I have to admit, today was looking kinda crummy with the usual load of work and all the phone calls and there just wasn't much smiling going on... That is, until I read this post... hehe...
Wow, where to begin ... This is a rare moment in time so catch it while you can, chances are you wont hear this kinda horn blowing again, all of us usually refrain from this kinda thing.
Forbes Magazine (known around the world at being the authority on just about anything they touch although I personally dont agree with everything they say) so it would be an understatement to say we were blown away and extrememly happy to see the review. We knew nothing about it until someone pointed it out to us. Many of the others in that list are the biggest of the big in their area which makes us proud to be placed amoung their ranks.
Next of all, I just have to giggle when people say they thought Scuba Source was small or just these forums.
Did you know that ....
1) The Scuba Source Network (SSN) is made up of more than 300 domains online.
2) The SSN has been Microsoft's "#1 Featured Site" 7 months in a row, and we were once before as well for 4 months running.
3) We have been published in "Computing Magazine" as the #1 outdoor recreational site online for the years 1999, 2000 and 2001.
4) The SSN was Yahoo Magazines "#1 Pick" for outdoor recreational sites 2 years running.
5) The SSN gives away more than 26 domain names for Free (Geocities Style) Website hosting and (Hotmail Style) Free Email (at
ScubaCity.com) with more than 150,000 users.
6) The SSN built the Internets First True Scuba Exclusive Search Engine online, before all the clones built theirs (at
ScubaSearch.com)
7) The SSN has the Largest Online Global Directory of listings for Diving related clubs, shops, Orgs, etc with more than 16,000+ listings, that's more than all the other sites out there added together!
8) The SSN has offices on all corners of the Globe. (New York, Florida, Washington State, Southern California, Scottland and Australia)
9) The SSN has Directors, Programmers and Technicians that are former Oracle, Adobe and other programmers, our server admins were involved in the development of Geocities.com, 50megs.com, etc... and some worked for places like Critical Path, 247Media, Charles Shwab, etc etc...
10) The newsletters that we send out go out to more than 150,000 subscribers each time.
11) Amoung our many, this forum happens to sit on one of our OWN Dual PenIII 1Ghz w/2+ Gigs Ram Dell PowerEdge Server sitting on 4 OC-12's!
12) Every single day we field and (at least try) to reply to more than 300 Emails a day. And unfortunately the phones are no less pounded.
13) Last January when Alta Vista's "Wild Wild Web" did a segment on Scuba Diving we were the ones that did all the Underwater Video for the whole show and that was one of us being interviewed the whole time. (Out of our Catalina Office). During that time we had to pay to have EXTRA lines connected to our servers because we got more traffic per day than any other dive site gets in a year as it showed over 87% of the US and Europe!
Part of what makes up the SSN, and whos founder is a director of the SSN, is the
Women's Scuba Association... When no one else could care less, the SSN stepped up to the plate to make sure the WSA lives on since we believe that with women making up something like 49% of all newly certified divers, that they deserve a voice and we took them under our belt to insure just that.
And I could go on but the Biggest things I will not let out of the bag just yet, so far what I have said is public knowledge and I wouldn't want to spoil the other surprises, hehe. Yes, we are fully aware that OTHER sites like to CLAIM how they are the biggest and, well, it looks like they are right in thinking that if they say it enough times you will believe it. You will notice something about the SSN... We wont walk around beating our chests and making wild claims or anything else like that. We will continue to quietly move from one project to the next until all the foundations are laid and the troups are in place. Our goal is to do what no one else in this industry has dared to do on a global scale. We just feel that it is about time that the actual "Divers" have a say.
There are few other sites out there that I respect within the diving Industry, and I'm not ashamed to say who they are. 1) diveguide.com (which just happened to be #2 on the Forbes list) and diverlink.com ... Both of them are fairly unbaised and respectible and have been on the web as long if not longer than the SSN, and the SSN has been around for MANY years now.
Btw, go to Diverlink and ask him where he got the look for his pages, hehe, (I love teasing him about this). The VERY first page of his site... Does it look fimiliar? No? Ignore all the water looking background... Still nothing? If not, compare it to the
ScubaSearch.com Engine or the
ScubaEvents.com Calendar or the
AquaTrader.com Classified Ads System, etc ...
Do I think the SSN is the greatest thing since sliced bread to the diving industry? Well, considering that what I feel is the SSN, then yes, since I feel what the "SSN is" is all of you put together. That has been our goal from day #1. Btw, at the time of me writting, for future historical and properity reasons, I will mention that we now have 458 members on this forum, and this is only within a few short weeks of opening it and we have never sent out an email yet or any other forum of letting people know other than word of mouth or a few lowly links on the bottom of some of our other pages. Not to bad for how "small" we all are, hehe.
Hope this sheds alittle light...
=-)