Meathead, here

[Alan Brice]

Cannot thank you enough, Meathead and all the other wonderful pitmasters that helped bring my Q game in outa the cold!🥩🍻

[Meathead]

Just havin fun!

[ssennott]

Welcome to the pit, it changed the way I cook out doors.

[UFLawdog]

As if Meathead wasn’t awesome already, I saw this in his latest book. Go Gators!

[Meathead]

UF Journalism School, Class of 71. Read this https://amazingribs.com/ruminations/...-fame-cookoff/

[UFLawdog]

That’s awesome! I’m B.S. Business and M.Acc. ‘98 and Law in ‘01. You need to be an honorary Mr 2-Bits.

[bmillin]

Founder, AmazingRibs.com 2006 - present

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Hello everybody, Meathead, here. I'm guessing you all know me as the founder of AmazingRibs.com. I want to thank you for your support and introduce you to Huskee, the Manager of this forum, The Pit. He is here to help answer questions, organize topics, stimulate debate, and make this a great place to learn. Now please go back to the main Introduce Yourself channel and click "New Topic" and introduce yourself! Tell us about your cookers, tools and toys, and what you like to cook.

Do you have an email address for comments? I'm a bit concerned about what is going on with Twitter these days.

[yakima]

Meathead, Huskee, Spinaker
I am interested in hearing more of the backstory of the creation of Amazing Ribs. My observation is that Meathead pulled together a consortium of moderators, IT experts, etc., which are pretty far-flung, with some of you never having personally met. How did that happen? Thailand, for instance? And how did charter and founder members find out and get on board?

In our current world, infected with division, conflict, and mercantile ambitions, this little group seems wholesome, healthy, and inclusive.

Perhaps this has been covered; if so, please point me there. And I really do not know where to post this. Thus far, I have been secretly proud that a Mod has never relocated a topic of mine.

Carry on,
Yakima, aka Phil

[Spinaker]

Speaking for myself, I was a member before I was on staff. I came across the site just like you probably did. I was looking online for information on how cook ribs! I have never personally met anyone on staff, in person.....which is kinda crazy, but I am used to that with my real job.

Founding members are the people that were here at the very start. Charter members are people that have been around a long time, just not in the first year or so. I joined the PMC in 2013!

[Sweaty Paul]

I think I, very luckily, stumbled across this site as I was looking to purchase my first smoker. The information on the page was great and helpful and there was no advertisement so I felt like I was getting the unvarnished truth. I decided to join to support a place providing me with the information. Glad I have been here everyday since.

[Meathead]

I will share the story below.

[Meathead]

I sold my wine magazine and decided to switch from liquid to solid food and swore I would never have the hassle of employees again. I had a neighbor who was a butcher and he challenged me to a rib cookoff and I was surprised that there was no website for BBQ lovers and no really good books. Lightbulb. I had some tech skills since I built the Food & Wine Network on AOL in the 90s. So I built AmazingRibs.com in 2005 (?) and started creating and testing recipes. Google found it and sent me a LOT of traffic. So it needed help and I started hiring. Jim Maivald came on as webmaster IT guy. Then Max Good to test and review grills and smokers. He lives about 2 hours away from me. Clint Cantwell (Memphis) came on to help. He was editor of Kingsford's website. He climbed to be Pres. I launched the Pitmaster Club in 2014 and when it got to be too much work I plucked Huskee (MI), Spinaker (MINN), and Jerod (TX) from among the most knowledgeable members to moderate. Last year we added Shiela (CA). Charlotte Wager (IL) came on to manage social media when it started eating too much of my time. Jim died tragically in a gym working out. Idiots didn't have a defibrulator or anyone medically helpful on duty. His assistant was Ray Johnson. He lived in Vegas but later married a gal in Thailand and moved there. Our editor Dave Joachim (PA) was recommended by my literary agent (MA). Ray's assistant is Alvaro and he lives in Mexico. He is working on our very cool app, watch for it in 2027. Free to members. Recently hired Nick Kindlesperger for PR. He was a restaurant critic for the Chicago Tribune and then PR for a brewery. I met Erica Blaire at a BBQ fest in Memphis and she blew me away. She started this fall and is working on videos. We have some outside consultants like Casey Markee a brilliant SEO expert and Dave has some freelancers helping with polishing the site. I am very lucky that only one person has left the team, SarahLynn, because she wanted to start a site abt Philippine cuisine. Otherwise they stick. These folks are running the site and I am, heaven help me, working on a third book. I hope I live to finish it.

[CaptainMike]

There are few things in my life that I can point to that I consider "life altering", but joining Amazingribs.com is one of them. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride, Meathead!

[DavidNorcross]

What a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing.

[Sweaty Paul]

Meathead great story. Thank you for sharing. Looking forward to book 3 as I have enjoyed immensely books 1 and 2.

[cruiseplanner1]

Glad to be a member of it. I guess I did not know how large the organization was. I have learned so much and enjoy the folks on the forums. Good group of people and no trolls.

[dpearce]

cruiseplanner1 I don't know if this page was new or not with the site redesign a few months back, but I had fun reading through each of these: https://amazingribs.com/about-us/meet-our-team/ I don't think everyone Meathead mentioned above is listed, but it's interesting how many folks have contributed!

[fzxdoc]

Your new ventures have been a boon to us mere mortals hanging out here in the Pit(s). Seriously though, it has been a fun ride for me since the late-oughts when I started looking for a credible bbq site, free of bickering and posturing. Having good information grounded so well in food science and food safety made it a bonanza for me. Joining The Pit in 2014 made it even better.

As CaptainMike said, there are few things in the recent decade or two that has brought me more pleasure than cooking a la Amazing Ribs, along with the wit and friendships I've found on The Pit. And it's all down to you, Meathead , and the great team you've surrounded yourself with. Kudos to you. And thank you.

Kathryn

[Stuey1515]

I could not have said it any better

[Sweaty Paul]

Well said.

[DTro]

Great history. This site constantly provides inspiration!

[Santamarina]

The one question yakima asked that I didn’t see answered yet is, “How did charter and founder members find out and get on board?”

Heres my recollection of events:

I’ve been using Amazing Ribs since probably 2009/2010. Before The Pit existed Meathead had an email newsletter that went out periodically, which I was subscribed to. It was in those newsletters that The Pit was first introduced. I remember reading about this great new part of AR for paying members. I wanted to join, but with a 1yo in the house I didn’t think I’d have enough free time to use it…so I watched the Founding Member and Charter Member status float by.

Finally got around to joining a few years later, and def regret not stepping up at the beginning.

…or at least that’s how I remember it. Pit veterans, feel free to correct where necessary.

[cruiseplanner1]

Well before my time. Like yourself I was looking over the site and used a few tips and then thought maybe I better join this group. It surprised me when I looked at my avatar earlier this year I have been a member since 2016. I had no idea it was that long, guess time flies. Not sure why I never noticed the date before.