Last month, we shared the news that Vox Media and SBNation were cutting ties with most of their hockey sites, including On the Forecheck. At the time, they had planned to do that at the end of this month. Some delays in the process now mean that they’ve extended the separation to the end of March.
We’ve also gained some more information in the meantime. Among other things, Vox will be letting us keep the On the Forecheck name. We had always planned to continue to provide Nashville Predators coverage to you all, but it’s great to know that we’ll be able to keep the site name and that your bookmarks will still work.
We’re setting up new web hosting and figuring out how to transfer as much as possible from the SBNation version of OTF. Some things will probably be lost, like old comments; we need more of the back-end information than we currently have to say for sure. We will do everything we can to keep as much as we can intact.
If you haven’t already participated in the community survey, this is a great time to do it. As we work to set up a new site, we want to know what you’re expecting or hoping for from us, and what we’ll need to do to meet your expectations. The responses we’ve gotten so far have already helped us make some decisions about how the new site needs to function; we’ll also be working to prioritize the kinds of articles you’re most interested in.
And, as mentioned before, we have a GoFundMe set up to cover staff operating expenses while we work to get sponsorships and/or reader support in place, as well as cover the initial expenses of going independent separate from SBNation. If you’re able and willing to donate, or even share on social media, we’d appreciate that very much.
We hope to have more news for you soon about the move.