AVForums end of year report 2008

[Stuart Wright]

Editorial
2008 was another successful year with continued expansion in the editorial content we produce. With Phil Hinton in charge, we built on the hardware review section established in 2007 and expanded the team to include the very capable David Mackenzie.
Our video production activities starting in March ’08 have become popular with our visitors at AVForums as well as our subscribers on iTunes and YouTube. We produced over 100 videos in less than a year and with support from our sponsors Panasonic, Sennheiser and Genelec, we are proud to be known for our good production values and quality, informative content.
Despite more efforts being aimed at videos, our popular audio podcasts have continued with a target of one hardware and one movie production per month.
Our movie review team switched almost exclusively to Blu-ray in 2008 and have, under the superb supervision of Simon Crust, continued to produce some of the most incisive reviews on the net, showing a real passion for both movies and movie playback standards.

Forums
The moderating team have worked together under the supervision of Ian J, Nigel, Chris, Ian E, John and Mike to maintain the forums’ friendly atmosphere, free from spam and abuse. It’s a tough job and I’m sure AVForums members will join me in thanking them for their huge contribution to our community.
We employed new Search Engine Optimised links to AVForums in the third quarter and believe that this is partially responsible for larger growth than expected at the end of the year.
The first graph below shows our traffic, rising to an anticipated but still exciting peak at the end of the year. According to Google Analytics, in 2008 we had 21.9 million unique visitors making 43.8 million visits and viewing 222.1 million pages. In December alone we had 3.28 million unique visitors which is a 93.79% increase on the previous year (see the second graph).
Naturally we are delighted with how AVForums has grown in the last 12 months, and we are continually refining the forum structure so that we cover emerging technologies while keeping the presentation as simple as possible.

Commercial
We committed in 2008 to a substantial server upgrade and more bandwidth, which alleviated some of the speed problems occasionally experienced by forum users. In addition we contracted a significant bespoke update to our search facility which is still ongoing with an imminent completion date. These commitments have been possible because of the excellent efforts of our advertising sales team which expanded in 2008 to include Sally Meaden who has proved a valuable addition.
We have worked closely with our host Global Gold to optimise the forums, and Tim Dunton has put in exceptional effort to ensure that our servers are working as efficiently as possible. This experience and flexibility means they are deservedly becoming the first choice for forum owners both in the UK and abroad.

2009
Going forward, we already attended CES in Las Vegas in January and started the year with a suite of videos bringing news of the latest AV technologies to you faster than most production teams working out there. We also have the usual stand at the Bristol Show in February where forum members will be able to meet and in many cases put faces to login names. We will continue to bring you more reviews and videos and hope to steadily expand our teams and content output this year.
We thank all our visitors for their support in 2008. We think it will take more than a credit crunch to diminish peoples’ passion for home movies, video games, gadgets and home entertainment, so we are look forward to seeing you regularly at AVForums in 2009.
Stuart and Vicki

[Dony]

Thanks to all involved in providing an excellent forum for us all to enjoy. Long may it prosper.

[Timbo21]

Yes, definitely well done to the team.

The software and hardware reviews are some of the most comprehensive available, whether it be online or in print.

AVForums could even take a further step with better technical support.

For example, a sticky on the Blu-ray forum, which includes guidance on MR modding for each player, as well as links to all the latest firmware updates for the players. The sticky could be closed, so it doesn't get clogged up with endless posts. It could include a link to feedback left by users on any problems incurred. This really would be a good support tool which would make life a lot easier as oppose to having to run through searching posts to find the latest and best firmware/ways to MR.

If the above works it could be extended to other forums.

Tim.

[Stuart Wright]

Tim, I would like a sticky faq in every forum, and some do have them.
I wasn't aware that there was any Blu-ray modding yet. If so then we ought to do the same as we do for the DVD player hacks forum.
Are you volunteering?

[Ballistix999]

Keep up the great work guys, I've learnt so much via the people on the forums.

Regards,
Tony

[Timbo21]

Originally Posted by Stuart Wright

I wasn't aware that there was any Blu-ray modding yet. If so then we ought to do the same as we do for the DVD player hacks forum.

It is obviously only for the DVD side of things on the Blu-ray players.

I know Crustyloafer posted several Hex codes for use with appropriate remotes to hack the DVD side of BR players.

I just think it all can be collated and put together with firmware info.

Originally Posted by Stuart Wright

Are you volunteering?

Not sure, really. I would have thought there would be someone more adept than me. It would be something that I would take a bit of time over.

[tin69]

Keep the fire burning.

[Abbeygoo]

Great end of year results - what you would expect from a first class forum. Help is never far away, great trading forums and moderated in a sensible, constructive way.

AVF is King!

[MrMuz]

Friendliest forum I've used! keep up the good work

[kopchoir]

I cant seem to log off sometimes something always grabs may attention and i end up staying here for hours at a time
Here is to another successfull coming year
Keep up the good work and well done
Si

[Kieron]

Brilliant work - great site, fabulous content.

Well done!

[Woodywizz]

I remember first stumbling on here in 2005 when I was looking at buying an LCD panel...and yep, I'm still here. Great forums, very well moderated (despite my couple of indiscretions ), and I wholeheartedly recommend the forums to anyone who has any AV or non-AV related query.

Without any shadow of a doubt it is the one site that is always on on my laptop.

Great work Stuart from you and your team and long may it continue

[Abbeygoo]

Originally Posted by Woodywizz

I remember first stumbling on here in 2005 when I was looking at buying an LCD panel...and yep, I'm still here.

Yeah and thanks for telling me about it Matt .... you have cost me a fortune!

[namuk]

Keep up the good work people from Hardware reveiws to films and Tech info and updates + the Classified section is moderated very well IMOP hard to tear my self away most of the time

Class job all....

[Mark4190]

Yes thank you, one of the best forums on the net.