PE! Look at you! All grown up. 25 this year! I've turned your old bedroom into a studio.Hope you don't mind. Don't worry, I didn't toss any of your stuff. In fact, it's all here since we moved into what we call PEv3.0. Over a million posts! Wowsa!
I've penned a few anniversary threads over the years but 25 is BIG milestone! I have to stop and pause for a minute and let this sink in...
What an interesting journey it's been. It's like the internet grew up with us, didn't it? In some ways it got too big and lost a lot of heart along the way. Yet, here, we've managed to remember who we are and what we do best. Which is bring some of the most enduring progressive music discussion to the 'net. I know that sounds bold, but I think at the 25 year mark we can sit back and know we made a difference in 1000s of reader's lives. I think the unique quality of our membership and your open minds and hearts are the key to our longevity.
I ran across an interview I did in Progression Magazine for our 10th Anniversary today in my FB memories and it got me thinking a lot about PE and it's legacy. 10 years seemed like a milestone, but we were not even at the halfway mark yet. Amazing to think of that now. The interview had a slightly corny headline, "A Proggy Cyber Oasis". I'm getting visions of palm trees and sand when I see it now. It does pretty much nail what PE has managed to remain though. There's something reassuring about being able to come here all these years later and enjoy the civil tone and general calm that PE has settled into as it matured. All while the pace of life on the 'net and off accelerated greatly. There's a lot of uncertainty out there, yet here, it feels untouched for the most part. I think it boils down to all of you being great people that have remembered how to have a civil, intelligent exchange of thoughts and opinions and, out of those, a respect that belies this current age. That's really amazing.
Feeling nostalgic and giving thanks for 25 years of mostly positive memories. No, it wasn't always easy and we lost some great friends and artists along the way who enriched our lives in countless ways. The motivation to share music info in a selfless way has always been the focus here, and have some fun doing it. I think that kept PE's heart in the right place. We won anyway. All these years later our daily readership is basically the same size as it was over a decade ago, despite a world of other options - FB, You Tube, You Name It... The value of words lives on here, without the cross-talk of a million voices all yelling at once. Being able to "go long" and expound on any variety of subjects in a world of short attention spans is a rarity and what made/makes PE so...necessary. Your continued belief in PE shows there is still a need and desire to do that.
I feel blessed to have so many friends from here still be part of my life all these years later and I miss those that have passed on. Big thanks to Duncan and Cozy for their tireless love and dedication that has kept PE going long after I needed to climb new mountains. You two own the hearts and minds of PE in a way I can only applaud from afar.
Bigger thanks to all of you for sharing so much here and making it an 'encyclopedia' of progressive music and so much more. I never dreamed a little Yahoo Club would become all this. Never in a million years. I'm sure am glad it did.
Much love to you all,
-ST
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Originally Posted by thedunno
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