We started our upgrade on Sunday 25th of September, and the forums were mostly offline for the two days that followed. And after that, as you may know, many basic forum features didn't work properly, it has literally taken us this long up until this week to sort out those issues, and we still have a list of things that need doing (like syncing main page avatars with the forum ones, among others).
Anyway, what has happened in the last year then?
Tom Warren, who had been here almost from the start went off to launch his own website: winrumors.com on the 25th of October last year, and has done really well since. I always knew he'd do well, and I wish him all the best with that venture, he seems to have made a huge impact already, like he did here at Neowin for the nine years previous.
Tim Kimberl (Timan) stepped down from the developer team, at the end of last month after nine years of making Neowin look great, but he did agree to help us with the upgrade and support Pegasus, which he has done, only yesterday he applied a fix for the main page, so I'm really glad he's still available for those things.
It's not all bad though,
We hired John Callaham back in May to write for Neowin full time, and he has managed to double the amount of content for our main page, starting of with an emphasis on gaming, which is the area he comes from, but that has steadily progressed to tech news and even a couple of editorials that have been very good to read.
The feedback from that decision has been mostly positive, so I feel we're moving in the right direction on that front
And last but not least, our staff team.
In all the years of doing Neowin, I have had to deal mostly with volunteer staff, but never has there been a time quite like the last year that I really feel I'm dealing more and more with professionals, so kudos to the whole staff team for that and making my life bearable!
I say this every year, but we wouldn't be where we are today if not for the support of our members and staff, so give yourselves a big pat on the back, you deserve it, and I can only hope the same level of support continues well into the 2010's and beyond.
Now for a giveaway
Ten Tier 2 subscriptions are up for grabs, these are for new members that have registered here on Neowin after October 1st 2011.
To qualify:
- You must have more than ten posts, that are on topic and helpful (by Oct 23rd when the draw is made)
- You must enter your intent to take part in the draw in this topic
There will be a random draw of ten people who replied to this topic with their own memories of their time here, or how you found Neowin for example, everyone can participate, current subscribers (if drawn) will have their subscription upgraded from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and extended for another year, members will get a year Tier 2, which is ad free and adds a "special" forum among other enhancements for your experience here.
The draw will be made on Sunday October 23rd, and winners announced here.
Thanks again everyone, on behalf of the whole team we appreciate it.







