Many Fan Sites; Some Overlap

It is no secret that Unlimited Hydroplane Racing has many Damn Smart Fans.  That’s even a tag for many of my posts.  Anyone who has seen a rooster tail knows what I’m talking about.  Smart, but passionate, too.

And there are many of us

I'm sharing me?Add the fact there are many boats, teams, race cities (even a couple of countries) and there will be a chance that some of the Internet identities will start to overlap.

Recently, when I shared an excellent image on Facebook (right), I noticed something that looked strange.  This looks like “I shared me.”

If you click through and look closer, this Unlimited Hydroplane Racing on Facebook is actually associated with Hydros.us, Russ’s Hydroplane Site.

This is not meant to disparage Russ.  Not at all.  In fact, it is great to have a resource like this, different from what I’m doing.  Russ seems to have a lot of information categorized. From Winner Lists back to the 60s to specific pages of wins and stats about Chip Hanauer, Jim Kropfield and Bill Muncey.  He has convenient links to the teams and to various other sites and some news items.

Way to go Russ!

Keep feeding us with great historical information and links to more info!  As fans of Unlimited Hydroplane Racing, we all benefit. (Hey, maybe UnlimitedHydroplaneRacing.com will earn a spot on Hydros.us some day!)

Not the same

Russ has a great site, but it is not the same as UnlimitedHydroplaneRacing.com.  Let’s break down the individual identities:

www.UnlimitedHydroplaneRacing.com

www.Hydros.us

Obviously, we have some overlap.  This site, UnlimitedHydroplaneRacing.com is fully branded Unlimited Hydroplane Racing.  Russ’s Hydroplane Site / Hydros.us uses Unlimited Hydroplane Racing as their Facebook page name, but uses HydroRacing as the link name.  With twitter’s requirement for names no longer than 15 characters, my Twitter handle takes the essence of Unlimited Hydroplane Racing and shoves it into a very small space.


What are fan boys to do?

New Facebook Title

I’ve taken a small step toward an attempt to help sort this out.  Notice on my Facebook page that now my title includes “.com” at the end.  At this time, I’ve held short of trying to change the Facebook user name because Facebook can get cranky. I don’t want to loose my connection to all my Facebook fans.  Facebook adds some stress by saying the user name can be changed only once.  I have to think through that one more deeply.

However I hope this is a step in the right direction to begin to pull apart some of that overlap.

In another attempt to help clarify, I tried to change my Twitter handle to stay within the 15 character limit.  Again, this is fraught with danger since there could be a loss of following.  In an effort to reconfigure, the best I could do in 15 characters was “HydroplaneRacin” so I left it alone.

Finally, I have added Hydro.US to my “Great Racing Web Sites” directory on the right side panel of UnlimitedHydroplaneRacing.com.

Suggestion

HydrosUS is a great brand.  It perfectly depicts not only Unlimited Hydroplanes, but any other water-based racing as well.  (Certainly more flexibility than UnlimitedHydroplaneRacing.com!)  My suggestion to Russ is to begin to rebrand his Facebook page as HydrosUS.  It could be an excellent improvement toward a consistent branding strategy.

Love of the Sport

At UnlimitedHydroplaneRacing.com, I continue to exhibit my love for the sport of Unlimited Hydroplane Racing.  If you want unique perspectives about our sport, odd-ball reactions to news items, want to weigh in on a fellow fan’s thoughts, or just need help being pointed in the right direction, you will always be welcome.

My hope is that with the small steps I’ve taken, I’ve added to the clarity of authorship.  There will of course continue to be some degree of overlap, but with continued small steps, it should improve in the future.

Thank you for your support.

Dave


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