Before the Mast

It seems so long ago now when I remember how, one morning more than two years ago, I woke up to an offline on yahoo with a website address, and I saw “Before the Mast” skinned by Raven, with a banner and all empty otherwise, just to be persuaded, a few hours later, in the evening, to become her co-administrator and to put my love for the Age of Sail and my knowledge about the era into a new RPG… After a strenuous work of three weeks of writing all kind of documentations, on Transfiguration Day – 6-th of August 2010 – we had the official opening. Since then, we had no offline day, not even for replacing the site’s appearance.

Yes, I know, today is not yet the 6-th… but it is week-end, so let’s have a week-end of celebration! (I promise a toast with Captain Sparrow brown rhum in the evening, with my husband, for the site’s long life and prosperity!)

Only one person has remained with me from those early days, but people and places change and evolve equally… It is important that we made it to our second anniversary already, and this wouldn’t have been possible without your constant help and contribution – all of you, those present now and those present a while ago.

Now I can’t go on to leave a detailed mention for those that have imprinted their mark on our story but left the site during these twenty four months. They were lovely, and their contribution to our story is cherished. And where would we be without them? Probably with a lot less threads! We miss them, the characters are somewhere mentioned from time to time, and most of them got a meaningful departure.

Some people also say that leaving a site and returning to it is not a good sign, but I object vehemently to this idea. People might be leaving when they can’t write anymore due to other obligations, but returning “Before the Mast” when it could have been another site to join at the moment they got again free time and the urge to write, means that we have done something good… And such faithful members (we have a few here) are worth praising too!

I can’t say much either about those that haven’t been active (and communicative) long enough for me to know them well, but I will address my heartfelt thanks to those that have sailed with us “Before the Mast” through the good and bad, holding on the rigging, because only your continued participation in writing our story has allowed our writing community to flourish. I consider you all to be my friends, and you all, even those who have left, mean a lot to me. My door, my heart and my e-mail are always open to you all. Only that with some of you I wish I have the opportunity to talk more on yahoo (or Facebook, if no yahoo available)…

Like any birthday celebration you are invited to attend, it has a themed cake too. Fell free to taste it, it hasn’t been made by me and Maribel had no reason to mix any sleeping drugs in it!

…And now, let’s raise a glass of champagne for many happy returns of “Before the Mast’s” anniversary!