GoRudy

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

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.

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

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.

Same - I have incredible memory, or use to I guess. seems lately I can’t remember a lot of peoples names I haven’t seen in a while, especially when I run into them in the street. awkward since I have a newish girlfriend whom requires an introduction.

I agree with some of the points Simon makes... but also the site has 135 million visits a month, there's a ton of legs here to leverage the platform and build a viable business. I don't think this is the end of medium, I think it's the end of the beginning.

What software / platform are you using to serve that kind of content? Very well done

Those sound like all second hand accounts.. we could watch videos and read stories of plane crashes and say they are unsafe but we know that’s not true.

Some of the best online communities I have been a part of tend to have a strong founding member / figure head. At advrider.com we have that in Chris MacAskill.

Started with the intention to share info and ask questions because he had no where else to find the info he needed.

He developed a culture around sharing of knowledge, experiences and empowered a team of moderators.

damn. I loved using this site. HN and Original Signal were my two go to sites for quick summary of what was new in tech.

Anyone else find this video funny?

Yea comments here are completely missing the point. It's far more likely to be successful and build a company / get into YC when you have an insight into specific users and build something they love. That's it.

People who have become billionaires from the companies YC has helped launch have that in common.

yep and good chance these two VCs are the first check in his next business in 24 months.

Pass through entities wouldn't be subjected to the double taxation.

Le Relais de l’Entrecôte

interestingly the response to that comment:

"Maybe you're new here, but your comment punches below the belt and isn't acceptable in a community like this. If you disagree, be civil and give reasons rather than throw insults."

Facebook traffic is fairly low quality, one time type visits. Any publisher who built their business with a dependency on FB traffic was doomed to fail no matter what if they didn't convert those users to email registrations, subscribers etc..

Smart move by these PE guys. The print business is scary but they own 55%ish of a subsidiary which basically just spits out $40MM - $60MM a year in profit. They could easily flip that and own TorStar for free.

I'd love to see the general magic / next family tree and companies that were built from the teams.

I can't help but wonder if these were planned sales which they barely touch on until the end. Should'n't this be explicitly determined prior to running the article?

Instagram accounts from many studio trainers if you want 20 - 30 min workouts.

Barry’s Bootcamp has a daily schedule. NEOU app. Etc

"In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would help his new auction site get off the ground."

wow. Seems relevant today.

Have you tried group fitness? That changed everything for me. I just show up. Don’t think just work hard for 50 min and then leave.

Having people around keeps you honest. I swear by boot camp / hiit classes.

I got LASIK at Standard Medical, one of the best things I ever did for myself...

Didn't read the article...

That wouldn’t be practical. It would slow the game down to a point of being almost unplayable and the way cards are discarded currently would prevent that.

I'm fairly certain this is a net terrible for publishers.

The only leverage publishers had besides saying no was to be able to move between Taboola or Outbrain to leverage better payouts from the other side.

I disagree it can be indicative of the real world. It is if I’m buying it from you. If I’m buying the business id like to understand the cash flow I could expect. I’m not necessarily going to have that loan with interest or the same taxes so it makes sense to pull it out and have an earnings only metric

We've had spam originate from google in the past, honestly they're by far the best source of good quality demand and even they occasionally have spam get through.

Better control of third party scripts is a good point, minimize the number of networks and focusing on quality is important but it's not a guarantee spammers won't get through.

man, this is really untrue. I As someone who has owned and been part of sites that get hit with bad ads / malware, trust me we do care and we do what we can but the end publishers get all the blame and have the least resources available to prevent it. People should really be upset with the networks that allow those ads to go through and don't try and stop them until we complain, they take that spam money and are the ones who are most likely to be able to detect it.

The problem is that we actually don't have much control from networks and they usually at first will deny it's happening. The only thing we can do is pull the networks until they pull the bad ads. But also know it's how we pay most of the bills so we do what we can.

Thank goodness for new companies like Confiant that are building wrappers that look at each ad call first and reject suspicious demand. It's been a life saver. It costs money but it was worth it, I sleep better at night.

Boeing is publicly traded and important to the US. Seems the FAA might have some incentive (not necessarily directly financial) to make sure Boeing remains competitive in the market vs. Airbus.