Poll How did you find Skitalk.com (formally Pugski.com)

[1chris5]

I think since I've been here in Montana 14 years, the 28 years I skied the Poconos might be pretty dated.

Just as my 2 years skiing in the back country of The Big Mountain is dated. probably lived there 20 years ago. Cheers

 

[Olesya C]

I briefly met Tricia and Phil at Snowmass at 2016 Epic gathering and that's where I learned that they are launching pugski. I was there because of a trip to Snowmass organized by friend from SkiDiva so I voted The SkiDiva option in the poll.

 

[Varmintmist]

I know the Beach Boys sang Kokomo. Cunnerman is Pocono slang for low income families, a play on Counterman. I don't recall the elephant, was it by The Globe? I was more over in the Poconos by Camelback. I did used to shop at Sugarmans, The Viewmont Mall, Auto-something to get models and some stereo place across 6 from the Viewmont Mall.

The circus came to town and lost a elephant, downtown. It took a week or so to find it. We were betting on a big kielbasa overrun for a while.
I thought that maybe there was a local band that called itself Cunnermen. I know the slang, but missed the reference.
I was near Harveys Lake, closer to Elk. Goin up da Mall (Wyomink Valley Mall) was a planned trip pre cross valley expressway.

 

[Chriscray]

I was from Epicski too. I googled some older ski information and found a forum thread. It was something to do with the Stockli Rotor 106, one of my favorite twin tip skis ever!

 

[DoryBreaux]

Some guy in a ski shop

 

[skibob]

Some guy in a ski shop

A guy named Phil? At True North in Northstar Village?

 

[Philpug]

A guy named Phil? At True North in Northstar Village?

Could have been anyone.

 

[va_deb]

TLDR version: The only reason I'm still skiing is because I stumbled across Ski Diva when I was googling "beginner skis to help women improve their skiing" (or something like that), and I met Wendy and @Tricia online.

My better half and I did the never ever lesson at a local hill for our second date. After he fell -- a lot -- he mastered staying upright and decided he loved skiing. I was in the early dating honeymoon stage and wanted to impress him, so I stuck with it a while longer, but came close to giving up after some rough icy/soggy Mid-A seasons. Stuck with it thanks to Ski Divas.

I made it down my first Tahoe blue thanks to Tricia. (Just in case anyone from the Mid-A is wondering, Tahoe blues are nothing like Virginia blues.)

And I can't wait to get back out on the hill this season thanks to custom footbeds and boot tweaks from the one-and-only @Philpug!

 

[Cheizz]

I found Pugski by chance while Googling info on (then) next year's skis. Already was a member of Epicski, but instantly preferred Pugski.com

 

[Tricia]

TLDR version: The only reason I'm still skiing is because I stumbled across Ski Diva when I was googling "beginner skis to help women improve their skiing" (or something like that), and I met Wendy and @Tricia online.

My better half and I did the never ever lesson at a local hill for our second date. After he fell -- a lot -- he mastered staying upright and decided he loved skiing. I was in the early dating honeymoon stage and wanted to impress him, so I stuck with it a while longer, but came close to giving up after some rough icy/soggy Mid-A seasons. Stuck with it thanks to Ski Divas.

I made it down my first Tahoe blue thanks to Tricia. (Just in case anyone from the Mid-A is wondering, Tahoe blues are nothing like Virginia blues.)

And I can't wait to get back out on the hill this season thanks to custom footbeds and boot tweaks from the one-and-only @Philpug!

Skiing is fun. You're fun!

 

[Tricia]

September bump!

 

[Old boot]

Phil and I have a secrete thing on the side so we can talk here openly in code and Trish never catches on (Ziggy suspects though)

 

[Joe Strummer]

I came via Epic. Oddly enough, I'm not missing Epic.

 

[David Chaus]

I came via Epic. Oddly enough, I'm not missing Epic.

It is nice to not have @Tyler Wenzel apologizing for steps the moderation team has had to take to deal with misbehaving members, or to explain the corporate logic coming from MTN.

 

[oldschoolskier]

Followed the founders here, great individuals there, even better here.

Thanks Phil and Tricia

 

[Tyler Wenzel]

I came via Epic. Oddly enough, I'm not missing Epic.

It is nice to not have @Tyler Wenzel apologizing for steps the moderation team has had to take to deal with misbehaving members, or to explain the corporate logic coming from MTN.

And I'm certainly not missing some parts of my old job. Wait until P&T have to make business decisions on here. Some people hated AC, some people hated Joan, some people hated (Epic) Tricia, and plenty of people hate(d) me. People always hate being told they can't have their cake and eat it too.

 

[coskigirl]

And I'm certainly not missing some parts of my old job. Wait until P&T have to make business decisions on here. Some people hated AC, some people hated Joan, some people hated (Epic) Tricia, and plenty of people hate(d) me. People always hate being told they can't have their cake and eat it too.

Pretty sure @Philpug and @Tricia make business decisions here nearly daily. And people here have been told they can't post certain things. At least one person has left because of that I believe. Moderation is not an easy job (I've done it) but the tone taken by the site owners and moderators helps to lead the community in a direction that requires less dramatic moderation.

 

[Tyler Wenzel]

Pretty sure @Philpug and @Tricia make business decisions here nearly daily. And people here have been told they can't post certain things. At least one person has left because of that I believe. Moderation is not an easy job (I've done it) but the tone taken by the site owners and moderators helps to lead the community in a direction that requires less dramatic moderation.

Completely agree with that. At EpicSki MNC never provided the resources for that and it caused problems. I was open about the fact I lived in the tropics and didn't get to ski very often. But I was also there as an administrator taking care of the important non-skiing jobs that someone had to do. I never could've stepped into the community content leader role that others did. Unfortunately with the departure of Phil and Tricia I was left without a complement or team to fill the roles I couldn't.

The blame never ended up going in the right directions and my attempts at trying to channel it only lead to more criticism. Instead of blaming the OTS folks for not participating more (who were overworked as it was due to OTS also being understaffed) or my lack of ski credentials (which I do lack, but people don't understand the role of the admin side of the forum), the blame should've been pushed more on MNC not making Epic a priority enough to give it it's own full blown staff. That fact was 90% responsible for the problems at EpicSki and got maybe 20% of the complaints. I always tried to do the best I could with what I had. Unfortunately that was taken by many as apologism because I was willing to listen to both sides rather than blindly screaming anti-corporate rhetoric.

I've moved on from EpicSki. I'm working as a teacher for an online school based out of Miami and focusing more on the small tourism business that I run in Costa Rica. It's not as fun as EpicSki was, but less stressful too. I check in here once every month or so just to see if I've been PMd or @ mentioned, but that's about the extent of it anymore.

 

[Sibhusky]

In any case, comparing Epic (think London) with Pugski in its current state (think Kalispell) is ridiculous. When Pugski gets as huge and diverse as Epic had gotten, then we can talk about it.

 

[Tyler Wenzel]

In any case, comparing Epic (think London) with Pugski in its current state (think Kalispell) is ridiculous. When Pugski gets as huge and diverse as Epic had gotten, then we can talk about it.

Exactly. I didn't mean to imply P&T don't make business decisions, they most certainly do. What I more meant was that at some point in the future there may be moments like in the history of EpicSki where you have to decide whether to censor discussion of a topic or risk being sued (the dismissed Sunshine Valley Patrollers threads), whether or not to migrate to a new platform (vB vs. Huddler), whether or not to ban certain users when overtime bad blood develops between certain members (or choose to be more heavy handed to prevent bad blood from forming).

All those decisions over time, some big, some small will cause some people to love you, some to dislike you, and perhaps a few with a visceral hatred of your decisions enough to threaten to blackmail you even on other sites. The dynamic is further complicated by the fact that sometimes the good decisions for the long-term good lead to more haters and less lovers and the bad decisions for the long term health are the ones that the mob agrees to in a moment of heated controversy. And the reward for all that dedication and hard work is like raising a Benjamin Button. The discussion level starts off sophisticated and colegial and eventually you're spending half your time trying to train people how to talk and not to rub their all over the walls.

Its a hard job and I wish you all the best in forming a new online home from the ground up. May you learn from the mistakes and successes of past experience.