Any alternative to Stickybottle?

LeoD

I read Stickybottle generally for race results and reports and the interviews with Irish amateurs are interesting too but the amount of crap on that site these days is really off putting. Right now the following stories are on the homepage:

• Irish trio “have vital information” as two cyclists among three killed in car crash
• Video: Tour rider’s 50kph crash into traffic island captured by on-board GoPro
• Dubliner arrested over hit and run that killed cyclist is released by gardai
• Top Irish triathlete hunts hit and run driver who left sisters with horrific injuries
• Video: On-board stage 5 Tour de France crash footage is absolutely nuts
• Dublin boy (11) awarded €40,000 by Halfords for bike pump injury

Wtf has any of this to do with Irish road racing? Irishcycling.com was great for race photos and a real loss when it went.

Raam

I guess they do more than just Irish road racing which has a limited appeal. Think... click-bait.

Junior

Didn't Irish Cycling make a comeback or did I imagine that ?

Sticky bottle charges thru the nose for banner ads. It has to try justify that by page views I presume. I'm actually surprised they don't split some reports over two or three pages to bump those stats up.

BikeRacer

I think singling out Stickybottle is a bit unfair. We live in a 24 hour media world now where everyone is competing with each other for clicks and unfortunately there can't ever be periods of 'no news', that means story quality is going to go down if quantity has to go up.
The reason Irishcycling.com failed was because of not enough clicks.

Junior

BikeRacer wrote: »

I think singling out Stickybottle is a bit unfair. We live in a 24 hour media world now where everyone is competing with each other for clicks and unfortunately there can't ever be periods of 'no news', that means story quality is going to go down if quantity has to go up.
The reason Irishcycling.com failed was because of not enough clicks.

No it wasn't.

ROK ON

I don't think it's unfair to single SB in the slightest. IMHO the quality has not just gone downhill it has simply imploded. I've stopped following as a result.

I accept the click air argument, but if the site is being run on a commercial basis then (even if that means endeavouring to break even) then existing to do what 95% of other small struggling 'challenger' media brands do then that is a poor and ill conceived strategy.
I think something like Red Kite Prayer is interesting - very little in the way of click bait. Some good writers. Yes it's paid for by reviews and adverts and yes it caters at a much larger geographical mkt but I prefer it.

If you can't do something well in online media I think society does not need another me too type offering.

Now as for thebikecomesfirst ... Don't even get me started.

Junior

ROK ON wrote: »

Now as for thebikecomesfirst ... Don't even get me started.

Surely that is an invite to get you started ? 5,4,3,2,1 ... and go..:D

wav1

I find SB good.Seldom a weekend goes by that it hasn't got a report on the various road action tbh..Irishcycling is there in a limited way,but we didn't appreciate Peter Purfield enough when he was full on.He had a way of telling the race through the pics.Nearly no report required.

fat bloke

Sticky b0llox indeed. Has deteriorated into the same ol fluff articulation of late. Plus, for whatever the reason, they seem to have a set against women's cycling in particular. Very slow with pertinent news / coverage / updates.

Thebikecomesfirst is definitely worth a click. Some great in depth historical articles.

As regards cycling print press, I got a copy of a mag caked "cyclist" lately in an airport and I thought it was top drawer. Fab meaty reading material. None of this single paragraph soundbite nonsense. Great quality writing and even the physical quality of the actual paper and production was impressive. I'm considering a subscription which, in this day of web-everything, is really saying something!

on_the_nickel

I've no problem with the clickbait articles on SB, they've got to make it pay somehow. And they've filled a real need in covering Irish cycling. Their Ras reports and rider interviews/training plans are very good and there's lots of stuff they post that I'd read.

But, to look past the click bait sh!te, they need to continue to give coverage to all the domestic races - there's been a lot of weekends where they've not posted results of races (whether that's because the clubs don't provide it to them, I don't know). And those they do cover has been a bit hit and miss of late whereas before it was very good.

To expect them to not chase clicks for ad revenue is asking for too much. Equally, for them to expect that Irish cycling fans will continue to visit to see videos of angry commuters is not on either. Time will tell. Feedback such as this thread should let them know.

desertcircus

Really don't like their habit of posting articles that are just embeds of GCN videos along with a couple of lines of text that make no effort whatsoever to credit GCN. Selling ads on the basis of embedded videos you haven't even credited properly is crappy behaviour.

Beasty

No-one forces anyone to read the stuff on SB (or TBCF). They don't charge anyone for looking. It's all well and good slagging them here, but I'm sure that if there was a better way of doing it in a way that does not put anyone investing their time and effort off they would have done it. Equally if you think there are better ways for them to do stuff give them direct feedback

ROK ON

I have given feedback to them - prior to giving it I saw a steady stream of negative feedback from other users on their FB site.
I think that the thread started by the OP is reasonable - he/she has not been OTT or irrational in anyway.
The site (SB) has in my opinion deteriorated. This has occurred due to the increasing proliferation of what is borderline spam. Some times there would appear to be as much (if not more) of this click bait than actual stories related to Irish cycling. That is unfortunate as it started well, I feel.
As a result I have ceased to follow them. There are many better ways of doing it.
I follow many sites in several fields that have not chosen to go for the lowest common denominator. If your point of view held any credence whatsoever then we would all be reading the daily mail/Irish Independent.

desertcircus

Beasty wrote: »

No-one forces anyone to read the stuff on SB (or TBCF). They don't charge anyone for looking. It's all well and good slagging them here, but I'm sure that if there was a better way of doing it in a way that does not put anyone investing their time and effort off they would have done it. Equally if you think there are better ways for them to do stuff give them direct feedback

I gave them direct feedback on Facebook regarding their habit of posting GCN videos without crediting them; in return, I was insulted, before the entire conversation was deleted and Stickybottle posted a message asking people to comment on the site rather than on Facebook.

Brian?

I don't think SB deteriorated. They haven't stopped putting up decent content, they've just added click bait filler. I look at the headlines and read what interests me, as with any site. The local race reports etc are still the best around.

el tel

Does anyone read stickbottle directly on the website or, like me, is it predominantly via FB?

If they are geting more readers and clicks than previously, then they might not care about their dumbing down. Perhaps there's data out there to show if they are getting more hits than before.

Thud

I think it's becoming part of the lifecycle of blogs/websites, have seen it happen on several others

-Start off in spare time
-Site gets popular
-Think you can make a living from it or takes up so much thime that you give up the day job
-Hire other person/people
-Realize the figures only work if you increase advertising, merchandise
-Add clickbait/adds
-Views go up or down
-Get bought out or shut down

Beasty

Thud wrote: »

-Get bought out or shut down

Really cannot see anyone buying out something like SB - it's never going to make enough money to warrant that. It's also heavily reliant on the "goodwill" of others to provide content. It provides a "service" for free, and a subscription model will never work for something like this. If people don't like that service they can take their "business" elsewhere.