Rather than rehash that, I just wanted to take this time to thank a few people.
First of all, Nels Anderson for starting and funding the site, and Rick Frerichs for literally keeping it running during those two plus decades. Rick wrote the original software used for the file library, and it performed flawlessly up to the day we moved from the FlightSim servers to our own servers. Unfortunately, there were some dependencies that we could not replicate with the move, and that core software had to be replaced on the fly. With that, Rick was finally able to enjoy his retirement almost as much as Nels has been..
Next, I want to recognize John Grems, Gerry Shire, and Dale Mueller for what they do on an ongoing basis keeping the forums a relatively peaceful space, and getting new items approved into the file library. On a daily basis, one or more of them are checking in and helping scrape the spam out of the forums before it's ever seen.
Not as visible... Wayne Luke from Internet Brands, and Glenn Vergara, an independent developer --- I mentioned them after the site upgrade, but both have continued to be invaluable in their ongoing help with the underlying vBulletin software used for the forums. Some of the features many of you use daily (selective quoting, page number widgets) are Glenn's work. I also have to thank Richard Muirden, a long time friend who helped me get the email server up and running. Without email, there'd be no PM notifications or new user registrations, so getting that functioning quickly was a life-saver.
The most important thank you has to go to my wife and family -- the time spent working on improving the site over a six month period came at their expense.
This last year has allowed me to combine a lifelong hobby with the skills I've acquired over three decades of programming. I did web, application and database programming in the pre-Y2K era, and as I moved through other management roles in IT from 2006 onward, continued to do the occasional database and C# apps for my own projects, but never anything quite like this.
While I know my wife would say the opposite, I don't think I would have traded this opportunity for anything. Well, maybe a few things might have been more enjoyable, but I do have to admit I've been having a lot of fun along the way.
Thanks for stopping by.
Heck, just preventing the site from vanishing would have been the good Samaritan act of the year, but you then took on additional content, and did a ton of custom coding improvements.
The site is truly a better site today than it was a year ago.
Thanks for all your hard work!