I’ve made 500 posts on GC user. I’m not quite sure how to feel about it actually. I’d usually think that it was pretty cool, and then carry on geeking it up. This time though, it has made me realise that over the last 18 months or so that I’ve been using the forum, how much things have changed.

When Jalal emailed me and asked me to write the first post, there was no sort of official place for people to show off, complain, ask questions etc. and now it seems to be the primary source of GC related communication.

During my masters viva Mark Burry essentially told me off for being too platform dependent, and this has been a niggling worry for the last 9 months, especially since Robert’s departure to autodesk. I am very firmly on the rug, and if it gets pulled out, at the moment, I’ll be going with it.

The main thing that sticks out from having written 500 posts, is the sheer amount of time it’s taken. If each one takes an average of 10 minutes, thats 83 hours spent continuously posting (and most posts take a lot longer than 10 minutes)
That all sounds incredibly negative, but i suppose that it’s important to get a complete grasp on the range of emotions and issues at stake. The aggregate feeling though is one of great (if slightly fatigued) happiness. Answering posts on the forum has pushed my understanding of the software, and my understanding of the methods required to design in this way, to a level that I couldn’t even have imagined.

There is definitely a large influence from being around Paul, Christian and Judit, (who all need batter websites!) But I think that my specific GC knowledge is largely down to GCuser. The questions are usually ones that I don’t know the answer to, and generally ones that I would probably never have even asked, but once I’ve thought about it, seem essential.

Anyway, before i get too sentimental, i’ve got to get back to geekign it up.