TONMO 2013 Year In Review

tonmo

Cthulhu
Staff member
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Joined
May 30, 2000
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Location
Pennsylvania
I didn't plan on writing an end-of-year Newsletter, but here we are. I was thinking about all that we had done this year -- quite a lot -- and just started writing. Let's get to it:

1) October's TONMOCON V was a huge success. There are so many people to thank, but I'll just call out two: Richard Ross for securing the Steinhart Aquarium for us, and Denise Whatley for an incredible amount of work in supporting the event. Can't wait for TONMOCON VI in 2015, probably East Coast.

2) Inherent with the conference, we had our second Monty Award winner - Jean! A true TONMO Ceph Head. I need to put up a Monty Awards winner page in our new Articles section, profiling each winner (Terri, and now Jean).

3) After TONMOCON V (and inspired by it), TONMO.com switched out its core software. The result is a much better-performing site, with less attachment headaches among other things. We now have a solid platform with which to build out the site anew. We're starting by restoring some of its prior greatness :smile:. Thanks to Claudio from Todo10, and to staff member Dwhatley for the many hours of effort put in to get this done. Memorable Skype sessions with you both! :smile:

4) In January 2013, our Living Giant Squid Live Viewing Party was a hit. The documentary was great, featuring Dr. Steve O'Shea among others. Despite TONMO's challenged platform, we were able to have a live discussion thread going for the event, which was fun. It's not very often we have the opportunity for live events on TONMO. (hmmm....)

5) Octobot picked up on a ton of great cephalopod news items this year, and there were even a few hoaxes. It seems cephalopods just keep getting more and more popular. In this respect, our culture is a lot different than it was when we started TONMO. (Let's call it, pre-meme cephalopods). :roll:

6) Within the community, participation was fairly low for much of the year, mostly due to issues with the prior platform. Still, we did have a few cephalopod journals, and I can see it's starting to pick up again, with Carol and others (old and new) sharing their tanks and intentions. Dwhatley and a few other active Staff members must be credited for keeping our community in shape even during our darkest days. Even then, though, we weren't absent a great, supportive staff and community. Thin at times, but ever-present. Thanks for being there, TONMOers!

I'm realizing I could go on and on. The Staff had many great ceph-related happenings this year as well (LPSO!!) but I don't think I can fit it all in. I'm just bound to miss stuff!

So, let's consider 2013 a "rebuilding" year for TONMO. :smile: I'm very optimistic for TONMO in 2014 and am looking forward to seeing our content and community grow.

Keep on cephin'! :tomato:
 
@sedna, I am excited that you are excited, particularly because I hope you will be able to add a ceph to your mobile classroom (and just where are those pictures you promised?). You might consider :silenced: cuttlefish (just thinkin').
 

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