State of the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch Mailing List ============================ January 2011 - #11 ============================
We're solidly in the center of winter - although those of you who are enjoying high summer in the southern hemisphere will just have to imagine. For the 250 or so who have come onboard the group in the last half a year, this please accept a slightly belated "Welcome!" Hopefully, you've enjoyed the discussions, chimed in a bit on your own, and continued to make this group vital and vibrant. It has been very gratifying to watch this list mature. As I've mentioned to some long-time members privately, I'm both excited and concerned about the growth of this group. I've tried to take a little more of a "hands-off" approach in terms of commenting as an admin, and had planned on no more than quarterly "State Of The List Reports". For the newer members, I use this message as a reminder of some of the basic tenets of the list, to highlight changes and trends on the list and various websites, and to speak generally about the RBW group. In the beginning, since this group had picked up the pieces from another list, it seemed appropriate to actively remind folks about the tenor and tenets of the group. As we've grown, the most important aspect of this group - the tone between us - has remained extremely civil. The few muckrakers who cropped up seem to have moved on and this group has maintained its respect for one another. I think we all understand the difficulty of transmitting humor or mood over a text-based medium, and want to say again how nice it is to be among people who think about what they post and aren't afraid to reread before hitting the "send" button. An interesting statistic is that even though we've added a number of new members, the traffic has actually subsided from the peaks of early last year. I've been trying to keep the phrase "Say more. Post less." firmly in mind before committing a post to the group. Those of you who are also members of the iBob list probably know what I'm getting at here. For the newer members, it might be helpful for me to share one of the ways I think about this list - as a public house where ideas are easily shared between those who have arrived, everyone is present because they want to be, and passing through the doors means that "baggage" is left outside. Of course, disruptions will periodically occur, which is kind of where I have to attempt a polite correction now and again. At one point in list history, I commented publically about a general trend of topics to drift and generalize. It was interesting how many people thought they'd been the cause of my post, and in more than a few cases, I had to go back and re-read their contributions to the discussion, as most of them weren't really the ones which caused my comment. I think it speaks highly for everyone that they had taken some of the assumption of cause, even if it wasn't the case. Let me use this space to thank you both for your contributions and your willingness to temper your posts. At the current levels, if everyone just makes one post a month, that means 1590+ posts, or somewhere around 53 per day in an average month. Just by staying on topic, we have the potential to generate a fair amount of traffic. One of the hallmarks of this list has been a very high signal to noise ratio. It's solid information from the people using and thinking about the items. That means that a lot of info can be found in the archives, and it seems that the google archive search issues have fixed themselves, so that should be a decent resource. So, if a member asks something that was covered in a previous, pertinent thread, and you recall having participated in that thread, it may be easier for you to track down and share the thread link. Or not. I know I've repeated myself more than a few times over the years. It's important to remember that if you are tagging your post "OT" or "Off Topic", then it doesn't belong on this list. Tone is always a concern in my mind. One of the things that happens almost every year on other lists is a cantankerousness that escalates into real nastiness. It's typically mid-to-late February or early March - a definite stir-crazyness manifesting. It's too easy to be brusque, as well as take umbrage during that time of year. My view is simple: life is too short. If you can't stay positive or at least polite, it's time to put down the keyboard and take a break. We all get enough guff in our everyday existence that we don't need to add to it here. As I've said before, disagreement is expected. There's no way we will all come to the same conclusion about anything, and I think it would be a more boring world if we did. But, here, under this roof, we agree to disagree with respect for one another. To finish, I'll repeat what I said in the last SOTLR - it is important as we grow to honor the relatively narrow focus of this group, even though it's tempting to have more general topics discussed here. Clearly, it's a bit of an imperfect border, but one which we've largely maintained. Letting discussions end as they creep toward more general topics, not having to have the last comment (or needing to "win" the argument) and, above all, maintaining the respect for one another within the group is what makes this list special. As always, thanks again for contributing to or simply enjoying the discussions. ============================ Projects and Features ============================ Cyclofiend Gallery Updates: This SOTLR is probably all the free time I'll get between now and the end of January, so I won't be updating the Cyclofiend Galleries unless I'm up late on too much strong coffee or luck out a bit. I know a number of list members have sent in bicycles, and I again thank you for your patience. If you keep your eye on my Gallery-specific blog, new postings will be announced here: http://cyclofiend.blogspot.com PDF Archive: I started an archive of the RBW-published PDF's which appear sparodically via the "Knothole" or "News" blogs on the rbw site - http://cyclofiend.com/rbw/pdf Tall Fellers Union: There was a thread of late among the vertically enhanced of the list. A low whistle which brought them from the underbrush. I think it's fantastic that has manifested, and it will certainly give voice to the lankier among us. That may help the RBW folks in knowing how many larger sizes to consider, as well as making for a truly impressive group ride, when and if that occurs. I hope that you keep track of yourselves on the list as we move forward, and it's certainly appropriate to use "TALL" or something in the subject line on subjects more size specific. There was a mention of a sub-group, but as long as the topic is RBW-specific, it more than fits in the tent here. Eastern Developments: As I've posted, I love to see the development of RBW events in various spots around the country and world. Riv's in Thailand, East Coast Riv's... all good. A healthy and diverse regionalism is a good thing. Keep it up. Alternative RBW Streams and Info ---------------------------- The Cyclofiend.com RBW pages are here: http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw It gets updated with various happenings, scans, images and such that get found in the news and info flow. I did create a "Rivendell Bicycle Owners Bunch on Facebook" page back in the beginning of 2009 - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=127003115064 Please note: I'm certainly not a Facebook* fan at all, and honestly don't check in that regularly with the group, and in no way do I see it as a replacement for this group. As I mentioned, I finally signed up a while ago for unrelated-to-bicycle reasons, and had bumped into quite a few folks there. It seemed like it might be a useful platform for coordinating rides in specific areas or for more quick-pinging type of communications. *In fact, I've more or less stayed away. You can and should search about previous and ongoing Facebook issues with private user information, internal viruses, etc. before deciding if you want to mess with it. Some of that's life in the online world, but it's worth being aware of. Regional RBW Flickr Groups - (I much prefer the control over personal info which Flickr allows. It does support messaging and discussions there as well, and many of us were using Flickr for social networking before Facebook expoloded.) Southern California http://www.flickr.com/groups/socal_rivendell_bicycle_appreciation_society/ Minnesota - http://www.flickr.com/groups/rbwminnesota/ There have also been Flickr groups created for: RBW Staff Bikes - http://www.flickr.com/groups/rbwstaffbikes/ Rivendell Commuters - http://www.flickr.com/groups/rivendellcommuters/ Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen - http://www.flickr.com/groups/1256...@n22/ Rivendell Bombadil - http://www.flickr.com/groups/bombadil/ Rivendell Bleriot - http://www.flickr.com/groups/bleriot/ Rivendell Quickbeam - http://www.flickr.com/groups/quickbeam/ (I know I'm missing some of the newer ones, but am posting remotely and don't have the time to track them down - those of you who began groups not shown here, please zap me a link via Flickr or directly, and do post to the group.) ============================ More General Topics (From Previous Issues) ============================ - Broader technical questions and non-Riv stuff are well covered by the iBob list, the 650B list and others hosted by alex wetmore on bikelist.org - http://www.bikelist.org - This is also where you can find the pre-March '07 archives to the RBW list. Peter White runs the "Bicycle Lifestyle" google group, which is here - http://groups.google.com/group/bicyclelifestyle - Resources get put onto the RBW-Owners-Bunch pages here: http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch/web Most are either mirrored or enhanced here: http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw - The Official RBW Gallery is on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/groups/rivendell Of course, my feelings get hurt if you don't send photos to the Current Classics (or other) Galleries ;^) http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc - Our FAQ continues to exist! The FAQ has one Q which was A'd enough. http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch/web/rbw-group-requests - Posts from new members (or old members changing their email) are moderated. So, it means that if someone joins, their first messages will have to get my (or an acting list admin's) OK before being sent to everyone. If you want to bypass this or speed it up a bit, send me an email so I know you aren't a spammer. If your first posts are "For Sale" items, or responses to "For Sale" posts, then you will not be switched over to unmoderated until you join in the discussion at large. Ditto for posts which can be equated to "Yeah!" or "Me too!"... ;^) - Posts to the list are by default distributed to everyone. That means if you wish to make a private comment, you need to change the "TO:" information. It's also easy to make that mistake, so please don't jump on folks who do so. - Bug reports for the Rivendell website should be sent to rbw-feedb...@610systems.com You should include the browser, system and specific issue in the email. - RSS feeds for the RBW Owners Bunch group in many formats can be found here: http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch/feeds - Earlier SOTL reports are archived here - http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/sotlr ============================ Statistics & Housekeeping ============================ List began: March 26, 2007 Members: 1591 (Up from 1341 on 5/22/10, increase of 250) Activity: Medium activity (Unchanged) April 2010 was our highest traffic month so far, with 2365 posts. This followed March, 2010 which had 2019; Jan '10 which had 1897; and May '10 which finished at 1883. Our first month with more than 1000 posts was December, 2008. In addition to email delivery, the list can be viewed via the web at - http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch If you wish to turn off or restart email delivery, change to digest mode, update your profile or make other changes, simply log in at the page above and make the changes you desire. Unsubscribing is as easy as an email. But, don't send it to the group or to me - All posts (including this SOTL message) contain a footer with the appropriate address. The Rivendell Owners Bunch list is "dedicated to the discussion of Rivendell Bicycles and products, you don't need to own one - just an interest in RBW designs is enough to join in. Ride reports encouraged, as is a respectful, supportive and polite tone in all posts. This group is not endorsed by Rivendell Bicycle Works." As stated, this list is a discussion of things Rivendellian in nature and is not associated with Rivendell Bicycle Works or its employees and staff. If you have specific questions for Rivendell Bicycle Works regarding customer service or other issues, you should contact them directly. ============================ Ending Note ============================ I'd be more than happy to continue the discussion on any of the topics mentioned above, but in the interest of clarity, it might make sense to either email me directly or to create a new topic thread specific to your comment. Thanks again for your contributions and enjoyment of the list. Your list admin, -- Jim -- Jim Edgar cyclofi...@earthlink.net -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
