The Future of NYSkiBlog

[Harvey]

I been wondering about what will happen to NYSB in the future.

I love it, and want to do it. More. Really.

But at some point I'll have to decide. Do I kill it, or pass it on?

If I pass it on, someone will turn it into something else. I'm not sure I want that.

Looking for any input.

 

[Brownski]

Very morose. You have to pass it on. You wouldn’t just be deleting your own work. Lots of other people have contributed. Of course it will change. Everything does. And yeah, it may stop getting traffic and eventually fold. Nothing lasts forever but you shouldn’t kill just because you don’t control it anymore

 

[Harvey]

Very morose. You have to pass it on. You wouldn’t just be deleting your own work. Lots of other people have contributed. Of course it will change. Everything does. And yeah, it may stop getting traffic and eventually fold. Nothing lasts forever but you shouldn’t kill just because you don’t control it anymore

It's not cool for me to fold it, but if I pass it on and someone else does that's ok?

There's no need to delete it. It would be easy to keep it up on the internet. Convert every page to html (like we did with the forum archives) and it wouldn't need updating, support, security or money beyond hosting. Maybe a few hundred a year. It would be frozen in time. The way it is now, costs are somewhere between $2000-3000 each year.

And there is the time. If you try to login in and you see a 429 error or 500 error, realize that I'm on hold, or talking with our hosting company trying to get the site back up. I'm looking into Cloudflare now, a great product that could block a lot of bot issues, also another annual subscription.

NYSB is almost 20 years old. Maybe when you've managed your podcast for 20 years you'll cut me a break. I'm more proud of NYSB than anything I've done in my career and I don't want to see nyskiblog.com captured by spammers. Who remembers SkiAdk and how that ended?

Or Google "Japanese Keyword Hack" — it happened to NYSB about 5 years ago. I used to let authors post their own stuff on the front page, but I couldn't count on them to use strong passwords, so I started posting everything myself.

NYSB only works if someone believes in it, and thinks it's worth the effort. I'm wondering if that person exists.

I had to look up morose. Ick.

 

[Brownski]

It's not cool for me to fold it, but if I pass it on and someone else does that's ok?

What I meant was if people stop posting and it withers on the vine, that is different than pulling the plug while it is still vibrant. Archiving would work for the front page but not the forum. If you handed it over to someone like me or Ripitz do you think it would change all that much? I mean I would occasionally post a 3,000 word expose. I would try to add more humor. On the forum there’s maybe one person I would ban

 

[Harvey]

That's more like it.

What I meant was if people stop posting and it withers on the vine, that is different than pulling the plug while it is still vibrant. Archiving would work for the front page but not the forum. If you handed it over to someone like me or Ripitz do you think it would change all that much? I mean I would occasionally post a 3,000 word expose. I would try to add more humor. On the forum there’s maybe one person I would ban

And what I meant was I don't want to see it wither on the vine. It's beyond me why you think that's a better outcome. Remember Namath's last season? He should have retired.

A site like this stays vibrant with effort. Look at TGR. It's down and broken so much, I barely visit any more. Alpine Zone has also seen a dramatic decline, since the newest owner doesn't really care. Without constant attention it will wither.

FWIW the forum is harder to support than the rest of the site. There are lots of people who support Wordpress, for a price. The forum is a different matter. The sideways image thing... I created a relationship with a developer in San Francisco, who knows the software well, hopefully he'll address the issue this week. ($50.)

I was looking for ideas. Maybe it's best to keep this kind of thinking private. I put it out there because I really believe in the collective wisdom here.

 

[DomB]

I been wondering about what will happen to NYSB in the future.

I love it, and want to do it. More. Really.

But at some point I'll have to decide. Do I kill it, or pass it on?

If I pass it on, someone will turn it into something else. I'm not sure I want that.

Looking for any input.

I don't know what I would do if I were you because it is very personal.

If you envision a point that you would want to hand it over or kill it, and the concern about handing it over is that you won't like what it will become, you could address that to some degree by coming to an agreement with whoever steps in, and keeping some high level admin rights in case you ever see something that you think materially violates the agreement.

That is probably more work than killing it, but my point is that it is not a flat go/no go, irrevocable decision. You founded this shop and this is your property, and with property rights comes a certain level of control.

Hope you are enjoying your birthday period! Running a half around mine in a few weeks wish me luck : )

 

[Brownski]

I was looking for ideas.

Ok, I think you know I have lots of ideas and am always willing to share them but this is what you said specifically

at some point I'll have to decide. Do I kill it, or pass it on?

I was just saying don’t kill it.
Feel better, man. Call me any time

 

[Peter Minde]

It's not cool for me to fold it, but if I pass it on and someone else does that's ok?

If you're gonna hand it off, you have to be really sure you pass NYSB off to a super passionate person. Joe Park sold Prospect Mountain (Woodford VT) to someone who ran it into the ground. Fortunately, Steve Whitham revived it into a successful operation.

 

[MarzNC]

I've been a part of both situations. Either works in the long run.

EpicSki ceased to exist for business reasons that had nothing to do with the forum community. Those who wanted to continue in the same vein are on SkiTalk. Note that SkiTalk was founded a couple years before EpicSki went away . . . abruptly.

TheSkiDiva was sold to a long time member a few years ago. The founder had reached an age when paying attention to a ski forum wasn't how she wanted to spend her time all year long. It took a while to find the right person as I understand it. She remains an active member. TSD is evolving but slowly. It's been a few years and I can feel the difference and it's fine.

I love it, and want to do it. More. Really.

But at some point I'll have to decide. Do I kill it, or pass it on?

If I pass it on, someone will turn it into something else. I'm not sure I want that.

Certainly hope you'll be interested in running NYSkiBlog for another decade or two.

 

[Harvey]

The founder had reached an age when paying attention to a ski forum wasn't how she wanted to spend her time all year long. It took a while to find the right person as I understand it. She remains an active member. TSD is evolving but slowly. It's been a few years and I can feel the difference and it's fine.

This.

Ski Diva is the site that, in my opinion, is most like NYSB. The quality of the discussion is high, because the members feel protective of the site itself. Both sites are moderated by the members.

Certainly hope you'll be interested in running NYSkiBlog for another decade or two.

I'll do it as long as I can ski.