Fixed.org.au 2.0 / The Future

General Announcements
1

Hi all,

I thought I should write up a few things about whats happening around here, and to ask you all if you have any ideas for the future of fixed.org.au.

Firstly, before I carry on, I just wanted to state up front my personal intentions: They are not financial. There will never be ads on here to make a profit. I don’t believe in making a profit from something which is built up off others goodwill & community spirit. I just want to ride my bike, read about bikes & meet other people who ride bikes. So thats that.

Site Stats while there are only 29 people registered in the forums, there are a lot of people who lurk. Stats show every month the site is getting more hits. This month we are up to 26,000+ “hits” and 732 unique visits. Fyxomatosis.com is our largest referer (thanks Andy!), next to bicycles.net.au & Sydbma.org.

Tshirts Ugh. Still trying to figure out what to do. If this were a business, I’d just make a decision, bulk buy something and sell it. But since it’s not, something needs to be sorted which people can pledge for, or even put up some cash. I still don’t have a fair idea if people are even interested.

New site & Contributors So I have been secretely designing a new website. The forums wont’ change, and neither will the gallery in the short term… My grand utopian vision for the new site is to get the help of some of you to help & write up about news in your state, or fixed news in general. So if you’d like to be a contributor, that would be… Good for everybody.

Stickers I have none left. Some people have missed out, so I’m deciding what to do. Whether to re-design them and get another print run, or whether to leave the design and get more. In terms of cost I have paid for the stickers & postage, so maybe in future I will have to sell them at cost? They cost roughly $30 per 100 + postage. I’m not complaining about giving them away, that was the point - I’m just talking about the future.

Discounts I have been thinking about asking some good bike stores (the rare few that actually give a f*ck about bikes) to do a discount for people who hang out here. I see a couple of ways of doing this. Either A) people from other states recommend contact details to me, and I write a letter. Or B) people from other states approach stores on the sits behalf and ask? I don’t know…

I think thats about it. So, I would very much like to hear about what people think. Especially if they have genius ideas… You could PM them to me, but it would be nice to keep them in the forum for public viewing.

Cheers everybody,

nick.

2

I believe there is a genuine interest in fixies, and having a forum to meet/greet and organise rides is what Aust needs. Having ‘discounts’ at shops is no overly important, but having a broad network of people who are ‘in the know’ is very, very important.

Going on the ride on Saturday, meeting some new guys, and just rolling along talking shit…it seems that you already achieved your websites goal.

Alright…I will put my hand up for a contributor…I speak alot of crap, and can certainly spread the word!

Look out Brisbane!!!

3

most of us probably get discounts at bike shops already, either because we’re regulars or because we have an mtba/cycling australia membership which gets you 10% off at most bike shops worth walking into.

Shirts - I’m super keen for a decent shirt, even jersey. As far as design goes, just simple, without a catch phrase/slogan. the website name and perhaps a logo. White. Primarily good quality, comfortable, good fit. I love paying extra for a good shirt.

Stickers sound great. spread the love and the glue.

as far as contributions go, I’m more than happy to write short blurbs or do little photo essays of rides, builds, mechanical/instructive type stuff. "How-to"s with photos have a lot of pull for getting people to the site - it will be recommended to newbs.

  • Joel
4

I’d like to second everything said so far!

Nick, is the hosting costing you at all? If not, is it possible that it may cost in the future if enough people start bashing it?

Nath.

5

Nath,

No, there is no cost for hosting, and there probably never will be (I am the hosting provider) … unless something really drastic happens, like we start doing terabytes of data or something… which is unlikely.

n

6

Site stats - Sounds like things are progressing well.

T-shirts - I’m not really phased either way by the t-shirt/jersey idea. I tend to wear whatever is cheap and not free advertising for some mega-corp. Though, I wouldn’t mind advertising the site.

New site & Contributos - New site? This one works pretty well, but I know I’d be tinkering around as well if it was my site just because… well, just because. I’m wondering what would go in a ‘fixed news’ post, other than, “I rode three backwards circles and didn’t fall over!”, but maybe I’d just need a little direction.

Stickers - Stickers are good for spreading the word and obscuring advertising.

Discounts - Not really needed as far as I can see.

So all up, I’m giving fixed.org.au 8/10. It’s a great opening round and seems to be staying afloat. Good work so far and we’ll just have to see what else primz can pull out of the bag I guess…?

7

guys,

ok, well thats positive feedback on all counts - just thought i’d put that out there and see what people think - and it seems things are fairly unanimous (no discounts, stickers are a good idea, and we are going to get some contributors posting on the new site).

in terms of what the new site will contain, thats a fair question; because lets be honest, no one wants to hear about the number of times i’ve fallen over (still clipped in) trying to do backwards circles…

so my idea is that we can get some things out of the forum, and onto the frontpage. for example, lets say someone from brisbane is organising a ride, they can put a route map (just for arguments sake) with times etc, and update it with photos later. likewise we can add any other related news (new bikes in the gallery etc). for example CTA’s upcoming street cogs, etc. i think we’ll be pleasantly suprised on what we can post.

also, some people dont want to partake in forum conversation. i know there are a lot of sites i go to, where they have forums etc, and i just cannot be bothered wading through them to get the inside info - i’d rather have the good stuff summarised occasionally on the front page.

also (sorry to rant): a crummy frontpage just makes this site a forum - i (personally) would like it to be more than just a forum…

with luck i will finish the site this weekend. NDF has kindly offered to help with that too … so its all good!

nick