2005 A2K Year in Review

Well, it's all over but the shouting. And the many managerial and creative teams and I hope you have all had a good 2005 and as much fun (with a little learning, too) on Able2know as we have. Huzzah and good times in 2006!

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

In Memoriam
They say that April is the cruelest month, but for A2K, it was February.

On February 6th, we lost truemale, see: http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1164710&highlight=#1164710

On February 20th, we lost cavfancier, see: http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1187055#1187055
His last post had been on January 25th, see: http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1145180&highlight=#1145180
A wake was held for him here: http://www.able2know.com/forums//viewtopic.php?t=46060 and his avatar has been retired from the gallery.

On February 25th, we lost anita_b, see: http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1193650#1193650

Then on October 7th, we lost Joannedorel, see: http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1608525&highlight=#1608525
Farewells were made on http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=61007
and on http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=61045
and here: http://able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=61024

Their contributions will never be forgotten, just as we remember Paola and mamajuana, and himself and of course Mary Pope from Abuzz.


Numbers and Stats
Number of Posts
We're currently running at a clip of about 1400 - 1500 posts/day. The 1400 figure comes from by dividing 1,720,026 by 3.25 years and then by 365 days to get a rough daily estimate. But we're possibly closer to 1500 posts in a day because things were very slow for the first .25 of a year we were up.

Membership Numbers
We had quite an '05. 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). I suspect that we could see our 75,000th member late next year (e. g. in 10 - 12 months, possibly a lot less), and then hit 100,000 members in about mid-'07 or so (e. g. 6 - 8 months after that).

Big-time Posters
Numbers are up, big time, but the number of big-time posters remains relatively steady. 376 people have 500 or more posts. There are another 39 people who have 400 or more posts, and another 57 who have 300 - 399 posts. The rest have fewer or no posts. 33,188 members have zero posts.

Subscribers
We now have 35 subscribers. See http://www.able2know.com/premium/ for more details if you are interested in subscribing.



Amazon Link, Portal and Able2Shop
Many members may not realize that the Amazon connection on the Home Page, the Portal and the Able2Shop link (under "Shop" at the top of every page; the Portal link is right next to that) are all related to the same thing, Amazon purchases through Able2know. A2K gets a small percentage of each sale. How small? Let's just say the profits were less than the amount required for two months' worth of hosting. Plus, profits were down since '04, by about 1/3. We are unsure as to why profits are down, but they have always been small. They are not relied upon for hosting expenses, but they're nice to have.

The Portal has over 19,000 listings and is not just about Amazon. Only the Music, Film and Books sections are. Otherwise, there is plenty of good information on Health, Travel, Reference, etc. Members wishing to contribute listings or make corrections to the Portal are encouraged to contact the Help Desk. A link ("Contact Us") is at the bottom of every page. Thank you.



Expertise, Traffic and Forums
Expertise
Members have astounded us with their knowledge of everything from Bernardo O'Higgins to dog training to carburetors to soccer. We do a good service helping people get (and keep) Spyware off their computers. 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.com Throughout the year, we've consistently reached about 70 persons per million on the web. In contrast, very large sites, such as CNN, reach about 25,000 web users per million.

We're #510 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 #450 when it comes to number of members, see: http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=members&p=23

When you limit to just phpBB boards, Able2Know is #37 by number of posts, see: http://rankings.big-boards.com/?filter=phpBB,all&p=2 and is #44 by number of members.

Forums
The Video Games 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.



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 some of our members, we are generally pleased with 2005 and hope to make 2006 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 wonderful New Year.

Signed,

jespah and the Administrative, Developmental, Portal, Feature/Defeature/Move and Moderating Teams at www.able2know.com

Happy New Year!