One year ago today we officially opened the doors. The first day consisted of three members -- Bentley, me and LowSlowFoShow (our technical wonder man!). We made a few posts to make sure the site worked and then sent out a few invitations to friends who we thought might be interested. My memory is that folks started registering later that day and Bent approved those who did and the 23rd was the first day our membership started in earnest.
PH was still up and running and we thought would be for a long time. I truly feared we would be a huge flop. Oh sure, a few friends would take pity and post a bit, but we had true concerns that we would be dead in the water by 3 months. I told Bentley that if we had 50 people by the end of the first year who seemed to be enjoying the site and contributing decent posts, then we could continue for a second year. Boy, was I out to lunch!! We had over 50 people by the end of August!
I am not naive, I think the disintegration of PH has contributed to PFs growth and success. But I mainly think it is the quality of our members. You folks share great experiences, ideas, pit advice, helpful hints, pictures, recipes. You are kind, caring, civil and respectful to each other and to the rules of the site which is appreciated. And I guess you tell others about the site because I don't know where all our members come from.
A huge thank you to Chris Becker and Cookinpellets.com for the faith and financial support and LowSlowFoShow for his donated hours of technical skill that got us up and running and contributed to many of the looks and technical things (tapatalk for example) on the site. Thanks to all of you who bought from Thermoworks in the last year and used the PF code; we received a small donation from your purchase and that is helping fund the second year.
Thanks to all you members who contribute topics and photos and posts -- it is what keeps us going!!!
Finally, taking Rawhide64's suggestion, if any of you remember to log in tonight at 8 pm Eastern/7/6/5 pm as you travel west, we will see how many PelletFans can be online at one time for the anniversary. Post a hi or anything else in this thread if you like! And maybe cook some fish sticks and tater tots on your pit!!!!
Thanks again everyone, what a wonderful first year we have had!
Stats for year one:
New Topics: 1,387
New Posts: 21,300
New Members: 1,953 (lots of Russians registered but didn't get in!)
Most online: 65
Page Views: 2,081,349 (YTD 2018)
Total Page Views: 3,051,444
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Topic: Happy First Anniversary PelletFans!!! (Read 1789 times)