CycleBlaze/Cycle365?
Today’s post comes to us thanks to Bill, who posed this question to me yesterday:
What do you think about merging Cycle365 and CycleBlaze? It seems like there’s an awful lot of cross-over between the two. If Jeff is amenable to having day rides at what I think was intended to be a touring site, and if all the other stakeholders find it acceptable, a merger might bring some synergy.
A good question! I know that most if not all of you know of CycleBlaze and its history, so I won’t stop into that. Some of you may be also aware though that when we created Cycle365 over 3 years ago as a place to post day rides and carry on a community that began elsewhere, our first choice was to just use CycleBlaze for day rides too. I raised this question at that time with Jeff (the CB site administrator), but he wasn’t open to it then and preferred to keep CB dedicated to multi day tours.
Three years later though, CB has grown significantly and Bill’s question encouraged me to check back with Jeff to see if his thinking has evolved in the meantime. It has. Here’s his response:
Several people have requested an Articles section in the last few weeks, and I think there’s enough demand for that now. I also think a day rides section also makes sense, because it gives people a chance to keep writing, and perhaps it might attract some of those day-riders and convince them to come over to the long-hauling side. The emphasis for the CycleBlaze would still be bicycle travel, but if people are really into writing and photographing daily rides, I think it’s good to have a creative outlet and community for that. If the Cycle365 folks mostly all agree to come over, and bring at least some of their old entries with them, that’s probably a decent base to get us started.
Jeff goes on to add that nothing is likely to come of this any time soon because of his other time commitments, but he’s hopeful that by this summer he can turn back to CB enhancements.
So, there’s a question for us Cycle365ers (many of whom are already CBers as well): would we like to see support for day rides added as new functionality to CycleBlaze; and if it is added, would we be open to having our posts here migrated there and then shutting down Cycle365?
What are your thoughts?
31 response to "CycleBlaze/Cycle365?"
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I like the idea, especially in light of recent events–namely, the events involving ME. No need to dwell on that, but I have no regrets and feel great about Cycleblaze. I always have.
That said, I would prefer that Jeff create a separate section for day rides so as not to dilute the main focus of touring. Right now I hate to give Neil credit for anything, but I think he got that right. And I would absolutely love to see another section for articles, but I don’t have the slightest clue how much work those enhancements would involve.
I have enjoyed being a Cycle365-er, and I’d hate to see the work of Rocky and you disappear, but I am wide open to the possibilities of an expanded CycleBlaze world.
Thanks from your pal,
Greg
Oh dear, I must have missed something. I assume you got “wall of texted” or banned or something. Sheesh. Sorry to hear.
I will be very curious to hear other people’s opinions on this. I still feel a little like the Cycle365 newbie, so I’m hesitant to express too strong an opinion. I can sort of see arguments either way. I love the ‘small group’ feel of Cycle365. It’s warm and friendly, and you all have made me feel very welcome. I kinda feel like I’m meeting a small group of friends at the local coffee shop. Cycleblaze is quite a bit bigger, although not really all that big, and seems like a friendly and welcoming space as well. And for Scott and Rachael, I know that maintaining Cycle365 takes time and can have some headaches, not to mention some expense.
I agree with Greg that if it moves to Cycleblaze, it would be nice to be in a ‘day ride’ section, separate from multi-day tours. And I would certainly continue to participate.
Given that practically everyone here is also on CycleBlaze, I think it makes sense to merge. I agree with Greg about preferring to have a separate but connected section for day rides. Not sure where that would leave hiking and walking (as recently adopted over here), but personally I have little interest in non-bike posts. Two other points for consideration:
(1) What would happen to existing Cycle365 content? Would it be moved automatically to CB?
(2) Some Cycle365 contributors (me, sometimes Em and others) tend to just post a “lead” here with a link to content posted at a personal site. How does CB feel about that?
Good points, Bill. I’d have to forego posting my walking pictures, but I can live with that. Also, posting links to private websites is convenient but I could also post the content on CB, just a matter of cut-and-paste.
I can only repeat what Greg and Bob said.
On the one hand I love it that we are such a tiny eclectic group with our insider jokes and genuine interest in each others’ lives. It’s all very comforting and reassuring.
On the other hand, I find CycleBlaze is an excellent site and maybe it’s time for us to move on. We won’t lose anything really, will we. I also agree that a day-ride section sounds like a good idea if we do merge.
To quote Greg: “I have enjoyed being a Cycle365-er, and I’d hate to see the work of Rocky and you disappear, but I am wide open to the possibilities of an expanded CycleBlaze world.” ditto
I’m open to all possibilities and there will be pros and cons whatever happens. Being in a large site will give some cross flow of ideas and participants and ease the burden on the Andersons but we could lose some control and independence.
I am not a large contributor to 365, and I agree with Bob’s comments about it being kind of a small, friendly group. However, I feel the same way about Cycleblaze, even though there are probably more authors, it still feels more “local” than something like CGOB.
I’m quite open to a move. I know Team Anderson have better things to do than maintain this website for us, and this seems a logical succession plan. I like the small group feel here, but I think a separate section over on CB would work fine, too. The core group would still set the tone over there I think, and people will always come and go. I don’t ever go on there, simply because I don’t have the time and energy (this site and my own are enough time), but I’m sure it’d be a good spot to be. I note Bill’s point about maybe not being able to just link to another site, but if that’s the case, I’m happy not to post much but continue to read /comment/support others. At this point in my life, I have no fear of change, lol.
Thanks to everyone for your input. For what it’s worth, thoughts here generally track with our own. If/when Jeff finds time to add support for day rides to his site, I feel confident that the sense of community here will persist in a new location. After all, this is much the way it felt in Bicycle Life before some of us were ejected from that site or left voluntarily.
And, I too wonder about walks, as well as skeleton posts with links to the primary content on personal websites. I’ll raise both of these points with Jeff when I get back to him.
Of course there’s no telling how soon Jeff will find time for this enhancement, if ever. As far as our intentions for this site though, we’ll keep it running for as long as sufficient interest remains – and certainly long enough for folks to make a graceful transition.p when the time comes. For all the complaining we do about running it, most of the time it doesn’t really take any work from us at all.
Thanks
It was the small group camaraderie that attracted me to this site. The frequent posters feel like friends. I’m not a member of Cycle Blaze, but can see the advantage if you are. Will we have the option of not having our posts sent over there if we don’t want them to? I do not have them backed up and would want to have the opportunity to do that, if possible. Actually, first, I’d have to figure out how I could back up my Cycle365 posts. Here, I feel proud to even do day rides. Among folks who ride mountains and do many miles, my posts would look kind of pathetic. Just some thoughts that popped in my head…nothing else is in there taking up much space. 🙂
Certainly there would be no requirement or expectation that anyone move their posts to CycleBlaze, and no one yet has talked about the mechanics of how they even could be moved. It might be that they’d have to be moved manually by ourselves through a cut and paste operation. I know the CB team developed a utility for migrating journals from CGOAB – that# how my older journals were copied over three years ago. We’re such a small group though that I don’t think we could expect them to customize something for us. Backing them up is an open question also. I don’t know if there’s anything we could plug in as a backup utility for individual posts.
This is all really exploratory though at this point. Nothing will happen until and if CB builds a place for day rides, and then we can look again at how we would actually move anything. Not much to do in the meantime but keep warm. How are you doing back there? Did you lose power?
Haven’t lost power, so we’re fine. I haven’t been any farther from the house than the mailbox. Supposed to start warming up tomorrow and hopefully the white stuff melts. Nice time to have fires in the fireplace and just sit around petting the cat. Thanks for sharing what you know about any change that may take place.
Laura, so glad you wrote that. I just added another comment.
Me again – I readily agreed to merging with CB if and when possible. More thoughts since then…
I am perfectly happy with our site here – and if it’s not too much trouble for the admins – I have no need for change. Sort of in line with what Laura wrote, I feel accepted and comfortable here with my not too impressive rides and some silliness.
Me — I am always — always resistant to change ;’-). That said, I always adapt once the change is made.,
However — I really do like our small group here for all the reasons previously mentioned and would definitely miss the closeness of what has grown for us here. Therefore, I am not truly interested in moving over to the CB site.
I would not abandon 365 if the switch is made, but would most likely participate much less. Or so I think ?.
Well, the good thing is that I imagine we’re looking at a good half year before there’s any call to change anything at all. And like I said, even once this function is added to CB, there’s no imperative to shut down Cycle365. We’ll keep it running as long as there’s sufficient activity on it for it to make sense.
Now that I’ve read a number of responses from my friends here, I must say that I, too, like the “local” feel of this site mentioned by Mr. Grumby and I like our inside jokes mentioned by Suzanne. I feel comfortable among this group because you all have been accepting of the stuff I post. I can be as strange as I want to be here. I fear I might clam up a little bit in front of a larger audience. Hard to say.
After thinking about this, and reading other people’s responses, I have a few additional thoughts as well. While I would have no objection to my existing posts here being migrated to Cycleblaze, I think if the decision and the process were left to me, I wouldn’t move anything I’ve written here so far. I think I would basically just start fresh over there.
And relating to what Greg said just above, I suspect I might be a little more cautious and restrained in what I post, just because it’s potentially viewed by a larger audience. I would definitely still post. Perhaps just a little less frequently and perhaps with a bit more crafting of my posts.
Interesting watching this discussion evolve! Regardless of what Jeff decides to do with CycleBlaze, it sounds like he shouldn’t count on an infusion of content from us to prime the new function. Personally, I’d like to see a day ride option added to his site, but there’s no need to pair that with winding down our own site. I’ll let the group know what he has to say after I report back to him, but Rocky and will plan on keeping our own site running indefinitely. If it gets too expensive to maintain though, we retain the option of doubling your subscription fee without notice.
Fair enough.
Instead of doubling the already-steep subscription fees, charge by the word. At 30 or 40 cents per word, you and Rocky can put an end to the AirBnB lifestyle and stay at fabulous resorts, like Trump Tower in Atlantic City, or Mar-a-Lago.
Or Senator Cruz’s $300 per night hotel in Cancun!
Good point! And there is a new vacancy.
Just to be clear, I would have no problem with my content being there. I would even move it manually if it’s actually wanted to get things rolling. I just meant that I didn’t personally see the value add of my old content. In fact, I would even volunteer to help move content in general, if that’s useful.
And I totally agree it would be nice to have that Day Ride section on CycleBlaze. I would definitely post there AND on Cycle365 if they are both available, although I would probably use CycleBlaze for longer, more unique day rides.
Maybe I should explain a bit about not wanting my posts move to CB. It has nothing to do with CB itself. I am at an age that I probably will never have the opportunity to do another tour on my bicycle, so the possibility of me starting another journal on any site is slim. The ones that I have are on CGOAB and as we’ve seen this week, there can be problems having posts on both. I do not want to take the chance or the time to have to move my journals. My trip cards all point to that site.
I was aware that you’re still active on CGOAB, which I still browse from time to time. I thought about your exposure immediately when this idea came up and wondered what your thoughts would be. For that reason alone I’m just as happy the group decided they’d like to see our site remain active.
We are happy with keeping it going now that I have a really good backup solution. Also, it feels like a family!
Yes it does. Hi Cousin Scooter! Hi Cousin Rocky! We all appreciate what you do for our sharing space.
Thank you, Scott and Rocky, for looking after the site and looking after us. It’s good to know there may be a place to gather after you have both had enough and want to lessen responsibilities. I enjoy our little group that climbed aboard this ship after jumping or being pushed from another, but I like to think I’m open-minded and amenable to change if that is required. I wouldn’t move my posts though – just don’t have the time and energy for that. Thanks again for all you do.