Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,590
Moderator
Moderator
Offline
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,590
[Linked Image]

Interview by: tackaberry
Interviewee: August

UBBDev each month honors one of our outstanding member communities that has developed a strong and vibrant community. This month we are proud to introduce our winner, EpicSki .

We took a gondola ride with the head of the Ski Patrol, August to find out how he gives his community a lift.

EpicSki can be found at: http://www.epicski.com .

The Barking Bear Forums can be found at http://www.epicski.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi .

[Linked Image]

UBBDev:
First off congratulations on winning the contest this month, and for having a great community!

August:
Wow, thanks! I really appreciate this and am quite flattered to receive any recognition at all from UBBdev. I also want to thank you guys for the time you put not only into this contest, but the entire UBBdev website and community. It has had a huge impact on my ability to build an active ski site by enabling me to introduce all kinds of community-enhancing functionality.

UBBDev:
Tell me about the history of your site and when you got started.

August:
In 1998 was living in L.A. and literally commuting every week to NYC doing consulting projects and logging insane (90 hour) work weeks. My passion through high school and college had always been skiing, but that was no longer a part of my life. So I’m sitting in my cubicle on client sites, and increasingly I grew board with the work and my mind kept drifting to more personally rewarding things such as skiing and being in the mountains. I didn’t know a single line of html, but decided a skiing website would be something I could do for fun on “personal breaks” in my cubicle. I threw up some photos and stories, but that was not interesting to me for very long. I wanted to talk with people with similar passions, and I wanted to do it from my cubicle throughout the day. I had built the website with MS Frontpage (I was brand new to web development!), so used Frontpage’s built-in forum to create EpicSki version 1.0. Now, I don’t know how many of you know what Frontage’s forum software looked like a few years ago, but it is incomprehensibly awful! My first site was to serious internet forums what a three year old’s coloring book is to a Monet.

Anyway, working non-stop and commuting 3,000 miles got old after about eight months, so I quite my job and moved to Lake Tahoe, California, one of the country’s foremost locations for skiing. Since the EpicSki website seemed a good complement to my new life, I rededicated myself to it. Step 1 was to create a real forum which led me to UBB. Now a funny thing had happened over the previous ski season regarding the online mess I had created, people actually started using the forum! Maybe standards were lower back then for websites, and perhaps there was some appeal to a grass-roots site when the only competition was from the newsgroups and a corporate site that was owned by a company which also owned three of the four largest skiing magazines in North America.

I installed my new UBB board, and made sure every single question in the forum received a very thorough and informed response. In the beginning, it was more like my own little “Dear Abby” than a community. That changed quickly, though, and I am not entirely sure why or from where they were coming. People began showing up. EpicSki was slowly earning a reputation for serious ski discussion, as opposed to the chit-chat or ego-driven threads elsewhere that never seemed to offer any real information. Steady growth led to a group of knowledgeable members and a true community that was no longer centered on me. Then, an increasingly large group of industry professionals began visiting EpicSki on a regular basis – professional ski book and magazine writers, manufacturer representatives, and others far more knowledgeable than I ever was had become regulars. Once this crowd showed up, and word got out to two of the other active ski forums, floods of dedicated amateurs migrated from those boards to ours. This has placed us in the situation we are now in, with a contingent of pros sharing incredible wisdom, and lively debate by a large group of extremely dedicated amateur skiers. This year people will travel from all over the country (and from Europe in a few cases) for the third annual EpicSki gathering at a ski resort in Utah, and our first annual New England gathering will take place this year. Mini real life gatherings organized on the website take place on a weekly basis throughout the winter. A true community has evolved.

UBBDev:
Where did the name "EpicSki originate from?

August:
I wanted a fun name that would not only be easy to remember and easy to spell, but also capture what an all-encompassing, overwhelming experience skiing in the mountains can be. “Epic” is a term used often in outdoor sports to describe the peak experience of that sport. Hence, EpicSki.

[Linked Image]
Photo by Brian Bloom

UBBDev:
How many members are on your forum/site, both total and regulars?

August:
3,080 registered members, grows 10 to 20 a day in season (late fall through spring)

In-season we have around 1,000 who visit at least once a month. We have approximately 400 who are in the forum several time a week. And many who are in there several times a day.

This season we’ll be exceeding one million page views per month

UBBDev:
Thats great! Which are the most popular forums on your board?

August:
General Ski discussion: A wide variety of skiing-related topics

Technique and Instruction: Nationally prominent ski pros debate technique with each other and answer practical questions from amateurs – many of whom are extremely knowledgeable and accomplished skiers themselves, others are intermediates with a strong desire to learn.

Gear Discussion Forum: This is a gear-intensive sport, ski equipment is expensive, and people want honest unbiased information before spending their money. The primary alternative for gear info is from advertisement-backed magazines and shops, both of whom have commercial influences to push one brand over another and, therefore, are not as honest and reliable of info sources as EpicSki

[Linked Image]
Photo by Brian Bloom

UBBDev:
What kind of threads are typical on your forum?

August:
Debates about technique often bring about the most passionate exchanges. Skiing is part mechanics and part art, which leads to a variety of opinions on what gets less advanced skiers to a point of higher proficiency the fastest. Plus different people learn differently, so how to teach is a frequent topic. Everyone has their favorite ski mountain or region, and members are not shy about sharing their views. Gear advocates go head-to-head about the advantages of fat skis versus more carving-oriented skis. Skiing equipment technology and the lifestyle surrounding the sport has changed radically in recent years, so you have the new-school / old-school debate. But in the end, we are all at EpicSki because we love sliding down mountains covered with frozen water and that shared commitment to the sport fosters a strong camaraderie.

Sponsored Links
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,590
Moderator
Moderator
Offline
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,590
UBBDev:
When did you start skiing?

August:
I started skiing when I was around ten years old. My Dad decided it would be a fun thing for the family to do, so one year we just all started skiing. I absolutely hated it that first year. I resisted going again the next year, but was forced to participate in the family vacation. That second year I fell in love with it and my life has not been the same since.

[Linked Image]
Photo by Brian Bloom

UBBDev:
Which is your personal favorite mountain/slope?

August:
That is an impossible question. One of the things I most love about skiing is the diversity of the terrain. Overall, I prefer natural settings to overly developed ones. I’m not a big fan of big commercial villages at mountain bases. On the mountain I like big chutes, skiing through trees, and spaces that have not been altered by people as opposed to the ski areas that have clear-cut trees to make runs that wind their way through what was previously forest.

UBBDev:
It's funny, I've been skiing for over 20 years, but have never seen powder!

Besides the UBB, what other content do you have on your site?

August:
The UBB forum is the very core of the EpicSki website. We do have a good deal of other content, but 80% of our activity is in the forum alone. There are two types of other content. First is EpicSki’s proprietary collection of photos and articles, provided by professional writers and photographers who have shared their wok with us for the exposure it brings. These photos and articles help introduce the site to newcomers, but it is the forum that keeps people coming back for the long term. The second type is content provided to us from other sites, which is primarily information that needs constant updating such as weather, ski reviews, and resort information. We outsource this from leading industry providers. The main purpose of this outsourced content is to provide relevant information to our members and minimize their need to go hunting for it all over the web from divergent sources. Sort of a one-stop service.

[Linked Image]
Photo by Brian Bloom

UBBDev:
What are the other main interests of the members on your site (obviously skiing - what else)?

August:
These are very active, outdoorsy people who love the mountains. We have an “Off-Season Sports Forum” that includes lively conversations about rock climbing, mountain biking, whitewater kayaking, fly fishing, road cycling, golf, and tennis.

UBBDev:
If you had to make a choice: tow-rope, t-bar or walking up the hill, which would you pick?

August:
This question is really funny to me because it sounds like you think you are asking me to choose the least of three evils. In truth, “walking up the hill” is one of my absolute most favorite things to do. Last year about 50% of my ski days were backcountry skiing, which is skiing on remote mountains with no development at all (including no chair lifts). You just climb up. It is an incredible experience to be away from all the people and lines and machines and just climb up a pristine mountain with your skis and a few friends, have lunch on the top, and then ski down totally untracked snow. You get fewer runs this way, but each turn is more rewarding.

[Linked Image]
Photo by Brian Bloom

UBBDev:
Well, I would still pick walking anyway wink

How do you promote the site?

August:
The only thing I actively do now is provide free EpicSki.com bumper stickers to anyone who sends me a self addressed stamped envelope – and more than a few of these end up the skis of our members and, though I would of course never encourage such mischief, on chair lift poles at resorts around the country. In the past I have handed out promo cards at resorts, and of course I encouraged members to spread the word about the site. One of the big advantages of having a large number of ski instructors is that they tell their students about us, which they recommend as a great place to go to continue learning about skiing technique. A good deal of growth has come from word of mouth in other internet forums. But at the end of the day, it is the quality of the members that has made EpicSki work, they are the reaon people keep coming back.

UBBDev:
What is the best thing to "add" to your hot cocoa after a long day on the slopes?

August:
This may sound lame, but the way I see it is if you spend your day properly on the mountain, you are way too tired to be out adding lots of fun things to your hot cocoa! I usually just collapse at home after a day on the mountain.

UBBDev:
Thanks again. You've got a great site, an awesome community, and I know I'll be visiting there more myself.

Below are the award winning threads submitted for the contest:

1. The Short Turn (Technique & Instruction Forum)

2. Insightful and Honest Gear Evaluations (Gear Forum)

3. Classic Skiing Story from 1944 Europe (General Skiing Discussion Forum)

4. Technique Evaluation of Pro-Skiing Photos (Technique & Instruction Forum)


Link Copied to Clipboard
Donate Today!
Donate via PayPal

Donate to UBBDev today to help aid in Operational, Server and Script Maintenance, and Development costs.

Please also see our parent organization VNC Web Services if you're in the need of a new UBB.threads Install or Upgrade, Site/Server Migrations, or Security and Coding Services.
Recommended Hosts
We have personally worked with and recommend the following Web Hosts:
Stable Host
bluehost
InterServer
Visit us on Facebook
Member Spotlight
isaac
isaac
California
Posts: 1,157
Joined: July 2001
Forum Statistics
Forums63
Topics37,573
Posts293,925
Members13,849
Most Online5,166
Sep 15th, 2019
Today's Statistics
Currently Online
Topics Created
Posts Made
Users Online
Birthdays
Top Posters
AllenAyres 21,079
JoshPet 10,369
LK 7,394
Lord Dexter 6,708
Gizmo 5,833
Greg Hard 4,625
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Likes Received
isaac 82
Gizmo 20
Brett 7
WebGuy 2
Top Likes Received (30 Days)
None yet
The UBB.Developers Network (UBB.Dev/Threads.Dev) is ©2000-2024 VNC Web Services

 
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 8.0.0
(Preview build 20221218)