and only – full-time job, and I wanted to take my writing to the next level by breaking into journalism, one way or another. Jack brought me aboard, and my journey began in April of 2012.

Nearly two years ago – just after Jack and Derek took over TTAC from ousted editor-in-chief Bertel Schmitt – Jack asked if I was in a place in life where I could start writing again; I disappeared during the summer of 2012, though I did keep busy in the interim. He also informed me I would be paid to write for the blog if I came back. Thus, with “Posse On Broadway” booming from the trunk, I returned in October of 2013.

Alas, all good things must come to an end.

The long version of the story?

People often talk about particular events being seared into their minds: Pearl Harbor, JFK’s assassination, 9/11…I remember the first time I ever read an article by Jack Baruth.

Tomorrow will be my last day as the Editor-In-Chief pro tem of The Truth About Cars. This was always meant to be a temporary situation, despite what some of the B&B thought. Given some of the differences in opinion I have recently had with TTAC’s owners, this is a good time for us to call it quits. I will not be replaced; the site will be managed by the leadership team at VerticalScope in Toronto and Derek will continue in his capacity as Managing Editor. There will be other changes, detailed below.

I made some promises to you, the readers, and I’d like to discuss whether or not those promises have been kept. But the tl;dr crowd can best understand the situation like this: TTAC is basically Fleetwood Mac.

Although my duties as E-I-C pro tem of this august website take up quite a bit of my time, I still have space in the day to do a few other things. It would be nice, therefore, if you supported my other activities as reluctantly fervently as you support my work here at TTAC. And here’s how: For the low, low price of $4.99 and/or $1,599, respectively, you can now buy a magazine and/or a brand-new custom guitar from the skunkworks of my mirror-bright creativity.

We have very few rules for commenters here at TTAC. Not everyone is comfortable with that; some of our longer-serving friends remember with undisguised fondness the days when Mr. Farago ruled with an iron hand and “moderated” the posts the way a Ma Deuce “moderates” a field of mounted cavalry.

We’re also big believers in anonymity. There are multiple auto-industry people at TTAC who have privately disclosed their status in the business to us or simply signed up with their work e-mail, but we don’t share that with the world at large. Anonymity is, frankly, critical to the free flow of ideas in a world where people lose their jobs for saying the wrong thing in an arena completely unrelated to the rest of their lives.

This past weekend, we had two issues with anonymity. One was our fault — or, more properly speaking, my fault, since I permitted it to happen — and the other was the work of someone with an axe to grind.

Both of these issues have been resolved.

At TTAC, I take it for granted that most of the B&B have more real-life experience and a better grasp on industry matters than I do. Sometimes, it can be detrimental.

Half a year ago, we introduced the concept of the TTAC Staff byline. I had some high hopes for the idea, primarily because we had some people who wanted to write for us but who would face some potential backlash for having their names appear on these august pages. This has made a lot of people unhappy and has been widely regarded as a bad move.*

It’s also history, as of today.

Gone are the days here at TTAC where simply typing a phrase like, “You, Sir, are a usefully idiotic pawn of the Chinese government and a despicable fetishist of rubber pleasure devices” could get you banned from this site in two shakes of a Shanghai working girl’s tail. No longer. People say the meanest things about me and Derek, and we don’t care. Actually, Derek gets a little teary-eyed about it, so we rewrote his contract to specify that “PART IV. COMPENSATION FOR RIDICULE. Every time the phrase “game-changer”, complete with hyphen, appears on the site in obvious and plain reference to Derek Kreindler, he shall be compensated with one thousand dollars ($1,000) or two nights with a Lamborghini Aventador.”

But that’s not what we want to talk about right now. Actually, “we” means “I”; Derek’s out somewhere making it rain at a club while they tow his double-parked Aventador from the entrance.

Die-hard TTAC readers who stick with us for the weekends might notice something strange about the site today: we’re missing a post. On Sunday morning, we republished a story that originally appeared on SVTPerformance.com. We did this after coming to an agreement with the administrator of that site to “re-pop” news and features that might be of interest to the Best&Brightest, in exchange for links back to the original site.

Yesterday afternoon, the fellow who had originally given us permission to publish the article changed his mind and demanded that we take it down immediately, stating that “[the article] was a direct copy with no link-back initially. When one was added it was a pitiful effort; a single hyperlink that looks identical to several other hyperlinks that lead back to your site.” We’ve honored his request to take the article down and to never, ever, ever link to the “SVT Performance” fansite again.

However, one important piece of the article — an email written by Jamal Hameedi regarding the merits of Nurburgring lap-time marketing — was delivered to us under separate cover by another source, so we’re republishing that after the jump.

What a long, strange trip it’s been for the TTAC Racing shirts! To begin with, they never made it to MSR Houston for the actual race, being left in a storage area by the folks who were prepping the car. The car itself never made it on track for the race. So this commemorates a race effort that, strictly speaking, never happened. It’s like having a shirt for the 1983 Corvette.

Which makes them either worthless or highly valuable. If the latter were the case, they’d be on eBay like, right freaking now. Since it’s the former, we’re raising the stakes.

Slightly over a month ago, we had a spot of regime change here at The Truth About Cars. At the time, we unveiled a five-point program to improve the site and improve the reader experience. I’d like to take a moment to review these five points and give you a chance to provide further feedback on our progress so far.

Have you noticed that lately we’ve added a little box at the end of most stories asking you to sign up for the “TTAC E-Newsletter”? Sure you have. You’re observant like that. But why would you possibly want to do such a thing?

Can’t slip anything by you guys. Some of you have already noticed the TTAC Staff byline. Popular theories so far have ranged from sweatshop labor in an overseas basement to the sub rosa return of valued former editor-in-staff Bertel Schmitt. They’re all wrong.

The article you are about to read was written by former Editor-In-Chief Bertel Schmitt during the course of a long and somewhat personal disagreement he had with former contributor Steven Lang. This article does not represent the views of The Truth About Cars, its staff, its contributors, or its ownership. We’re leaving it up because we don’t censor the past — but we no longer stand behind the piece or recommend that you read it — JB

Our intrepid technical team will perform hardware maintenance tomorrow, Tuesday between 8am and 11am Eastern. TTAC will move to a standby server, while they replace hardware on the main server, vacuum the dust mites, lubricate the hard-drives, and whatever scheduled maintenance a server needs.

“Carsqa.com is a bunch of rotten thieves – and we admit it,” wrote carsqa.com editor Chuck Kerkarian yesterday. However, this surprising confession did not stop his publication from committing further egregious acts of intellectual property robbery. The written admission of guilt was followed by an article stolen by carsqua’s Alex Johanssen from Murilee Martin at caranddriver.com, and another one purloined from Alex Dykes at TTAC. Even after admitting guilt, Carsqua’s Chuck Kerkarian steals a Chevrolet Impala 2.5 review from Caranddriver, and a 2013 Volkswagen Jetta TDI vs. Hybrid comparo from Mike Solowiow from TTAC. (I wouldn’t steal from an F16 driver, but that’s just me.)

To make the robbery complete, Carsqa asserts copyright for the stolen stories.

Para-site 2.0

Web 2.0 brought with it somewhat novel interpretations of the copyright. We are used to the fact that our stories show up in all kinds of places. As long as they are within the bounds of fair use, and as long as they link back to us, we don’t mind. We often pick up inspiration for stories elsewhere, but we try to always say where we found them, and we give ample links, the new currency of Web 2.0. Some people are less polite. Recently, matters took a turn to the weird.

(Note: Before you complain about headline or picture, read to the end.)

WARNING: The content following the jump, albeit taken from a popular car site, could be viewed as highly objectionable when viewed here. It could also get you fired at YOUR workplace, or get you in DEEP trouble at home. DO NOT click the jump if this offends you, and DO NOT complain if the warning is not heeded. Mature language. Parental guidance is advised.

After an article was posted on May 16, a wide-ranging discussion took place. The discussion was given unimpeded, unedited space over more than 200 comments. In the course of this discussion, threats were made. We take all comments seriously, including any threats.

The threats can be found in the discussion, and they remain there for documentation purposes. These threats are not condoned, the commenters who made the threats are gone. After and because these threats were made, the discussion was closed.

The discussion remains closed. Please do not hijack other threads to continue a closed discussion. Doing so would trigger immediate bannage, and a removal of the comment. Please refer to the commenting guidelines in the FAQ.

In the interest of editorial freedom, TTAC must and will resist ANY third party attempts to influence or change its content. Please refrain from doing so. Factual corrections will be made. Thank you for helping to protect an environment that is open to all civilized discussion.

As you may (or may not) have noticed, there was an issue on TTAC where people would get only an old copy of TTAC. They received the new version once they logged on. Or maybe it was the other way around. Our technical team got right on it, and it seems they fixed it. I am asking your help to make sure that the problem indeed has been fixed.

It is very simple: Stay civil.

Commenters can say anything on TTAC, as long as it is said in a civilized way. It’s not what one says on TTAC that can attract a ban, only how comments are made. Rudeness, bullying, name calling can quickly lead to a permanent bannage.

Trolls ‘R’ Us

The campaign for TTAC’s Top Troll goes into its final stretch. Nominations for the TTAC Top Troll Poll have been made. Some folks received multiple nominations, but we will not declare a winner just yet. The Top Troll will be decided by popular vote. Tomorrow, Friday, we go to the Top Troll Polls. But first, we need your help.

Andrew Lok, a.k.a. contestant #28, won the Thursday round of the TTAC Future Writers Week by a wide margin. His epos on stolen GPS machines, and his pilgrimage to the Valhalla of Speed, the Nürburgring der Niebelongen, received 45 percent of all votes on Thursday. In the following week, when the full results of TTAC’s Future Writers Week were published, Lok was gone.

TTAC’s Managing Editor Derek Kreindler shocked me with the news that he will undergo a life-threatening operation on Monday: His tonsils will be removed. Should his doctor not know what he is doing, now he does.

Derek had even more shocking news for me: He will be out all week, nursing his removed tonsils with the vanilla ice cream they had promised me when my tonsils came out at age five. They never gave me the ice cream, but leaving me alone at the helm of TTAC, Derek gives me a big problem. You, Future Writers, can help:

You noticed that I needed to catch my breath a bit from TTAC’s Future Writers Week. The results still have me breathless. At the start, I thought with seven a day, I probably have enough until Friday. Was I ever wrong.

Friday – thank God – was a great day in TTAC’s Future Writers Week. It definitely was a lot better than Dud-Tuesday. The readers loved what the Friday round of writers wrote. The winners were separated by just a few votes, always a good sign of an exciting race. My favorite came in 4th, which again proves that my tastes are totally removed from the mainstream. And the winners are:

This is day five of TTAC’s Future Writers Week. We have three new winners. We have seven new contestants. And I have a huge problem.

The Wednesday installment of TTAC’s Future Writers Week, where YOU decide who will write for you, ended better than the round the day before. This time, you voted for three serviceable writers, and they are:

The Tuesday round of TTAC’s Future Writers Week ends with no new writers selected. That round definitely did not trigger mass excitement among our judges. Some even wanted to be able to assign demerits. Contestants 13 and 14 were the only halfway real entries in what otherwise was email snippets and proposals nobody wanted. Getting the most votes (from a definitely apathetic panel of judges) while running virtually unopposed does not constitute a win.

The winners are Michael Trainor, George William Herbert, and Grant Tillery. TTAC congratulates thee. You shall drop the masks of your screen names, and step out into the harsh lights of the public, and the etching-strength vitriol of TTAC’s feared commentariat.

Previously known as Contestants 4, 7, and 1, the three garnered the lion’s share of the votes in the Monday round of TTAC’s Future Writers Week, where, in true interactive fashion, you decide who will write for you in the future, and whom you will criticize for the biased and one-sided reporting, especially on a slow news-day. It is in your hands, and it will be so for the rest of the week. Remember: Today is another day of the battle of the writers, and another day where you decide the outcome.

Somewhere above the 70th parallel

January is upon us, and with it the seasonal rise in traffic at big car sites such as TTAC. Over the past days, the load on our servers was unseasonably and unreasonably high. My unconfirmed hunch is that it is all the future authors checking their standings. We’ll never know. To address the problem, and hopefully to increase your class-leading browsing experience, the TTAC Geek Squad, billeted in an abandoned NORAD bunker in the darker reaches of Canada, decided to move TTAC to another server.

It’s TTAC Future Writers Week where YOU decide who will write at TTAC in the future. This could be their first (or last) step on the way to their eventual Pulitzer or Wurlitzer Prize. Please choose wisely, carefully, and fairly. It’s your, the future of several nations, and most of all, the auto industry that is at stake.

The echo to Writers Wanted was is phenomenal. 22 applications poured in so far, and they still keep coming. I quickly looked over them. Some are good, real good. Some are real funny. Some are funny, even if they are not trying to be funny. YOU will decide who makes the grade.

TTAC has always been proud of the quality of its writers. Founder Farago did set a very high standard. His wit was lethal at TTAC, he had a killer instinct for a good story, he was dead on target with GM. Knowing that, the fact that he now writes Thetruthaboutguns.com has me mildly worried. TTAC turned into a flow-heater for successful careers. We had Brock Yates , before he chose a better paid career in screenwriting and television. We had Jonny Lieberman, who, after a stint at Jalopnik, found his calling at Motor Trend. Ed went to The Dark Side. If you want to make TTAC a stepping stone in your career, or if you simply love to write, then let’s talk about it.

The gang at TTAC wishes all its readers a happy and prosperous New Year. May it bring you all the new cars you wish, and may it have mercy on your old ones.

It’s beginning to look at lot like than unmentionable holiday period, except where I am at the moment. But even in heathen China, the restaurant was full with cute waitresses with even cuter Santa hats today. Air China treated me to the full panoply of You-Know-What carols, from “O Come All Ye Faithful” all the way to “Silent Night”. It’s a strange world where one must fly to a communist country to hear “O Christmas Tree” without recrimination.

This being an international site, with readers and editors in all corners of the world, we celebrate this occasion in our traditional nondenominational style.

A few days ago, reader Willman was banned for making rude comments in violation of TTAC’s commenting policy. Willman is back.

Shaikh Jalal Ahmad wrote a very informative series on car suspensions. Sgeffe called it “an interesting (and timely) series.” Felix Hoennikker could not “wait for the next one.” JuniperBug welcomed the series from “a highly respected suspension tuner/builder.” But it takes only one drunk or rude guest to ruin a whole party. We are about to lose a valuable and knowledgeable contributor, just because commenters forgot their manners.

Many years ago, when I was a partner in a Madison Avenue ad agency, our client Swissair asked us to come up with an ad that asked affluent American Express holders to do their Christmas shopping in Zurich, Switzerland. I wrote “Merry Swissmas” on a sheet of paper. My Art Director Juergen Dahlen came up with a picture. It was pasted on foamcore, was run over to the Swissair offices and met with applause. Two weeks later, I had a lady from American Express on the line.

“Christmas! You can’t say that!”

“It’s Swissmas.”

“Come on, I know what you wanted to say.”

“So, what should I say?”

“You know. Happy holidays.”

“Alright. I’ll change the headline to Merry Swolidays.”

“You are kidding me.”

To be used as burn packs in Sharia jurisdictions

Yesterday’s anomalies with TTAC’s commenting system were fixed after long hours in short order by our crack technical team, cheered on with robust language undying praise by our editorial team. In Wednesday’s evening hours, the problem was declared as solved. All TTAC correspondents could comment again, unencumbered by announcements that the post is roasting in moderation purgatory. All except DeadWeight.

Two weeks ago, we had a rash of annoying ads. We are talking about autoplay video with autoplay audio. Not good. Especially in a work setting. Our technical crew worked quickly to have them turned off. And they did. Now we hear reports that they are back.

Update: We are in touch with the ad network. and we were told they are stopping the auto playing videos. Please report whether the auto playing videos have stopped for you. Please focus only on the auto playing part, i.e. video that begins to play when you bring up the page and you do not click on the video. This has stopped for me. Please comment: Stopped yes or no. And please say where you are, some ads are localized. Thank you.

Please let’s discuss other things, like in picture ads etc. later. Let’s solve this issue now.

I have attracted the attention of our technical people to the plight of smartphone users. YOU can be instrumental in bringing TTAC to a new smartphone glory.

“And all the troubled world around us
Seems an eternity away
And all the debt collectors
Rent collectors
All will be behind us
But they’ll never find us
‘Cos we’ll be dri-i-i-i-ivin'”
-The Kinks “Drivin'”

The last time I made an announcement about my status here at TTAC, I made it clear in the headline that I was bidding the site “au revoir” rather than “adieu.” Having taken an opportunity to work in politics for a year, I was absolutely planning on returning to the fold. Unfortunately, that plan has now changed, and I have informed TTAC’s owners that today will be my last day on the site’s masthead.

Now that the banning rules are out of the way, here a few more reasons why your comment may not show up.

Your comment will not show up, if …

We love our commenters. We hate to see them go. Sometimes, sacrifices must be made. This is to announce the untimely departure of dogsledder54 a.k.a. “scarey”, and of curbie138 from the pages of TTAC. They were banished. What happened?

The matter turned into a story, because there is a moral to it. It illustrates perfectly the dos and don’ts of commenting on TTAC.

Since it seems to be Housekeeping Day, here an email from someone who hides behind a Gmail address, who does not sign his mail, and who calls us unethical .

Mr Anonymous writes:

You may have noticed: We moderate here much less than we used to. We count on the urbane behavior of our commenters. Usually, that works. In the few cases when it does not, we usually don’t edit or delete comments. We issue a warning when the line is crossed.

That warning is no idle chatter.

Yesterday, I wrote about the Melbourne Grand Prix and its inability to solicit cars for its stars for the purpose of a celebrity race. Would you believe this made me an intellectual property infringer? No? Just wait.

This morning, I find an email from a tej@transportbrokergroup.co.uk who writes:

While America slept, the TTAC server, without consulting with the supreme powers of TTAC, said: “What the heck, it’s Sunday. Time for a nap.”

And it went to sleep as well.