Thanks for Such a Great Year!

As the founder of Mensactivism.org, I'd like to take a few moments to thank the people who have made this site such a success this year, and more than I ever expected it to be. Click Read More below to read some notes on the history of MANN, the people who have brought us to our current point, and the top five comment posters. Let the good times roll...

When it all started....

Most people don't know that when I started MANN in May of 2000, I was almost certain that it was going to be a flop, and I thought of it mainly as an exercise in learning some web and database administration skills. I figured I would maintain interest in it for no more than six months at the most. But I was definitely wrong - an entire user community sprung up around this site and has kept it going the whole time. Since then I've suffered through network outages, a web server port block from my ISP during the "Code Red" worm crisis, hundreds of attempted break-ins, and many lost hours of sleep queuing news stories and customizing the site's interface (anyone remember when logged in users would get a message like "This page was generated by a team of stealth ninjas" at the top of the main page?). I've also had a blast while doing all of this, and the effort has always been more than worthwhile.

This site is only here because you are.

One of the reasons why Mensactivism.org is different from other web sites is that it is almost completely user-driven. Users send in news stories. Users write editorials. Users participate in the on-line chats. Users post comments and agree, debate, troll (!), and inform one another. Somehow this web engine has combined the features of an e-mail list, web message board, and portal site in a way that appeals to you folks, and keeps you coming back. You are the most important part of this site, and if you've contributed content in any form to it, it's just as much the result of your efforts as it is of myself and the other admins.

I would like to thank everyone who visits this site regularly, who posts productive comments, who submits news stories, who has written an original article that has been posted here, has made a financial donation to the site, or any combination of the above. Each of you is living proof that the efforts of an individual can have a significant impact, and you have helped shape the direction of this site and even the men's movement itself.

Admins keep this site running smoothly...

A very special thanks to James Hanback (aka Nightmist) and Adam Hartney, "Adam," who have made a special dedication of their time to help ensure Mensactivism.org is updated frequently with the best selection of user submissions available, for helping to reduce the impact of trolls and divisive infighting, and sharing the workload of maintaining the content of MANN.

Nightmist has devoted an immense amount of time to MANN, was the stimulus for our relationship with Wendy McElroy and iFeminists.com, and on top of that posts more comments here than I do!

Adam, too has posted dozens of articles here, and written a couple of his own. As our only Admin from the UK, Adam's input is very useful and a great help to us.

Thomas will be coming on board as an admin starting very soon, and I'd like to thank him for offering his help to us.

Brad isn't an admin, but he did send us some nice graphics for our news topics. Likewise, Tom Parker spruced up our main banner logo.

Thanks guys!

The Top Five Commentors

The following is a list of the top five MANN comment posters to date. I originally wanted to list the top five news submitters, but the database apparently doesn't keep track of the number of stories submitted, though it does keep track of the number of comments. One person, by far, posted the greatest number of comments on MANN. Anonymous User led the pack by a wide margin with more than 107,000 posts. What a dedicated guy! Ok, seriously though, here are the others:

1. Thomas
2. frank h
3. BusterB
4. Claire4Liberty
5. Hawth

(I've excluded Nightmist from the list since he's an admin, though he would have taken the #1 spot here if I had included him)

While the quantity of posts doesn't mean everything, these people are undoubtably familiar names to most readers, and I'd like to thank them for being such active participants on our comment boards.

I'm a bit uncomfortable singling people out here because there are so many others that deserve praise too. You know who you are, and again, I thank you for your efforts. It has been a wonderful year. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for everything you've done.

Sincerely,

Scott Garman

Founder and Site Admin

PS - Happy New Year!

NOTICE: This story was migrated from the old software that used to run Mensactivism.org. Unfortunately, user comments did not get included in the migration. However, you may view a copy of the original story, with comments, at the following link:

http://news.mensactivism.org/articles/01/12/31/2031235.shtml