Some of you might have noticed some subtle changes being made around our community. In the last month Lash sold the site, we moved it to a new server and have been working with the team to get organized. HondaJim and Ken have stepped up to help lead the community and are now Administrators. cmurphy84 & marylandmike have joined the team as moderators. I know you all are probably curious as to who I am so I'll first provide an introduction and then move on to our plans for WT.

I started my first forum nearly 9 years ago when I needed to exchange information with people about a project i was working on. I found it fascinating to see how a website could bring together so many like minded people and quickly my other project became 2nd inline to my new hobby of watching the forum grow and providing new feature based on members feedback. As the years passed I stumbled upon various forums that were started by hobbyists who no longer had the time or finances to keep them going and needed a new owner to take care of them. Unfortunately this is very common and thus I began to adopt forums. In 2005 I got sick of my job (if you have ever seen the movie Office Space, that was just like me) and I decided I wanted to try and work with forums full time. Unfortunately forums don't generate that much income so I had to cut my expenses and that's where the journey began.

I moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina where living was cheap and I could have a steak and beer for $5. Over the next 4.5 years I traveled around the world working from my laptop and living in places that were cheaper to live then the USA. I made it to 6 continents and had a blast seeing all kinds of crazy and different stuff. I got to go shark cage diving with great whites in South Africa, I rode a motorcycle from the state of Rio De Janiero to Sao Paulo in Brazil, went SCUBA diving on the Great Barrier Reef, had a blast in Thailand (and rode a bit there) and last but not least, I met my wife (she's Brazillian) along the way. Needless to say, looking back, I am really glad I choose to leave and go wonder around the world and work on starting my own small business.

At the current time I don't have a bike. I grew up riding dirt bikes and in college had a little 250cc commuter (which helped my GPA because I could park close to class). I like to ride and have rented bikes in Brazil, Thailand and Uruguay to see those countries. Although I would love to run out and get a bike, we have a 10 month old baby and my wife would worry. I don't want to put that stress on her at this point in our lives. Maybe in a couple years when she's not so sleep deprived I can come home with a surprise!

As I adopted more forums I was able to achieve economies of scale to lower the cost of operating a forum. I work with the members and enable them to lead the communities since often I was not a subject matter expert on the topic of the site. It's my philosophy that I am here to support the mod/admin team who are passionate members from the community. It's my goal to enable them with the tools needed to manage the community so they don't have to sit around waiting for me to take care of things. The team here at Wrist Twisters has been empowered and provided the tools needed to manage the community moving forward.

I know that their was some fallout in the past and some members have moved on. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about the past, we will focus our energy on moving Wrist Twisters forward in a positive direction. We feel the internet is a big enough place for all of our communities to coexist and hope our members will find the community that suits them best to call home. Some of the policies in the past regarding domain name restrictions have been lifted and we hope that others can appreciate our desire to be open. This is not an open invitation to abuse our site with spam but we feel it's important to be less restrictive and coexist in an amicable way.

Our plan for Wrist Twisters is to get back to our roots. jetblast started a site where a certain level of respect was required and plan to move the pendulum back that direction. We plan to develop new features based on your needs. We have already cleaned up a lot of the back-end systems and added tapatalk per Woody469's request so you can access the site from your iPhone, Android or BlackBerry.

We will not solicit any donations to keep the site alive because the costs to run the website will be paid for by advertisers. Guests will see more ads and members will see less ads. Although many people hate ads this is the best way we can ensure our members that their time and knowledge investment here will not dissolve because we are unable to pay the bills. For those who absolutely hate ads, I would suggest an ad blocker add on to your browser and you won't have to see any at all. Never the less we will work to keep them discreet and never show pop-ups or pop-unders.

I have heard repeatedly calls for the owner to be active. I want to set everyone's expectations upfront that I probably won't be chiming in all that often on the public forums. I do plan to be active working with the mod & admin team to make sure they have the tools to manage the community as they see fit. I am here to be the forum expert and they are here to represent the community and be the subject matter experts. I know this won't resonate well with some but please have faith in the management team as they will be the ones running the community, not me.

I know this announcement was LONG and probably pretty boring. If you read it all, thanks. Just know that we are going to work hard to return Wrist Twisters to the respectful community it once was and we look forward to coexisting with all the other motorcycle communities out there (there is certainly no shortage of them). If WT remains the community you want to call home, great. If not, then we hope your time online will be pleasant no matter where you choose to spend it.

Kind Regards,

Andy R

Jesus, Andy you've been around! Very impressive. I hope we can get you back on a bike. There are more than a few members down your way who I'm sure will be glad to help if pushing you into a showroom can be called help.
Thanks for taking the reins. This is a good place as you can see with a bunch of right on people.

Dave

You sound like a person who has been in the military, and rose throught the ranks and learned that it is best to delegate to the pro's just manage overall.

Also your travels sound like you have been around, I to dove the barrier reef (off of Townsville) Rode through the outback, rode in Thailand, Indonesia, and just anywhere I visited and got the chance.

I enjoy this site, I have not been flamed to bad, and I enjoy the people here, especially BigDaa, he is just a blast to read.

See ya on the road!

Man, great read on your travels! It's the good people on this site that have kept it successful. Glad you're here.

+1 on getting you back on a bike. I was 45 when I got the 919 and it had been well over 20 years since I had ridden.

I can tell you guys that the past week has been a snap. Things got done quickly and effeciently. Andy runs a good team. Glad you're here.

Hi Andy, Thanks for jumping in to take charge! I hope you'll jump into discussions here from time to time, but it sounds like you're a busy man!

Hell of a team we got there, thanks to you all for your participation

Andy, welcome aboard.

Quite a story you've got there, I can identify with the "office space" scenario, just not the world travel part that follows.
Here's wishing you & the "A-Team" & all the rest of us the best of luck with the next chapter in WT.

I was wondering what the hell was going on. Guess that explains Murphy's avatar comment. Sounds like things are heading in the right direction. Thank you Andy. I for one could care less if as the owner, you participate or not. As long as the Admins have the tools to do their job you can remain the man behind the curtain. Unless you have cool stories to share, then by all means post up. Sounds like you do. Anyway, happy travels.

Thanks for the welcome. The keys have been turned over to the mod/admin team and we should be set for a nice ride ahead.

Hello and welcome!(to your forum) This is a great place and it sounds like it's headin' in the right direction.

"won't be chiming in too often" hmf! *kicks andy in the shin*


But kudos on telling the usa If they can hire cheap labor, we can move where it's cheaper to live.

And good to know you've been around. Hope you (or the powers that be) won't put thumb screws on the less pc too badly.

In the meantime, *clink* welcome, and good luck.

I'll hit you up later about where I'd like to take the addiction thread.

No, it's not to rehab.

L/H

Glad to have you. I haven't been on this forum long but my time here has been very valuable and fun.

wait, wait.... WAIT, Did I just read the new owner dosen't have a flippin bike?


Oh no he didn't.

Hey Al Gore invented the internet and he doesn't even have a computer.

Also don't forget he is the face of energy conservation but refuses to turn a light off in his mansion.

I think that makes it okay for Andy R to run a forum with just a desire to have a bike. Right?

I would rather be honestly told that the owner won't be around and that the admins are in charge, than the empty promises of the past, Good on ya.

+1 It's been a breath of fresh air recently. Good things ahead.

Hey Justin! Hows things by you?

Not bad, been a busy summer! Rode a lot this spring but havent been out as much the last couple months. Got some shooting done, Traded/sold some guns, bought others, so I have about the same net amount in the safe.

sounds like heading in a great direction. I just wanna talk bikes, fight about some politics, maybe some guns as we buy a house up here....don't necessarily need to go HostelEuroTurboPerv in every thread...

Nice gig you've carved for yourself, Andy, and thanks to WT folks for accepting this responsibility.

Jon

andy, thanks for sharing a snipit of your life, very fasinating to read about people's experiences! i love this site in the short time ive been here, and would love to help oversee or manage things if extra help is needed. meanwhile, feel free to drop by from time to time and share a little of your experiences!

welcome, and thank you for choosing WristTwister.com

glad to see these changes Andy and as long as others have the powers needed to run the site and keep things on track I don't think anyone will mind that the actual owner is not around all the time. Thanks for keeping the site going.

+1 I like the new look!

Andy,

Se consequir um moto no futuro, CUIDADO nas ruas de brasil! Que coisa mais perigosa!

Andei la' por dois anos, e vi muitos accidentes de moto, quase nenhuma saiu bem.

Parabens no filinho! Tenho uma menina de dois anos e gemios estao vindo em Decembro! (tambem, meninas).

Espero que vc pode entender isso, se nao, sua querida esposa pode traduzir por vc, viu!

Que trabalho otimo com o website! Muito obridado por sua ajuda!

Ate' mais!

~in Idaho

Lisbon Idaho?

Yep. Me digs the facelift !

haha, something like that. I lived in Recife, Camaragibe, Joao Pessoa, Natal, and a few other places on the northeastern coast of Brazil. HOT. Gorgeous beaches, too.

Looks like WristTwisters is back on track, good job guys! Glad I stopped by this morning and discovered the new look and attitude.

This is a great site and a nice community. I participate regularly on another forum dedicated to VF/VFR's that's also deep in history, information and great members. These two sites are exceptions to many out there where the quality of deportment is lacking. I participate and read other forums from time to time where there isn't decent control by the mods and a lot of asses ruin them. Hat's off to you guys.

One of my fears is for great sites like this to disappear. There is so much great information here, particularly about the 919. I'm glad there are people around who care and keep the good ones alive. Thanks.

Glad to see you here again, Scott! A great new owner and members like yourself is what makes this place one of my favorite forums and online community. Cheers!

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

We'll be here. Our intent is to grow beyond the 919. If you know some good folks who are into other types of bikes get them to come here.

Looking good Andy R. While you people are preparing for winter its early spring down here in Tasmania looking forward to putting a few kilometers on my new Honda CB1000R naked. Cheers Tazzy.

I have been off for a while. I like the new look and site work. Welcome Andy, and new mods.

Sunny

But Andy R, have you ever skydived neked from an aeroplane?
Talk about freedom!
I to would love to be able to move somewhere else besides where I am and commence my adventures during my short time on earth.
I guess I'll have to brush up on my espanol to go live in the extra cheap

Haha, I bet. Too bad that freedom comes with a cost when you pull the ripcord.

wait.. WHICH ripcord?