So, I was thinking about the fact that this board is now over a year old. The community, of course, is a good five years old, and some people have been members since the beginning. The 20 oldest surviving members, ie members of the old board still posting on this one, are:

1. Rinso
2. Garner
3. Ba
4. Jackal
5. Jinxted (I don't think he's posted on this board, but he is a member)
6. KaptenKaries
7. Maljonic
8. Trollmother
9. Leather Monkey
10. Perdita

11. Mazekin
12. Marcia
13. Buzzfloyd
14. Avgi
15. Hex
16. Gypsy (only two posts on this board, but she is registered)
17. ArcNgel (no posts here, but is a member)
18. Plaid
19. Brad
20. Hsing

Honourable Mentions:
Pepster would have come in at number 18 if he hadn't decided to leave.
If Jinxted, Gypsy and ArcNgel were taken out of the list for failure to post, or to post recently, Hermes, Doors and Jaccairn would have come in at the bottom.
Therefore, just missing the boat by one place is Kenny. Typical!
Other notable absentees who would otherwise have made the list are Joyce Ogg, Pat and Lady Emma, all of whom are still missed and occasionally asked after.

Several of the members on that list have had lengthy absences of several months or even years (including me). Since Rinso was absent for about a year after signing up, Garner holds the record for longest continually-posting member (wait, that sounds wrong...), active since May 2001, two months after the original boards opened.

Of course, there are plenty of valuable members who aren't on that list, or who didn't even join until we were on this board. And isn't that great? We now have valued community members who joined us on this board! We also have more new people all the time. I realise that, given our history, many of those will be troublemakers creating false identities, but by no means all of them. The highest post count at the moment is Katcal's, and she's of Unseen vintage.

It's also worth mentioning that this community has turned out to belong to a Terry Pratchett Messageboard of Luuuuuuuuuurve. I won't list out all the couples, but let's just say that Garner and I seem to have started a trend. Several of us now have met our partners/spouses via this online community, and I think that shows the strength and honesty of what we've built here in cyberspace. It reinforces the importance of insisting that people contribute sincerely and without deception - good things grow out of it!

So, all in all, I don't think we're doing too badly. I propose a toast:

Here's to us: to friendship and camaraderie between people spread all over the globe; to resilience and strength in unity when under attack, and to happiness and prosperity for the future.