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.
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.
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.
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.
I cannot make comments to the former since I just got here today.
The latter I can tell you; VS is corporate. but we are focused on content and continuity . Deleting content does little for the organic growth of the site or the health of the database.
-Philip
It is the most contentious part of the site. You could get rid of ebikes and allow politics and religion and there would still be less bickering overall.
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.
You can lead a new user to a new user forum but making them post there is not always so simple. You can report the post with a request to have it moved.
-Philip
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.
No. We don't ad pay to play to any site unless its requested by the community. This is the culture of some sites but if its not here now and the idea is not welcomed there is no reason for us to add anything that would require you to pay to use the site.
-Philip
Skills forum has been proposed to the mod team. Gravel Bike for and the E-Bike forum are going to stay. You you may have to scroll past them really fast to try to ignore them.
-Philip
I'm here for the humor, most of the time. Gotta say that this is the funniest thread I've read in a long time.
Oh, while you're making improvements, could you please try to offer spelling and punctuation help to those who need it? MTBRs are an illiterate group, except for the ladies. Somehow they seem more edumacated.
Seriously. Though this is a bicycle forum, many (most?) don't seem to know the difference between "pedal" and "peddle." Tsk, tsk. This is just the tip... the iceberg is huge.
I'd like to suggest that singlespeeders be given special status and privileges. Everyone knows that singlespeeders are more knowledgeable and insightful, and, quite frankly, just better people in general. That should be rewarded here.
Overall it's a great forum. Deleting of some of the spy shots sucks, but I understand that you need to maintain relationships in order to get access.
Keep Norcal rule free! It's my favorite corner of this forum and if there is pertinent info in there it's easy to search.
Pop up ads and malware on the phone needs attention.
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