This entire message thread should probably be saved for the DM Birthday board that we open up each year, but since we all seem to be on a roll...here I go.

Part 1: DM's history (abridged)
The primary goal for Dragonmount was orginally, and still is, to be a Home for people who love the Wheel of Time. There are literally hundreds of other WoT sites out there with so much information on the books that I could never hope to duplicate it from scratch.

Despite this, I was determined to make something that would be different from everything else. The result was a "simple" website, hosted by Neon Knights (see Mazrim Taim's post below on how that worked out). DM's first version was clunky and slow to load (not so different from now!) and offered visitors the chance to sign up with one of about 6 organizations. The org leaders were all people I found on ICQ from another website. (I know, I'm guilty!)

Without getting into too much detail, the site grew at a monster rate. I knew we'd do well, but I had no concept of what we had made. Dozen of people became hundreds. Hundreds became thousands.

I remember when we hit 10,000 hits to our website. I gave the person who hit the magic number 10,000 a DM t-shirt. :) (Yes we had them once. I suppose we should make more, huh?). To put things in perspective, we now get several hundred thousand hits a month.

Thus began the website known as Dragonmount. I literally could type a hundred or more pages on how it worked, and maybe one day I will. But not tonight. Right now, I want to tell you what this all means to me. Why do I stick around? Why do I do it?

Part 2: Why I do this
Simply put, I love these books so much that it is my goal to help share its vision with as many people as possible. Now, quite obviously Robert Jordan is doing a fine job of selling books and keeping people interested. I want so badly to help all of you enjoy and experience the books on a new level. I read a lot, but nothign has ever reached me personally as deeply as these books. Maybe it's because the characters in the books are the same age as I. When Rand realized that he could not love Egwene the way he always wanted to, I realized something very similar with a woman I knew. When he fell in love with Elayne, I fell in love with my own Daughter-heir. As the characters became aware of the larger world around them, I did as well.

Most of you I bet have experienced the same thing, or something very similar. The Wheel of Time is a story that spans all generations, all cultures, and is embedded into everything in human history. I've seen 11 your old kids at book signings and old people who literally approach Robert Jordan using a walker.

This is a story that I feel the need to tell others about. I feel the need to share and enhance your experience.

For that reason perhaps more than any other, I remain at Dragonmount and watch it grow. I can feel your desire to want more of these books. And so I will do everything in my power to bring you the best content, contests, 3D worlds, RPG's, games, stories, art, and even movies so that you can experience Jordan's vision to the fullest.

You may be asking: So what about the Community? What about the people? Don't you do it for us too?
Of course I do. DM is a community of people with a common interest. We are united by it, and it drives me to give more. The people I have met are people that I consider some of my closest friends and I can not see my life without them. I can not see my life without Dragonmount.

Sad? Not at all. Once you have put so much into something, given so much to something you believe in, you no longer see it as a chore or a burden. I maintain a very balanced life offline, and could ask for nothing more. With DM, I am even more complete. Despite the financial problems and everything else--I am not worried at all. We have always pulled through, and we will again.

Part 3: Last words
With these last words here, I would like to thank the following people who have contributed so much to DM that I don't think I can thank you enough. These names are off the top of my head, and I sincerely appologize if I have left out a few key names. These are the movers and shakers of DM's past and present. If I were to blow the Horn of Valere, I know they would be by my side:

Tai'shar Dragonmount!