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Comment by GoRudy | Hacker News Reader

We did this for ADVrider.com. During COVID we were home and maybe too much time on our hands but we decided to do a one time print edition for our digital community.

We planned to print about 2,000 copies for our supporting members (paying) but figured hey if we’re going to do this maybe we can sell some copies.

Over 5,000 people paid for a copy, the demand for a niche like ours felt insane. Then we thought let’s put it in Barnes and noble. They said we’d sell 15% to 20% of the copies, it was 50%.

Now we do it 2x per year and it’s the easiest advertising we sell but we are still mainly subscriber driven. $49 per year it’s not inexpensive. But it’s super high quality.

A 20 year old forum .. goes print. Weird times.

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It helps that you have a great, long-established community of nice people who share a passion for what, for most, is a reasonably expensive hobby. (No offense intended− I commute on my GS :) )

I often hold up ADVrider as an example of a place where the "old internet" still exists— my experience lurking there is identical to my experience lurking on forums in the early 2000s.

Sports-related message boards are another example of "old internet". These boards were usually set up in the 2000s and managed to survive the social media era due to the common culture shared by its users that kept them from moving to Twitter or FB groups. That led to a dilution of community on those larger social media groups, because with each viral post, they'd attract a huge number of new users who would change the culture, but dint of their size relative to the original tribe.

Paradoxically, this also kept the messageboard membership small, as users had to set up an account to post. It wasn't like FB, Twitter or Reddit where one account gives you a passport to post and comment nearly everywhere.

I've posted more about old message boards and culture on my personal website [0]:

[0] https://fuzzcrush.xyz/blog/dead-forums-extinct-communities-a...

100%. I think it's a community in the most real sense. We've got our fair share of trolls and occasional assholes but for the most part there's a lot of really great people there... many have met in the real world so maybe that makes us nicer to each other.

I am glad you posted here! I stumbled across the print edition at my local BN, thought it would make a great gift subscription for someone I know, went home to the website to order one, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to confirm that there was going to ever be a new issue (I think the one at BN was the 4th), or any related info that looked “current.” Actually, I couldn’t even find evidence that the 4th issue existed I don’t think! Haha But now that I know there will be more, I can order one.

We need to clean up the subscription pages, we're actively working on that rn.

I am very surprised to find a representative from ADVrider on HN. But have to comment that I really love the forum. As another reply to your post mentions, it is one of the very few forums that still exists and as far as I can tell thrives. I really enjoy visiting.

Isn't it a known fact that most adv riders are 30 year old engineers?

Haha you have a very good point! The adv bike market could have an over representation of software engineers. Wealthy enough to buy them and an interest in getting away from screens.

heh, there are actually a few of us but I won't out them :). HN and ADV are my two favorite communities online.

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