Evolt Org Celebrates Three Years

As I sit down and reflect upon another year in the life of evolt.org,

one word pops in to my head again and again: Wow.

As evolt.org marks its third birthday today, December 14th, 2001,

we also celebrate a year of change, continued growth, and new

beginnings. No longer are we the rebel underdog site devoted to web

developers and the web development trade; we're seen as one of the leading resources for the web development professionals

we aim to serve, and without whom we wouldn't exist. Although we may not be

the new kids on the block anymore, we still hold true to the principles

we've followed since inception - a world community of web developers promoting the mutual

free exchange of ideas, skills, and experiences without commercial

distraction - and we're continually evolving, continually evolting.

So how is evolt.org still evolving and evolting? Here are some of the highlights from the past

year:

• thelist, which one year ago had an impressive 1,000 subscribers, now boasts over 2,500 subscribers and yet it's still recognized as a highly professional, ever helpful and friendly, low noise high signal list - despite a size that might drive other mailing lists to collapse under their own weight.

• members.evolt.org started offering hosting in March 2001 to evolt.org members so that they may develop in environments like Cold Fusion, PHP, and MySQL, which they otherwise may not have a chance to do. Nearly 1,000 web developers call members.evolt.org their home on the web and place to learn at no cost.

• 4,500,000+ page views of evolt.org sites this year and an average of 82,000 distinct hosts visiting each and every month. Apparently, people like to evolt! :)

• The formation of theforum mailing list, an open mailing list where the direction and future of evolt.org are discussed and decided upon. No longer is the future of evolt.org determined by a closed (albeit, capable) group of people - each and every member of evolt.org now has the opportunity to make his or her voice heard!

• The evolt.org directory, a searchable directory containing links submitted by fellow web practitioners covering web design and development.

• Finally, the first ever evolt.org survey - your chance to express likes, dislikes, and ideas for improvement of evolt.org! The responses and feedback are being actively discussed and acted upon as we speak, to continue to make evolt.org the best web development resource on the Internet!

With so many great things happening with evolt.org, it's difficult to single out the one thing I'm most thankful for this year. The incredible perseverance of this community never fails to astonish me. With every passing day, it seems another resource for web developers either falls along the wayside, gets acquired (and abandoned), or switches its focus to a more "lucrative audience." As the flush cash and race for eyeballs of the late 90's dries up, it is somewhat ironic that a website

like evolt.org can survive - strike that, flourish - solely off the contributions of its members and without the financial backing that seemed so important just a year ago.

Personally, I think that what evolt.org continues to accomplish on a daily basis is a tribute to the spirit of the Internet. Thousands of people helping each other out - not for tangible gain, but because they all believe it makes the Internet a better place - says a lot about you, the members of the evolt.org community. As we celebrate our third birthday, I couldn't be more proud of what evolt.org has become; nor could I be more excited about the places evolt.org is going! Thanks to everyone who has made evolt.org into what it is, and to those who continue to raise the bar on what we can accomplish!

Happy third birthday evolt.org!!!