OUR FIRST FULL YEAR

January 25, 1997

Behavior OnLine has completed its first full year on the Web. And a full year it has been!

This week we welcomed our 2300th Charter Member and a week ago we recorded more than 2500 page accesses in a single day. I believe we are the most visited site for the professional community on the Web (though nowhere near as active as our mammoth sister site, Mental Health Net, and a few others that serve the broader community). Our most distinctive feature, the forum discussion areas have expanded to a total of eleven (plus the Clinical Case Conference, the most popular of them all).

For me 1996 was a good year, one full of challenge and MANY small frustrations, but most of all a year full of learning. I believe that our start-up year has been a successful one and one that has prepared us for an even more productive year ahead. Mor e about what lies ahead soon.

I want to thank you, especially those who have become members, for your participation. I have learned a lot from your postings and from your many e-mail messages. I appreciate the efforts you have made in helping to shape the environment of this communi ty.

I also want to acknowledge the generous contributions of our Editorial Board and of our Associate Editors. We are deeply indebted to Jordan Schwartz, for his ingenuity and unflapple and lightning fast solution to any problem, to John Grohol for his bound less creativity and technical ledgerdemain, to Don Nathanson, who was here from the start and is always there for me. Henry Stein and Jessica Broitman have shared generously much knowledge and much of themselves. I also want to acknowledge the rich and generous contributions those who have joined us as consulting editors in the course of the year: James Brody, Ellen Dornelas, Barbara Fleming, Sophia Kelly, Vernon C. Kelly, Brian O'Neill, James Pretzer, Charlie Seashore. Thank you one and all!

A special note to those of you in the Dallas area: I will be conducting a "Guided Tour of the Internet" (including Behavior OnLine, of course) at Grand Rounds of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center next Friday, J anuary 31, 1997 at 10:30 AM.

Professionals in the Dallas area are welcome at this series. Phone 648 2572.

I look forward to this opportunity to connect in-person with colleagues in the Dallas area I have met here. It will be especially interesting to learn about your experience at Behavior OnLine and elsewhere on the Net.

Please let me know if you will attend.

The Editor