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Thread: New Year Retrospective and Thanks

  1. #1
    Webmaster Don McRitchie's Avatar
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    New Year Retrospective and Thanks

    We’re just over a week into the New Year so this may be a bit dated. Nonetheless, last year was a significant one and worthy of a retrospective. Further, this new year marks a milestone that is worth noting. I’ll get more into that later.

    To start, I want to acknowledge and express my appreciation to all of the members of this forum that have allowed our site to grow into the preeminent site regarding the legacy of the audio industry. When we started, there were less than five such sites, now there are dozens. However, I’m not aware of any that match our level of participation and depth. In the past couple of years, we have received citations in a half dozen international magazines and one book. The first year of our forum, there were maybe 100 members and we averaged 5-10 posts per day. We now have over 1200 members and are averaging around 100 posts per day. Total site visitations are up over 50 percent from the last year with millions of page views per year. Our hit counters on the main pages of the two sites (Audioheritage and Lansingheritage) are over 400,000, yet this significantly understates the number of visitors to the site since many have bookmarked specific pages within the site (particularly this forum) that bypass these counters.

    The most significant development of the past year has been Project May. It has become the focal point of our site activities and is in many ways responsible for the remarkable site growth over the past year. I am deeply grateful to all of the members that have joined in this project and have spent countless hours and financial support in its undertaking. The current L100 raffle has expanded financial involvement to dozens of new participants, many outside of this site, to whom I am also grateful. There are a number of specific members I would like to thank for their extensive involvement. Giskard, our technical director, has devoted both considerable time and effort in directing the technical aspects of our work. He personally designed and fabricated the prototype networks and has acted as our liason with JBL. Ian Mackenzie and Robh3606 have had the onerous task of riding heard on us in managing the many twists and turns this project has taken. Rob has also taken on the task of building low pass network prototypes for one of our design options. Mr. Widget has been indispensable in initially measuring, designing and fabricating our mid/hf horn assembly. More recently he and Bo Putnam have been responsible for measuring the performance and modifying our prototype system to investigate a number of different options. TimG was responsible for constructing our first prototype and devoted considerable time and labor to this and the subsequent initial set of measurements. Dennis Leisz has been invaluable in organizing our finances and coordinating the current L100 raffle. Mikebake deserves special notice for being the originator of this project and being the first treasurer for this initiative. Finally, there are dozens of project members that have provided input and advice throughout the project, for which we remain grateful. A list of these participants can be found here:

    http://www.audioheritage.org/html/pr...rticipants.htm

    I also need to thank JBL since this project would not exist in its current form without their involvement. They have been more than generous in donating a complete complement of K2 drivers. Further, they went beyond just a material donation by providing invaluable technical input into the project’s execution. Specifically, I would like to thank, Paul Bente, Greg Timbers, Doug Button and Jerry Moro.

    As I said at the start, this year marks a milestone for Lansing Heritage. The site had its origins five years ago this week (that's like our 50th anniversary in Internet time ). While the site did not officially open until May 25, 2000, the original idea and initial development work on what would become Lansing Heritage began during the first week of 2000. An overview of the background for this site can be found here:

    http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=32551#post32551

    I am particularly grateful to the original co-developers of this site, Steve Schell and Steve Lewis. Without their assistance and vision, we would never have achieved our current standing. Mark Gander, John Eargle and Garry Margolis, all current or former management staff at JBL, are critically responsible for the success of our site. Their early involvement allowed us to expand our vision from a simple repository of product literature into a comprehensive history site. They paved the way for us to meet dozens of people directly involved in the legacy of James B. Lansing and document their contributions. Mark and John have also acted as our mentors at JBL, providing us with access and assistance to corporate resources at JBL that have proved indispensable.

    I trust that the new year holds even greater opportunities for achievements on our site. However, it all depends on you, and because of this, I have never been more hopeful. Our site would be meaningless without our dedicated forum members and readership at large. Your embracement of this site is the single measure of our success, and for this I remain eternally grateful.

    Party On!



    Regards

    Don McRitchie

  2. #2
    Alex Lancaster
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    Congrats and thanks to You Don, the Steves, and all the others who have helped so much.

  3. #3
    Senior Señor boputnam's Avatar
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    Hey, Uncle Don...

    A great, and very humbly written note. Without your guidance, and example, this place would too frequenty cascade into irrational "exuberance" (can I say that...? ), but you help us sustain a tone and demeanor befitting the endeavor we all face, either in the shop - home or pro - or on the road (be careful out there, Oldmics!!).

    The depth and breadth of the offerings here is what gives me reward - I've learned and shared with so many about so much, and have made some lifelong friendships.

    I'd like to also here acknowledge our wonderful support at JBL Pro - Dave, Karla, and Everett in tech. support, and the rest - without whom we'd have to home-make even more pieces and parts. Thanks, gang!

    The whole thing is quite amazing.

    (ps: thanks for the new smilies!!)
    bo

    "Indeed, not!!"

  4. #4
    Administrator Robh3606's Avatar
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    This certainly is a unique site! Thank's to you Don and all who come here and share


    Rob

  5. #5
    RIP 2009
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    Besides all the obvious kudos to those that keep things running so smoothly here, , being a computer IT guy myself, I'd like to also say thanks to John Nebel, that man behind the curtain that makes sure the wheels don't fall off the webserver! I know what it can be like trying to keep these boxes going sometimes... (And thanks for whoever got all these kool new smilies!)

    And I must say that ever since finding this site, it's been my favorite online place, both because of the people and the subjects covered. If there were only one site on the Internet that I could visit, this would be it, at least as far as where I'd like to go! I never imagined there would be such a wealth of info on our favorite speakers anywhere, much less so accessible, and with such knowledgeable people!

    Anyway, I could go on and on, , but I'm sure we all feel the same.

    THANKS!!

    John

  6. #6
    Webmaster Don McRitchie's Avatar
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    Absolutely. That was a completely unintended oversight on my part of major proportions. For just over a year, John and his company CSD Internet has hosted our site at no cost. He and Ann have provided unparalled technical support in maintaining and enhancing this site. I can't think of any significant outages over the past year and we have never suffered a data loss - a benefit our long time members will recognize since we used to lose our forum on an almost regular 6 month basis with our old provider. I has been such a seemless experience, that I am sometimes lulled into fogetting how significant a developement it has been. My appologies John for not stating this in the original post.

    Don

  7. #7
    Senior Member
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    I must say this is my favourite site.

    Last May I was fortunate enough to share some truly special friendships while traveling in the U.S.A as a result of the Lansing Forums.

    Thanks Don, John and so many other key members who make this site what it is today.

    Ian

  8. #8
    Super Moderator yggdrasil's Avatar
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    This is my favorite site since I found it.


    Keep up the good work.
    Johnny Haugen Sørgård

  9. #9
    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Don, John, and on and on...


  10. #10
    CarlV
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    Thanks for this wonderful forum and all the work you all put into it!


    Carl

  11. #11
    OFD
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    Thumbs up To Altec and Lansing

    Whose vision gives this place a reason to be - to all those latter day visionaries (Don and co.) who bring reason to this place, and to the membership at large for their love of the extraordinary, and their willingness to share a wealth of knowledge with mere mortals like myself........a huge round of applause and big tip of the mug.

  12. #12
    Senior Member Guido's Avatar
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    I can't live anymore without this site

  13. #13
    Administrator Wardsweb's Avatar
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    I would like to say thank you to Don for his vision and all the members who make this such an extraordinary site. I truely enjoy coming here.

  14. #14
    Steve Gonzales
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    Home

    I echo all the positive comments and am very grateful in return. As I've mentioned before, I drove everyone crazy, who's known me for any amount of time (some almost 40 years!) ,with my constant talk of "all things JBL" but now I have a warm place to share with like-minded people and that is a BIG DEAL to me, I am GRATEFUL!,so, here's to you!

  15. #15
    paragon
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    Site

    There is nothing more to say about this great website and the help and good com with all members

    Eckhard

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