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AfterDawn.com's sixth birthday

10 June 2005 3:25 by Petteri "dRD" Pyyny | 46 comments

It is officially summer in Finland now, as our site turns six today. Six years? In some ways a very short time, but in some ways, especially in the world of "dotcom", almost an eternity. It has been a journey that has been well worth it, even though there have been times when it has been quite hard to go on. But now, after six years, we can all look in the past and say "Yes, it's been a good experience".

We've gone through our site's history, original idea, background, etc in our past "birthday news", so there's nothing new in that for our regular users (but for those of you, who are still interested, take a look at our last year's article). When I began writing this article I realized that our sixth year was the first year ever that we haven't launched any new major site sections, new site layouts, or anything "dramatic" like that. Rather, it has been a "year of evolution", rather than "year of revolution" for us as a website.

During the last year we've managed to focus on things that are less obvious to our average user, but make our site perform better and our site to grow faster. We spent several months during last winter on upgrading our whole server cluster and switching our site to use a new application server platform. There were times during the December and January when our site was as reliable as a Soviet-era technical gizmo, but all those problems went away after we finally managed to get all the pieces in the server puzzle together in March. Since that, we haven't had a single blackout on our site. Additionally, I've spend quite a lot of time improving our site's user experience -- fixing those little things you never really notice until they start to annoy you :-)

I would like to thank our new news team members -- Dela has been a tremendous help on our English news and guide sections, while Ankle has done similarly amazing job on our Finnish site. And yes, we have grown during the year as a site. We've grown from last June's 12 million page impressions/month to our current level of 20 million page impressions/month. So, you might say that a 75 percent growth in terms of page impressions in a year is quite good :-)

Last but not the least, I would like to thank all of my fellow admins, all of our hard-working moderators and especially you, our dear users. Without you guys, our site wouldn't be what it is today -- one of the largest digital multimedia sites in the world. Thank You!

Anyway, its time for our team of admins to practice the age-old tradition of Finnish beer drinking..

On behalf of AfterDawn Ltd,

-Petteri Pyyny, webmaster

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Discuss this article!	There are more user comments available, read them here
wildebill (Newbie) 10 June 2005 11:38
Thanks From Across The Pond Congratulations and Happy Birthday [ + quote]
arniebear (AfterDawn Addict) 10 June 2005 11:42
Happy Birthday to AD and all it contributors, may it continue to grow in the future :~) [ + quote]
BirdeX (Junior Member) 10 June 2005 12:33
HAPPY B-Day AfterDawn and thx for the great contributors. Live on :) [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 10 June 2005 12:57
Happy Birthday!!! Although just a newbie by name. :) I have found the site to b a great asset for all and myself has learned alot and u have brought back the passion i had lost for computing. and also i have recommended this site to friends and i dont recommend many things Many happy returns and thanxs again borhan [ + quote]
squizzle (AfterDawn Addict) 10 June 2005 13:24
Happy B-Day AD!! Best site ever! I know you will prevail in the .com world. [ + quote]
venomX05 (Senior Member) 10 June 2005 13:30
HAPPY F***ING' BIRTHDAY TO YOU, AFTERDAWN! Definately has been such a great pleasure being on this site, it is the only one and will always be the only want that I will EVER use! Keep up the OUTSTANDING work over there..... ;P V [ + quote]
Alien13 (Senior Member) 10 June 2005 16:08
Happy birthday Afterdawn. Dont know what id do with out you :) [ + quote]
ripdox (Inactive) 10 June 2005 16:59
... [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 12 September 2007 19:45
creaky (Moderator) 10 June 2005 17:16
nice one, here's to at least another 6.. [ + quote]
Toiletman (Senior Member) 10 June 2005 17:35
Happy le Birfday Afterdawn! [ + quote]
Dela (Staff Member) 10 June 2005 18:00
Happy BDAY aD! altho the cake is missing 1 candle ;-) just four more years to the decade of afterdawn, then we can all travel to finland and party :D [ + quote]
vans12 (Member) 10 June 2005 18:15
HAPPY B-DAY! hip hip horay! [ + quote]
rx29 (Junior Member) 10 June 2005 21:09
Happy Birthday Afterdawn and many,many more! You are a great site and one I am very happy to have found! I really appreciate your intelligent and patient mem-bers and your informative and useful areas! Stay around! [ + quote]
Gringle (Inactive) 10 June 2005 21:16
great site happy birthday [ + quote]
zdhonda (Inactive) 11 June 2005 8:21
great site!! Happy Birthday, and keep up the great work Ad. You guys are the S*@T. [ + quote]
Auslander (AfterDawn Addict) 11 June 2005 17:43
where's Mr. Garrison when you need him? "hey there, mr. afterdawn, happy f***ing birthday!..." and i forget the rest of the tune. [ + quote]
mickus (Newbie) 13 June 2005 6:54
From across the world happy B-Day to AfterDawn, I have used the site for a couple of years and fine ever day an experience more and more intense. also, it's good to see lighting,uk fighting back. [ + quote]
Stew45 (Newbie) 16 June 2005 5:44
Happy 6th Birthday AfterDawn!!!! I enjoy your insight to the digtal world and enjoy your news letter [ + quote]
teflonmyk (Senior Member) 17 June 2005 9:07
Happy B-Day [ + quote]
aha (Newbie) 22 June 2005 19:08
Happy B-day to you "AfterDawn.com" Congratulation in Order and keep going...going ..going Thank you a Million. [ + quote]
svtstang (AfterDawn Addict) 9 June 2006 20:10
No kidding, happ B-day afterdawn!!!! This site has taught me everything i know:) Long live aD!!! [ + quote]
tocool4u (Inactive) 9 June 2006 20:17
Hey check out the safety valve........That article is old by the way...It is now AD's 7th birthday..LOL..I just noticed it that sig created by Phantom69 [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 9 June 2006 22:21
Wow its already been a yr :) thats crazy. Well i said it once ill say it again Happy Bday aD :) [ + quote]
boxwrench (Senior Member) 9 June 2006 22:28
Afterdawn,a great place to learn,teach or just hang out.Happy Birthday! Main System- Amd/64 3800x2 currently@ 2.5ghz. Asus A8N-E,win.xp-pro.2x1gb.Ocz platnium ddr 433,Maxtor 40gb.& 250gb.ide & 2x W.D.250 sata,Benq 1650V dvd Reader & Benq DW-1655 Writer,EVGA Geforce 7600gs,Creative Audigy-LS,Antec 550w psu.Dell 196fp 1280x1024@75hz [ + quote]
-Rex- (Senior Member) 9 June 2006 23:05
Happy X Birthday to AfterDawn! I'm using that X 'cause I don't have to fix it next year :) [ + quote]
Hz4 (Inactive) 10 June 2006 0:24
Happy Birthday Afterdawn!1 [ + quote]