WOOOHOO!!! 200 Members and counting!

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Well it's a banner day! Welcome Gideon H. as our 200th member!

Beth & Rod:D :D

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Door prize?

[StainlessDeal 16]

Beth and Rod, does this seem like just yesterday? I bet not, what a long way to come.

Two more people visited the site today than were members halfway through May of 2003, that is a long way to go in three years.

This says a great deal about the membership and its dedication to having a welcoming place to meet online for information and for fun. There have been plenty of angry exchanges here, but TGS does a good job of not being the wild west. Nobody forces people to come here and contribute, we do it by choice.

I think that is because even when we disagree, we do what we have to, and then move on. There is a relatively low amount of childishness here, and more than average forgiveness for transgressions, both the real and the imagined.

I'm sure that plenty of us have felt slighted or have disagreed strongly with others that post here, but there really aren't many members here wasting effort on hate and disrespect. This is a great strength in any organisation.

I think credit for this should be split several ways: To the members that don't get overly exercised when people disagree with them, to the moderators that don't get carried away with a sense of being a big cop in a little town, and to Beth and Rod who strive for proffessionalism first and foremost.

We don't always agree, but we do try to be mostly civil. So far that has (largely) been enough.

I got to thinking about this today when I found a Slurp Spider looking at this ancient thread. We are going into the winter, which is the slow time for the northern members. As the weather worsens, and we have less to occupy ourselves, the tendency to pick away at others here starts to become stronger and harder to resist.

I'm hoping that when this begins to happen this year, I will stop to remember that with the success that has come in these past years comes more scrutiny. From newbies, from ourselves, and from our customers and prospective customers there are more searches finding us here and on other highly ranked boards. We owe it to ourselves to be real, and real civil.

Lets try not to let our slips show too awful much. If you are a disbeliever of my theory here presented, try a google search on your name, number, web address, or company name. Link it with key words your customers might use.

See what I mean? Lets not foul our own nests.

I love this business, I enjoy this site, and I have made friends here that I value. I enjoy the gamut of posts, from utilitarian to crazy nuts, but we meet here as business owners and colleagues. I think that means we can joke, but that we owe some respect to one another. We are good at that on TGS, and other sites.

This is one of the main reasons why I love this business and the people that do it. I like that as much as when I was first surprised by it while researching for my business plan.

Thanks, Y'all!

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Scott, what a truly beautiful post. Thank you for following the little spider.

Have a great day!

Beth :cup:

[John Orr 206]

Well said, Scott. Well done, Beth & Rod.