New RWD Milestone - 150,000 Posted Messages!

[Admin]

Hey Folks,

We crossed a significant milestone today. I will be posting more about this, and other, RWD milestones and activities soon - but for today, I wanted to alert you all that we crossed the 150,000 posted message milestone early this morning. Considering that we ALSO have nearly 40,000 messages posted at Planet-Love, and more than 138,000 posted messages in the archives there - RWD and our sister sites are clearly the largest and most vibrant sites providing men and women from across the globe, valuable information about seeking and living with a mate from a foreign country.

Thanks to you ALL for your many fine contributions over the years.

- Dan

[ConnerVT]

And, ironically, this will be my 1000th post.   

[Son of Clyde]

From reading the heading of this thread I was thinking this was one tired typist, posting 150,000 messages in one day.

It was like the infomercial on cable tv where the woman says
"as of this morning I have lost 20 pounds."

[Andrew James]

From reading the heading of this thread I was thinking this was one tired typist, posting 150,000 messages in one day.

It was like the infomercial on cable tv where the woman says
"as of this morning I have lost 20 pounds."

 

I can think of a few candidates! (Hypothetical of course  , Maybe a very eager newbie, or a very angry RW?

[dneid]

Hey, Dan,
This must make you feel proud of your "little darling".  Congrats!  I can tell you that I have found this site to indispensable resource for me.  I have learned a tremendous amount from all of you (sometimes in a gentle manner and sometimes in a very abrupt manner, but all with my best interests in mind).  I so appreciate all you do with this site and I understand the workload a site like this takes (I started the VFR Home page many years and had to off load it to another dedicated member).
Thanks to you and all who productively contribute here.  H%!#, I even enjoy some of the flame wars that break out every once in awhile.  Keep it up, all of you.

[Admin]

Hey, Dan,
This must make you feel proud of your "little darling".  Congrats!  I can tell you that I have found this site to indispensable resource for me.  I have learned a tremendous amount from all of you (sometimes in a gentle manner and sometimes in a very abrupt manner, but all with my best interests in mind).  I so appreciate all you do with this site and I understand the workload a site like this takes (I started the VFR Home page many years and had to off load it to another dedicated member).
Thanks to you and all who productively contribute here.  H%!#, I even enjoy some of the flame wars that break out every once in awhile.  Keep it up, all of you.

Dale,

Thanks for the nice comments. Interestingly, we also crossed a more significant milestone a while back when we crossed the 4,000 member mark. While post count is significant, there are some sites that pride themselves on their "pithy" responses and their stock-in-trade is ridicule and banter that adds to post count, but contributes nothing to the collective knowledge and wisdom needed to be successful in this pursuit.

While on the one hand I *do* feel some pride in our success, it is mixed with a number of other feelings and reactions. One reaction is to acknowledge, first and foremost, that RWD would be nothing if not for her members. Our membership is, by a VERY great distance, the most knowledgeable and generous of any such site on the 'net. It is through each and every one of YOU, the RWD members, that we have been able to build the largest and most vibrant site providing information on inter-cultural dating and marriage that has ever existed. No other site, past or present, even comes close.

At the same time, owning and managing RWD has proven to be a mostly thankless, and occasionally dangerous, undertaking. In the course of the few years we have existed, I have seen:

* Countless occasions of intentional misrepresentation of our actions and initiatives - all designed to undermine our efforts and often with no other intent than to malign. A great example is the shrill criticism of our efforts to provide a contextual basis for determining and codifying ethical behaviors on the part of agencies with our Agency Code of Ethics and CMA initiative. I remain convinced that this is a needed and valuable initiative, and the agency businesses will, sooner or later, regret their choice to not participate in the CMA program - but even more than that, I am VERY proud of our efforts that resulted in commemorating the Agency Code of Ethics, in writing, for everyone to use in selection of an agency business. I only wish it were more broadly utilized.

* Innumerable personal attacks, most attempting to discredit my integrity or character, and much of it done in the most scurrilous manner imaginable. Some of those attacks were lodged and included my wife and even my young daughter. Those sorts of attacks are the result of petty and ignorant individuals who have lost all perspective except to attack others, or in some instances, attempt to promote their own agendas.

* Witnessed unconscionable attacks on other members, some of whom are great friends of mine, and who never deserved such treatment. Once again, family members have at times been attacked and ridiculed. There are, sadly, a large number of imbalanced people who find their way here. Fortunately, they are usually overwhelmed by our responsible members here and their outrageous allegations are often nullified - here.

What keeps me going is my determination to provide a valuable service that is unparalleled in quality and volume. Recent evidence can be found in the work we are concluding with the Survey of Cross-Cultural Marriage and Divorce. Our consultant is now finishing up the fundamental data analysis, and we will then move into results presentation phase. I've been dribbling out a few results here at RWD, but there is much more to come - as well as the formal report from the consultant.

Notably, the overall survey project will ultimately cost RWD thousands of dollars. Those who have complained about our acceptance of advertisers need to understand that those advertising $$ are what allows RWD to pursue these project initiatives - and once again, there is no other site on the 'net that has the capacity to accomplish what we have accomplished in support of men and women involved in cross-cultural dating and marriage. We have the will, we have the technical and intellectual capacity, and we have the financial resources. Much more to come . . . .

Anyway Dale - a long-winded way of saying 'Thank You'.

- Dan