Happy New Year!
RIBnet is
FIVE years old next week, and I just wanted to thank everyone for making it such a success.
Watching the forums grow and take on a life of their own has been fantastic. It takes a while to build up a critical mass of regulars to make forums work, but once they get going there's just no stopping them!
I did set up a RIBnet forum early on, but discontinued it in January 1999 due to lack of use (sparsely used forums are a pet hate of mine). Since May 2000 though the re-launched forums have gone from strength to strength. Most of the time this has required very little admin input from me, which is to the immense credit of all the members.
I am very protective of the forums though, and whilst differing views and lively debate are very welcome, I have occasionally waded in to discourage people from starting gratuitous wind ups, and posting completely irrelevant messages.
The high ratio of "signal to noise" is what makes the forums and the archive of messages really useful, and long may this continue.
Generally this approach has been welcomed, although inevitably some people see any intervention as an indication of my "ego/megalomania/stubbornness" -- to quote a recent email. I have even been accused of being a dictator. Imagine!
Hope 2003 is good for everyone, and I look forward to finally meeting some more of you over the next few months.
Cheers!
John
!
