A2K 2009 Year in Review

Well, the year's over. And the many A2K managerial and creative teams and I hope you have all had a good 2009 and as much fun (with a little learning, too) on Able2know as we have. Huzzah and good times in 2010!

Here's some information and a review of last year that we hope you'll find of interest.
2009 was an eventful year. Every time you turned around, it seemed, something was happening.

Member News

A2Kers engaged in all sorts of shenanigans, both serious and silly, throughout the year.

maporsche got married: http://able2know.org/topic/121925-1#post-3389239
So did mysteryman! See his profile for details.
Seed came home: http://able2know.org/topic/138691-1#post-3828645

Marathons were run, as were 5K races. A2Kers watched their diets, but also exchanged recipes. Some A2Kers saw the insides of hospital rooms, more than anyone wanted to.

We smiled at the antics of Ya-Ya, Chiquita, bean, sozlet and Mo. We worried when sonpad became ill. We shared in the triumphs of little Calamity Jane and Linkat's own, and other little and not so little ones.

A2Kers' pets also commanded our attention in 2009. Every photograph was a treasure, every story a joy. We look forward to more news of the young, and the not so young.

Expertise, Traffic and Forums
Expertise
Members have astounded us with their knowledge of everything from the history of the Civil War to how to breed goldfish to how to answer children's most challenging questions.

We offer good relationships, child rearing and pet care advice. We offer good Latin translations and fair Hebrew translations. 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/siteinfo/www.able2know.org Throughout the year, we've consistently reached about .004 persons per million on the web. In contrast, very large sites, such as CNN, reach about 1.75 web users per million.

We're #23 on Bigboards.com's list of the largest Internet forums using English and written in phpBB, see: http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=posts&filter=phpBB,EN&p=2 (these are ranked by number of posts). We're #36 when it comes to number of members,
see: http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=members&filter=phpBB,EN&p=2
The membership figure on Big Boards is misleading and out of date (the real figure is over 98,000). Both figures have slipped a bit since 2008.

It is a certainty that we will exceed 100,000 members in 2010. Remember when there were less than 100 of us here? Less than 10?

Spam
There's been considerably less since the changeover to the new A2K. 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. And, no, it's not automatic. We still depend upon your reports to help us!

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.

Some things to remember when it comes to spam.
(1) Report it (please)!
(2) Don't vote it down (makes it harder for us to find it).
(3) Don't vote it up (once it hits a particular threshold of positive votes, it gets onto the Twitter feed. And in that way, the spammer gets more free publicity).
(4) Don't tag it, even to tag it as spam (that votes it up, see #3).
(5) Don't comment on it, even to scold the spammer (that votes it up, see #3).

So, to make it simple: Please just report it. If it's well and truly spam, we'll pull it as soon as we can, usually within about 48 hours or so. If it's not spam, then the topic will still be out there after that amount of time. And then, of course, feel free to treat it like any other A2K topic. But please report it and then give us a chance to take care of it.

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 Report on a post, then all you need to do is write the word spam in the comments box, and click submit) and we will act upon it as soon as possible. Our continuing mission is to assure that spam is off Able2know as soon as possible. And I'm proud to say that the Team is doing just that. Down with spammers!



Forums
Interest continues to surge in many new areas of A2K. Old chestnuts were found again and new topics took off.

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

American politics continued to be a mainstay of discussion, but A2Kers also talked about the balloon boy, John and Kate and their ongoing debacles and, of course, all manner of sporting events. We fretted (a little bit) about the H1N1 virus and followed Sonya Sotomayer's confirmation hearings. We marvelled at the new technology in the Avatar film and made and shared playlists, all while considering purchasing Kindle readers. The economy kicked a lot of us in the butt (myself included), and American involvement in Afghanistan continued to concern us all. We marked the passing of many of the famous, paying tribute to Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Walter Cronkite and Senator Ted Kennedy, among others. The Fort Hood shooting sparked a number of debates and we admired Sully Sullenberger's nerves of steel as he landed a plane in the Hudson River. A2K was, at times, the first place any of us even heard some of these news stories, and it was often one of the only places where we could discuss them in depth, and intelligently, even if it was with people who didn't always see eye to eye with us.


In Conclusion ....
Able2know has grown and progressed in ways that were hard to imagine just a few years ago. More surprises are in store in 2010 and you, our membership, are the key. We're looking to meet and interact with all of you in the coming year.

I cannot imagine a group of people I would rather spend 2010 with.

Thank you all and have a marvelous New Year.

Signed,

jespah and the Administrative, Developmental and Moderating Teams at
www.able2know.org
Happy New Year!