2009 Iron Butt Rally - Official Daily Reports

[mdisher]

The Media Relations seminar was BRUTAL!!! Riders were told in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that there will be ABSOLUTELY NO blogging, twittering, faceboooking, or any of that weird shit. Bob Higdon, Legal Counsel for the Iron Butt Association delivered a scathing rebuke to riders who are writing some complete shit on there blogs (no, none of our FJRForum guys).
More later....

WTF?!? Can't wait to hear the more part.

I understand the clamping down on outside help and fully support that, but I'm not drawing the direct connection to blogging/twitter/facebook. Almost all of those are broadcast mediums and useful for 'I am here' type stuff and to keep those trying to follow your pursuits up to date.

Hrm...

 

[Rogue]

Do you think one spare will be enough? :lol:

WOW, lots of wings. I wonder if there have been enough final drive issues to make riders think twice about BMW's in the IBR.

Here's how whacked out this BMW final drive situation is.... we have two IBR entrants who are actually carrying an entire spare final drive assembly in their top boxes.

 

[FastJoyRide]

I can get into the IBR website using the clicky and see the daily reports listed, but when I click on them all I get is blank screens. Anybody have any idea what the issue is? I'm using IE 8 if that matters.

 

[Rogue]

I had no problem with Fire Fox.

I can get into the IBR website using the clicky and see the daily reports listed, but when I click on them all I get is blank screens. Anybody have any idea what the issue is? I'm using IE 8 if that matters.

 

[beerme]

The Media Relations seminar was BRUTAL!!! Riders were told in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that there will be ABSOLUTELY NO blogging, twittering, faceboooking, or any of that weird shit.

Thaaaanks, RenoJooooohn :angry:

 

[Sportster]

I was reading the daily report. Is this years scribe a BMW guy? Maybe being an FJR fan, I'm biased, too, but the scribe seems to be shilling and covering for BMW.

Sportster

 

[Warchild]

:lol:

No, I would not classify Tom Austin as being a "BMW guy".... not currently, anyway. He was for many, many years, true, but no longer... he rides a Gold Wing nowadays.

And he has no problem stomping BMW's dick in the dirt as necessary.

 

[kaitsdad]

:lol:
No, I would not classify Tom Austin as being a "BMW guy".... not currently, anyway. He was for many, many years, true, but no longer... he rides a Gold Wing nowadays.

And he has no problem stomping BMW's dick in the dirt as necessary.

No shit !

 

[dcarver]

Dang, sounds interesting and I'm clueless. Last year someone had an audio blog and it was excellent. Not to be this year? Can someone PM me and tell me the details? I'll keep my mouth shut. Hell, I don't have no blog or stinkin Tweet accounts.. just sayin'...

 

[Bounce]

I'm not drawing the direct connection to blogging/twitter/facebook.

1. during the heat of the rally it's easy for words to be injudiciously used in a way that can be easily twisted. anyone with experience working with the media outlets usually has more than 1 story like that. in the pre-rally briefings of yore, ALL riders were advised to NOT SPEAK AT ALL to the media because of this. not because of the Rider's intent but of the unintended outcome. when the Rider becomes the media there's even less review of the content prior to publication (personal second looks included). in the case of the IBR there are those who will take things out of context and twist it if given the chance so why give them that chance?

2. if the rider is truly intent on A) finishing, B ) finishing safely, C) finishing well, they have no business diverting their attention from job #1 (routing and riding) for frivolities like blogging and twittering.

 

[Bugnatr]

It isn't just IBA and the media. In my business my employees are instructed if something happens on the job where the media gets involved they are to not to speak to the media , period! Those dickheads with a mic can't be trusted under any circumstance.

We all know how they like to demonize the evil motorcycle riders.

 

[Warchild]

With regard to all these little blogs/tweets/facebooking that riders have set up:

Forget it. It is not happening. There will be NO blogging/tweeting or any of that shit this year, on penalty of disqualification. So don't count on them from any of the riders.

No, I am not kidding. Let me be clear here:

Any IBR rider who makes any blog entry, tweet, texting, audio, etc, and make it after 10AM EDT Monday, 24 Aug, it it makes it to the internet, EVEN AFTER THE 11-DAY EVENT,they are subject to disqualification.

This is no shit.

 

[mdisher]

- snip -
Any IBR rider who makes any blog entry, tweet, texting, audio, etc, and make it after 10AM EDT Monday, 24 Aug, it it makes it to the internet, EVEN AFTER THE 11-DAY EVENT,they are subject to disqualification.

This is no shit.

With respect, this is fuckin stupid is what it is.

Are they also prohibiting anyone from writing a book after the fact? Posting their account and memories? If you can't share the adventure then that takes a whole lot of the fun out of it.

Most blogs are just that, personal logs, almost real time accounts. Skipping the publisher and all the BS in between.

They are not necessarily media outlets, or newsworthy items. The are not direct interfaces with the press.

I get that the media/press almost always screws it up and twists things. If there's details they don't want discussed publicly that makes sense, list what those are.

That's the nature of the beast, and if they think for a minute that the media who is against the IBA and the IBR cares if there are no tweets, blogs or facebook status updates they'd be highly mistaken.

So basically I'm not buying the media angle, I suspect it's still related to the aspect of team shenanigans...

I can't wait to hear the official reason behind this.

 

[bikesniffer]

- snip -
Any IBR rider who makes any blog entry, tweet, texting, audio, etc, and make it after 10AM EDT Monday, 24 Aug, it it makes it to the internet, EVEN AFTER THE 11-DAY EVENT,they are subject to disqualification.

This is no shit.

With respect, this is fuckin stupid is what it is.

Are they also prohibiting anyone from writing a book after the fact? Posting their account and memories? If you can't share the adventure then that takes a whole lot of the fun out of it.

Most blogs are just that, personal logs, almost real time accounts. Skipping the publisher and all the BS in between.

They are not necessarily media outlets, or newsworthy items. The are not direct interfaces with the press.

I get that the media/press almost always screws it up and twists things. If there's details they don't want discussed publicly that makes sense, list what those are.

That's the nature of the beast, and if they think for a minute that the media who is against the IBA and the IBR cares if there are no tweets, blogs or facebook status updates they'd be highly mistaken.

So basically I'm not buying the media angle, I suspect it's still related to the aspect of team shenanigans...

I can't wait to hear the official reason behind this.

+1

... censorship in the land of the free?

 

[mdisher]

2. if the rider is truly intent on A) finishing, B ) finishing safely, C) finishing well, they have no business diverting their attention from job #1 (routing and riding) for frivolities like blogging and twittering.

Horeshit!

You might as well be saying that if you're serious about finishing you

- need to Ride Brand X bike

- wear certain underwear

- only sleep when it's ideal.

- won't need to do math in your head to stay awake or hold off the boredom.

a blog by definition is simply a personal journal. People have kept journals/notes since the dawn of man. Don't piss on the method someone might use to facilitate their journal.

You might write in a note book, or on the rally book, others may choose to send a tweet. If you can do it from the bike safely and it doesn't give you an unfair advantage, WTF?

 

[BwanaDik]

In this particular instance, it might be a good idea to restrict BS blasts thru the internet. This rallye is unique and could (and has been in the past) be portrayed as dangerous and a potential threat to the general public. I saw up close and personal how poorly informed the general public (and the media in particular) is about motorcycling in general when we testified about the lane splitting law in Austin. And some dufus signed up on whatever forum it was that we were all watching John Ryan do his run on, just to complain about dangerous he was. His only posts were negative.

All organizations generally restrict their members/employees from blabbing to the press in a disorganised way. The IBR is a perfect candidate to slam in the worst way and give motorcycling another black eye if, heaven forbid, an incident were to happen during the rallye. Part of the reason this rallye works is because it's only known about by a handful of people.

And, in the end, it's the IBA's rallye, if you don't want to play by their rules, don't come. It's their game, they can make up any rules they see as fit.

Edit: Hope this isn't derailing this thread. Admins, move it to a separate thread if this discussion continues? I think it needs to be discussed but possibly not here.

 

[user 213]

With respect, this is fuckin stupid is what it is.<snip>

I can't wait to hear the official reason behind this.

A couple of points to consider. The IBR is NOT a spectator sport. It's an individual challenge within a privately organized event.

Sure, you want to see/hear/read everything in real time and that's great, but you don't get to decide that. Accept that and don't whine about it.

Anything you can see/read/hear, so can anyone else. That doesn't help keep the event low profile. And it needs to be low profile to survive and continue.

Reading comprehension - Riders can do what ever they want, after the rally. They just can't post/tweet/blog during the rally. If it becomes public knowledge after the rally that they did violate this rule during the rally, they get DNF'd after the fact.

 

[Warchild]

A couple of points to consider. The IBR is NOT a spectator sport. It's an individual challenge within a privately organized event.
Sure, you want to see/hear/read everything in real time and that's great, but you don't get to decide that. Accept that and don't whine about it.

Anything you can see/read/hear, so can anyone else. That doesn't help keep the event low profile. And it needs to be low profile to survive and continue.

Reading comprehension - Riders can do what ever they want, after the rally. They just can't post/tweet/blog during the rally. If it becomes public knowledge after the rally that they did violate this rule during the rally, they get DNF'd after the fact.

I can't add to this outstanding assessment, because it is completely accurate.

 

[Ignacio]

OCfjr nailed it.

Please, do yourself and fellow FJR riders in this rally a favor and don't turn this into an ugly thread that gets special attention by the management. If you can refrain from me, me, me things.....this forum might get some special nugget or two. Otherwise, it could go completely black as well and the official dispatches be the only words uttered about the rally.

It's your collective choice, but I can well imagine any more ranting and you'll find Warchild in here quickly and resolve things very curtly, quickly, and in all likelihood involve the 'close thread' button.

Peace and looking forward to sharing my adventure after the finish on September 4th.

Matt

 

[SockMonkey]

Peace and looking forward to sharing my adventure after the finish on September 4th.
Matt

Good luck and Godspeed, Iggy...! :clapping: