A Way of Saying Thanks . . .

I’ve got some of the best readers out there. The core group of active participants has been the bread and butter of the site and if noone else read it but that group I would be fine with that. The core know who they are and don’tneed much introduction.

It’s been slightly over a year since most of us migrated away from our regular posting on Arsenal America. They wanted to go in a certain direction and regardless of opinions we wound up starting this great place.

It originally just started as the blog itself. But I really wanted this to be a fun place to be so I created Gamedaychat. Game Day Chat is all about those of us who watch most of the games at home and would love some real time chat with the other supporters we bandy words with. It’s still not a big group there and that’s fine. Its kind of become like a pub (without the alcohol) and we all discuss the finer points of every match. With the World Cup this summer we were busy during those match days as well.

I am actively trying to get a grip on the ecommerce software so I can open up an online store. The Tshirt I designed will be the first thing sold on it and I have incorporated everyone’s comments and will have multiple versions of the first one. I am going to try and get those different versions ready this weekend.

Which kind of leads me to this pseudo announcement. I am not a prolific blogger like I would like to be. With work writing on a daily basis is not always feasible. I can do my match previews and some of the post match discussions but I am not writing as much as I would like. It’s one of the reasons I asked Jamie Dalton to join us. He has a good head on him and is good for some really good insights. But since we aren’t having a new article every day the comments on each article stretch for a while.

That is why I am introducing the new Forums at YouAreMyArsenal.com (www.youaremyarsenal.com/forums). It is not meant to replace commenting directly on articles. As we found out in GDC, some people don’t come there and I suspect that some won’t come to the Forums. I just meant it to be a place where if I decide to be even less prolific in writing I am in, that the chat continue uninterrupted. Also I am going to offer sections that allow us to talk about leagues and teams that we don’t cover here on a regular basis.

You will have to create a new profile over there in order to post. As I am still learning the software and programming behind phpbb there are likely to be some issues. So please bear with me. But I do hope you enjoy.

In the mean time, I appreciate the donations I have received so far. I will always continue to pay for the site myself. I will use all donations to offset those costs but no need in me begging for anything. If you’d like to donate great if not – no big deal we’ll still be here. If you would like to dontate there are two ways – click the donate link at the bottom and you can dontate $1 (the plug in won’t let me change the amount) or you can go to PayPal directly and send your own amount to daadmingooner@youaremyarsenal.com.

Seriously guys, I am trying to make this as much as I can to make it enjoyable – and you guys make it easy to do it. So my profound thanks for a solid first year of growth. I’ve got some exciting ideas for the next year and I hope I can bring them all to you.

In the mean time –

UP THE ARSENAL!!!!!

DAG

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