@Josh @Billy and I have all been extremely busy lately, so this really snuck up on us to say the least! But we are now officially 1yr old!
For those who weren't around for the beginning, we'll start with a little story:
Another forum many of us were all part of, some of us for over 20yrs, was sold to a large company who buys up forums to turn them in to places to sell ads/harvest data. Once the announcement was made, I hit up Josh to pitch the idea of creating a new home. We brought Billy in to the fold due to his previous involvement as a mod on the old forum, and we got to work. Within about 1.5 days, we had the new forum up and running, and a few days after that, started sending out invites.
We had no idea the move would happen so quickly. Within 1 day, we had this place partying hard! It was immediately more active than the old home, and had such a happy, positive vibe. Many old friends we hadn't seen for a long time like @Mumbles and @Itchy Dog, and many others, came to show their support, leaving their mark on our new home along with everyone else that joined the discussion. I can't imagine our first days could have gone any better.
We made the decision from day 1 to make this place one that was by and for its users - not a cash grab that pollutes the place with sketchy ad trackers and data harvesting. By choosing to skip out on "the big bucks" in favor of a user-supported platform, we feel the amount of pride the community has for this place makes it truly something special. Anyone who supports this place financially is directly responsible for keeping the lights on. While the three of us admins pay in the time and effort we put in to this, we have yet to write ourselves paychecks. We'd rather keep re-investing in things that make this place better whether it be improving the user experience or getting more useful content on the way.
As the year progressed, we never stopped trying to find ways to improve on our new home while keeping the core of what always made it great unchanged, and we feel like we've been successful at that. We plan to continue exactly what we've been doing, learning from our trials that didn't work so well, and building on the ones that were successful.
Thank you again to everyone! We have more to post in this thread as our "Anniversary Week" progresses. I know Josh and Billy will have plenty to say on their own as well.
As much as we'd have loved to do some bigger celebration, our busy work/family lives have kept us to something low-key. We just want you all to know how much you're all truly appreciated!
For those who weren't around for the beginning, we'll start with a little story:
Another forum many of us were all part of, some of us for over 20yrs, was sold to a large company who buys up forums to turn them in to places to sell ads/harvest data. Once the announcement was made, I hit up Josh to pitch the idea of creating a new home. We brought Billy in to the fold due to his previous involvement as a mod on the old forum, and we got to work. Within about 1.5 days, we had the new forum up and running, and a few days after that, started sending out invites.
We had no idea the move would happen so quickly. Within 1 day, we had this place partying hard! It was immediately more active than the old home, and had such a happy, positive vibe. Many old friends we hadn't seen for a long time like @Mumbles and @Itchy Dog, and many others, came to show their support, leaving their mark on our new home along with everyone else that joined the discussion. I can't imagine our first days could have gone any better.
We made the decision from day 1 to make this place one that was by and for its users - not a cash grab that pollutes the place with sketchy ad trackers and data harvesting. By choosing to skip out on "the big bucks" in favor of a user-supported platform, we feel the amount of pride the community has for this place makes it truly something special. Anyone who supports this place financially is directly responsible for keeping the lights on. While the three of us admins pay in the time and effort we put in to this, we have yet to write ourselves paychecks. We'd rather keep re-investing in things that make this place better whether it be improving the user experience or getting more useful content on the way.
As the year progressed, we never stopped trying to find ways to improve on our new home while keeping the core of what always made it great unchanged, and we feel like we've been successful at that. We plan to continue exactly what we've been doing, learning from our trials that didn't work so well, and building on the ones that were successful.
Thank you again to everyone! We have more to post in this thread as our "Anniversary Week" progresses. I know Josh and Billy will have plenty to say on their own as well.
As much as we'd have loved to do some bigger celebration, our busy work/family lives have kept us to something low-key. We just want you all to know how much you're all truly appreciated!
