We are often asked about how MTB Dirt came about, what inspired the website, and how it has grown to date. LeAngel asked me to write something up and the following is a trip through MTB Dirt’s conception, its evolution, to its current presence as we close onto 2010.
We'll probably put this into a link somewhere for those interested.
The Beginning
We, the administrators and owners of MTB Dirt, ‘Mad Aussie’ (Steve) and ‘LeAngel’ (Leanne), moved back to Brisbane in Oct 2002 after living up on the Sunshine Coast for some years. We’d been dabbling in mountain biking up there for a couple of years and arrived here with absolutely no idea where to ride.
A few searches of the internet seemed to reveal nothing more than few references on overseas websites of a few trails around but not much.
So we decided to build a website and see if we could gather information. It was a ‘IF you build it ... they will come’ decision.
We gathered up what knowledge we could find online about where to ride and made a basic site with a forum and called it ‘MTB Dirt Warriors.’
MTB Dirt Warriors started slowly with a few people finding us quickly and bit by bit we gathered more info. After a few months, a few members (some of whom are members with us still) made us aware of a local website that more or less did the same thing but had been going a couple of years.
This was a site called DKNX which had a small population of around 200 members. Small as it was, it was very well respected by those that were members, and the members that are still with us, remain loyal to the memory of DKNX to this day.
As MTB Dirt Warriors slowly grew, the person running DKNX, a young man by the name of Ted, had increasing issues with his demanding student life and the ongoing costs of running a website. Before long Ted was ready to close DKNX down. As we’d shown ourselves to be dedicated in the local mountain bike scene and not showing interest in a more national face, Ted handed over his database to us instead of other interested parties with more national aspirations, and we amalgamated the two websites together.
MTB Dirt is Born
With the DKNX database in our hands we registered mtbdirt.com in July 2003, the name change coming from suggestions by members of the website who felt the ‘warriors’ part was not needed. We took that on board, made the change and began a new direction with the intent of not only looking after features DKNX had in place, such as the support for the Gap Creek Trails Alliance (GCTA), but also with a view of expanding the website to be an ever growing resource.
With our website development business we were able to put in place systems that encouraged the growth. At the time we used the phpnuke system to take advantage of the modular environment.
We designed trail maps and got involved in social rides and soon were leading many people around the forests with the help of knowledgeable members.
Right from the start it was apparent that the members themselves would be their own greatest asset to the website. Their influence and help would make it work. And work it did and our member base grew quickly.
Growth and Change
The next big change came in April 2004 when we again redesigned the website with a switch to the Joomla based php system as the older nuke variety had less and less technical support and forward growth of its own.
By now we were starting to work in with race promoters and the registered member numbers were expressed in the thousands.
Although we remained using the Joomla system for the next 4 years, we did make design changes from time to time and features of the website came and went for various reasons.
As the traffic to the website grew, so did the demand on our time and resources and before long it was apparent that MTB Dirt would need to able to support itself financially if it was to survive and be worth our effort. After much demand from loyal members we put donations in place and this lasted a year or so. A touching time to see members not only willing to donate to keep the website running but even pressuring us to put it in place.
Donations never felt right to us however, and banner advertising was now activated and for two years, only overseas entities shown any real interest. Although we’d resisted taking on overseas advertising it became necessary to make the website viable in the face of the lack of local interest and to provide a free resource for the local community.
MTB Dirt.com.au was registered in Sep 2004 and the website was now officially a business, even it was only to be self supporting.
From this point onwards, the redesigns that MTB Dirt would undergo, would always have some priority to attracting some commercial interest and revenue.
Thankfully local interest gained more momentum, and as the overseas contracts ran out we resisted renewing those relationships, preferring instead to foster more Australian clients in keeping with our original plan. Race promoters, local biking retail outlets and those that provide services to the biking community now dominate the advertising keeping the MTB Dirt community aware of the resources they have around them at all times.
Unfortunately the free systems out there we had been basing our website on have restrictions. They eventually seem to lose support or do not continue to develop new features that take advantage of the ongoing technologies applied to the internet. Updating the website to avoid system crashes and the like was becoming more difficult and it was evident that the expected growth would render the current systems unable to cope.
Into the Present
In 2009 we had to make some big changes in both our server and website design. There was nothing out there that met our requirements both now and in the future that we were happy with so a tough decision had to be made. We were going to have to develop our own system that could deal with what we planned to throw at it and something we could continually keep developing as the need arose.
Our current look and layout had been in place for some time so we knew it was going to be dramatic to change this and have it widely accepted by the members. Nothing we ever do pleases everybody but we do at least try to please the majority if we can. Working within the parameters we had in place for business and practicality, in March 2009 the design process started again but this time it was from the ground up. We used our programmer from our AstroVisual Web Design company and, as money would allow, the long process began.
After as much minor testing as we could do with just a few keen moderators and systems managers to help, the new look website, 'AstroVisual CMS' was launched in Aug 2009 to the members at large and we braced for the bugs and issues that invariably rise. And they did. More than we imagined. The next few months were spent identifying and creating ways to solve those issues and putting in member’s wish lists features as we have been able to afford to do so.
The server needed upgrades and software manipulation to cope with the new system and the extra traffic load it created also.
At the time of writing, many thousands of dollars later, almost all listed items have been dealt with and although many administrative issues are yet to be finished the website is well on its way to being finished.
That brings us up to date going into 2010.
Our future planning sees us continuing to support and host the local mountain bike/cycling community with the continued intention of doing one thing properly rather than too many things badly. Perhaps we could branch out a little wider now, or perhaps it’s best to remain as we are. For now, we do intend on focusing solely on the local Sth East Qld mountain biking community.
