I would like to take a moment and recognize this sites community, their staff, and even the lurkers that are now visiting us regularly. I was doing some checking on our site statistics via Google Analytics, and I was happy to see that we have tracked a solid increase in growth over the past year. Where many sites see a dip in activity over the summer we are still going strong thanks to our staff, contributors and active members keeping the site fresh and interesting.

Where last year this time we were seeing 500 visitors in a day, yesterday we saw over 1500 which was a record!

Here is a downloaded report for anyone interested.

Again I am happy to see this community come into it's own and really start to take off. We have some challenges ahead from a staffing perspective but I am sure with the help of our members and newcomers that we will be able to keep building on what Bryan Dewberry started here back on Armorama in 2003 and Rowan picked up in his absence since then. I would like to voice a special thanks to Jean-Luc for his many hours of devoted service to the community over the past year. Thanks also to Andy, Fred, Stephen, Joe, Chuck, and Mal for their continuing efforts.

Sincerely,
Jim

I think the Aeroscale staff are excellent.
Besides doing an outstanding job,
they exhibit great wit and personalities.

I think you forgot a "T" there in my case Dave .
Andy

Lol...good one Andy.

Jim

very witty, see what I mean!

Congratulations, Its nice to see confirmed that Aeroscale is really "taking off".

From 500-1500 hits a day in one year is pretty special,,especially as the summer is traditional a quiet time!
It been a pleasure watching the site grow in its own right during the last year.
The standard of work being shown is truely inspirational.Speaking on a personal level,I know theres no way I would be attempting the builds Im attempting nowdays without the advice and information available on Aeroscale 24/7.
Id like to add my own thanks to everyone behind the scenes for all their hard work as well.
Nige

Hi Jim

It's been quite a year - and those figures are credit to the fantastic team we've got working here. I only wish Bryan were here to see the how his baby has grown! When he left, I rather naively offered to take over holding the reins... little did I realise just how much work he put in behind the scenes and what a wild ride it would be!

So, Bryan, I hope you're not too disappointed if you do check up on us now again - I do my best to live up the amazingly high standards you set when we were just a facet of the original Armorama.

All the best

Rowan

Hi All!

Yes, that´s a fantastic rise in hits!

Much of It is due to the excellent staff that work so hard to get everything running smoothly.

I have been around on many different modelling sites as Hyperscale, Britmodeler, LSP and some others I can´t remember now.

At first I didn´t like this site very much, It was slow and didn´t work as I wanted It to.

But what was keeping me coming back then?

Easy answer; all the nice people here, both the staff and all other members.
There´s not many sites where you feel as welcomed as here.
Here everybody interested in modelling can meet and "play together", no matter if you´re a beginner or a very skilled modeller.

We have fun together and thats the most important matter, right?

The staff, I have to say some words to you here;

You work your butts off to get this site working and you are not standing still either!
You are still tweaking the site and It gets better and better all the time!
But most important of all; you are no "shadow" characters that only exists in the background.
No, you are also modellers and as sutch participating in the daily discussions and treads too.
So It´s always very easy to get in touch with you If we need to!

A big "THANK YOU" to everybody (staff AND members!) on this site for making It such a great place!

I´m proud to say that Aeroscale Is my modelling "Cyber-home" nowadays!

Is everything perfect now then?
Well, there´s always room for improvements.

Some suggestons;

An easier way to submit pictures and features, I still find It akward and a bit difficult.
But that´s maybe me as well who can´t get along with the system!
A chatroom where we can meet and "speak" in "real time" would be fun.

Well, that was some of my thoughts about Aeroscale!

Keep up the good work everybody!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hi Stefan

I was only thinking last night that it would be a good idea to set up a thread for suggestions of what people would like to see us doing (or doing better). I'll transfer your points over to kick off the topic.

Many thanks for the kind words and feedback.

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan!

But who needs a chatroom when you are so fast to answer!

Looking forward to see what you will come up with!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Hi Stefan

When I first joined Armorama, as it then was, we used to have a chat room. I think Staff_Jim was forced to close it because it became overrun by trolls - so the stupid behaviour of a few spoiled the fun for a load of other people. I'm afraid, after that experience, Jim's unlikely to set up an "official" chatroom again.

Of course, there's nothing to stop Aeroscalers meeting up on Googletalk, Yahoo! etc.... That might be a way to set up "virtual interest groups".

All the best

Rowan

This is just me being 'webmaster anal' but the 500 to 1500 are visitors, not hits. Hits are in reference to a 'hit' on the server. This page for example caused multiple 'hits' for information to create the page (from 2 different servers) and also all the images (each one a file request 'hit'). Nobody really tracks hits anymore since it would really vary depending on the complexity on the site. If we were looking at hits per day the number would probably be in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.



Jim

Nice one Jim

1500 visitors per day is even better!

All the best

Rowan

That's for sure a nice argument when chasing vendors...

Jean-Luc