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Announcement: Mtbr has a new owner!

30K views 469 replies 86 participants last post by  bachman1961 
#1 ·
I am pleased to announce that Mtbr and Roadbikereview have been acquired by Verticalscope Inc. from Invenda Corp. They are a media company expert in enthusiast websites and forum management with many revered brands such as Autoguide and The Truth About Cars.

Myself, Francis Cebedo and most members of the editorial and content team will continue on and run Mtbr and Roadbikereview. The transition should be fairly seamless as we slowly make improvements as they make sense.

This move opens up a whole new array of experience and technologies to the sites to allow them to thrive. We will now have access to resources to improve our product and grow our audience in the ever-changing media landscape.

Our challenging issues such as spam, mobile experience and ease of use will be better tackled now with the help of a parent company with a depth of experience in these areas. And we'll be able to deliver cool features and user experiences once again.

We look forward to your continued support.

Francis Cebedo and Mtbr.com
 
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#91 ·
about ads

I would not ever use an ad blocker ads were not animated.

ads don't bother me if they are static. since everyone has to animate everything, I block everything, all sites. you have a web site that says 'we see you are using an ad blocker' I close the site immediately and go somewhere else.

why the F don't these marketing idiots get it ? ffs,
 
#92 ·
I block everything, all sites. you have a web site that says 'we see you are using an ad blocker' I close the site immediately and go somewhere else.
A valid point. We have enough choices that we don't need to tolerate intrusive and excessive advertising. There is a car magazine site I used to visit all the time. There is now as much advertising as content and I no longer go there.

With so many social media options today, unless a pleasant user experience is provided people just won't stay.
 
#107 ·
@Philip: I know we're on the forums and most of the suggestions so far have been related to that, but I think you need to take a look at the whole review section of MTBR. It's in the name! When I first started visiting this site, it was the review section that brought me here. Whenever I was considering a new part, this was the first place I'd look. Now, frankly, it's the last place I look. I honestly don't perceive this site to have the best content when I'm looking to geek out on the latest tech.

Reviews of products are often short, with little personality, and direct comparisons of products are increasingly hard to come by. I'd love to see more head to head content. And photos; I love looking at huge, high resolution photos. I'm honestly pretty lazy when I see thumbnails that pop-up a slow slideshow at the bottom of the page. Having one page to scroll through and view all the content would be swell.

This site has good bones, but it could use a 2018 makeover.
 
#152 ·
MTBRAdmin - To be fair, your business is to maximize ad revenue. If "improvement" drives increased viewership, then that's what I'm sure what you guys will do, but not because you care about the community here. Your business can't be to "care" about the community when you own hundreds of forums that have no relation to one another. But all four of the forums I've frequented that have been bought up by you guys have gone downhill. More ads, embedded ads, pop ups, ads between forum posts, etc etc etc. Less moderator interaction to keep the forums clean, and so on

I'm just dipping my feet into the MTB waters - registered just *days* ago - so it's rather disappointing to see you all get your hands on this website, too.
 
#256 ·
Apparently, no one is going to put a stop to the Korean spam attacks. They are beating down passion, being the 1st forum on the board. Can we just make a new subforum above passion, at the top of the list, for them to attack? Just call the damn thing "Korean Spam".
Nope. Annoying AF. All this talk of fixing things and yet even this simple thing they haven't stopped.
 
#296 ·
Golf clap. Only the dishonest or willfully ignorant will not acknowledge that motors are, will be and always have been the line of demarcation, one in which many working and access agreements have been based on. The rush to acceptance pushed by the less than honest industry put much access at risk and I find it hypocritical that a "mountain bike" centric site cant see that or chooses to ignore it in the quest for a few dollars.
 
#338 ·
Philip,

Lots of complaining here about the vitriol associated with eBikes. Just understand that in these argumentative threads, the vitriol comes from the anti-eBike crowd. There are very few instances where a pro-eBiker starts an argument or becomes personally insulting. The same cannot be said for the anit-eBike crowd. That said, a separate eBike subforum may be the solution. One of the biggest complaints from the anti-eBikers is that their MTB forum is being encroached upon by eBikers. A subforum dedicated to nothing but eBikes would then make it their turf and it would be the anti-eBikers who would be encroaching should any disputes arise.

Also keep in mind that an MTBer and an eBiker are frequently the same person. MTB and eBike does not define a person... it defines what he rides on a particular day. Many, probably most, eBikers are MTBers as well. eBikes are simply another category of bikes, such as fatbikes. eBikes and MTBs have FAR more in common than not. The arguments always start with a narrow minded person who can only focus on the differences while ignoring the vast similarities. We as a community need to evolve past that point.
 
#350 ·
Hey, new MTBR owner, please be advised that eBikers are lying sods, they get on here and start arguments and spout stupid platitudes all day long. Please ban them all and then bring back all the other non-Ebike folks who have been banned, even things out.

Please make MTBR great again.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
#2 ·
Hello everyone,

My name is Philip, I am a community manager for Verticalscope, I work with a small team that will continue to manage the webmaster duties for MTBR.com.

We are here to help primarily with the technical end of things and help make the jobs of the current Mods/Admins easier. I posted a real basic run down to answer common questions below. If you have more questions or concerns please feel free to post them in response.

What are our intentions?

We bring reliability, support and the infrastructure needed to ensure that the community will continue to be around for years to come. It's our goal to work with the mod/admin team to help provide the resources and required work to give this community a broader reach, to attract new members, and to better the overall knowledge shared in the community.

Will leadership change?

Continuity is the focus here, YOU as the membership work very hard to keep building this community while your mod/admin team keep the walls and the roof up in this place; we are primarily here to make sure the lights stay on. Every community is unique and should always be respected in that regard. You all have established your own unique rules and regulations and a strong reputation that is carried by all of this. For us it's paramount to maintain this level of integrity and enthusiasm.

What am I here for?

Our primary role is to be the technical contact; you all contributed to building the strong foundation the site was built on. Moving forward we will all work together to keep the momentum and the community growing. We will be on the forum checking in daily to make sure regular maintenance is taken care of and keeping things running smoothly from behind the scenes. We will also be setting up a help desk on the site for when you have questions or issues with the site or your account and need assistance.

Looking forward to working with you all.

Thanks,

Philip
 
#6 ·
My only wish is that the new owners please make the site objective and as free from industry influence as much as possible.

...and add a MTB skills forum
The content of the forum is driven by enthusiast members and not the companies that make the products. We don't make a point of curating the conversations. The editorial side is still dictated by what is new and popular but everyone will have differing opinions on what is cool/not cool.

Any new sections added will go through the mod team for a discussion on logistics and make sure we can support it well. Your suggestion will be discussed. :)

-Philip
 
#7 ·
To echo Lemonaid, The only real complain I've ever had here is when enthusiastic threads about upcoming products get deleted at a manufacturer's request, because they want to control the information about their products even when it's entirely speculative, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. Speaking to you right now: Shimano 12 speed thread deletions...

Anyway, I run a bunch of online property myself. It's great to see that someone who actually understands how forums should work is going to keep it going. Too many times I've seen the overly-corporate buyouts and they often don't have a clue why something became popular in the first place and inadvertently take steps to mess it all up.
 
#70 ·
Well, no.

On occasion, when a manufacturer's website is hacked or very sensitive info/photos is leaked, we might attempt to delete photos and inform the poster.

That's rare though, cause once on the web, it's usually impossible for us to contain anyway.
 
#11 ·
I think the sub-forum structure could stand to be re-arranged. for example, you could combine the following pairs of potentially redundant sub-forums:

XC Racing and Training - Mtbr.com and Endurance XC Racing - Mtbr.com

Lights DIY - Do It Yourself - Mtbr.com and Lights and Night Riding - Mtbr.com

29er Bikes - Mtbr.com and 29er Components - Mtbr.com

Cyclocross - Mtbr.com and Gravel Bikes - Mtbr.com

do we need a separate forum for All Mountain - Mtbr.com

I know the gravel bike forum is still new, but the title of that forum could be "cyclocross and gravel"

and get rid of the e-bike forum. ;)

I don't speak for everyone here, but those are mu suggestions.

Please add a mtb skills forum where people can discuss and critique one another's skills and technique. everyone can post embarrassing videos of themselves failing at being rad and give each other pointers.
 
#23 ·
I would lobby for the end of the "rep" system. I know a few forums where you can "thank" someone for a post and see how many "thanks" a post receives. there is no cheap option for negative feedback, so if you want to tell someone off, you need to do it directly. I like that.
 
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