This is a big
"Thank you" to Chris from Nailsea, helping so much with the admin ... and a
"Thank You" to the whole moderator team, for everything you've done for the forum all year.
Every so often, I do a sanity check - "are we really providing a useful service". And I come up with a resounding "Yes, we are". Saturday's usually the quietest day of the week, but looking at yesterday's stats I see that we had over 1000 visits, and a total of over 6000 pages viewed. Many of those views are from members, but we shouldn't forget the significant proportion of views by guests - people who will come here just occasionally with a question, and perhaps find the answer in our resources without the need to sign up and ask. It never ceases to amaze me, though, six years on that there are still questions to be asked and new discussions to be had.
Moderators and administrators sometimes have to step in during the white heat of a strong discussion, and that requires a safe pair of hands and an ability to make s good decision in the particular circumstance as it unfolds. The moderator rarely has the luxury of time, or the benefit of hindsight, and I'm proud of just how appropriately everyone acts. And moderation also involves user support - helping members by ensuring posts are correctly quoted and on an approppriate board, "seeding" questions that no-one's asked, and posting up links and references to wider sources of material. The Coffee Shop is not an island - incoming and outgoing on-topic links are very welcome here.
As the one who looks after code, databases,
HTML▸ formatting, etc, as well as doing new member admin, you probably don't see me around as much as you might expect. I'm third in the published table of post counts, but most members might scratch their heads and wonder how that can be. In fact, some 6% of posts on the forum are made to moderator and admin boards - making sure that we acknowledge and agree on reported posts, discussing dubious signup requests, and planning our strategy for the future, considering new ideas, etc. And that's where you'll find my highest post count. I am here, available by p.m., if necessary, but I can usually make so much more of a contribution by sorting out issues for our thousands of visitors rather than manually processing everyone. Which leaves me with a great deal of sympathy for the senior managers at First Great Western when they get critisized for not appearing on the platforms at times of disruption; they're probably much more effective working behind the scenes to back up their operation staff, control team and others through which they can sort out things for thousands of people, and not just a fortunate handfull.
This forum wouldn't be the useful resource that it is without contributions - ALL the contributions, and so I also want to say
"Thank you" to everyone who posts. Some of the posts from indusrty professionals are fantastic in their content and detail, and I know just how long it can take to write out and explain things. It does not go unnoticed. And we're very much a customer forum - the customer posts
make the discussions - they sow a seed, they ask a question or express a view that the rest of us feel, or they help to educate us on what's needed (and what frustrates too!). Keep them coming in 2013
Thank you to guests who read our posts. This forum is for everyone, and it's a founding stratagy that we keep as much of our material as possible public. That's so that guests can read it, can learn, and perhaps we can improve something for them. But I will finish these thanks with a requests to guests to take courage, sign up, introduce yourself and contribute. It's free; only the admins need to know your email address, and that's to let us get in touch should we need to - there's been much in the press about what you can and can't write on Facebook and Twitter, and much the same applies here - but this is a complex field and we need to be able to alert you if you post up something which could be a problem.
Finally,
thank you to everyone who helps provide our railway service, the information about it, and the infrastructure on which it runs. There are many unsung heroes out there that we should not forget.
Personally, I'll be around (and online) most days over the Christmas holiday - "quietly with family". However you're spending Christmas, I hope you find in enjoyable and fulfilling. If you have few minutes in the tail end of this year, why not complete bignosemac's prize quiz ...
[here].
Have a great Christmas, everyone. Many thanks for your support during 2012. I've enjoyed being with everyone here, and I look forward to more of the same enjoyment in 2013 ... and adding in during 2013, perhaps, a restart of an appropriate TransWilts service, better transport co-ordination, and progress on electricfication, redoubling, crossrail, Reading and, of course, the arrangements for the next franchise period.
