-holiday76

well there ya go. That explains how I became a 30 year member without knowing it

Grand Bois

We got a good deal.

So did miamijim.

Joe_Gardner

Searched my name, this thread came up... I have not been on BikeForums for years. Burn out, I guess.


I started BikeForums in 1999 to learn HTML and basic front and back end programming. I was shopping for a new bike at the time and the only online places to find info on bikes was on usenet, rec.bike & alt.cycling. I figured I could do better and searched for ways to bring usenet groups to the web. I thought I could pull this off, as in 1995-96 I ran a BBS out of my basement, two phone lines, two 28.8k modems. A bit of research let me to the forum software, UBB. I bought a license, registered the domain and went live. A lot of the big forums still online have a similar back story and similar time line.

I think we had less then a dozen members the first month. Soon, we would have a new member every day. I figured the forum members knew best and tried to make the site based around them. I had no knowledge about classic and vintage bikes, I had no idea that people sought them out. Somebody requested a C&V forum, so I created it, and probably let them moderate it too. This is the case with most of the forums. I had no clue about fixed gear culture, touring or old people riding. All the sub-forums were requested, created, and then let loose.

BikeForums was a hobby and I had no plans on monetizing it at first, it cost under a hundred dollars a month to run, something I could afford out of pocket. I ran the site at a loss for the first 5 years. When I sold it in 2007, it was costing me $2000-$3000+ a month to run. The red stars at the time were for life, I did grandfather in the original 'red star' members to keep those benefits for the next 30 years. That cost me a lot of money when I sold the site, but without the original financial supports, this site would have closed up years ago.

in 2007, Internet Brands, bought me out. They gave me the option to be 100% hands off, so I took it. I became a full time ski & bike bum for the next few years. Attempted to move to Costa Rica, mountain biked from Canada to Mexico, skied 100+ days a year. 'Selling out' gave me three of the best years of my life. It was basically a 1000 day vacation.

I'm back to working a 40hr/ week job. I'm glad its no longer running this site, being an admin of one of the top 100 busiest websites online is stressful when you don't really know what your doing. I'm happy to see that BikeForums still is online, it's still being used and it's still growing.

Big high five to the current Admins and Moderators for keeping my vision alive.

Ex Pres 

So Joe, welcome back. Might be time to post a pic of you on a bike.

Joe_Gardner

I bagged RAGBRAI this year and wore one of the first BikeForums jerseys created for a couple of days. Bike ridden is my soon to be vintage Surly Long Haul Trucker.

texaspandj

@Joe_Gardner, such a cool story. Thanks for sharing and creating this forum.
Thanks again.

Siu Blue Wind

Aww Joe....

Yes. Us moderators and admins (me, now!) try to run it the way you taught me. A lot of my team do not know you but I made a promise to you back in the day that I would do my best to keep it the way you meant it to be. Corporate is big and I'm very lucky that my immediate boss has respected me and let me keep your dream alive.

It's so good to see you come back. I know I *see* you periodically but it's nice to have your spirit come and visit here. You always had the down to Earth feel about you and just even you coming on here brings it back for me.

I hope you have time to visit here more often.

Us old timers miss you and love you.

Always will.

Siu

qcpmsame 

Nice to finally meet you Joe, quite a legacy you have made here. Stick around and add to the gang's fun here. As TPJ said, thanks for starting this place!

Joe_Gardner

Thank you, Siu. You're doing an awesome job, its often thankless and miserable at that!

I miss a lot of my friends from BikeForums. Its been a trip down memory lane to come back and see whats up. I'll visit as I can!

Keep on rocking on.

ThermionicScott 

+1, it's awesome to see you check in, @Joe Gardner. RAGBRAI was my gateway into serious cycling a few years ago, and BF was one of the first sites I found. Love it here.

dddd

Now I can't remember why I first asked "Who is BikeForums", but it looks like I finally have a better picture of the whole picture.


Thought I'd say "Hi" to Joe, thanks for stopping by!

jimmuller 

Thanks for the history lesson and for checking in!

canklecat

Thank you!

Having moderated some hobbyist websites and been through the same history (CompuServe, dial up at 300 baud on a Tandy Model 100!), I understand some of the challenges. But I can't imagine subsidizing that cost for a website.

Wildwood

I joined the Bicycling Forum (now defunct) and Road Bike Review Forum before BikeForums. But this has been (by far) the BEST.

fietsbob

Tom Stormcrow was in Florida, he died , that happens a lot down there..

noglider 

What was his role? For a while, I thought he ran the place.

ThermionicScott 

It's been happening a lot everywhere. Someone should do something!!

Siu Blue Wind

Joe ran the place with Brian, who was his second man in charge. He also had a good team of people as moderators.

When IB bought the place, Joe stepped out and Brian stepped up to be head admin. I was moderator along with the others. Tom had joined in after me and he became a moderator and I was training him. Brian left as admin and Tom was not working at the time and IB had asked Tom if he can help admin. I helped out Tom get used to things and he promoted me to second in charge. (Joe/Brian = Tom/me)

Tom and I worked side by side and I kept reminding him that we have to keep it the way Joe wanted, for Tom never worked under Joe. We had to find a balance between keeping it as promised and doing what our new bosses wanted. When he got really sick, I started to run this place for him while he was recovering. Tom mainly posted on here for fun his last couple of years because we agreed that the stress would not be very good for him with people who continually would do things that were meant to defy the forum guidelines. He would get upset and not understand why people didn't respect his requests not to do certain things that cost the forum huge fines. I actually hid a lot of the ugliness from him and instead I would just not really bother him for things unless it was something huge. A lot of it I just had to go on what I felt was right.

A few months before he passed, he wanted me to come see him in Florida but I just could not fly over there during that time due to my work.

When he passed, the bosses promoted me since I was pretty much doing it the past couple of years and already had worked together with Tom.

That's how I became head admin.

Whats strange is that for some reason, people thought Tom owned BF. But he never did. It was only Joe and IB. That's it . Nobody else.

Siu Blue Wind

Siu Blue Wind

Thank you Joe. I learn from the best.

dddd

I'm trying to wrap my mind around who was fining the forum huge sums? Was it a government agency?
What on earth for?

Siu Blue Wind

Copyright infringement (posting of full articles without consent of the author or without the link attached), photos from races that are water marked, photos of stars that were posted without permission, etc.

Very very costly.

Vonruden

Cool story, thanks Joe and Siu!!!!

noglider 

When BF sent out mail, the mail said it was from Tom Stormcrowe. So it's not mysterious at all. That's what gave me the impression it was his site.

ThermionicScott 

Yeah, these days I've been curious who Tyson Yen is.