Holy sheebangabang! 3++ is 365 days old

>.<

Happy Birthday to 3++? Pinkets go! It's been 365 days since I started this blog and not until Feb 15th (37 days later) did 3++ actually hit the scenes thanks to a friendly link on YTTH and me ranting about Jwolf. I guess I should thank them both... Thanks kids :).

Since I started tracking proper statistics using Google Analytics (May 25th) I've gone from a measly 395 visitors/1309 pagehits to 2189 visitors/6598 pagehits two days ago (Dec 7th) with highs of 2628 visitors on Nov 23rd and 7426 pagehits on Nov 1st. Pretty bloody impressive considering the growth has been sustained over this time period. I've also gone from a single author in lil' old me to having 17 total authors with many posting regularly (you know who you are). They obviously deserve mad props for what they've helped build and create so I won't whip them for the whole of this week! I've also received over 638 e-mails most of which I've responded to personally and on the blog; that's a lot of e-mails and questions! This doesn't include everything I've deleted or had sent to me as spam...

You can check out the progression of visitors and hits since I've started tracking stats and you can see a steady growth nearly from the getgo. Hopefully these numbers will continue to grow and the message we have to give is heard by more people! :)

Over this time period there have been a lot of good times, funny times and downright odd times but can't say I've ever felt disgruntled or annoyed at what this blog is about and to that I need to thank everyone who's reading this. You've made this possible with your feedback, comments, debating and down-right good nature. A big thanks to you; even to the people who disagree with everything I have to say! To all of the regular readers and not so regular readers, you've made this possible and I and I'm sure many others, thank you!

So on 3++'s birthday I've done something kinda special (no I'm not sending you all money or minis). And really I did it a couple days ago but I've made an 'affiliate' 3++ blog to expand upon the My Armies concept: 3++ is the new black - The painting side. Basically this blog is using the prettiness of WordPress (but horrible customisation witout hours of time invested) to showcase my models (and fluff...wtf) as well as some other authors or individuals who would like their stuff showcased in a way that doesn't clutter up 3++. I'll also be posting up WIP shots of my models more-so than I do here as well as extra pictures of battle-reports (you know, the awesome cinematic ones...). Don't worry, all the 'awesome' tactics/analysis articles will stay here (as will the actual battle-reports) and the hobby side of 3++ will stay the same in terms of Koopa/Rupert posting good stuff and tutorials by the rest of us. Basically 3++ - The painting side is just a place for me to better organise pictures of my minis and post up WIP shots whilst also letting others do the same. Think of it as a huge on-going gallery...

Anyway, a big thanks again to all of you for making this possible and enjoyable! I'll hopefully be getting in a game today against Vince (he hasn't bailed yet...) so a shiny battlereport should be up shortly. But otherwise kick back and enjoy an Internet beer!