Old post but I had to reply.
are you looking for advice? If you want any traction these days you need to tap into the sort of features that draw young people in to all the other platforms.
you need infinite scrolling, ie, endless front page scroll of video, news, whatever.
you need accounts on every major social media platform ESPECIALLY TikTok, X, and Instagram (think this is already done right?)
you need sponsored content on those platforms. If you can’t afford to pay people who are at least moderately ahead in the ski game to represent NS, NS will stay dead
you need to remove the capability to bury posts, period. This site will always reflect the viewpoints of terminally online people unless you remove the ability to bury/hide low karma posts.
in fact, while we are at it, delete karma altogether. Last time I made a remark about karma, someone said something along the lines of ”nobody cares about karma” ok well then why are all of the most active members in the tens and hundreds of thousands of karma points? It’s because it’s some sort of point system that validates the time people invest in this site and their ability to fall in line with the rest of the active members viewpoints
Did you ever consider for a second that people who ski -all the fucking time- are absolutely not going to post on the internet? Or rather that they may post far less than people who would be more accurately described as fair weather skiers? Computer people moonlighting as freestylers?
all of the best skiers I have met in my life have essentially zero interest in engaging in online forums, let alone posting their content online. The venn diagram of people who like maintaining an online presence and who are exceptional skiers is essentially two circles that don’t touch.
also, you’re pretty much fighting an uphill battle if you try and keep NS as a primarily forum based site. It NEEDS a media focus and it NEEDS infinite scrolling if you have any hope. It sucks, but you need to play the same game that the big social media companies play if you really want to draw people in
fix all of the half working features on the site. People should be able to delete accounts, just as one example.
im not going to cite any sources here, because i really don’t care to do so, but young people, zoomers, whatever you want to call them, have very different views than the soft hands millennials and gen Xers that the online forum medium is so popular with. Create an environment where they feel welcome, not alienated. Anything even REMOTELY political should be completely banned on ski gabber
anyway. I’m going to wrap up by saying I have literally zero interest in contributing content (ski media) here. That may change, but as it stands now, I am a dramatically better skier than at least two (very active) people in this thread, and I have zero urge to post content here. The activation energy any one person has to overcome to film, compose, edit, upload on NS gets completely hamstrung when the environment where one might want to post it is completely hostile and full of annoying confrontational people.
Mr.BishopHah yeah back then we *almost* bought it in exchange for an ad package. Frankly, what happened was I fucking wimped out of the deal. I was like raising kids and shit and was too worried about accidentally ending up with a fucking rail limo in my driveway which my Ex-wife (Wife at the time) would have never been OK with.
@Troy. Was ready to stick that shit in his Colledge dorm parking lot and just send it with an event tour. He was ready, I was the problem. I have regrets.
THat thing though the mechanics are probably fucked. I was even more disheartened when I saw it show up as "The Trumpinator" which is just fucking stupid no matter what your political position is. What a waste.
Personally, I want to look at the idea of a Newschoolers Mobile. However, I'm thinking like a Diesel E-250 4X4 with the super extended body. Make it like a troop transport to take my kids and other people up to the mountains here. Maybe tow a little warm up trailer or something. Park it in the Avila Parking lot near the Park Chair. Could have a rail, could have event tie-in if we started to do something like a tour one of these days.
We're still kind of taking it all in right now. First goal was to simply survive the first year of independence, which was matched with a shitty advertising year because last year was a shit snow year and brands are broke. It happens, did in the past too, always ebbs and flows with a winter sport.
I've also been dealing with a ton of life issues lately which has frankly had be basically contribute jack shit to the team. Somehow they haven't kicked me out yet, lol. Really though this means that the team is running on super thin resources so we aren't putting any crazy shit out into the world just yet. I really want to grow this though, and have really missed being involved in the ski world. Personally, I want to focus on how we get more of the younger generation into it. Younger than we usually hit though, Newschoolers always kicked in for people more around like 13-15. Something has to be done to attract the 6-12 skiers... which basically means something their parents can stuff them into other than babysitting. Racing, Classic Freestyle, Swimming, whatever all has shit like this but Newschool Freestyle is seriously lacking.
Anyway... Kind of a rant. Love the idea though. I never got to slide the Smith Limo, but holy hell would I love to. Also always loved when we would run or partner with smaller event tours. Those are the kind of things that get people into it, give back to the sport and are a whole hell a lot of fun.
