Mind the Moderating Rules

I have a fairly hands-off moderating policy on this blog. At the same time, it is important to me that readers are comfortable participating in discussions without feeling intimidated by others. The policy so far has been to "approve all comments other than spam, unsubstantiated slander, inflammatory remarks, or blatant rudeness," and this will not change. However, I would like to elaborate on some of these terms.

Spam has become harder to deal with, as increasingly I find businesses using the comments inappropriately. Industry members are always welcome to participate in discussions. What is not welcome, is for a business to comment incognito in order to endorse themselves or criticise a competitor. I will remove those comments and will not deal with any company that uses such tactics. Comments promoting your business in response to a thematically unrelated post are likewise inappropriate.

Slander refers to posting malicious allegations against industry members and other individuals. (Example: "I heard Company X uses child labor to make their products." Another example: "Hey, I saw that guy beating his wife after the Podunk Brevet.") I cannot host random slander aimed at companies or persons; please take it elsewhere.

Rudeness seems like an obvious enough concept, but it can be a slippery slope. Criticism in itself is not rude. There are also comments meant to be humourous or tongue-in-cheek that can get misread by those who don't get the joke. I consider comments rude when they outright insult others or address them in a bullying tone.

Inflammatory comments are those designed to taunt a specific individual or to provoke a so-called "flame war." I do not always read comments thoroughly, and may not notice these until a full-blown hostile exchange is in progress. In cases like these, I may go back and remove the entire thread, no matter whose started it.

The way I see it, the less moderating I do the better. I hate being in a position of "allowing" versus "not allowing" stuff. Plus I simply have no time to carefully consider the wording of every comment. Long time readers get the benefit of the doubt more so than unknown ones. I use my judgment. Please use yours and mind the moderating rules.

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Upheaval

I've been doing some major restructuring lately that I haven't been sure how to discuss. I finally bought a new roadbike and have been enjoying it very much. However I do not want to write about it yet. It has made me uneasy to realise that when I buy a bike it is seen by some as a strong endorsement of the brand. As I start to take my role as reviewer more seriously, I struggle with how to avoid or at least mitigate this. There are many great bicycles out there, and the ones I buy for myself are not necessarily "better." I've toyed with the idea of not naming the manufacturers of my personal bikes from this point forward, but that would introduce logistic difficulties that would border on absurdity. So I won't go that route. But I do think it's unfair to feature my brand new roadbike here while still in the grips of new bike bliss. I will wait to write about it until I am able to do so dispassionately.

Another big change, is that we now own a couple of folding bikes, which we've been riding for transportation almost exclusively. It is impossible to hide the brand, because of its very recognisable silhouette, and you will be seeing more and more pictures of them soon. The folding bikes were the Co-Habitant's idea and have been for years. And while I was not entirely on board at first, since owning mine I've changed my mind. The bike works for me, and I am especially excited to be taking it along on an upcoming trip.

In parallel to these purchases, I've been selling off most of my other bicycles. Aside from the financial necessity of selling bikes when new ones are acquired, it is clear that increasingly I am focused on long-term reviews of loaner bikes and on design projects (I've got two going on behind the scenes at the moment). There seem to be always bikes in my tiny apartment that do not belong to me, and so it makes sense to get my personal bicycles down to a minimum.

As someone who is both the author of a moderately known bicycle blog and a real-life person, I feel the need to be transparent about these sorts of things, but I also want to retain some privacy, which I hope is understandable. It's a very personal thing, to buy or sell a bicycle. I am looking forward to writing about new projects soon, and to posting lots of detailed reviews this summer.

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Bicycle Blogs and Social Media

Ah, social media. We use it, enjoy it, allow it to take over our lives, and then complain about it. How wonderful it is to be human. A few weeks ago, London Cyclist published their "Top 50 Bicycle Blogs" list and for the first time I made it, coming in as the lucky no.13. As you can see, the list has two columns: one with the name of the blog and the other with its twitter url - mine being conspicuously absent. In the days following the list's publication, a number of "OMG, you need to get on The Twitter!" emails arrived from readers and acquaintances. Yet I was unmovable. Need I? But I've resisted for so long! Then several days ago I received a spoof message that threatened to start a twitter account in my name promoting hybrid comfort bikes. It was a cheap, dirty trick, but it worked: Lovely Bicycle is now on twitter.

In a general sense, I have no problem with social media such as facebook and twitter per se. As long as we are able to control ourselves from becoming full-blown addicts who document every private thought and behaviour via these platforms, I think they offer a novel and useful way of sharing information. Particularly when it comes to businesses, organisations, institutions, and other public entities, facebook and twitter can be essential in facilitating and democratising the process of gaining a following.

But here is where it gets tricky: On the one hand, blogs can be considered such entities, and so it would appear to make sense for them to take advantage of social media. On the other hand, blogs are unique in that they offer not just a product or a persona, but specifically writing. Free-access, web-hosted writing. Promoting one's blog on facebook and twitter can have the ironic effect of readers spending more time on these social media outlets than on the blog itself. There may be more visits to the blog than ever as a result of the promotion, but often this is accompanied by a decrease in active readership: less time spent on the blog, and fewer comments. The bulk of reader participation ends up happening off-site, which is usually not the effect intended by the blog author.

For those who are considering supplementing their blog with facebook or twitter, I think it's important to understand what it is that you wish to accomplish. Do you want to just generally increase your web presence, or do you want readers to actively engage with the content of your blog? If the latter, then I think facebook can act against your best interest, by encouraging you to share too much of the blog via its interface, thus fragmenting your content and reader participation. Twitter works differently in that it simply doesn't allow you to do more than share links and quick one-liners, making this pitfall more avoidable - but one must still be cautious. I plan to use twitter for link sharing, and for quick announcements that would not warrant their own post on the blog. Hopefully, it will serve as a supplementary, but not a competing channel of communication. My biggest concern is spreading my content thin, and this is something I will actively watch out for. We'll see how it goes. What's your view on blogs and social media? Do you find it helpful, or distracting, when a blog uses twitter or facebook?

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Two Years Older, Not Much Wiser!

Though I missed it last year, this time around I remembered: April 4th, 2009 was the date of the first Lovely Bicycle post. Since then I've acquired a few bikes, learned a great deal in the process, and improved my cycling skills by about a thousandfold. I have also aged two years and learned to levitate. Honestly, levitation is not that difficult compared to learning to ride a roadbike.

In my quest to penetrate the mysteries of The Bicycle, one thing I understand quite clearly is that I still don't know much about bikes, and won't any time soon. I am not trying to be humble or self-deprecating: I mean it, and I don't think it's a bad thing. I have been fortunate enough to speak with quite a few framebuilders over the past two years, and they all have something different to say about frame design and construction. Some have very concrete theories about which geometry, tubing, etc. work best, and can explain why in great detail. Other builders just shrug and say, "I have no idea why the bikes I make ride well. All that trail and angles stuff is nonsense and there is more than one way to skin a cat." The builders with the best reputations and most coveted bicycles fall into both categories, and if saying "I don't know" is good enough for some of my favourite builders, then surely there is no shame in it.

I am not suggesting that the making of bicycles is some mystical thing that we mere mortals can never hope to grasp. But the more I learn, the more I realise that there are just so many contributing factors to how any given bicycle handles, that it is exceptionally difficult to generalise. In fact, the safest and most reliable way to make a great bike I've heard framebuilders describe, is copying the geometry of their favourite vintage bike, then experimenting with minor modifications. After all, frame geometry is "open source" and anybody who knows how to take measurements correctly can use it: Why not make what you already know works?  If contemporary manufacturers wanted to, they could all be producing vintage Raleigh Sports replicas in Taiwanese factories, which would ride much nicer than most modern commuter bicycles sold in bikeshops today. Why don't they then?.. That's something I haven't yet figured out either.

So there we have it: I don't know much, but that does not stop my continued interest in bicycles and cycling. One of the things I try to do on this blog, is to maintain a space where those who are new to bicycles can learn interesting things without feeling intimidated by industry jargon or by those who appear to be more knowledgable: Curiosity and openness are enough to enjoy cycling. Thank you for all the support I receive from you in its many forms: engaging discussions in the comments and over email, useful advice, shared information, trades for spare bicycle parts, donations for give-aways, and sponsorship. Thank you for reading, as I continue to share my mystified observations in year three of Lovely Bicycle!

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Comments, Arguments, Bicycles...

[image via Chris 531]

Over the past couple of weeks, I've spent considerably more time moderaring comments than usual. For the most part, it's been a handful of readers getting overzealous in their debates with one another. But when hostility enters a discussion, others get sucked into it as well. All I know is: I don't want to be the Jerry Springer of bicycle blogs. I would rather have fewer comments, but retain the atmosphere of comradery that has been characteristic here thus far.

I have wondered whether discussions about bicycles are somehow more prone to conflict than other topics. Readers often tell me that they are uncomfortable commenting on various online bicycle forums and blogs, because they find the atmosphere hostile. And I understand that: I myself have a difficult time communicating on bikeforums, despite it being such a valuable resource for technical information. I also can no longer read the comments on Yehuda Moon, because of all the bickering between readers there. It is well documented that there exist genuine differences between what kind of interactions people find enjoyable: Some prefer for everything to be in the style of a debate, with technical inaccuracies in the wording of others victoriously exposed. Others favour a more nurturing, open form of communication. My own preference is somewhere in between: I like a good debate and I am fine with being challenged, as long as the underlying mood feels friendly.

[images via Schwar]

Sometimes I think that we'd all be nicer over the internet, if we just imagined all the unknown others out there as kittens. Kittens, who love bicycles - at times feisty, but ultimately sweet and fluffy, pedaling happily through the fragrant meadows. Do you really want to hurt their feelings?

But for those who can't deal with the kitten metaphor and prefer specifics, I will be more direct: I think that it is a matter of common sense to refrain from mocking or deriding others' points of view in the comments. It's not that everyone has to agree, but sometimes there are nicer ways to disagree. In the same vein, consider refraining from statements that, while technically speaking may be phrased politely, you know in your heart of hearts are inflammatory (for example: "No offense meant, but riding a blue bicycle lowers your IQ and transmits STDs"). Finally, allow me to suggest that it is best to avoid making speculative, or misleading statements about individuals or entities that can be considered slanderous (for example: "I heard that Lovely Bicycle is written in the Far East, using child labor and toxic inks"). I trust that most people understand the difference between comments that are "in good faith" and "not in good faith."

Meaningful reader feedback has been a defining element of "Lovely Bicycle" from the start, and it makes me happy to be the hostess of such thoughtful, interesting discussions. As one reader recently suggested, my posts are collaborative: I offer my views, and others offer their views in return. It's a constructive exchange, which I think works nicely. Please help me keep it that way. And think of the cycling kittens.

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On Bias, Ethics, and Moving Forward

It has been 19 months now since the start of Lovely Bicycle, and 3 months since it has become a sponsored website. In October 2010, this site received 50,000 visits and I now rummage through about 40 emails per week from readers.

Functioning at this level is not something I intended initially, and it poses its own set of challenges. For some time now I have been trying to formulate a general statement addressing issues of objectivity, bias and ethics, so that it is clear to my readers where I stand. Nothing here should come as a surprise if you read this blog, but sometimes it helps to make things explicit.

As far as objectivity and bias go, my position is fairly straightforward: I am not objective. I am biased. I am not a journalist and Lovely Bicycle is not a "consumer reports" type of website. I have my views, my preferences, my favourites, and every single post you read here is influenced by that.

More specifically, some of my caveat emptors can be summarised as follows:

. I have a strong preference for classic bicycles and classic components

. I think that women-oriented bicycle design has been undervalued and I would like for that to change

. I prefer hand-made products of high quality over mass-produced ones

. I value craftsmanship, elegant design and attention to detail over monetary savings

. I value and actively try to promote small businesses over corporations and brand-name conglomerates

. I value and actively try to promote independent frame builders and craftspersons, especially those local to me

. I am open to collaborating with members of the industry in creating products and services that could benefit my readers

. The work I do for a living has slowly begun to overlap with the bicycle industry, and that is something I am interested in furthering

All of this certainly disqualifies me from being anything close to an "objective observer," and that is fine by me.

The important thing I wish to communicate, is that I am an active participant in the industry and not a passive receptacle of its marketing. I regularly receive product offers from various manufacturers that I decline, because I am not interested in presenting these products to my readers. That means that the products I do accept for review, I accept because I actively want to write about them. By the same token, my choice of sponsors is an active choice, guided by my own preferences. I have turned down sponsorship offers from a number of well known manufacturers whose products I do not wish to advertise.  I have also actively approached companies whom I would be proud to have as sponsors. I am an informed and willing collaborator in the industry on my own terms, not a naïve creature who will happily write about anything she receives for free.

My approach to ethics is not to attempt objectivity or to claim independence. Instead, I opt for disclosure: I try to be as honest as I can about my preferences, my biases, and my connections with those manufacturers or shops whose products I mention. It is then up to my readers to take that information into consideration. I believe that my readers are intelligent and are able to factor these things in.

All that being said, if you read this blog I think it is clear that sponsorship has not stood in the way of my ranting against the things I dislike, just like lack of sponsorship has not stood in the way of my praising the things I like. You don't have to trust me on that - simply examine my content.

Over the next several months, some exciting projects will hopefully unfold and I look forward to sharing the details when the time comes. As mentioned previously, I am involved in several collaborations with manufacturers, including Red Barn Studio and Bella Ciao. I have also been approached about writing a book some time ago, though I don't think that is going to work out. There is no shortage of "stuff" going on, but I am trying to choose carefully and not to move forward faster than I feel is good for me. I enjoy writing Lovely Bicycle in its current form. My main goal is simply to continue - with your kind support.

Thank you again for reading Lovely Bicycle... and moreover, thank you for tolerating such a long post without pictures!

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The Age of Capitalism

I will get right to the point of this post: I recently made the difficult decision to accept sponsors for Lovely Bicycle. The banners of the first sponsors will appear later this week.

The reason for the decision is simple: At this point it was either that, or discontinue Lovely Bicycle altogether. The blog has grown in many ways and now takes up more of my time than I can spare financially, cutting into my freelance consulting work. I have considered scaling back, but doing that would most likely make me lose interest entirely; I am not a person who can do things half-way. So the only alternative I saw was to accept sponsors, while doing my best not to sacrifice the integrity of my content. I hope that I have made the right decision.

If you are interested in sponsoring Lovely Bicycle and are not yet in contact with me, please see here for details. 

Thank you for reading, and thank you to all who decide to sponsor Lovely Bicycle!

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A 'Successful' Bicycle Blog?

Today I received an email from a reader asking for "tips on how to run a successful bicycle blog." I get this type of question every so often, and never quite know how to respond. For starters, what exactly is a "successful bicycle blog"?... One with a readership of over x visits per day? An average of y comments per post? Placement on "top 50 bicycle blog" lists? Mentions in local publications? Probably all of the above, plus other indicators I am not even aware of.

[EcoVelo - one of my favourite "successful bicycle blogs"]

The next thing that comes to mind when considering the question, is why would one want a "successful bicycle blog" - that is, what do they hope to get out of it? If one's heart fills with desire to write about bicycles, they can simply open their computer and start typing - using free and easy platforms like BlogSpot and WordPress if they wish to make the writing public. The act of turning to an "established blogger" (reader's phraseology) for advice suggests that there is a specific end-goal in mind. I suppose the goal can include sponsorships, effective advocacy, and personal fame... but I think that such a goal-oriented attitude at the start is counterproductive.

[Let's Go Ride a Bike - one of my favourite "successful bicycle blogs"]

The main thing I would suggest, is to start the blog only if you have a genuine interest in the topic - an interest that is sufficiently strong, so that you can imagine producing hundreds of posts, day after day, with the same degree of enthusiasm as your first. Because the most important aspect of a blog's "success," from what I have seen, is its sustainability. Even though it may seem like there are tons of bicycle blogs out there, the number is actually not that great if you narrow it down to those that have been around for at least a year and continuously generate new content on a close-to-daily basis.

I would also consider how much of your time writing a blog would take, and whether that time investment would be worth it for the end-goal you have in mind. I am an unusually fast writer and constantly write anyway as part of my work. A blog entry every one to three days is possible, in terms of both time and effort. Otherwise, I absolutely would not be able to do it.

[The Mixte Gallery - bicycle blog with a unique theme]

Finally, I would suggest considering whether your bicycle blog will be sufficiently unique so as to differentiate it from all the others out there. The uniqueness can be a result of a specific focus (The Mixte Gallery is all about mixtes), of a distinct tone of voice (BikeSnobNYC's comic crankiness), of a consistent visual theme (the women on Copenhagen Cycle Chic), of being a source of cycling news in your area (the regional focus of Boston Biker), or of many other factors - but there must be something that will make the blog stand out in some way.

[BikeSnobNYC - one of my favourite "successful bicycle blogs"]

As for attracting readers, advertisers, sponsors, journalists and what have you... I feel that having this as your goal from the start could very well undermine it. It is my belief that readers can sense it when the ultimate purpose of a piece of writing is marketing-driven, and are less likely to connect with such writing.  I could be wrong, but I think that most "successful bicycle blogs" happened not by design but organically: The writer is so taken with the topic, that they keep writing and writing - until people begin to read. The best thing to do is simply to write and not think about "success" - whatever that may mean to you.

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About a Year

Looking through the pictures I took of a recent ride along the cherry-blossoming Charles River, I realised that it has been just about a year since I began Lovely Bicycle. I say "about a year", because I am not entirely sure when exactly I started writing vs. publishing the entries. But apparently it was right around this time, as in my first documented bike-ride the blossoms were in bloom as well.

It is customary to conduct some sort of self-assessment when a project like this reaches its 1-year anniversary. But when I think about why I started this website, I feel suddenly inarticulate and a little confused - because honestly I do not have a good reason. I am not an activist and do not seek to promote "a cycling lifestyle". Life has worked out for me in such a way, that personally I have not driven a car since 2007, and I love to ride my bicycle(s) for both transportation and recreation. However, if you happen to own a dozen SUVs and enjoy driving them, that is fine with me. If you collect bicycles solely for the purpose of photographing them in your garden and never actually ride them, that is fine as well. And if you are a die-hard Foresterite vehicular cyclist who hates bike infrastructure and loves 6-lane roads with 40mph+ speed limits, that's wonderful too. You are all welcome, if you feel that you can relate to some aspect of this website.

Neither is the motive of this weblog a diary-style documentation of my life. Those who know me in person are aware that my posts here create an amusingly incomplete and warped presentation of my actual life and personality. And finally, neither was it ever my intent (not that I am in any danger of this) to gain commercial success or recognition for this website.

When I first started Lovely Bicycle, the intent was to review the options that were out there for bicycles that were both practical and aesthetically pleasing for people with lifestyles and tastes similar to mine. This was driven by my own frantic search for a "lovely bicycle" in Spring of 2009. However, the weblog developed far beyond this premise and I am still no closer to explaining what motivates me to continue it - when frankly my life is quite hectic as it is and does not need extra projects.

I will be honest: This discrepancy of the blog getting larger and more time consuming (I now get over a dozen emails per week and it is becoming impossible to answer most of them) with my not having a good explanation for why I am doing this, has caused me some concern and I have considered discontinuing Lovely Bicycle on several occasions. An alternative option could be to start accepting selected sponsorships, and using any earnings from these to at least cut down on some of the consulting projects I do in order to stay financially afloat - thereby freeing up time to continue working on the blog. But I do not have a clear idea of how this could be done while still maintaining the home-made feel of this wesite.

In short, it remains to be determined in what direction Lovely Bicycle will meander next, if at all. But in the meantime, I can't seem to help continuing to take pictures of beautiful bicycles and writing all of this nonsense about them!

While taking the pictures shown in this post, I was approached by a couple who asked me whether their daughter could pose next to my bicycle for their home-made video of the girl reciting "Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey. We moved the bicycle closer to the river, and the mother directed the daughter while the father videotaped. They did several takes of the recital and the child was adorable.

Of course I didn't have the heart to tell them that the "ducklings" in the river were in fact geese. Where better for me to share a story of such an encounter, than on Lovely Bicycle?...

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New Year, New Look, and Change of Contact Info

Happy 2010 everyone! It's always nice to do something new in the new year, and so you may have noticed that I've made some minor changes to this site. Hopefully the update is agreeable.

In other news, please take note if you have tried to email me during the past 4 weeks: the hotmail email address that was previously listed in the Contact Info here is kaputt and I am locked out of it. If you've sent me emails and have not heard back, please be so kind as to re-send them to: "filigreevelo-at-yahoo-dot-com". Hope no one felt offended as a result of not hearing from me; I kept thinking that any day now I would regain access to the hotmail account, but apparently that won't be happening.

A sincere Thank You to all for your comments and advice in 2009, and may 2010 be filled with lovely bicycles and joyous cycling for all!

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