Musings On Derbylife’s Second Year: Looking Forward, Looking Back

Two years ago today, Mercyless and I launched Derbylife, with the help of Gnosis, Assaultin Pepa of fiveonfive, Hurt Reynolds, and several other wonderful people. So much has happened since then—in the world, in derby, and in our lives. Mercy retired from the site last year, and new friends joined the team. Moneyshot is our Photo Editor. TK-Oh! was the hero behind the 2012 Photo Contest. Hale Yeah is a triple or quadruple threat, always willing to push up his sleeves and help out wherever he’s needed. Writers and photographers donate their time and talents so we can share stories, information, images, humor, and so much else.

Around any anniversary, I tend to think about what’s working and what isn’t. We have done some excellent things over the past year. I’m proud of the 2012 photo contest, our piece about the CaiRollers, and thrilled that just this week we had a piece from a skater who played derby in the 1980s and is back for more. I was overjoyed by the huge response to our first-ever writing contest last year, and I’m so excited to see the results of our first Junior Roller Derby Writing Contest, which is live now.

We’ve broken 4000 fans on Facebook, 500 followers on Twitter (that’s a bit anemic, maybe you can help us out?), and just within the last few weeks joined Instagram. We’re still getting the hang of it.
But we want to do better. For one, we don’t always publish as much new content as we’d like, especially lately. We would really like to bring in another editor to help manage the editing and publishing so that when I go out of town, the site doesn’t shut down. If you are interested, please drop me a line! ([email protected])

We also know that, as much as we are trying, we aren’t representing all of the voices in the derby community. We would love your help identifying and representing all the varied stories and experiences in the derby world. That means more pieces from and about refs, NSOs, fans, skaters young and old, coaches, moms and dads, derby people who are facing unique challenges, mascots, photographers, videographers, and everyone who makes this sport great. More pieces from and about players and teams across the world. Deeper, more personal explorations of the issues skaters and other derby people face. And we need your help to accomplish this, too.

In case you haven’t noticed, in the past few weeks, we’ve been running a survey. We know what we like to write and read, and we have a general sense of the types of content that seem to be popular, but we really want to know more about what you want from the site. We’ve gotten some very useful answers so far, and we’re hoping to get some more useful answers before we end the survey in a few weeks. This feedback will all be taken into consideration as we work to develop the site.

Since January, we have been working on creating a better Derbylife—Derbylife 2.0, we’re calling it. We’re so excited to announce that it’s almost here. We expect to launch within just a few weeks. The new site will give us more flexibility, make it easier for you to find content that interests you, and will be more integrated with social media so we can keep working on building the derby community that we’ve always imagined. I’m sure there will be bumps along the road, but we can’t wait to unveil what we’ve been working on. We’ve included some screenshots so you can get a taste of what’s to come.

We definitely need your help to make Derbylife the site that we know it can be. You can help us by volunteering, writing for us, sending us photos that you love (if you have the rights or have cleared it with the rights holder), reading and sharing pieces you like, and encouraging friends and teammates to check us out or follow us on your social media of choice. We also LOVE feedback, and are trying to make it easier to comment so we can hear your voices and work to provide you with a site that resonates with you. You can also always get in touch with us by email—at [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].

We can’t wait to see what Year 3 of Derbylife will hold. We hope you’re as excited as we are.

Sincerely,
Em Dash and the Derbylife Crew

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Em Dash

Em Dash is a skater with Gotham Girls Roller Derby, which she joined in 2008 after a brief stint with Suburbia Roller Derby. She is also a founding member and Editor-in-Chief of Derbylife.com. When she's not skating, she's editing, and when she's not skating or editing, she's hanging out with her tiny dog, Schlitz.

Latest posts by Em Dash (see all)

The Voice of Roller Derby en Français: Plastik Patrik - February 26, 2014
Derbylife 2013 Photo of the Year Winner & Gallery - January 30, 2014
The Man Who Shot The World: Axle Adams - January 24, 2014

About the Author

Em Dash Em Dash is a skater with Gotham Girls Roller Derby, which she joined in 2008 after a brief stint with Suburbia Roller Derby. She is also a founding member and Editor-in-Chief of Derbylife.com. When she's not skating, she's editing, and when she's not skating or editing, she's hanging out with her tiny dog, Schlitz.