2007 A2K Year in Review

Well, the year's almost over. And the many A2K managerial and creative teams and I hope you have all had a good 2007 and as much fun (with a little learning, too) on Able2know as we have. Huzzah and good times in 2008!

Here's some information and a review of last year that we hope you'll find of interest.

2007 was an eventful year. Every time you turned around, it seemed, something was happening. A2K was on the move in a lot of ways, including literally, and we all felt at least some of it.

Passings
The first passing of 2007 was kev, who died on or about January 23rd. See: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=90481
We best knew him for riddles but apparently he also owned a farm.

No passing was felt more than that of timberlandko. On March 3rd of 2007, his heart gave out while he was in front of his computer. The members of A2K lost a good friend and the moderating team, well, we lost one of our own. It was to our great honor to identify him as a moderator and now, with his title, everyone knows.

timber was on staff since January 3, 2003. It did not take a lot of discussion for Craven and I to decide that we wanted him to join us. He is a big part of the success of A2K and his fingerprints are all over the site. It was my great sorrow to announce his death here:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=93052
He posted about Big Sam (his great dog) here: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=88153
There were numerous tributes, references and remembrances, such as:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570178#2570178
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570188#2570188
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570195#2570195
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570198#2570198
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2569921#2569921
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2569924#2569924
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2569956#2569956
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570010#2570010
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570030#2570030
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570264#2570264
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570274#2570274
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570464#2570464
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2570555#2570555
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=93087
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=88153&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=91965&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1960
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2571408#2571408
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2571996#2571996

JoanLee passed away on April 10, 2007.
Joan was known for her political activism, although she was more active on Abuzz than on Able2know. The best tribute to her is that persons from all across the political spectrum tipped their collective hats to her upon her passing.
Tribute topic: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=94543
Informational post: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2605836#2605836
Her profile: http://www.able2know.com/forums/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=229
Second tribute topic: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=94621
Third tribute topic: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=94602

Olen passed away on May 25, 2007. He was a World War II combat veteran and was 84. Many of us remember him from Abuzz days when he would talk about his airplane.
Obit topic: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=97995
Miller posts the official obit: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=98134


New Beginnings
Bella Dea gave birth to Adriana Grace, on August 5(?), 2007.
See: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2795076#2795076 and
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2796562#2796562

snood married the beautiful Cheryl, on July 7th, 2007.
See: http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2749687#2749687

shewolf married the lucky Mr. Wolf (Ian), on November 19, 2007
See: http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2950184#2950184

Thomas moved to Iselin, NJ, in December,
see: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2973651#2973651

A2K itself morphed, into a .org (rather than a .com), on Sept 23, 2007, see: http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=103946
And now it's on its way to being owned by a new group, see: http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=108311


Numbers and Stats
Number of Posts
We're currently running at a clip of about 5,500 - 5,700 posts/day. The 5,700 figure comes from by dividing about 3 million posts by 5.25 years and then by 365 days to get a rough daily estimate. But we're possibly closer to 6,000 posts in a day because things were very slow for the first .25 of a year we were up. This is more posts per day than at this time last year.

Membership Numbers
We had quite an '07. We passed 25,000 members in late October of '04 (hence, after about 2 years' worth of existence), but that figure was doubled in December of '05 (e. g. about 13 - 14 months afterwards). We hit 65,000 members in early December of 2006. We hit 75,000 members on September 6, 2007, see: http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2841683#2841683
I suspect that we could see our 100,000th member in about mid-'08 or so

Oh, and we had a birthday of our own, see: A2K is five years old today! http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=102077

Big-time Posters
Numbers are up, big time, but the number of big-time posters remains relatively steady. 517 people have 500 or more posts. There are 555 people who have 400 or more posts, and 633 have 300 - 399 posts. The rest have fewer or no posts. 46,539 members have zero posts.

Dutchy (http://www.able2know.org/forums/search.php?search_author=Dutchy) became our first Guru, in about late May. What title will he get when he's amassed 100,000 posts? By the looks of things, that'll be some time in 2008. What do you think Dutchy's next title should be?


Expertise, Traffic and Forums
Expertise
Members have astounded us with their knowledge of everything from Spanish architecture to how to take a horse's temperature to understanding music theory to how to get an acting career started.
We continue to perform a good service helping people get (and keep) Spyware off their computers, but the loss of timberlandko does make that harder to do as he was so very good at that.

We offer good relationships, child rearing and pet care advice. We offer a good place to debate the issues of the day.

Traffic
On www.alexa.com, our traffic ranking has been good, see:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=www.able2know.org Throughout the year, we've consistently reached about 40 persons per million on the web. In contrast, very large sites, such as CNN, reach about 12,000 web users per million. We're #507 (down a few notches since last year;
some of that has to do with the changeover to a .org) on Bigboards.com's list of the largest Internet forums, see: http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=posts&p=26 (these are ranked by number of posts). We're #577 (down considerably from last year) when it comes to number of members,
see: http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=members&p=29
When you limit to just phpBB boards, Able2Know is #32 (up from last year) by number of posts, see:
http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=posts&filter=phpBB,all&p=2 and is
#57 (down a little) by number of members, see:
http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=members&filter=phpBB,all&p=3

Spam
It's no secret that there's been a boatload of it, particularly some rather hard core pornographic stuff. The Moderating Team has done an incredible job keeping the number of spam views down and getting it off the public boards as quickly as possible.

You may not realize that the Help Desk also gets enlargement spam, drug spam and even Nigerian financial spam. The Team has done Herculean work wading through the trash and getting rid of it as quickly as possible so that we can serve you, our members, more readily and efficiently.

Every report of spam is helpful to us. Even if your report is one of several, that assists us, because it shows us just how urgently we should act to pull a particular post or topic. You can contact the Help Desk by clicking Contact Us at the very bottom of any page. Just follow the
directions on the left (Note: if you click on a post, then all you need to do is write the word spam in the comments box, select SPAM - Promotional Post from the drop-down menu and click submit) and we will act upon it as soon as possible. Our continuing mission is to assure that the same cannot be said about the postings on Able2know. And I'm proud to say that the Team is doing just that. Down with spammers!


Forums
The Philosophy & Debate forum in particular has seen a surge in posts. In fact, all of the forums have surged in terms of postings, so featuring and defeaturing is happening more quickly. Topics are being turned over more rapidly. Blink and you'll miss some of them. If anyone is interested in featuring and defeaturing, or has suggestions or questions, the Help Desk can help.



Top News Stories
The world turned and spun and the changes were chronicled, debated and deconstructed on A2K.

The biggest news of the year was probably the shooting at Virginia Tech. Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2613551#2613551

The California wildfires were a personal cause for concern as we feared for A2Ks' lives and homes.
Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2910228#2910228

The American Presidential debates and the overall campaigns were a mainstay of discussion.
Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2691837#2691837 and
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2949717#2949717

Astronaut Lisa Nowak and her creative use of adult diapers elicited all the expected responses.
Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2513888#2513888

Anna Nicole Smith's death and the subsequent fight for custody of her daughter captured our attention.
Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2516246#2516246

The Minneapolis bridge collapse scared us (what if we were the ones commuting home that day?).
Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2788259#2788259

Barry Bonds was a lightning rod in the Sports & Fitness forum.
Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2861829#2861829

Senator Larry Craig taught us that toe-tapping in an airport bathroom stall can lead ... elsewhere.
Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2828706#2828706

Michael Vick's arrest and eventual sentencing roused strong passions. Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2819901#2819901

Jena, Louisiana's troubles sparked debate on the symbolism of a noose. Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2881652#2881652

Al Gore won the Nobel Prize -- and A2Kers had mixed feelings about that. Among other places, see:
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2896037#2896037



In Conclusion ....
Able2know has grown and progressed in ways that were hard to imagine just a few years ago. Although we are saddened by the deaths of kev, timber, JoanLee and Olen, we are generally pleased with 2007 and hope to make 2008 even better -- and you, our membership, are the key. We're looking to meet and interact with all of you in the coming year.

On to bigger and better things.

Thank you and have a marvelous New Year.

Signed,
jespah and the Administrative, Developmental, Portal, Feature/Defeature/Move and Moderating Teams at
www.able2know.org
Happy New Year!