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.

Cheers!

*spreads jam on toast*

*eats Ben's toast*

Cool post Grace

Hoorah to one and all!

I did say it was Doorman-Jam, right? Hope you enjoyed!

What a wonderful thread! .

*Throws Toast in the air.*

Hooray for us!!

*looks at toast, wonders where the peanut butter is*

That's pretty amazing though.

Makes you feel all googly inside.

Time flies when you get to read Garner's rants. Skål för fan!

I'll raise a glass to all...

Slainte.

R.

I think I spent a few months on here checking to see who's catching me up with their post counts, wondering when Garner, Rincewind, Hsing or Electric Man would overtake me, then sort of forgot about it and stopped checking. I never would have guess that a crypto-French person would overtake us all!

"crypto-French" **dies laughing, then resuscitates and eats all the toast lying around** Nice one Mal, I like it

Huzzah for us !

And no, I do not talk too much. you guys just don't talk enough to cover my noise. This should be seen to at once. I suggest we tie Kenny to his keyboard and make him post until he catches up.

May I also suggest toast should be replaced or at least accompanied with sausages. Real Sausages. And pie.

I never left the boards, there was a period with the 'no posts' when I didn't post, but I still checked the boards pretty often. I still maintain that this whole 'Continued posting' malarky is nothing more than an ilaborate scheme to rob me of my rightfull title of Longest registered poster...I also believe his somehow connected with another scheme (even more dastardly) to rob me of my other title 'Most hansome and funny poster.'