Wellesnet: Alive and well thanks to you

[RayKelly]

Remember when folks predicted the demise of this board?
Well, they could not have been more wrong.
On the last full day of summer 2011, we are fast approaching the 600 registered users mark.
We have added 23 new members to our ranks since June 1.
More importantly, these new members have already contributed 25 or so new postings.
The addition of the Facebook page by Larry French continues to direct new visitors to Wellesnet.
Mike Teal's hard work at reorganizing the message board has made it much easier to find topics of interest.
The future is looking bright at Wellesnet.
Welcome to all of our new members! And thanks to all of the voices - new and old - who make up our community.

[brenbar]

Hear hear Ray !!! As one of those new members can I say it's a pleasure to be here. Thanks to yourself and Mike for all the work behind the scenes and to all those who helped keep Wellesnet alive.

[LostOverThere]

About a year ago I started to become very interested in the work of Welles, and since I've been reading and watching as much as humanly possible. As one of the "new members", I'd just like to thank everyone here for all the incredibly insightful stuff that's been posted. While I haven't posted much myself, I've spent countless hours reading through all the old posts on the site in awe. Seriously, this place is a treasure trove of insights.

To the future.

[Le Chiffre]

Glad you enjoy it, Lost OverThere and Brenbar. I agree this board has, over the years, accumulated a lot of terrific info on it from a lot of different people. That's why it seems absurd that, just a month ago, the whole thing was on the verge of going down the toilet for good. But it's back on track now, and hopefully we can keep it going for many more years. I don't see why not.

[Dan]

That's great news!

[major pepper]

I'm so glad!
Wellesnet is a gold mine for beginners like me, and Mike Teal made a very helpful work with the message board. It became very easy to find the topics now!
Long live to the Wellesnet!

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks, Major Pepper. Ray had a big hand in reorganizing the board too, don't let him fool you. The reorganization is not written in stone, so if anybody has any comments or suggestions, feel free to make them. I've already had a couple of people say that there are too many sub forums in the FILM forum, which is possible. One good thing, in addition to the new members, is that more people are also reading the board lately, which I would attribute partly to the reorganization. Before, the General Discussion forum had over 900 topics and 37 pages, a mess that few people would want to try and dig through. If the board is destined to be only a readable archive someday, it should at least be readable.

[Glenn Anders]

Both you and Ray deserve a large silver loving cup from the over 600 members of Wellesnet. You accomplished in a few weeks what was thought impossible for years and years. Please continue to give us progress reports.

Glenn

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks much, Glenn. We'll do that.

[Jay]

I remember when I sent in my member request--it must have been a year ago. Apparently, the site was going through some upheaval at that point, and no new users were being admitted. When I finally got my registration confirmation, I was thrilled. I'm so glad that the issues were resolved and that the site is alive and well; it's been great to come on here and read up on all things Welles and to get answers from some of you for questions that I have. I find the information posted here about some of the unfinished projects such as TOSOTW to be particularly valuable. So thank you to those of you who are keeping this shop open. It's worth it!

[RayKelly]

Thanks Jay. We will have some interested OSOTW news in the days ahead.

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks Jeff, for restoring the old Wellesnet pages, especially the OW Sketchbook transcripts, which are quite an enjoyable read. The Book and CD sections also contain several items I'd forgotten about or hadn't heard of before. Well done.

[RayKelly]

Just an update.
Mike Teal and I have okayed 10 more registered users since the first of the year.
We have deleted one or two accounts approved in 2011 because they were commercial spammers.
I was sharing some site analytics with Larry French and Mike the other day.
We all know there are lurkers, those who do not post or register.
Well, if you think our ranks are limited to just 600 fans or so, you are wrong.
We have several thousand unique visitors at Wellesnet each month.
Some check out the home page and the great articles Larry has posted there.
Others read the posts on the forum.
Whatever the reason, thanks for stopping by!

[Glenn Anders]

Ray: You guys deserve kudos.

And I want you to know that I caught your radio discussion of the current Oscars. Your opinions were -- would I have expected not? -- most cogent.

Congratulations, all.

Glenn Anders

[RayKelly]

Just an update:
In October 2012, Wellesnet witnessed 135,560 pages views - a record in its 11-year history.
Unique monthly visitors to the site averages 13,000 to 15,000. Our registered forum membership now tops 700.
Several new pages have been added to the main site.
Thanks to Mike for his continuing work on the forum and Larry for his writing.
We had two (very) brief outages as I attempted to upgrade the site and install a sitemap.
Our host, PrecisionEffect, and Jeff Wilson have been supportive in digging me out of holes I have dug.
If you have any suggestions, drop me a line at contactwellesnet@gmail.com