Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

MichaelBluejay · 2008-10-08 13:32:24

Earlier this year I set up the Bicycle Austin Blog (not to be confused with the Bicycle Austin Forum), inviting all local bike groups and several prominent activists to contribute content. My idea was to try to bring all the various parts of our local community together in one place, and provide readers a one-stop shopping service to find out what's going on in all sectors of our community.

But that hasn't worked out so well. There have been barely any posts to the blog, and the last one was four months ago. And in the meantime, a few other things have happened which seem to have lessened the need for the blog:

- The new web Forum has been seen a decent amount of activity.

- I'm now listing the titles of all recent Forum posts on the front page of Bicycle Austin, allowing visitors to see at a glance what's being discussed without having to navigate through all the various categories of the forum.

- And perhaps most importantly, some other blogs are popping up that are doing a better job of presenting a good blog experience than I ever could, most notably Austin Cycling News by Adriel Ickler and the Austin Bike Blog by Marcus Sanford and Elliott McFadden. Adriel has also said he'd welcome the original list of contributors for the Bicycle Austin Blog to contribute to Austin Cycling News instead.

So I'm inclined to just pull the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog since it seems to have been eclipsed by other efforts, but before I did so I thought I'd post to get community feedback in case I'm missing something. The only possible advantage I see of the Bicycle Austin Blog is that it comes with the branding of Bicycle Austin, which has been around since circa 1995, received a Best of Austin award in the Chronicle, etc. But I'm not sure whether that's a compelling reason to keep a blog there. And of course, if we did decide to keep the blog, then the next step would be to find someone to manage that effort who can turn it into something actually useful, like the other independent blogs I mentioned earlier.

Your thoughts?

dougmc · 2008-10-08 17:17:40

Adriel hasn't done anything with his Austin Cycling News weblog in a while.
Austin Bike Blog seems alive and well, however.
The Bicycle Austin weblog wasn't well advertised (or so it seemed to me, anyways), and now it seems somewhat broken. (php warnings ...)
Killing it might make sense ...
Jason's ATXBS is possibly the busiest of them all.

Putting the forum titles on the front page of Bicycle Austin seems very well done.

Last edited by dougmc (2008-10-08 17:18:18)

tomwald · 2008-10-13 20:26:43

It seems sensible to pull the plug on the BA blog.

I have to say though that it seems that any Austin bike blog is active only for some finite period of time of several months to a year or so before it declines. C'est la vie. (The BA blog never really became a regular thing.)

paulsjv · 2008-10-13 22:13:00

I was really excited about the BABlog but when no one ever posted anything I stopped going to it. I thought surely with the line up that said they would write it would be a great blog just like the mailing list/forums are a great way of discussing topics. My thought goes to the people who were asked to write on the blog were too busy to do so? Then I came back to a thought long ago that I tried and worked for a bit before people just left the site and that was to have a blog act more like a forum. Basically allow anyone to start a blog post and have anyone reply.

At any rate, I'm sad to see the BABlog go as I would have loved to read more about what some of the authors had to say. It definitely pulls me into the site more so than the forums here. :)

robbo · 2008-10-14 00:08:14

I prefer to read (or ignore) rants that arrive via email.

Last edited by robbo (2008-10-14 00:08:54)

Jason · 2008-10-14 08:20:39

I'd love to see a bigtime austin cycling blog that's more than a 1 or 2 man show. There are a lot of great voices in town for the cycling community, and a blog seems to be the most popular modern outlet for collecting and disseminating the thoughts of like-minded individuals. Maybe it was due to the advertising, or the lack of frequent updates, but it never seemed that the BA blog took off to be that collection point.

Thanks for the mention Doug. I don't know if Michael left my site off accidentally or intentionally (either way no biggie), but ATXBS.com has been around for longer than the BA blog or either of the other two mentioned, and has been EXTREMELY active (both on my part and the part of commenters/contributors) the entire time. I try to keep abreast of as much local bike news as I can and update very frequently. Maybe even a little too frequently, but no one's complained yet. Likewise I'm constantly having people send me events, reports, pictures, and all sorts of great content relating to the austin bike community, which I repost with credit (vs. allowing other writers). Traffic has been increasing by about 50% month-over-month since February, and I expect it to really see a bump when Thursday's Chronicle hits newsstands. I've been getting lots of great positive feedback both via email and in person. And one guy calling me an a-hole, but I literally asked for that on my site.

BUT, my site is TOTALLY a dictatorship of me. I also swear a lot, hate a lot, and am in no way "reputable". Austin really needs a reputable, informative site, hopefully one that's maintained by multiple intelligent writers. Austinbikeblog is the closest thing I see to what I think Austin needs, and their two writers have been great, but I know there are people out there like Tom Wald, Rob DAmico, Michael Bluejay, Bob Farr, who don't have that outlet, besides the various forums and mailing lists around town. Y'all need a freaking blog! Maybe just not the BA blog.

And stay off of mine. It's mine. ;)

Jason
http://www.ATXBS.com

P.S. I forgot to mention before booking it to work, but there may be dawn on the horizon. Marsha Ungchusri has some interesting ideas for a local bike blog similar to http://www.bikeportland.org, but geared towards the Austin community. If she can get some local talent on-board and crack the whip every once in a while, I see good things coming from her efforts. Time will tell, but she's got a lot of good people behind her, I anticipate greatness.

Last edited by Jason (2008-10-14 09:25:49)

damicoaustin · 2008-10-14 10:08:30

I'm OK with pulling the plug. The problem, as stated above, was that the site was never set up right at first. Every time I checked back it had the wagon wheel design that was hard to read....so I kept waiting. Then, when Michael got it fully set up right, the wind was out of the sails. Then I went on vacation for a month. A blog needs a leader...and unless someone steps up to be one, it's going to fail. So Michael, maybe wait and see if anyone steps up to the plate, then if not, pull the plug.

Jason, please don't insinuate that I'm reputable...you'll ruin my reputation.

bikinpolitico · 2008-10-14 10:14:54

Michael, I think for a blog to survive and thrive, you have to consistently (almost daily) provide new content and promote the blog to potential new readers. If you are not able to do that, then I'd say pull the plug. I think there is room for more bike blogs in Austin, but the commitment to feed the blog has to be there.

Jason · 2008-10-14 10:57:37

damicoaustin wrote:

Jason, please don't insinuate that I'm reputable...you'll ruin my reputation.

Heh, at least you have a webpage title that can be quoted in the public press without asterisks, and compared to those other shady characters I lumped you with, you're practically wearing a white hat and a sheriff's star. ;)

Jason

MichaelBluejay · 2008-10-15 03:18:27

Thanks everyone for the input.

No slight to Jason's ATXBS blog, which I like, and which is definitely important, and which I link to it from the front page of Bicycle Austin. I just thought the other blogs I mentioned were closer to the kind that could fulfill the role I'd originally envisioned for the Bicycle Austin Blog -- a magazine-style effort written by a large number of groups and advocates. And yeah, with the word "sh!t" on the front page, we couldn't expect the City's Bike Program to be one of the contributors -- and their participation is kind of important. But still, the existence of ATXBS means that that's yet another blog that already exists, making me question the need for a Bicycle Austin blog.

I know that a blog has to have a good manager and fresh content in order to be successful. I guess the question is, should I try to find a manager to revive the blog, or would the Bicycle Austin Blog be too redundant in light of all the other blogs around? I'm not seeing a clear answer to that one. And my only reluctance in pulling the plug is that while other good blogs already exist, it's hard to give up the dream of a blog that would be written by the whole community.

So how about this: Please take this message as an open call for a volunteer to administer the Bicycle Austin Blog -- let me know if you're interested. I'll also write to Marsha Ungchusri to see if she's interested. In the end, if no one volunteers, then I'll pull the plug for sure -- because even if the idea is good, it can't fly if nobody does the work.

marcus · 2008-10-23 15:41:04

Michael,

Keeping up with a blog can be difficult, I agree. My model for AustinBikeBlog.com is basically the same as BikePortland.com , if you have been there. I'm not sure if that answers your questions, but I think the vision is similar to what you were trying to achieve.

I am open to, well in fact, I WANT more contributors, absolutely (I'm open to just about any of us involved in the cycling scene here writing on our blog if they wanna!), and I want to be able to cover city meetings, all kinds of things related to advocacy and bike culture in town.

jmayson · 2008-10-25 14:10:23

I read the blog and enjoy it. What if you made it a community blog? Portland has an excellent bicycling blog and I believe Austin should have one too. I'd be happy to contribute. I live and work in NW Austin on the fringes of suburbia. Perhaps I could chime in with my perspective on cycling.

Shoot me an email if you're interested. john at mayson dot us

John

Last edited by jmayson (2008-10-25 14:11:40)

Bicycle Austin forum

#1 2008-10-08 13:32:24

Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#2 2008-10-08 17:17:40

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#3 2008-10-13 20:26:43

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#4 2008-10-13 22:13:00

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#5 2008-10-14 00:08:14

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#6 2008-10-14 08:20:39

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#7 2008-10-14 10:08:30

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#8 2008-10-14 10:14:54

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#9 2008-10-14 10:57:37

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#10 2008-10-15 03:18:27

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#11 2008-10-23 15:41:04

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

#12 2008-10-25 14:10:23

Re: Pulling the plug on the Bicycle Austin Blog?

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