Happy 2009 :: News

Reported by Joeno on Thu 01 Jan 2009 00:00:19 UTC
Section: Misc

Happy New Year from the entire staff. Let's make it a great new year.

This news item is more than 45 days old. Updates are unlikely and newer information may already be available.

As fireworks fills the air, 2008 ends and 2009 begins. A rather arbitrary moment to do so, really - in many ways, this night is little different from any of the other 364.24 nights in which such an event could happen - but as a symbol, it's even stronger.

With Mimey having given you her wellwishes a few days ago, we're going to focus on that other pastime in these holidays: Looking back and forward.

2008 has been a good year. Site-wise, we continued our flood of feature release that we had started in 2007. We made many additions and improvements throughout the year to improve your experience or to make our life easier. I claimed last year that it had been the year in which we had written the most code - well, this year comes close, although not all of it has been released yet.

In other places on the site, it's also been a year of polishing and improving. No large changes, but makes sure it's a bit nicer, prettier or better.

Other highlights include our second meet, made more special for the admins because of their shared holiday in that week that included a true 'who's more punk' contest and multiple jokes about butterflies. It also featured a much acclaimed fifth series of PokéMole, which many say is better than any that came before it. Mimey will be back ;-;

More important is that this is the year where the community stood out. Several projects have been started where the community helped a lot. In particular, the competitive battling scene had gotten better support on the site and in our Pokedex. It has in particular showed in the support and atmosphere on the forums, which has been warm and welcoming, and even more so on IRC, with a wonderful (albeit at times infuriating) group of regulars.

On the other hand, this past year has been a difficult year for us admins. We've lost dear ones, and lost contact with others. We've had parts of our lives forcibly changed and dampened, lost goals and had to choose to replace them with others. And so we are happy that a new year is about to start, one in which we hope that better times will arrive.

One thing we can say something more about. If life does not interfere too badly, we once again have a number of great things planned for you for the next year.

We're going to go on mostly as we already have. The site is almost nine years old now - we already fear that this year, we will gain a new member who's younger than the site itself - and we're pretty pleased with how it's been progressing. We'll still run the forums, keep the news updated, and provide you with all the other fun things we offer on the site. IRC won't go away - in fact, we're hoping to see even more of you there!

A new meet is being considered, as is a new Mole series, as is another event we can't mention yet that may happen around the Summer. There are many features that are planned to be added to the site.

The most important thing that we already have half-planned for the site, however, is 'Project Porygon-Z'. With our forums software, SMF, almost reaching version 2, we, too, are going to go for an upgrade. It'll be better, faster, cooler and with cute little popup menus that we're sure Sentret is going to appreciate. "But" you might ask "You've already announced this before!" Yeah, we have, but with SMF apparently closing in on releasing the first Release Candidate, it seems like we're getting closer to a new release. It'll take a while longer as they fix stuff and we tweak the new system, and once it's there expect us to take a day to upgrade, but once we do, it'll be great. Just wait and you'll see. And while it'll feature even less green, don't worry - we'll be opening up our code so you can see what happens, adjust it, and maybe even use it on your own site. Even if you hate PHP and user interactivity, it's there, so take advantage of it. We don't mind. Just release your source code like we will.

This time is a time of sadness and happiness as we think back to what has happened to us in the past year, those we lost and those we gained. Those who left us and those who came back. Good times and bad times. And with that comes the hope that 2009 will not just be as good as 2008, but that it'll be better. For you, me, the site, and in fact, the entire world.

In the end, we hope that 2009 will be a good year for all of you, that may not necessarily bring you what you want, but will at least give you what you need. Happy new year.

Also, congratulations to my sister and her boyfriend. He just asked her to marry him. Isn't that wonderful?

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