So basically, as you can see, the standard reviews that I’ve intended to be the mainstay of this site are something that neither I nor Aaron have the time for in our lives currently.1 Now this is not to say that they’re over, I think there’s merit in the format, and at least I enjoy writing it, but it is an incredibly time-consuming process that I cannot allow for on a regular basis as I once envisioned. Have I used to have more time in the past or has the quality of the post gone up? I think a bit of both, actually. I can’t provide you any concrete evidence for this but I believe I’ve heard the New Orleans post twice described as “academic”,2 which not only is an incredible compliment, but speaks as to the effort that goes into these.
Now I think this poses some problem, I did want this site to be a bit more active than that, and having a Wordpress site to write to it once-a-year is a bit pointless, I might as well publish to a journal at that point. This obviously means that we need to shift to lighter stuff, but what kind? I don’t want to lose focus. Should I rename the site then? But to what, and what do I do with the old domain? I don’t want to rename the site, actually. Well, how do I shift to lighter stuff and stay in focus? Should we screw the focus? Does that make sense? Et cetera…
Now this is where you, the reader, come in. As much as I am the main person behind Tramreview3 You have a stake too, I am writing for someone to read this, right? right!?
So basically I’ll throw a few of my ideas and you can let me know what you think:
- Move towards “lighter stuff,” like more specific condensed opinions or overviews rather than grand review projects. The review projects may still show up eventually and probably duplicate the smaller pieces, but there wouldn’t be the constant expectation of a review. Now, to clarify, I won’t do stock standard railfanning, it isn’t my thing and probably won’t be.
- Shifting away from strict trams towards transit in general, things like buses, subways, suburban rail and the like. It’s not like we have avoided those in the past, but I think their role in this website should be formally recognised.
- Maybe brining in things for which I am of the opinion “need to be put on a website somewhere” – for example, as many of you know I am quite involved with the GTIC Discord server, and sometimes stuff happens there that warrants a more permanent place than some Discord messages. I am mainly thinking of the recent mapmaking competition but there are also other things.
This was a quick list and I hope you can get a good idea of what I am thinking about. So, what are your thoughts?
Other changes to the site
WP theme change
Since I started this site in 2020 using Wordpress’ default “Twenty Twenty” theme, a lot of things have changed. Namely, those are my design sensibilities, and the amount of things you can easily do with a Wordpress theme. A lot of things I am currently using plugins for can now be done natively on newer themes, avoiding clutter and janky implementation as on the current site. Additionally, a lot of design decisions I made in the past now seem… odd to me. Not to say that I want to kill the distinct Tramreview aesthetic, but I certainly want to rethink it.
I have a pretty good, but not a clear idea of what I want to do yet, so if you have any suggestions or opinions I’d like to hear them.
Integration of Transit Ottawa
Timothy Tao, with whom I’ve had a correspondance for quite some years now, has been running quite a good blog at Transit Ottawa. One problem though: it’s on Blogger. No one in 2025, or even 2024,4 deserves to be running a blog on Blogger. I’ve suggested in the past that the content of the site be hosted here, but haven’t had the time to do it. I thought this would also be a good opportunity to ask: do you (the readers) want this? It’s not quite what’s already on this blog, but it’s quite close and I think this would be a really good place for it. Given the distinctiveness of the content there, Transit Ottawa, if integrated, will get its own space in some way, and if I am changing the theme I also need to account for that.
So yes, changes, I think this needed an announcement and a call for feedback. The best place for you to leave it would be in the comments of this post, but if you can reach me in any other way that is fine as well.