Hi friends. This is RMNB. Since 2009 we’ve been trying to make hockey as fun to read about as it is to watch. We’ve been through a lot of changes recently, so I wanted to take this opportunity to keep you abreast of the goings-on and use the word abreast in a sentence.
RMNB is D.I.Y.
This is an independent website. We are not part of a network, we do not have investors, and we do not serve anyone but our audience. Ian and I incorporated the business a few years ago, and we do not intend to sell. Ever.
We happily subscribe to a bunch of websites that put articles and features behind a paywall, but that’s not us. Community-building and transparency are two of our core values, and neither would be possible if we didn’t share our stuff with everyone everywhere.
We think of it like throwing a party: we don’t want to throw the tiny, exclusive party with the velvet rope and secret password to get in. We want to throw the huge warehouse party where everyone is invited, especially you, and when we hit capacity we’ll start sneaking people in the back.
Though we are a small and independent business, we still have to make ends meet. That can be tough in the internet content business. Generally, to be a successful publisher you need to write vapid content, push creepy ads at readers, and exploit writers. We desperately believe there’s a better way to do it, and so that’s what we’re trying. Here’s how:
Advertisements
You may notice that there are no ads on the site right now. They will be back soon; we’ve spent this summer retooling them to get more control over how they work so we can do it right. If you ever see an ad on our site that you don’t like or think is inappropriate, we want to hear from you.
It’s also our intention to partner directly with local businesses this season. If you are interested, please check out our advertising brief.
Merchandise
I can say this since I don’t design them myself: our t-shirts are beautiful. Our merch squad is creative, talented, and relentless. It makes our day every time when we see our shirts out in the wild, but it’s also an important revenue source for us. This season you will see more shirts coming out more quickly as well as we have all kinds of new merch that I think you’ll love. We’ll be clearing out the old inventory in the next few weeks, so if there’s something you want, visit the store now.
Patronage
Earlier this year we joined Patreon. More than 200 people support us with monthly donations that have transformed the way we structure our team. In exchange, our patrons get early access to videos and podcasts, exclusive content, monthly video hangouts, exclusive deals on merchandise, and — my favorite — a group chat called #crashers that has become a special subculture unto itself.
Thank you to our patrons for supporting us and reminding us who we’re doing all this for. If you’d like to join those hundreds of very special people, you can support us on Patreon.
[adinserter name=”patreon”]The crew
Ads, merch, and patronage have allowed us to retool how we compensate our contributors. This is a huge deal for us. Since last year, our team has grown, and I’d like to quickly introduce you to a few new faces.
Cara Bahniuk is an accomplished photographer and a brilliant graphic designer. She is @carabahniuk on twitter.
Brendan Doyle studies government at W&M. He’s tall, but he’s a gentle giant. He’s @bdoyle45 on twitter.
Madeline Dement attends Ian’s alma mater, UMBC, and seems to like it when we call her “Mads.” She is @madeelineee on twitter.
Graham Dumas, a lawyer in a public defender’s office in the South Bronx, is also tall, but not so gentle. He’s on Twitter as @GrahamRMNB.
As always, there’s still me and Ian and Chris and Rachel and Pat and Elyse and CFTC and Nathan, but you already know us.
Other stuff
- The site is protected by SSL. This means that traffic between your computer and our site is private. Every site should do this, and I expect more and more sites will next year.
- Thanks to the support of our patrons, the RMNB Podcast will be coming out every other week this season, switching off hosts between Peter and Ian.
- We have updated our comment policy. The changes are mostly housecleaning, but I want to underline that you have a lot of control over comments. You can flag or downvote comments, and you can always email us to let us know when you see something that’s out of line.
- In what is by far the most controversial decision in the history of the site, links will open in the same window by default. There are a lot of reasons for this (i.e. consistency of user expectation and giving you more control), but I don’t want to go into details because it’ll end up being a maddening argument.
- You will see more varied content on the site this year. That means more Hershey and more not-Capitals content. We think you’ll like us broadening a little bit.
Open door policy
Finally, and this part is important, we need your help to keep RMNB humming. When we mess up, we expect to hear about it from you. If there’s a story that we’re not covering, please tell us about it. We rely on you guys to be our eyes and ears –- and sometimes our hearts too. (We will still be our own gastrointestinal track and, I dunno, duodenum).
Drop us a line, any time, over email.
That’s everything. You can use the comments below to ask questions, make suggestions, or just generally sass us. Let’s have a fun season. Together.
