If you're visiting these forums at this point, it's because either (1) you were part of the original development group, (2) were specifically invited because you're cool, or (3) somehow found a back door in. The status now is this: one way or another we are going to have a message board and perhaps an even more elaborate Web site dedicated to skiing in the Mad River Valley. I've made both Sugarbush and Mad River Glen aware of what we were planning to do. The sugarbushforums.com domain name was registered and used to get us started here. Originally, I picked it for its search engine value due to it containing "Sugarbush" in it. In time, anyone searching for a Sugarbush forum should easily find it. This results in two concerns:
  1. I don't know what, if any, trademark issue SB will have with this. Again, I've been up front with them as I feel it's important to have their support. I do not want to cause any strain on my good rapport with SB. I'm awaiting their feedback.
  2. Similarly, SRO points out that the folks ay Mad River Glen may feel a bit slighted if we simply lumped their message board under a SB Forums heading. One option here is pointing madriverforums.com to this site as well so both are equally represented.
A few alternatives have been suggested. The one I feel has the most promise is "SkiMRV.com" (MRV=Mad River Valley). Not great from a search engine standpoint (realize that the domain name is certainly not the most important element though), but I feel it's something that could be effectively "branded". It's kind of catchy too and leaves the door open for the possibility of a portal or informational site beyond just the forums. I added a poll to this thread to get some quantitative feedback, but please share your thoughts here as well. Once we decide on an indentity, we'll go into full-bore guerilla marketing mode and get the word-of-mouth thing going.



Thoughts?