All our Internet stuff is owned by the members of the FOGBEE Bicycle Club.
We encourage others to reference our URLs. If you wish to copy or re-print our stuff, our only requirement is that you provide proper attribution to the FOGBEES.
Because we don't collect dues or fees, we make extensive use of FREE Internet services. We thank the following organizations that provide these FREE services:
Our blog - Google Blogger (a separate blog is used for special events)
Our FACEBOOK page - FACEBOOK - RSS Feed to FACEBOOK - dlvr.it
Our Calendar - Google Calendar
Our Photo Share - Shutterfly
Our Video Share - YouTube
Our Mapping - RideWithGPS and MapMyRide
Our Newsletter - MailChimp (administers enrollment)
Our Surveys - SurveyMonkey
Our File Storage - Google Drive (location of Membership List)
Our Email - Fogbees@gmail.com
Our FB Ride Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/139308752882725/
Our Domain (Fogbees.com) - We pay for that from member donations
HISTORICAL RECORD
RIDE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Initially, in 2006 when the club was being formed, Doug Depew was the ride leader. He would send out email blasts to the handful of members about a weekend ride. It was the standard practice for area bike clubs.
The problem with this practice was two-fold: first, once the list got over twenty members it became unwieldy to manage; and second, several of the ISP's started to block these blast treating them as SPAM. We found ourselves having to back up the email with telephone calls to make sure everyone knew of the ride.
Around 2007 we abandoned the email and were the first club to use Google Blog instead. This tool allowed us to setup each member as an author who could post rides and respond through the comments their intentions about joining a ride. It also allowed the club to establish more than one member as the administrator.
FOGBEE DOMAIN
Around 2007 Doug Depew purchased the FOGBEE domain through GoDaddy. He used money left over from the club's first jersey order to pay for the registration fee. He has continued to renew that registration.
WEBSITE
The FOGBEE's first website was formed in 2007 as a sub-domain on Homestead.com. Tom Evans set it up under his personal account and acted as the webmaster. Around 2012 he moved most of this website to Google Sites, because it was a free service.
With the predominance of smart-phones and the need for responsive and easier to maintain web designs, in 2015 we moved the website to Google Blogger.
We also use Google blog as a planning platform for special events, such as RAT2013, YS2014, N2N15, and Chat15.
PHOTO SHARING
Since the club was formed members have taken pictures of the rides and over-night adventures. They shared the photos either by emailing them to each other our by burning them to a CD. To simplify sharing members started uploading their JPEGS to Snapfish. Like the Google blog we were able to setup a club site with multiple contributors. From here pictures could be downloaded and prints purchased.
Soon Snapfish became a problem. Randomly, it would drop members from the club site and attempts to re-enroll them was problematic. We complained to Snapfish. Their fixes only seemed to be temporary. Soon these same members would get dropped again. So we dropped Snapfish and lost about two year's worth of photos.
We moved to Shutterfly which allowed us to setup a club website, allowed downloads of high resolution copies, provided a large selection of print options, and seems limitless as to the number of photos and album we can safe. About 24 members have joined this club website and contributed around 15,000 photos.
Unfortunately, the number of members contributing photos has declined to a half dozen. Members have been using their personal FACEBOOK pages to share photos
VIDEO SHARING
Creating a video of a club outing is a far more limited activity because they take considerably more work, more skill, and special software. They have been produced by Bruce Day, Tom Evans, Demetrius Ritt, and Phil Vickery. Each has his favorite creation software.
Initially, many of the videos were produced and saved on Comcast Photoshow. They were slide shows with music and annotation. Comcast offered this tool as a free service for the first couple of years and then sold it to Roxio under which it became a subscription service. Several of our videos were lost at this time as members did not renew subscriptions.
We tried to download the videos and move them to YouTube. Again, we setup a club website for sharing these videos. This site see very little activity.
An offshoot of the video are the animations, such as the subscription website JibJab. Gary Williams has been the champion of JibJab and the animated GIF. Several other members have play with the animations, but the club has not had a tool to retain these master pieces and they have been lost.
RIDE MAPS
Most of the club's first ride maps were borrowed with permission from Jim Overmohle. He was a master at creating very legible and printable maps. We also used a selection of maps created by the Stinking Fish ride group. They had been riding in middle Tennessee for many years and had quite a collection.
Around 2009 ride leaders started using MapMyRide to lay out and share routes. It also provides a way to organize and share maps for a club. Originally, most of its services were free. The club probably has several hundred maps stored here.
Around 2013 ride leaders switched to using and rebuilding their maps with RideWithGPS due to MapMyRide locking down and selling stuff, such as map and cue list printouts, that used to be free. During this time the later software was riddled with frustrating bugs and a constantly changing GUI. RideWithGPS was stable and easier to use. It also has a very convenient GPX export for those using portable GPS units.
RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
Over the club has gathered records such as graphics files, jersey design files, publications, membership lists, instructions documents, etc. All these records are retained on Google Drive under the ID fogbees@gmail.com and its associated password.
Membership
The primary communications with the FOGBEES are through its GMAIL address and through its free MailChimp account. When a new member wants to join the club, s/he enroll on the Blog. The signup is administered through MailChimp which loads the enrollment into its subscriber list, sends the enrollee an acknowledgement, and sends an email to fogbees@gmail.com.
Unfortunately, MailChimp does not provide a secure/confidential way to publish this enrollment file.
Since the club was formed members have taken pictures of the rides and over-night adventures. They shared the photos either by emailing them to each other our by burning them to a CD. To simplify sharing members started uploading their JPEGS to Snapfish. Like the Google blog we were able to setup a club site with multiple contributors. From here pictures could be downloaded and prints purchased.
Soon Snapfish became a problem. Randomly, it would drop members from the club site and attempts to re-enroll them was problematic. We complained to Snapfish. Their fixes only seemed to be temporary. Soon these same members would get dropped again. So we dropped Snapfish and lost about two year's worth of photos.
We moved to Shutterfly which allowed us to setup a club website, allowed downloads of high resolution copies, provided a large selection of print options, and seems limitless as to the number of photos and album we can safe. About 24 members have joined this club website and contributed around 15,000 photos.
Unfortunately, the number of members contributing photos has declined to a half dozen. Members have been using their personal FACEBOOK pages to share photos
VIDEO SHARING
Creating a video of a club outing is a far more limited activity because they take considerably more work, more skill, and special software. They have been produced by Bruce Day, Tom Evans, Demetrius Ritt, and Phil Vickery. Each has his favorite creation software.
Initially, many of the videos were produced and saved on Comcast Photoshow. They were slide shows with music and annotation. Comcast offered this tool as a free service for the first couple of years and then sold it to Roxio under which it became a subscription service. Several of our videos were lost at this time as members did not renew subscriptions.
We tried to download the videos and move them to YouTube. Again, we setup a club website for sharing these videos. This site see very little activity.
An offshoot of the video are the animations, such as the subscription website JibJab. Gary Williams has been the champion of JibJab and the animated GIF. Several other members have play with the animations, but the club has not had a tool to retain these master pieces and they have been lost.
RIDE MAPS
Most of the club's first ride maps were borrowed with permission from Jim Overmohle. He was a master at creating very legible and printable maps. We also used a selection of maps created by the Stinking Fish ride group. They had been riding in middle Tennessee for many years and had quite a collection.
Around 2009 ride leaders started using MapMyRide to lay out and share routes. It also provides a way to organize and share maps for a club. Originally, most of its services were free. The club probably has several hundred maps stored here.
Around 2013 ride leaders switched to using and rebuilding their maps with RideWithGPS due to MapMyRide locking down and selling stuff, such as map and cue list printouts, that used to be free. During this time the later software was riddled with frustrating bugs and a constantly changing GUI. RideWithGPS was stable and easier to use. It also has a very convenient GPX export for those using portable GPS units.
RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
Over the club has gathered records such as graphics files, jersey design files, publications, membership lists, instructions documents, etc. All these records are retained on Google Drive under the ID fogbees@gmail.com and its associated password.
Membership
The primary communications with the FOGBEES are through its GMAIL address and through its free MailChimp account. When a new member wants to join the club, s/he enroll on the Blog. The signup is administered through MailChimp which loads the enrollment into its subscriber list, sends the enrollee an acknowledgement, and sends an email to fogbees@gmail.com.
Unfortunately, MailChimp does not provide a secure/confidential way to publish this enrollment file.
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