2006 A2K Year in Review

Well, it's all over but the shouting. And the many A2K managerial and creative teams and I hope you have all had a good 2006 and as much fun (with a little learning, too) on Able2know as we have. Huzzah and good times in 2007!

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

In Memoriam
This year, April was the cruelest month for A2K.

On April 26th, Anon-Voter lost his beloved JayBea, see: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2002529&highlight=#2002529
JayBea was not a poster on Able2know but she was known on Abuzz, where a lot of us know each other from.

Anon has apparently left A2K, see: http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2015210&highlight=#2015210
We wish him well.



Numbers and Stats
Number of Posts
We're currently running at a clip of about 1579 - 1600 posts/day. The 1579 figure comes from by dividing 2,448,915 by 4.25 years and then by 365 days to get a rough daily estimate. But we're possibly closer to 1600 posts in a day because things were very slow for the first .25 of a year we were up. This is about 1,000 posts per day more than at this time last year.

Membership Numbers
We had quite an '06. 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. I suspect that we could see our 75,000th member early next year (e. g. in 4 - 5 months, possibly a lot less), and then hit 100,000 members in about mid-'08 or so (maybe 12 months after that).

Big-time Posters
Numbers are up, big time, but the number of big-time posters remains relatively steady. 465 people have 500 or more posts. There are another 39 people who have 400 or more posts, and another 71 who have 300 - 399 posts. The rest have fewer or no posts. 41,111 members have zero posts.



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 and '05, 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 20,000 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 Toronto architecture to Somalia to soy milk () to movie scenes. We continue to perform 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 22,000 web users per million.

We're #483 (up a few notches since last year) on Bigboards.com's list of the largest Internet forums, see: http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=posts&p=256 (these are ranked by number of posts). We're #498 (down slightly from last year) when it comes to number of members, see: http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=members&p=25

When you limit to just phpBB boards, Able2Know is #30 (up from last year) by number of posts, see: http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=posts&filter=phpBB,all&p=2 and is #50 (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. 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 and the Portal also get 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. According to CNN, about 9 out of every 10 emails is spam, see: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/27/uk.spam.reut/index.html 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 Religion 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 death of JayBea, we are generally pleased with 2006 and hope to make 2007 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.com

Happy New Year!