2014 - Amazing!

[Ron Curry]

Well folks, yet another year and we are almost half-way through - 2014. ROG is 15 years old believe it or not! I started it as a simple mailing list running on my own servers (sitting at my house) using an ISDN line for Internet access. The year was 1999 shortly after I got my Exec162F kit and that ISDN line was FAST - up to 128kbits/second - ha!. A couple of years later we migrated to a regular forum format similar to what you see today and moved to a hosted server.

Anyhow, we just keep on plugging away and what's kept us going is, of course, those loyal members who make donations to help pay the bills and, most importantly, participate, interact, and contribute to the ROG community to keep it useful and interesting. THANK YOU! And, of course, I keep the nuts and bolts tight behind the scenes.

One of the things that has attracted new users and kept existing users is the generally kinder/gentler environment we've had motivated in part by our requirement to use real names and also by the general maturity factor of ROG users. Things seem to have become "kicked up a notch" (as a famous chef says) though with more than the usual level of malcontent. It's not exactly clear why except that it seems to surround a minority of users who rub some folks the wrong way evoking a defensive response.

Let's reverse this trend! There will always be a few users who are just abrasive by their nature and there will always be some who are habitual malcontents however, we - the rest of us - needn't allow them to pull us down to their level. Let's everyone try to be more positive and cheerful and ignore negative posts - just don't respond and don't escalate. Also report them to me if they seem to be getting too much and I'll have a chat with the person and try to work things out or, if things are unresolvable and as a last resort, ask them to leave.

Let's keep ROG productive, useful, and fun. Please be kind and courteous. Think about what and how you are responding to someone - how would you respond if someone had sent that message to you? Sarcasm is NEVER good it always serves to irritate so don't use it. If you have something to say then say it and be direct - but courteous.

Anyhow, off my soapbox. I thank everyone who contributes either monetarily or with their brainpower for your continued support - THANK YOU and fly safe!

Oh, and by the way, I continue to have people say they send me emails and say they bounce and then I find they are using some ancient email address from 6 or 7 years ago. PLEASE use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of every ROG webpage. It has the current and correct email address and hasn't changed in at least 5 years. As well PLEASE put a descriptive subject in the heading. I just don't have time to respond to emails with no subject or with subjects like "Problem". Help yourself by helping me with a useful discription.

Again, thanks again to all and fly safe.

Best,
Ron