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kendallc81
climber
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 20, 2012 - 10:50pm PT
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My name is Kendall and I have something that's fairly sensitive to discuss, but if you read my entire post you will see that I, being a frequent forum user myself, fully understand forum etiquette and am fully respecting it.
I own a tech company which I will not identify here, and so that my intentions are clear, my company's identity can only be seen by the moderators and owner who can see it by the extension on my email address to verify that my statements are legitimate. The benefit of the few users I could try to siphon with this single thread is very minimal to my company. Our intention is to create a long term relationship that we believe will be mutually beneficial for both this forum's owner, the community and ourselves. The only way our platform will be revealed is if the forum owner decides to allow the arrangement.
Now with that said, my company is a completely new kind of social platform that, while not replacing the hobby forum, does dramatically innovate certain aspects of it and therefore appeals to the same audience. Forums are for groups to speak together as a whole. Our platform is for people to create more engaging one-on-one relationships based upon similar activities, passions and interests. Unlike any other company making innovations in social networking, our platform was conceived one-hundred percent with diehard hobbyist in mind and will change the way hobbyists interact online. At the bottom of this post is a link to an anonymous Flickr image of our landing page, with blocked out names, to help explain our platform and so that you can see that this is something new and highly unique.
Over the next year my company will be visiting various conferences and expos for climbing as well as other hobbies. We will also be advertising on many forums such as this one. The only problem is, our platform is designed for all hobbies, and we currently can only focus our budget towards the most receptive hobby communities. So it first needs to be established if the climbing community is one of those communities. If it is, we intend to advertise on this site and if that is all we end up doing, that is fine. My strongest reason for approaching this forum, though, involves the forum owner and a potential partnership beyond a simple sponsorship of which we are confident will be well received. So if the forum owner will contact me we can discuss the matter further.
Eventually, one way or the other, many people in the climbing community will discover our company. But in the social space, the tone is often set by the earliest adopters, and we know that the forum community is the most upstanding and most knowledgeable kind of user to set the best tone within our own climbing community.
I hope that this isn't seen as a typical attempt to spam and won't be automatically dismissed as something that should be kicked. I'm requesting that decision to be left to the forum owner after they have heard what we are proposing. We want to be completely above board in our actions here, and once everything is revealed you will see that we are not a typical company in how radically and controversially pro-user and pro-fairness we are in our policies and practices.
Ask me any questions other than my company's identity and I will answer as transparently as possible.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8315/8007807229_2d61585063_b.jpg
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Sep 20, 2012 - 10:59pm PT
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Not to be cynical, but it sounds like Facebook. We associate here precisely because it is nothing like Facebook. You should emphasis how you are not like Facebook
Nothing worse than a social network site that tells the world what porn sites you visit. Until ST does that I am happy with ST.
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kendallc81
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 20, 2012 - 11:05pm PT
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Yes I can see how it can seem that way, but the main thing that separates us for FB is that FB is about you and the people you already know. That is the only prerequisite to being your "friend". We build our platform to say "hey what if the only prerequisite to being connect with someone is that you have stuff in common and things to talk about, even if you are currently strangers. The forum uses this same principle. We just do it in a way that is user friendly much like FB except far more user friendly. You are already socializing in this way on this forum, we are just making it easier, funner, and opening it up to more people.
Now this sounds like that we mean that we would take traffic from the common forum. Well that is a nuanced issue and is where the conversation with the forum owner comes in.
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:10pm PT
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"...and we know that the forum community is the most upstanding and most knowledgeable kind of user to set the best tone within our own climbing community."
He says that to all the rock climbing forums, he be a playa!
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kendallc81
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 20, 2012 - 11:11pm PT
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I find it to be very true. Have you browsed the Youtube comment boards? You will lose your faith in humanity. Forums have people, for the most part, who care to be there and treat others with respect. A few bad eggs with always be anywhere but my experience has seen an overall quality community present on nearly forum I have frequented.
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:21pm PT
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FB's I Love Climbing page has more climbers from more countries with more amazing photos than anyplace I've been.
For those that can see it:
http://www.facebook.com/IloooveClimbing?ref=ts
I love Supertopo because there is a depth of history, tons of well known climbers and tons of people that I know from back in the day.
I'm not sure how you'll improve that.
Are you going to take over Supertopo, or just draw people somewhere else?
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:24pm PT
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I think he called climbing a hobby..?
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:31pm PT
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I think he called climbing a hobby..?
He doesn't understand that the only reason we climb on those rocks is because they won't fit into a syringe that we can plug straight into the main line.
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Michelle
Trad climber
the f*#king peninsula.
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:31pm PT
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troll.
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WBraun
climber
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:34pm PT
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Go away kendallc81.
Everyone on Supertopo beats me and verbally flogs me daily and I love them for it.
Your site looks and sounds gay.
This site is a real mans site, with real humanity and even gay guys like you can do your thing here too.
I think?
Yours truly .... certified bad egg
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froodish
Social climber
Portland, Oregon
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:36pm PT
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Not sure why you're posting in a thread for Chris to contact you. Not like he reads every thread and his contact information is clearly posted on the contact page:
http://www.supertopo.com/contact.html
Edit: seems we're not the only ones
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:37pm PT
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Werner's on a roll.....BWA HA HA hahahaaaa!!!!
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JOEY.F
Gym climber
It's not rocket surgery
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:49pm PT
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Froodish,
I only clicked because the name was Kendal.
so anyway,
Hi to you both!
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Sep 20, 2012 - 11:52pm PT
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The day the bad eggs disappear from ST is the day the site folds. Your dream of a multi billion dollar IPO is not going to come by suckering this community into your scheme. Develop your website, buy banner ads on ST (see da brim and da big kahuna) and if your product is worth a crap the world will beat a path to your door.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Sep 21, 2012 - 12:06am PT
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I will answer as transparently as possible.
obama-speak
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kendallc81
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 21, 2012 - 12:13am PT
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We do intend on purchasing ads here as well as other places. However, we are not after a billion dollar IPO. As a company, have more in common with the founders of Craigslist than we do with Facebook. Attaining users is not our problem, but we would prefer to have the right kind of users in the beginning to show the "normals" (eg. someone without passionate hobbies) what good original content looks like. You guys are the ones who actually have content worth seeing and mimicking. This is our goal for the moment and we currently approaching many different areas of hobbies and activities to ascertain who will go on this journey with us.
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bergbryce
Mountain climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
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Sep 21, 2012 - 12:16am PT
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dude, stop using the word "hobbies"
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kendallc81
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 21, 2012 - 12:36am PT
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Sorry. I've always considered sports to be hobb..... I mean, things that are funny and interesting activities to do.
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crusher
climber
Santa Monica, CA
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Sep 21, 2012 - 12:38am PT
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No offense, but you sound like an alien who has just landed and is asking to be taken to our leader.
You sort of sound like Hal, too (the computer).
Maybe I've just had too hard of a day but your posts cracked me up. Sorry. Anybody with me on this one?
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Sep 21, 2012 - 12:44am PT
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Yeah, sounds funny to me. I'll take the guy at his word and he seems sincere, but I can't imagine a worse forum to approach. Well, I can, but in terms of mainstream "hobby" forums ST is a pretty freewheeling place highly adverse to assimilation/regulation/moderation.
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