Last night, Sunday 9pm we had 430 people online in the Dimensions Forum community. That's pretty amazing. I mean, it's not that we're advertising or even posting anywhere. Word just seems to get around. That's very gratifying.
Equally gratifying is the vibrant diversity of posts on the main board. This is exactly what I had in mind, and the new software format apparently fosters this sort of interaction. It also seems to encourage many people who didn't dare to post before to do so now.
Then again, why not 430 people? Or even a thousand or five thousand? Five thousand people once subscribed to the print version of Dimensions Magazine. Statistically speaking, there are dozens of millions of fat people in the United States (the exact number depends of the definition). Many of them not only have internet access, but are also in dire need for a community of their own, one where they are welcome, can share their thoughts and predicaments, find new hope among likeminded people.
If that happens, can our infrastructure hold up? The machine, with the new bandwidth configuration has been shouldering the load remarkably well, but if the community keeps growing I'll soon again will have to expand hardware power and bandwidth So far, only a few generous souls (thank you!!!!) have chosen to use the donation system to contribute a bit to help me cover costs. That came almost exclusively from the forums; chat seems to be taken for granted as a free resource. The new Dimensions store has also been open, and I hope people will start buying back issues of the really excellent print publication as they never go out of style. We also offer other stuff, of course, for those who are visually oriented or have their favorit types and models. Every bit helps. I wish I could think of a product angle to make the page eligible at least for Google AdSense, what witj all the traffic.
We'll just handle things as they develop. For now, I am just thrilled over the diversity here, and the bustling activity. The exploration of topics that usually fall under the table, the asking of questions that people are usually afraid to ask. The free discussion that takes place and hopefully hopes people to put some things in perspective, doubt the validity of often self-imposed, often unjudtly erected barriers and limitations. That is SO what I had in mind with Dimensions. It is the Dimensions philosophy.
Conrad
Equally gratifying is the vibrant diversity of posts on the main board. This is exactly what I had in mind, and the new software format apparently fosters this sort of interaction. It also seems to encourage many people who didn't dare to post before to do so now.
Then again, why not 430 people? Or even a thousand or five thousand? Five thousand people once subscribed to the print version of Dimensions Magazine. Statistically speaking, there are dozens of millions of fat people in the United States (the exact number depends of the definition). Many of them not only have internet access, but are also in dire need for a community of their own, one where they are welcome, can share their thoughts and predicaments, find new hope among likeminded people.
If that happens, can our infrastructure hold up? The machine, with the new bandwidth configuration has been shouldering the load remarkably well, but if the community keeps growing I'll soon again will have to expand hardware power and bandwidth So far, only a few generous souls (thank you!!!!) have chosen to use the donation system to contribute a bit to help me cover costs. That came almost exclusively from the forums; chat seems to be taken for granted as a free resource. The new Dimensions store has also been open, and I hope people will start buying back issues of the really excellent print publication as they never go out of style. We also offer other stuff, of course, for those who are visually oriented or have their favorit types and models. Every bit helps. I wish I could think of a product angle to make the page eligible at least for Google AdSense, what witj all the traffic.
We'll just handle things as they develop. For now, I am just thrilled over the diversity here, and the bustling activity. The exploration of topics that usually fall under the table, the asking of questions that people are usually afraid to ask. The free discussion that takes place and hopefully hopes people to put some things in perspective, doubt the validity of often self-imposed, often unjudtly erected barriers and limitations. That is SO what I had in mind with Dimensions. It is the Dimensions philosophy.
Conrad
