Sunflower
- Active 4 years, 6 months ago
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
There’s another factor afoot here that nobody has yet mentioned. Its well known in marketing that even successful brand sponsorships have a negative ROI after some length of time. Its not that the brand has gone bad but there is no advantage to pouring money into anymore. You see these shakeups in the TDF, for example.
The people at Gannett…[Read more]
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Life is a contact sport. I, like many other people, are tired of playing by The Marquess of Queensberry Rules with people of low moral fiber. If its clean legally at least we’re playing with the Jungle Rules too.
They drew first blood, not me.
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
PBV doesn’t have 4000 riders. There haven’t been 10k riders on RAGBRAI in decades. The number is 20k.
Iowa’s Ride site shows about 8k likes and follows. That’s easily enough to make it work.
I agree with Jboz at a 110% level. My opinion is that its way, way overdue to shake the box. We can rationalize our opinions all we want but I think…[Read more]
Sunflower replied to the topic My Proposal of Reconciliation in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Exactly.
Sunflower replied to the topic Can the DMR replace the RAGBRAI staff in time? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
@biking mama
The Register is a blue tribe. So among people with political sensitivities you’ll find exactly what you’d expect. I doubt the animus has become large enough yet for it to be crippling but its certainly headed in that direction. I’m sure the King incident was many Iowan’s first concrete experience with the spawn of the Justine…[Read more]
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Clearly Tony knows more about this than any riders posting but he’s hit on calculation that each Team’s decision-maker(s) is going to have to face and its similar to a bureacrat’s dilemma: There is no personal upside to optimization and all the personal downside to screwing the pooch. In this situation rational actors choose the lowest risk…[Read more]
Sunflower replied to the topic My Proposal of Reconciliation in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Carl, one issue with your proposal is that the community of experienced ride organizers in Iowa is fairly small and incestuous. To some extent I’m sure TJ and crew rely on the various stalwarts of that community so its a bit unrealistic to think you can make a totally clean break with the past.
Just thinking out loud.
Sunflower replied to the topic My Proposal of Reconciliation in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Kanye, or maybe Mike O’Hearn?
Sunflower replied to the topic My Proposal of Reconciliation in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
That’s good brainstorming.
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Naw, no bad taste at all. Its hard to taste anything, still peeling that SJW slime off my skin.
People suck, find the ones that suck the least and drink with them.
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
I would consider the effect on communities of having to put on two rides each year. It would create some “fatigue” if uncoordinated between the rides. As it is the ride isn’t loved by all Iowans, believe it or not, and halving the time between rides is going to create some extra pushback at the margin. How much would be a WAG.
One outcome I…[Read more]
Sunflower replied to the topic My Proposal of Reconciliation in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Tina Turner is a little old to play Auntie Entity. Who would be the master of ceremonies at the Thunderdome?
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
You’re missing the point, I think, TS.
A big company’s communications policy and this ride have a fundamental conflict of interests.
I’m quite happy to see it settled in the sunshine of individual choices.
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
I ran this whole thing past a friend in Dallas who has wanted to come do the ride for several years. Her reaction was, “when the Register got between Carson King and the Children’s Hospital over tweets they stepped on their dick.” She wasn’t aware of the 1st Quarter Wave and when she watched a CNN piece on it and thought about the controversy…[Read more]
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Sandaltan- Burge wrote a blog for years and years before moving to Twitter.
He is a genius. https://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2008/02/heere-bigynneth.html
When Michael Mann got busted with his hockey stick hokum Burge did a tutorial on how to use excel plugins and statistical manipulation to get Mann’s data set to create the hockey stick.…[Read more]
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Yes, the problems stack up, and up, and up. Your opinion on the ISP seems likely to be true to me for the reasons I mentioned in my post above.
Sunflower replied to the topic Which Ride Will "Win"? in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
I agree with Jboz’s points. Regarding the idea that they will reconcile, I think that’s somewhat more likely than I initially considered.
The DMR now has to face up to the fact that there’s an enormous number of Iowans who feel absolutely no goodwill toward them. Its mostly political, a red/blue divide.
I doubt they keep this front and center…[Read more]
Sunflower replied to the topic Entire RAGBRAI Staff Resigns in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Don, you’re not an Iowan, that’s clear.
Here’s how an Iowan analyzes things:
I should have known better than to refer to this scumbag as a "hero." The real young hero here is eagle-eyed Des Moines Register cub reporter Aaron Calvin, who unearthed the tweets, armed with nothing more than enormous amounts of courage and time on his hands.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 25, 2019
Sunflower replied to the topic Entire RAGBRAI Staff Resigns in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 6 months ago
Fantastic timing! Right after LeBron James cuddles up to the chicoms TJ and crew do the right thing and vote their conscience.
This could not have happened to a nicer bunch of Cancel Culture people.
Kudos.
Sunflower replied to the topic Observations about the ride in the forum RAGBRAI XLVII – 2019 4 years, 8 months ago
Oh, and apparently TJ signed off on that. So yes, I can appreciate RAGBRAI and all the effort, experience and talent the Des Moines Register brings to this and still wonder what in the heck they were thinking when they put the DNR in charge of a stop listed on the map.
Bad brand control. I don’t see why this would be controversial or insulting.…[Read more]
