In an attempt to bring a more conversational tone and the ability to analyze more creative topics--sometimes merely tangentially related to mountain biking--on Singletracks.com, I recently started a weekly column titled "Over a Beer."
By recently, I mean back in April 2016, so this weekly column has been going for quite a while now, and has seen 38 installments (as of the beginning of February, 2017).
In my opinion, it's been one of the best projects I've launched in a very long time!
Here's some more background on this column:
You may have clicked on this article while asking yourself, “what the heck does he mean, ‘Over a Beer?’ I’m so not “over” beer—give me all the beers! I need more beers in my life!” No, you’ve got it all wrong. By “Over a Beer,” I’m referring to having a conversation, over a beer.
So often a person I am “friends” with posts something hyper-political, opinionated, or otherwise incendiary on Facebook, but instead of commenting back angrily, if it’s somebody that I actually care about, I ask them, “hey, do you want to go talk over a beer?” Because I would always rather sit down and get face-to-face with a friend and have a true heart-to-heart discussion, instead of exchanging context-less Facebook comments. It’s been my experience that those conversations are almost always interesting, beneficial, and end with the two of us still friends. A Facebook battle, on the other hand, rarely ends well.
I would personally love to chat over a beer with the amazing members here in the Singletracks community! I’ve corresponded with so many of you for so long that I consider you friends, even if we’ve never met face-to-face before.
But the reality is, I may never get to talk one-on-one with many of you—after all, there are about a million of you that use this website every month! So, I decided that I wanted to sit down with you all virtually, and talk “over a beer,” so to speak.
To achieve this dialogue, I’m launching a weekly column titled—you guessed it—“Over a Beer.” In this column I’ll share my opinions on various topics in the world of mountain biking, my observations, and my ruminations. Basically, I’m going to tackle any and every mountain bike-related topic that we might actually talk about if we met up and had a beer.
Fair warning: these columns probably won’t be fully-developed opinion pieces like this one. They probably won’t be well-argued dissertations like this one. Rather, you’ll be getting my thoughts and opinions in a raw, unfettered, conversational tone. So if you read an Over a Beer column that you think is missing something—guess what? That’s where you join the conversation! Share your insight, expand on what may be a brief or—let’s face it—simply shoddy discussion of a topic, by chiming in with your own insights, thoughts, and opinions in the comments section.
We are having conversation over a beer, after all.
Oh, and by the way, I totally encourage beer-drinking as you read these columns. And I’ll try to crack a cold one myself before reading through the comments section.
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