Forum Moderators: open
[webmasterworld.com...]
Thank you to every one who has been part of the creation and growth of this site. When I started on this domain a year ago, I had a set of goals in mind to reach within one year. All of those goals were filled at the end of Novemeber last year.
We went from averaging 10-15 posts a day, to now averaging 70 active threads and over 500 messages per day. We went from around 400 total posts, to now more than 10000 public and private with over 50k messages total. In February, we passed one million hits a month and haven't looked back.
We are now read by many major net entities - we have won some prestigious awards - been mentioned in numerous publications from The Register to ZDnet, and are the clear leader in discussion for the SEO industry.
I think probably the best two compliments the site has received over the last year was from a competing forum manager who said when he wanted to know what was really going on, he read here. The other was from a search engine administrator who said they knew their index had been updated when they read it first on WebmasterWorld.
Combine all that, and there is little doubt we have far exceeded the goals I set last year at this time. I must admit, at times it has been overwhelming.
My philosophy and strategic vision for the site was simple : give people a place to discuss things openly, respect their posts as though it was on their own site, and support them when and where you can. I laid out those guidelines because I felt so many sites on the net simply don't respect their own members. I knew as long as we pushed to keep the post quality high and engaged in quality discussions, that we could have something special here.
Moderators:
I would like to thank each and everyone of the moderators for their contributions over the last year. We wouldn't be here today without you. I only hope you are seeing rewards for your effort. Members should take a few minutes and wander through some of the moderators profiles and visit their sites. There is an amazing diversity among them and a real education into site design. At one point early this spring, we figured that between the moderators, we controlled the strings to over two thousand domains.
I also like to take a minute to thank a few people who've supported both the forum site and searchengineworld for quite a few years. RC (Bob) Jordan has at times put more time and effort into WebmasterWorld than many of us combined. Last fall when we were struggling to get going, I could always count on RC for a couple posts a day - that went so far in getting us started and keeping the place interesting. (hey, next week is Foo forum week - no rest for the weary!)
Littleman, NFFC, DaveAtIFG, Air, Oil, Stcrim, OldTimer, Engine, Seth, James "this is money" R, Fantomaster, and the others that were with us a year ago - thank you. Special thanks to NFFC for all the double checking and time he's spent here over the last year and little for the scripting and SEO help. I wish I could name everyone and point out their contributions. It is quite a team that I am honored and proud to be part of - the diversity from ages to backgrounds to geographic locations is something to see (we really are WebmasterWORLD).
And thank you to the silent partner for the support for the last year. She's put up with more than I care to remember.
The Future
If you've read in this sub-board lately, you know we been having some discussions about the future of the site. Let me reassure several concerned members that nothing has been decided yet. Nothing is set in stone. I brought up several different ideas to generate more ideas and get member feedback to them and to involve you in the process.
My management style is that of a consensus builder. I like to have everyone onboard and in agreement when the train leaves the station. All of the ideas and possibilities are being given due consideration one-by-one. I have not predecided which one it is going to be - or any of them at all. We are still looking for more options. Don't be surprised if we do some testing over the next few weeks.
Focus
I think everyone realizes that we have just about got the SEO end of things down pat. The real potential for more growth lies in expanding our horizons more toward site development and broadbased side administration topics. That doesn't mean we will abandon SEO in any way at all. Seo is what built the site and what continues to sustain it. We will just be broadening our outlook a bit more and promoting some of the general forums more aggressively.
Raise glass, here's to another great year!
The members here play a major role in shaping this, their own resource.
Come on now, let's thank Brett too for giving us this opportunity to be part of an excellent community.
*Clinking of glasses*
Here's to WmW.
Thanks so much to Brett for putting such an outstanding (and sucessful) effort into building a real community where the rest of us could make our contributions! Finding a balance between "running the site" and letting it truly be a "members' community" is a tricky balance, I'm sure... Brett's done it exceptionally well!
[big]Hear-hear![/big] ::clink::
go easy on the champers now :)
we dont need you falling over.
To think, I just came looking for 'The Collective' script, and I was trying to decide about cloaking... Today, The Collective has been nuked and I'm still deciding about cloaking.
Whew! Where to begin? I guess I came into Sew/WebmasterWorld as one of the few publishers with relatively high mileage on the website odometer, both in terms of traffic and years spent getting there. My web experience was broad, but not overly deep re any one facet of the webmastering or SEO business. Themes caught my eye because it explained some puzzling successes I was having at the time. But I do have a vivid recollection that my real concern was the state of the industry, the spidering SEs in particular. But there really wasn't anywhere to get a good overview of the business side of the internet.
FOO just happened. Brett had it set up as a systems message board and general catch-all. There were -maybe- 6 or 7 other forums dedicated to the specific engines and cloaking. We wanted to talk about Napster, what was likely to happen on the legal front. FOO was handy. Then, [to be continued in FOO week]
Anyway, it's been one heckuva year! Congrats to all that have made it a roaring success!
Congratulations to Webmasterworld, and many more years to come!
Nice job Brett, you deserve a pat on the back, (ok, you too RC) :)
"Cheers"
This site is the best ste regarding SEO on the net.
I think that it could be recommended from the "hearth deseas association"! No panic when you disappear from a search engine: have a look at Webmasterworld!
Webmasterworld is like a site clinic!
angiolo
hehe excellent site!
We've come so far and still got far to go!
Thanks again,
Brian
WebmasterWorld is the most pertinent and up to date SEO knowledge base ever.
Thanks to all administrators, moderators and members for making this place such a treasure.
Special thanks to our host Brett who invested so much time in it.
When I came in, SEO was a hobby for me. It is now a 45 hrs a week hobby, my main income source
and the topic my girlfriend do not ever want to hear about! :)
The results I can now provide to my clients makes them very satisfied.
Discovering WebmasterWorld was nothing less than a crossroad in my life.
Longue vie à WebMasterWorld!
