So yet another season fades into a disappointing close.
We expect a few people may take a break from all things Charlton over the next few weeks, so although people are probably not in a great mood for positives, there are a number of things that deserve a mention.
Charlton Life will be 4 years old this summer, and those that have been around since the beginning will probably feel it’s a lot longer than that !
We’ve experienced tremendous growth again through the last season. Whilst looking at the stats of the forum alone, it has recorded just under 12 million pageviews in the last year, an annual rise of 40%. The amounts of visits to the Forum rose 60% to 1.3m, while the amount of unique visitors rose an incredible 83%. As it stands, the site has 2,158 members. The Forum has been read in 161 countries over the course of the season, and it is only really a handful of African countries where the Forum hasn’t been visited. Thank you to everyone of for supporting us and returning to the site on a regular basis, whether you daily poster, or simply lurk in the shadows. We upgraded our servers again earlier in the season, and as the Forum is starting to creak again under the weight of traffic of the last few years, hopefully from the stats above it will help you will to realise why.
In the last year we added the Statbank as a regular feature, which although doesn’t get much reaction, I think helps provide a different, informative angle. I’d like to thank all you who have contributed your player marks, over the course of the season I’ve plugged in an incredible 20,670 player marks, so thanks to all of you who have contributed, in particular to Salad for his assistance with the miscellaneous stats. A completed full report will be published in the next week and should make interesting reading.
One of the great things about this season has been the amount of members who have taken on more active roles, and helped ease the workload. In particular, we’d like to highlight:
Henry Irving for organising the Player Sponsorship so well. Thanks to our members we raised £1,350 for the club in sponsoring Jonjo Shelvey, Lloyd Sam and Robbie Elliot. It is great we can help support the club in this way, and we thank all of you who contributed. Thanks also to Maglor who very generously donated his own sponsorship places, and congratulations to all of you who were lucky enough to win a place, or one of the many prizes.
Thanks also to Henry for organising the Wednesday weekly Charlton quiz, which always gets you thinking. Having done a couple as well, thinking up a list of appropriate 10 questions every week is not as easy as it looks.
Thanks to Choice for his dedication in the Daily Grounds Competition, which was extremely well received and great fun.
Thanks to WSS for his continued, excellent match-day previews and polls.
Thanks to Shirty for taking over the weekly Predictions League, which has always been a consistent part of the site. It is a lot more time consuming than people imagine so we’re very grateful he is able to keep this going. 157 participated this year, congratulations to Low Ears, and commiserations to Covered End who led for a large bulk of the season.
Thanks to Seth Plum and his son Paddy7 for the dedication to providing commentary during our Match Threads, we know how much they are appreciated by those not at the games.
Thanks to all those who participated in our Charity Points Competition, and congratulations to Swisdom on winning and choosing Demelza. With the proceeds of this, and other members Demelza contributions (signed programmes, sponsors dinner seats etc), the amount the members of this site have contributed to Demelza over the last three years is now in excess of £42,000, an incredible amount for what is basically just a bunch of Average Joe football supporters with a good charitable heart. We thank each and everyone of you who has contributed as this is something that gives us tremendous pride.
Thanks to the number of members who privately contacted me and helped find tickets for other fans for the Swindon away game. We managed to help around 30 other members in the end, and it is episodes like this which really shows how the ‘community’ can work so well, as have the numerous other times throughout this season where our members have helped others out with regards to tickets and travel.
Thanks to Threadkiller, WSS and Johnnybev in instigated and running the popular CL Poker Club, and thanks to all others who participate to ensure this is at least something oohaahmortimer doesn’t always win !
Thanks to Curb It for excellently organising the annual C.L.I.T away day to Yeovil, which everyone seemed to enjoy despite the extreme conditions.
Thanks to Charlton Charlie for organising, and those of you who played, or come and supported our CL FC football games earlier in the season. Hopefully this is something we can resurrect more frequently next season.
Those to those who help out behind the scenes, processing new members, editing foul language, moothing things to the right categories, quietly smoothing over disagreements etc. In fairness, the respect shown by the bulk of members makes administering the site a relatively painless task the bulk of the time, and we thank all you guys who always take in good grace on the few occasions we do feel the need to make any decisions, even if you disagree. You have to remember we sometimes do things we don’t individually always agree with ourselves, but it is always down to help maintain what we hope to be a sensible and smooth-running forums.
Thanks also to our smattering of away fans who help provide a different slant on things, and for the bulk for respecting that due to the structure of our Forum, we have no designated ‘away fans end’, nor did we strive for this to be a laddish, inter-club banter site such as the old Rivals set-up.
And finally, just once again to thank every one of you for helping this to remain a sensible and hopefully respected Charlton Forum, with a good smattering of humour thrown in to boot. And Christ do we need it at times !
Hopefully the above though will help to show that there is a lot more to ‘being Charlton’ than when the referee blows that full-time whistle, and that despite the lack of success on the pitch, we still have a lot to be proud and thankful for.
Have a great summer, and stay positive
AFKA and Lookout
0
Comments
Really enjoyed the Valley Party and other articles and hope to read more of these, from lots of different people, next season.
Cheers and bring on next season...........whatever that may hold!!
Hear hear!
Well done everybody on raising over £42,000 - that really is an amazing amount.
Fianlly - just over 12 weeks to the new season - Come on Charlton !!!
Indeed, can't believe this didn't get a mention in AFKA's piece.....in all seriousness, great site and thanks for all the continued hard work. Whatever happens, we'll all have renewed optimism come August again...all part of being a Charlton fan
There's always one, isn't there.
: - )
Over £42,000 for Demelza in 3 years is simply stunning.
I'm looking forward to the CLIT to Bournemouth next season!
Or perhaps Aldershoot?!
well done all
As red army said last night, the best thing about the football now is meeting up with everyone and have a good laugh win lose or draw, so much that I'm gona swap my season ticket in swap week to north upper so can meet up with everyone at halftime for a laugh,joke and a cheeky snout (que everyone moving to the east stand!!)
Anywho another good year and here's to the next and whatever it brings!!
Charlton life till I die.
that i need a large stiff one perhaps.
cheers too all whose hard work and dedication to keep the site going should never be forgotten
and cheers to some posters for talking such crap i now believe i'm sane for the first time in a long time
i said to the wife last night why didn't you put the kit on you knew we'd lost and i'd be in a foul mood , she said you went straight on that poxy charlton life you saddo ........ i agree with her!
This is why i keep the new bird on countdown thread up to date.
Nice one Afka Lookie and Glenda (and other admins etc Dazzler) for making this place tick.
Ollie
But Curb_It is a lady JT !!!