The beginning of a downward spiral, no doubt. Internet Brands, which is the parent company of CarsDirect.com and other community based sites including Wikitravel.org, FlyerTalk.com, SlowTalk.com and others, has added BikeForums.net to its portfolio of websites.
The site was started about 7 and a half years ago, by Joe Gardner. Over the years, Joe has watched the site grow from 3 registered members in the first week to over 65,000 registered members today. It’s gone from 2 – 3 posts a day to over 6,000 new posts daily. This site has far exceeded all expectations he had that first week! Joe will still be posting on the forums, but he is using the proceeds from the sale to pursue other cycling-related projects. After putting in more than 7 years of hard work on the site, he’s ready to move on to something else. More on that when he’s ready to go live.
The good news for members is that there will be not be many big changes in the day to day running of the site, from a participant’s view. Most of the same moderator team will be in place, but it gains a full time IT, advertising, marketing and bookkeeping staff. This is because the new owners are in it strictly for profit, and don’t really take any interest in the members. Most of the aforementioned staff coming on board don’t even own bikes.
The bad news is that it will never be the same, now that’s it’s owned by a company, and not a cyclist. Expect to see a lot more ads, and a lot less fun.
I’ve been a member for a few years under various usernames. BF.net is the only cycling discussion forum I regularly visit. The mindless anti-VC bashing gets a bit old at times, but overall you guys have done an excellent job.
I’m pretty active on BF. It’s pretty much the only forum I frequent that I’m not an administrator for. I’m an admin for several car forums *dons the flame suit*
But seriously, this is exciting news. I hope IB has a keen understanding of the fragile ecosystem that BF is harboring. I won’t miss the SQL errors or complete server blackouts. It’s always good to have world-class infrastructure to rely on for big projects like BF.
And congrats on the new hat, Brian 🙂 I’ve seen you doing a good job as an uber-moderator there. Keep up the good work as Joe heads off for “retirement”. I really feel like I have family on BF.
Noah, I’ve been the admin there for a while, but it’s been more of a behind the scenes thing, helping Joe deal with sponsors and the ad program. As a matter of fact, most of the SQL errors that lasted only 10-30 seconds were caused by me jacking up things when I coded in a new ad. 😀 And I do that for a living.
Anyway, this whole thing is really good for Joe, IB, and the forums. Everyone wins.
I agree. I keep trying to infuse positive thoughts into some of the “oh noesZ!1” threads but in the end, some people will think BF sold out and that’s the end of it.
Man, I’ve been on BF for a stretch and didn’t even know that owners had changed. I guess you could say seemless change then. BF has evolved over the years, somethings better than others, but it’s changed as the people come and go. I still like it, though I don’t post as much as I used to. The saddest thing is that we are now noticing when people die, and we often don’t realize that we’ve grown close… In leaving for a year, I’ve been “wrapping up” and suprised at the changes. I know what my favorite BF change was..