A big thanks!

I wanted to spend this - my 10,000th post - on some thoughts I want to share with all of you.

When Hypography started out back in 1999 (before it was even launched), the idea was to create a portal with links to interesting science sites. The name "hypography" came to me in a flash on my way to work one day, and as some of you probably know by now, the term is "a combination of hyperlink and bibliography: a list of references to electronic documents".

I figured this word could have the same sort of function as "bibliography" (books and articles) and "discography" (list of musical albums/recordings). An example of a use of a "hypography" would then be a list of links, usually in relation to an article, image or something shich the links would explain.

My own attempts at creating hypographies are found at Hypographies - science and technology topics and are more or less outdated now, but at least I attempted to see the idea through.

But life wanted other things. My first daughter was born the same year Hypography.com was launched (2000), and put severe restrictions on my free time. In 2002 I launched the Hypography forums, and after my second daughter was born in 2003 (the same year I began in my current position as web editor for the Norwegian Space Centre) my time became a luxury commodity.

It is strange how things endure, though. From being just an idea that popped up, the two sites have grown into a massive conglomeration of content. We have 150,000 posts, a few thousand articles, some book reviews, 50+ quizzes, 50 hypographies, tons of reviewed links - and it is growing every day.

Most importantly, though, we have a large number of active members. It is thanks to your contributions that this site has survived through 7 years. The fantastic dedication many of you show for our site, and the obvious passion many of you have for science, learning, and (not least) sharing, is simply stunning. We have become an international community with members from just about every contintent (I am not sure about Antarctica, although I remember one member who used it as his location). You are the life and blood of Hypography.

Some of our members have been singled out and whipped into submission. We call them moderators or administrators. I don't want to mention names (none mentioned, none forgotten) but I would like to say that I am not only humbled by the amount of work all of you put into Hypography, but also the enthusiasm you show and the willingness to think forward and discuss ideas.

Our entire site is growing into some sort of cyber-brotherhood that I never in my wildest dream imagined possible. No, we are not the largest forum on Earth, nor can we claim superiority in any specific area, but I have a distinct feeling that we are going somewhere.

At this point we are moving forward with a large project that is being drawn up. We will need help from many of you (and probably your friends, too). It is time to learn from lessons past, and study how others have progressed, and find a clear path for our community.

Excuse me for waxing lyrical here for a moment, but I dream of a future for Hypography where we can escape the confines that the forum structure places on any site, and blossom into something larger and more productive. I want the place to grow into a community where people come to learn, to expand their knowledge, and most of all to share that knowledge with others.

Hypography has always been intended as a place for people to find interesting things and learn something new. A lot of brilliant suggestions have come from fellow members, ranging from ideas about forum structure to enhanced search capabilities, entirely new "business models", and creative visions for user interaction. I am reading all of it, and I am working hard to find out exactly what steps we need to take to transmogrify what is today a good community into something that will be a great community.

It is also important to find out not only what makes a good community great, but also what makes it last. If we adopt every hyped technology out there, we will probably succeed in the short term. But we have lasted 7 years already. How can we make sure we last 70? Is it even possible? Do we care? Maybe not. But I personally care enough about the concepts of learning, of sharing, and of having fun with expanding my horizons, to admit I am passionate about it. And I want to make sure Hypography becomes a great place to be. To succeed, I will need all the help I can get, and believe me when I say that I appreciate every single piece of input I receive.

Sometimes I get kicked in the butt for being "arrogant" or "closed-minded" (or both). It hurts, but sometimes it is true. I am an arrogant and close-minded son of a bitch sometimes. But not all the time. And I think that is true for a lot of people here, a lot of people who share the wonderful trait that is "passion". We're like small children at times - we run around and hit all the edges and hard corners, we get bruised and beat up, but for some reason we keep running around and we do it with pleasure. It's the price of being a passionate human!

So, dear friends, I hope 2007 will be a great year for our wonderful community. I want to say a thorough thank you to everyone who is contributing - in any way - to Hypography. You are important people to me, and rest assured that you are important to a lot of other people, as well.