Cyclofiend: RBW: State of the List #2

State of the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch Mailing List
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September 2007 - #2
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I've put off writing this a couple times, as things have been going pretty much swimmingly on the Rivendell Bicycle Works Owner's Bunch List. Oh, there have been a couple of spam intrusions* and wanderings off-topic, but everyone seems to be working really diligently to be considerate and keep discussions focused. The list seems to be moving well under its own momentum now and the tone has remained upbeat and helpful.

Traffic dipped a little this past month, as is the tendancy during late summer. It's a wonderful thing (sorry to be north-of-the-equator-centric here) to be able to spend so much time riding that the computer gets ignored.

On a similar note, there's a thought I have about late February/early March. Historically, on other bike lists such as the iBob, that has been a time when everyone gets a little nutty - cabin fever for most, possibly exacerbated by those danged lucky folks' ride reports from milder climates. There have been some really nasty comments which spur even more intense back-n-forths (can't really call 'em "discussions" if no one is listening, eh?)

So, my thought is that we throw the list into neutral about that time - suspend all emails and let everyone stomp around in their basement or garage for a couple weeks, before firing it back up. As I say, just a thought.

*A word or two about spam - These things aggravate me and crack me up at the same time - we got 4 or 5 in the past few months. They operate in an identical manner - creating an email account (almost all were gmail accounts, interestingly enough...), joining the list at 4 or 5 am, followed by zapping the same off-topic screed to 7 or 8 lists. I have a procedure to deal with this, and Google Groups seems to be pretty aggressive at shutting them down. Please continue to not respond directly to the post, as it just means I have to go and delete your comment as well. If it seems particularly nasty (multiple posts of the same screed), please email me directly rather than reply to the post. Thanks!

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Projects and Features
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The BIG NEWS of course is that the RBW website overhaul (putting it mildly...) is DONE! It's really nice to see products on hand and know what is in stock. As wonderful as the paper catalogs (and Readers and Flyers) are, these days we tend to take asynchronus communications for granted. Being able to zap out an order after the dogs have been walked and dishes done just works out nicely. I'm figuring that the folks over in Walnut Creek are pretty suprised by the pent up demand - both in terms of web traffic and actual orders. Gino and his crew did a heckuva lotta work to get it functioning, and have been tuning things over the past couple weeks.

Cyclofiend.com Updates
Things will change slightly on the Cyclofiend RBW page - as Grant and the gang now have an easy way to update photos and descriptions of new items, I imagine there will be a little less of that (though it's _great_ to get the early announcement photos!) I'll definitely be keeping that section active, but it will most likely focus on "related" topics - press, photos, Riv's in the wild - that sort of thing and try to expand the scope of coverage a bit. http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/index.html#latest

One thing that was initially missing from the RBW site update was the bicycle geometry info - I cobbled together a quick and dirty version here:
http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/geometry.html

and a pdf is now up on the Google Group Pages:
http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch/files

It has been added back to the Rivbike.com site as well, included via a link for the specific bicycle model information.
http://www.rivbike.com/products/list/bicycle_models

The AHH "Intro" article has been scanned here:
http://www.cyclofiend.com/rbw/hilsen.html#ahhreaderintro

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Statistics & Housekeeping
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List began: March 26, 2007
Members: 408 (Up from 315 on 6/1/07)
Activity: Medium activity (Unchanged)

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.

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.

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Ending Note
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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

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