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The Merger: Race Director and PRNDL

To foster a more involved community, Race Director and PRNDL are merging their resources to make one site that does it all.

It looks like the cat’s out of the bag. Well, somewhat, considering @dofphish created a post over at Race Director about PRNDL. Don’t worry, David, you’re not in trouble; I’m glad to see as much enthusiasm and commitment around creating a new hub for enthusiasts to create content.

After DriveTribe shut down back in January, Axel (@axelpadilla) quickly and very effectively got a quality replacement up and running known to us all as Race Director. A lot of people signed up, while others scattered to other websites wherever they could find a new home. Race Director did a great job of being a home to many DriveTribers while maintaining a similar design.

Around the same time, I was working with the folks over at Vocal to pilot a program where we could launch a permanent DriveTribe replacement with a pre-existing structure to also be able to pay out creators. The advantage over there was a strong content creation platform, with the ability to write for a variety of verticals, while earning money, but there was not so much of a community.

Enter PRNDL – pronounced “prindle” – as an attempt to bridge the gap between the content creation and community building. With the launch of this site, I have been working with Axel on the prospect of merging Race Director with PRNDL. I know he’s been swamped and had been considering shutting down the site because of the costs associated with running it, both financial and time-wise, so I reached out to him to see if there’d be a way where we could save the work all the creators have put out and migrate it over to PRNDL. We’ve figured out a solution for that, but building it depends on whether there’s an interest by the creators to use that feature. Let us know in the comments if you’ll use it and migrate your work over, and we’ll get to making sure it’s set up and simple to use.

Meanwhile… What a Merger Between the Two Will Look Like

I’ve seen some chat about what the future of Race Director and PRNDL should look like and thought I’d address the topic.

As Race Director folds into PRNDL, PRNDL would retain its name. Aside from the resources spent to unsure our ability to run with this name, the acronym, while generic and relevant to most cars on the road, is one that is recognizable and stands for something bigger than just a simple car website. As DriveTribe had its sister site, FoodTribe, there are plans for PRNDL beyond what we’re starting off with. With time, the idea behind the name will become clearer to the end user, and who knows? Perhaps it may even grow on some who are put off by it. Either way, we welcome you.

Hope is not lost, however! The Race Director name will live on. It will be set up as a group on PRNDL, and Axel will be the organizer, able to delegate moderators, determine whether it be a private group exclusive to the original creators of RD or public for everyone to join, and members will be able to engage with each other through the group’s wall and discussion boards. Other niche groups will also be active with more added along the way.

Visually, PRNDL will be slowly adopting some changes to its appearance. Slowly, because we don’t want to break the site in the process. One such change has already been implemented, with a more content-oriented front page where you can quickly access the top- and latest- articles across various categories, as well as get a preview for what the latest activity is on the site.

PRNDL’s new homepage (before scrolling down).
PRNDL’s new homepage (after scrolling down).

There is a Dark Mode in the works. The reason why we started off with everything in a more neutral light mode is because there’s a lot of reading done on the site and dark text on a light background is best for our eyes. But don’t worry, I love myself a quality Dark Mode, and I’m just making sure all the colors work out well and debugging elements before pushing the feature live.

Axel has been very kind and gracious to lend a hand when he has the time, so some new features will certainly be a joint effort. I welcome him to the gang and am eager to see the work we put out.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank all of you who’ve signed up and have been active on the site. It truly means a lot that you’ve found it worthwhile and a place to continue creating the great content that you all did on DriveTribe. I appreciate all of you as well as all of the folks over at Race Director who will become part of this growing family we have here at PRNDL.

🙂

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David Olsen-Fabian
2 years ago

YES!!!! This is EXCLLENT NEWS! Wow. First off, I’m glad I’m not getting knocked off in my sleep. GREAT! Second, I can’t wait to see this happen. Both sites are amazing and have a really special presence. Merging them seems like the best of ideas. I was merely hoping RD would continue to be a place about motorsports and prindle everything else. Seems I was far from the only one with this idea. Major hats off to both Ammad and Axel. Thanks y’all. We wouldn’t have a new home if it weren’t for your tireless efforts. Hats off to both teams. Bravo!!! I look forward to this union and the future!!!!!!

Unknown Member
Unknown Member
2 years ago

Nice!

Gabi B
2 years ago

I’m unsure on the merger. I love RD as it is, none of the annoying quizzes and polls, just writing – admittedly prndl doesn’t have many yet but it was a thing on DriveTribe. I think it could work (and would save me time in posting stuff here and on there) but I’m still unsure. I like the fact that my IONIQ 5 review is in your screenshot 😉

WatermelonJuice 40014
2 years ago

yayyyyyy hell yeahhhhhhhh

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