One More Rink Update

Mar 29, 2023 - 3:40 PM

Hello, lovely readers and members of our Japers’ Rink family!

As we head into the final days of March, we wanted to give you all a final update on what’s up, and where you can go to find us once the calendar flips to April (and beyond).

That’s right, you’re not getting rid of us that easily...here’s what you need to know:

• Yes, the site as it looks now – and for at least a short period of time, the URL www.japersrink.com – will cease to exist as of April 1. We will be moving our domain over as soon as we can, hopefully in the next week. Until we do so, here is the new landing spot:

JAPERSRINK.ORG

Because we’re official and fancy and stuff. And it was available. Anyway, please make sure to update your bookmarks or just remember to swap out that familiar “.com” for “.org” for the next little bit.

(If you go to that URL now, by the way, you will only see a “coming soon” page but we will get something launched as close to Thursday night/Friday morning as we can.)

• SCHEDULING NOTE: While our archives are being prepared for the transition, we have been asked not to go into the back end of the site starting at 9 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday 3/30), so we will not have an actual recap posted after tomorrow night’s game against the Lightning.
• Community was a priority for us, so in our new home, you will be able to comment on posts and we will provide you with posts to do just that. What does that mean? Well, we’re not going to go 100% dark this summer. We are taking a break as planned, but there will be some new content and some open threads to keep the site and the community alive heading into the draft.
• Please be patient with us as we make the move, not only on the day of but in the weeks that follow. The site that goes up on/around 4/1 will be, we hope, just a starting point for bigger and better things – so pardon our dust as we (much like the Caps) retool on the fly!
• Yes, we will still be called Japers’ Rink…for now. A new name may be on its way in the future but with so much change, we’re keeping things consistent wherever we can.
• Having said that, we ARE changing our look a little bit, and we’re excited to reveal our beautiful new logo:

Logo created by the amazing Tyler Duchaine (@tylerduchaine)

• As we make this move, all content will remain free…again, for now. We are still exploring options for a subscription model (and may be asking for your feedback on that in the coming weeks). While we don’t want to put too much behind a paywall, for many reasons, we may charge a nominal monthly fee for certain privileges, access, and/or perks – and we hope that won’t be too much of a burden on any of you. That said, if adding another subscription doesn’t fit your budget, we will do our best to make sure you still have access to as much of the site as possible. We’re just trying to support our writers and pay our operating costs.
• If you submitted the form to join our team, I promise that we will be reviewing and reaching out in the next month or so, once we get our footing in this new space. If you haven’t and still want to apply, please do so!

• Finally, thank you to everyone who has reached out offering support or assistance. We’ve taken some of you up on that already, will probably do so with more of you as we continue this journey, but we’re so grateful to have all of you - whether you offered help, contributed to the GoFundMe, or just said nice things about us/to us. We love you all and are excited for the next step!