Dear fellow Sandmaners,
It has been a very busy 2012 both on the website and personally, there have been some great moments in both areas and I trust the same with you.
During this holiday break I have been able to take a step back and think a little about things and I hope you can just take a minute to read through this long post as I try to go over some of the highlights as well as some of the hurdles, and some of the plans there are for next year.
First of all a huge and sincere thank you to everyone of you! I know many of you are really proud of this community and without your regular activity and input we would not be here today. I've been really humbled with the amount of members that find us and those that regularly join into discussions and help the forums grow.
Along with the thanks to our members I also want to say a big thank you to our moderators - Absinth, Jennie285 and QUP they have done a sensational job over the past year in making themselves available 'voluntarily' to everyone. It is a tough job and often thankless one with much of the work being done behind the scenes, without moderators the forum would grind to a halt. Their input, assistance and availability is bar none so a huge thanks to you guys!
As the year ends and we start 2013 it is also an opportunity to iron out some incomplete work and also plan for some new things. One of the big changes is to give the existing moderators a break from the work they have been doing and bring in some new members as moderators. I am looking forward to working with the new team and hope you will support them as they take on their new roles.
We've started a ‘grown up’ section on a trial basis and the usual suspects are getting involved and I appreciate that. Please remember it is still a trial and it does have what I would call adult content in there so enter and participate with that knowledge. Also the forums and sub forums have been moved around to make it easier to navigate and find topics into a logical order. I know it caused a bit of grief for some but in the end I think it has worked for the best.
We have also been able to source Sandman vehicles for several photo shoots, commercials and TV productions and a big thanks to our members that make themselves available for that.
In real life we meet people we don't always get along with, sometimes we have to work with them other times we are related to them but we live on. Even on our forums we meet people that rub us the wrong way or we don't see eye to eye - but everyone has demonstrated (or tried to) a mature attitude and moved on and I got to say that is a real credit to our community you guys really do look after yourselves and one another and as an Admin and moderator I really appreciate that.
In terms of website and forum traffic we have had an incredible 24 million hits this last year and over 100,000 unique visitors in that time, to me that is an amazing number, we have also used 200Gb of data. I would sure like to see us break these numbers next year!
Some of the new things that are going on in the background is a professional Sandman ID guide brochure made so you can print it out and keep it handy. I am currently getting a graphic designer to help finalise the design and layout, this will be something that you can download and print for your glovebox, or even access it via your smartphone or tablet. In a couple months I hope that our printer will have a new batch of mySandman bumper stickers to be available – there will be a limited colour range this time and you will get plenty of notice when they become available.
I am really looking forward to getting more content on the website, it seems to get a lot of new user traffic but because I am the only person who creates the content (and I’m not that knowledgeable) it is very slow. So I am putting a call out to everyone, if you have an article, story etc to submit let me know and we will get it up on the website. People want to read stories of cruises, how to guides, restoration projects... so be sure to contact me and we can get more content on the front page.
Another thing is I haven’t had an opportunity like I have in the past to make State visits and get to meet our members. In 2013 I plan on getting out there and having a few meet and greets – my first one will be in Melbourne next week so if you are free I hope someone will buy me a drink!
Anyway there is so much more I want to write and I congratulate you on getting this far, but I will wind up here and finish off by once again acknowledging your tremendous input on the forums, thanks to our moderators and I look forward to a sensational 2013 with you all. Be safe over the new year festivities if you’re with family or friends savour the time and enjoy responsibly.
Cheers
Blocker.
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