SPCF, a 10000+ community

[BioWizard]

Today, SPCF is a 10,000+ member community. Boy am I the proud founder. Ten thousand+ members! I certainly had no idea this place would grow to this extent when I first started it some years ago. I look back at our humble beginnings, when it used to be just me, Forest, and a few others battling it out in the discussion arena, and I'm absolutely floored by how far the forums have gone. Thanks to each and every one of you for making this community a better place to be. A place where meaningful discussions can be had, friendships can be forged, and in a few cases, much more than that.

A special thanks goes to all the admins and the moderators, old and new, for upholding the values and the standards that make this place what it is.

All the more power to you SPCF, and may you continue to be a cyber refuge of sanity and critical thinking within the flood of irrationality that sweeps the interweb. You're far from perfect, but I have faith that you will always strive for betterment, and that makes you one of the best.

[Watson]

I'm no judge as this is the only forum I visit, but others I have meet here, and that ended up leaving, did so because the mods were enforcing the rules?

It also becomes clear after a short time, that if you are willing to learn, there are a great many members willing to share their time and knowledge. When reading posts, it is nice to know some members making the post are speaking with some authority on the subject, not just giving their opinion.

So BioWizard, in my opinion, as that is all I have to offer, you offer a forum with a higher level of etiquette, and standard of behavior, which gives some of us a comfortable reason to stay. And good job at attracting the professional talent. There may be other forums as good as this one but I have no reason to look. Unless I get banned.

[BioWizard]

It's hard to generalize why people leave a forum. I myself have left several fora, all for very different reasons. But those who stay probably do so because they get along well with the overall tone and like-minded membership. A bit circular eh? Like dissolves like.

[mtbturtle]

Congrats! and thanks to all our members!!

[Sisyphus]

Nice.

[ronjanec]

Congratulations BioWizard on such a very impressive milestone, and a job well done.

Before I joined this forum a number of years ago, I used to belong to a number of other science forums: I thought(and still think) that SPCF was far more professional, and was also a much higher class forum than any of the other ones I was participating in at the same time, and I eventually stopped posting on all of them.(So I guess all of you are unfortunately stuck with me right now, and if you are looking for someone to blame for this, blame BioWizard)

[ronjanec]

I forgot to mention that I have also learned a great deal here from many of the other posters that I previously thought I could always just learn from books. I stll think that books are really wonderful, but you can't ask a book a question of course.

I still really struggle with my spelling and grammar because of my lack of an education, but I also believe that my participation on the forum, has also helped me a great deal in both of the same areas.

[BioWizard]

Thank you ronjanec. I too have learned a great deal on these forums. And not just from the experts. Sometimes, you learn from where you least expect it. I have.

I cant take the credit though. It was absolutely a team effort, and now more a group effort. I love it when members gain enough sense of belonging and comfort that they start shaping the forums alongside the mods by setting the tone in threads and positively influencing newcomers.

[Forest_Dump]

Yeah, I am not a real internet junkie but I have looked around at a lot of other web sites and this is the best I know of. Must be why I keep coming back when I should be doing other things.