NOTE: All timestamps are in the future because WE are in the future. The care takers of Midnight Ridazz.com reserves the right to remove, edit, move or delete anything for any reason. None of the opinions expressed on these boards represent the Midnight Ridazz nor can anyone purport to speak on behalf of Midnight Ridazz.
Just stirring thought. I refuse to join FB Ridazz group on principle. I want to know about MR rides on this site. But I'm giving up hope that will continue. Some of you care. Most of you don't. No big deal I guess.
my cooperation comment refers to the future of events. Looks like Alec is on the right track. I think more communication about events is crucial to a point though, and that is lacking here. Need to see more people working together to make it happen. One or two person led events are not going to survive or create a collaborative effort towards the search of fun.
Just putting this out there in the same spirit of cooperation and adding to the bike scene stuff.
Due to the projects im engaged in, I would be down to cooperate on some structural support to include and consider the least privileged cyclist amongst us. For example, how can we create a resource for undocumented riders to plug into in case they are victims of hit n runs, get pulled over, need medical help, etc. Even creating an online link here to educate ridazz on how to support / follow-up with a rida if they get harassed / pulled over on a ride.
As a small example, if you know that you can call Roadblock if you're hit, then get streets blog to pick up your story, then have FB ridazz sound an alarm, then you're probably a little lucky. Essentially how can we give out RBs number to more people and teach him Spanish and Korean when phone calls come in?
and the point also being, i think it helps make MR ride that much more inclusive. Like if you do Friends of the Friendless, then you can give out information about the resources available that "we've" tried to create, that would beyond bike rides.
I've contributed a fairly generous amount of money over the years that was supposed to go into upgrades and improvements on event posts and overall discussion/collaboration stuff.
also, sorry, but my posts reads as if Im talking about some huge program only geared to one group
The idea I have in mind, is something like a resource page to provide cyclists in general (ie us). something like a resource link on this site, so we know what to provide or what options exist. In that way we're being more inclusive by not just referring to bike rides.
I think we could have a section on understand various rights, medical options/scenarios in case of crash--go to hospital or not, etc. i see it more as an addition to rides in general. I meant to frame it as, because I do some work with a particular group, i wouldn't mind trying to work on the resource aspect that include information that may be specific to concerns they may have, and we can understand better.
I dont have time to do it, but I could help collaborate. Sort of like, lawyer, doctor, know your rights, etc, page.
markd responding to a comment by Joe Borfo
05.8.12 - 4:07 pm
Well. If you want something to happen, you do it yourself. Getting people involved to cooperate takes effort. And everybody wants things to be done for them without having put any effort into it themselves.
If you have ideas, make them happen.
If you want people to help with those ideas, ask for people to help you and tell them what you are trying to achieve.
Facebook has derailed a lot of collaborative energy away from Midnight Ridazz. It's a distraction and kills the conversation, the discussions that can be used to help promote events, or to develop and recruit ideas and people and effort to get something done.
Dude do you know how many times ive tried to get this site overhauled? Spent months with people working on it, then people realize how much info and shit is in here and they bail. My last programmer got $850 and was supposedly going to have it done in 2 weeks. That was last december.
Hosting split is $30-$50 a month.
Over the years it adds up. Plus there is so much advocacy work to do just to follow up on people's hit and runs or the fucking LADOT and LAPD teaming up to increase speed limits. There is so much happening. I try to deliver dude.... But a true overhaul of this site is going to cost 5-10 grand. I cant afford it right now.
Fuck facebook. Everyone got snookered into the walmart of social networking sites. Me too. Im always on that thing. Its so easy to post and join the convo on there and allow some group of the wealthiest interests on the planet study your deepest secrets. They know even who you lurk on, they collect your text stream as you write it and rewrite it before you hit send.
I know so many of you as iddybiddy icons on there and know everything about you when i see you in person.
There is something to be said about this website in that you could be completely anonymous if you want, even to me.
On Fb you can have privacy to others, sort of but there is no privacy to the owners and the investors of facebook. The same class of people who own google and apple and all these insanely wealthy and intelligent groups of people.
I miss the frenzy of the old forums so much. I liked that people could fuck with the code because it allowed mischevious people to exhibit restraint and earn trust with everyone.
Cont'd
Roadblock responding to a comment by Joe Borfo
05.9.12 - 1:24 am
The one thing i do hate is being skurd to lose some big long rant on a session timeout...
But, FB is amazingly well developed. Hats off and the good news is people are still riding bikes. Though FB is isolating. You are only exposed to your own circle of friends and its seems difficult to meet new people or hear new or radically different points of view. I think we need occasionally to be offended and have to deal with an offensive point of view. FB doesn seem to provide that.
Its sounds really simple... Just a calendar or this and that. But its not. Its either overhaul and switch to word press... Or modify whats here. Im committed to preserving the history thats in the database and that is what is holding everything back.
Roadblock responding to a comment by Joe Borfo
05.9.12 - 7:43 am
I don't see anything wrong with this website at all. I don't see a need for upgrades or changes, even though I'd like to be able to add a pic from my computer instead of piggybacking it from flickr (also gay). I don't think it's just face book (gay) that appears to be changing things here, I think that the make up of the people in the bike scene have changed as well and with that change, comes a change in ideas, vigor and vim if you will of the overall zeitgeist of the LA bike scene. There are other forces at work here. I know a lot of the people that were really charged about bikes got older, finished school, got married, had kids, or just got burned out. While I seldom go out to rides anymore in fear they are just a two-wheeled rave, I am guilty of such things as well. I'd like to do more or at least participate more in other people's events. It's a tough one. Just as my comic says, facebook is for losers and I mean it through and through. So, the first step is to delete your account. The next step is to only post your ride ideas etc here. I know this would be swimming upstream but I have not given into drinking the devil semen and yet my events continue to grow, some have done so greatly. So my point being I don't see it as necessary. This site can be a great resource if you chose to make it so, it has been in the past. I'd say we're past our boom time and we will shrink a bit to a small but dedicated and driven core of bike nuts and a mass of bike riders that will enjoy the events that come about.
As I've stated many times before, I'm willing to help out in the for of ideas, time, space, or sweat to make things happen. Mark if you made a pamphlet, I'd help you fold them up and have them at my shop for people, they are hungry for bike related maps and information.
rev106 responding to a comment by Joe Borfo
05.9.12 - 7:57 am
I dont really have too much to say about FB vs MR. What I thought really sucked about the move to FB, was that it co-opted something that grew here.
I think there's a bit of older generation (jeez.. Older = 8 yrs?) angst going on. We can get stuck in the "it has to be done this way", "this is that way it happens", "we need to back to this or that", because as Rev noted, shit changed--for the better too in many ways.
Rev, yeah, its something I've been wanting to do for a minute. I helped with a cyclist medic training that I posted here about a year or so ago. I've been wanting to combine the various DIY, self-sufficiency stuff into one space. A zine would be dope, and I could do it with my own friends outside of MR.
We should have a link with a kind of 'in memory of all the banned trolls'. You never really know what you have until its gone.
Ban the LAPD and bring back the trolls!
markd responding to a comment by rev106
05.9.12 - 9:51 am
A zine would be cool. I think at this time I've hand folded near 50,000 zines in my life time so a few more won't matter to me much. No, I'm not exaggerating 50k, son. Meeting in person is the way we get things rolling, the internet being for non-committal, whishy- washy, fence walking.
BRING IT.
rev106 responding to a comment by markd
05.9.12 - 10:19 am
I still read MR daily.. not much going on but I still read it and comment if I see soemthing. Having said that I'm a serious FB user. I have been for almost 8 years and have no problems using it or see myself stopping anytime soon.
I've said this for years: You don't need major changes. A little more organization and this place would be your one stop hub for most of your cycling questions, from hit and run questions, to parts, to rides to whatever else you may be looking for.
Thanks everyone for helping me feel better about all of this. I am in agreement with a lot of you. I guess I just want to see more energy back into this site and 2nd Fridays. And it looks like there may be hope after all.
The 2nd Friday Rides seem to be flourishing this year. People are taking the time to plan ahead of time instead of last second and crowds have been, not only cooperative, but very receptive and all around fun.
Sub forums would be a great addition for those who are looking for a specific need to be filled.
at a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think Borfo should be able to get his website updates.
markd responding to a comment by Joe Borfo
05.10.12 - 12:35 am
I stopped posting rides on this site because I got sick of spending 40 minutes dealing with "br" inserted every goddamn place and the formatting of my post looked like shit.
I hate Facebook, but I have to use it to connect with people - but I also use my own blog, a stupid ass Google Calendar, Tumblr, Twitter, and do most of my work on a cell phone in between repairing bikes and passing out from exhaustion.
This site should be archived and a 2.0 version should be implemented, stat. old.midnightridazz.com would do the trick.
The site needs to be mobile friendly, or that is it - the revolution ends at the feet of Zuckerberg.
you guys got this all wrong. both websites are the problem. we need to go back to making flyers for rides- that way no one will know whats going on and all the taggers/stealers/skuzzers/andres will stay home
FB has the groups and it seems easier to find out and hook up with the rides I'm
interested in. Also I have many interesting friends and reading their post can be more
entertaining than reading the post of some snot nosed Hipster.
On the other hand you can talk some shit to these Hipsters on this site
So not quiting MR just yet, besides how would we know what Rev106 is up to ?
Just waiting on home Internet so I can DL my fb photo albums, then disabling my account permanently. Haven't been on facebook for going on 8 weeks so I could honestly give 2 shits about the site. I agree with everything said about Facebook in this thread and I'll be down to help spread some ride post love to MR fo sho
All of my future ride posts will be on MR. Just have to get my new sound bike up and running first ;) shit is taking forever, can't wait
I know Mark Zuckberberg sucks and all that, but it is much easier to post rides on Facebook than on MR. Every time I post a ride on MR, the HTML gets all messed up. I know it's probably easy to fix, but I just don't have the energy or time.
On the other hand, MR allows you to reach new people.
Those stupid html line breaks only show up when you first create a ride. After you've edited the ride once, the formatting will be exactly as you enter it. So the workaround here is to just copy your ride post to the clipboard before posting got the first time, then edit the ride and paste the original text/html back over the messed up text with all the extra break tags. It's a ridiculous thing to have to do just to edit a ride, but there you have it.
There's also another bug that only seems to show up when using Chrome, where lines over a certain length get regular old text line breaks (not html br tags) inserted into them. Whether this is Chrome's fault or the MR site's fault is anybody's guess.
True. MR will always be on top as long as it has unfettered HTML access- except now you can't post a script tag ;) bring back the script tags roadblock! I need the poop dick thread! PLEASE!
jonnyboy responding to a comment by nathansnider
07.5.12 - 1:27 pm
I always thought that the code hacking made the site fun and dramatic and... it had a strange trustbuilding element to it... like the possibility was there to be a dick and destroy the layout completely... but most of the time people resisted the urge to fuck it up too badly...
Roadblock responding to a comment by jonnyboy
07.6.12 - 12:36 am
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Ridazz Roulette!
