As of May 14th, 2012, The Dark City's is one year old. In that time, our little corner of the webway has grown from its two founding members, Sky Serpent and Baron Tordeck, to a current total of 1,221 denizens. And it continues to grow at roughly the same 100-new-members-per-month pace.
TDC was the progeny of Sky Serpent. Following the release of our amazing new codex and model range, Sky felt the need for a forum dedicated solely to the True Kin. Baron Tordeck was enlisted to help with the technical side of things, and together they laid the foundations of what rapidly became a huge success after it was officially announced.
The forum was also fortunate enough to count among its early members Lucky No. 5. He designed and created the beautiful banner that has come to symbolize The Dark City and give us a our own unique identity among the 40K community online.
From the very beginning, this community has been blessed with many truly outstanding members and mods, and it continues to be favoured by its members precisely because of the wonderful atmosphere and camaraderie that exists here. Inspirational conversions, experienced painting advice, rational and reasonable tactical suggestions, and terrific fan fiction can all be found here on a daily basis, along with plenty of humour. Freely given in a friendly and respectful manner.
And from a modding point of view, it has been a remarkably easy forum to monitor and maintain, thanks to its excellent body of members.
To help celebrate our first anniversary, we have of course just completed a public nomination and voting process for our first ever Dark City Forum Awards. There are many members here who deserve recognition, not least all of the runners up in each category, but the individuals listed below were singled out by you, the forum members, for their hard work and dedication to community building throughout our first year.
Before we get to them, however, there are three denizens who are the recipients of
Sky Serpent's Special Recognition Award for their truly unique contributions to The Dark City's birth and maturation:
Lucky No. 5 - for the gorgeous banner that headlines The Dark City. Lucky's work successfully captures the many elements of the Dark Eldar, all perfectly blended together and balanced by numerous bright colours that help make each page visited come alive.
Baron Tordeck - the boffin who has spent many, many hours working behind the scenes to ensure not only that the forum is set up correctly and runs properly, but also looks and feels the way it does for all of us. Baron has also provided a steady and leading role in moderating the forum.
Local_Ork - for his excellent work in designing and creating the graphics used in the buttons for linking and navigating around the forum, and the icons used to identify the various types of threads. Local has additionally been a highly-valued member of the modding team and a tremendous overall contributor to the forum.
In addition, I would like to take this opportunity to recognise and thank
Sky Serpent, without whose vision and generosity this wonderful forum we are addicted to on a daily basis would not exist. Sky is an ever-welcoming presence and is constantly seeking new ways to develop and grow the forum for the benefit of all its members.
And finally, here are the winners as voted by forum members of the 2012 Dark City Forum Awards:
Best Fluff Writer –
Thor665 -
Trueborn series, wonderful stories as good as anything published in print.
Best Quote –
Sorrowshard - "Behold my jack-in-a-box anti psycher death wave *phut* Archon looks at Heamo, looks back at GK's still pounding up the battlefield towards them. "Is that it ?" .... "
Best Strategist -
Thor665, what can you say? Encyclopedic knowledge and endless enthusiasm, time and generosity. Toss in some witty repartee, yar!
Best Battle Report –
Skari -
"20 games to Greatness" series, setting a high standard for all to aspire to, as well as providing much entertainment.
Best Painter –
Sorrowshard -
The Invidious Requiem, stunning work capped by a feature spread in GW's What's New section online.
Best Conversion –
Speedfreek -
Harlequinade Macabre, held everyone spellbound for most of the first year as we all eagerly awaited the next update in the creation of this truly unique army.
Best Moderator –
GobsmakkedBest Overall Member -
Evil Space Elves, always kind and welcoming, generous with his advice, and inspiring with his conversions and painting. A great forum presence and wonderful sense of humour.
Congratulations to everyone who won and to all nominees. And on a personal note, thank you very much to all those who voted for me, I greatly appreciate the sentiment. This is my first gig at moderating, I have enjoyed it immensely and am really looking forward to continuing with it.
Here's to TDC's second year being every bit as good as its first!
Cheers!