Yesterday the awesome behind-the-scenes team of Kermit and Dave added all of the fine folks from Detcon1 and Loncon3 who took us up on the offer of a free annual subscription we made to those two wonderful WSFS conventions.

As hoped for, the response was tremendous and, as expected, it pushed our membership numbers past the ten thousand mark.

To all who have signed up to date, a big

THANK YOU!

(If you’re thinking about registering but haven’t done so yet – you’ve got a lot of fellow travelers over here just waiting for you to join them!…and regular membership is free.)

Many of the benefits of being a subscriber have not yet been implemented on the site (working on it);  in an email sent to all of those who signed up at Detcon1 (and soon to go out to those who signed on at Loncon3) I stated that the duration of the free subscription would be extended until such time as those who signed on had received a full year with the full suite of benefits (discount in the store, subscribers only groups, customizable landing page, etc).  That promise remains in effect.

Our equation for returning Amazing Stories to regular fiction publication is a relatively simple one:  the more members we have, the greater our foot print, the more advertisers we can attract.  Give us your eyeballs, we’ll give you free content.

In furtherance of that goal, to date we have licensed the name to two entities (working on a third) that will provide revenue in the form of royalty payments;  we have also begun the ground work for an APP and a game that will carry the brand into new territory.  Not to mention the fine work of well over 150 (178 at last count) authors, artists, editors, collectors and fans that we bring to you every day of the week, covering your favorite topics (with the occasional bonus fiction to boot!)

We’ve not yet cracked the investor nut (nibbles for sure) and our progress has been a bit slow at times, but on balance, our progress towards our goal has been a steady upward climb.  We’d all be happier if it were going faster, but we can all take pride in what has been accomplished so far.

We do have one problem that I’d appreciate some help in fixing;  our posts are getting too few comments.  Or rather, comments are being made, but they’re appearing elsewhere – on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and websites.  We had a bit of a problem over comments last year, shutting down a conversation that was getting a bit out of hand and not being properly responsive to the situation.  Measures have been taken.  I have committed Amazing to never shutting down a comment thread again (while reserving the right to not approve comments that don’t contribute to the conversation).  All of your volunteer contributors would greatly appreciate hearing from you all, so please think about saying your say here (as well as elsewhere).

Finally:  to those who signed on at Loncon3 and Detcon1:  first – thanks for attending those conventions.  Worldcon (and NASFiC in appropriate years) are grease for the fannish wheels.  Second – you all should have received an email informing you that your account has been created (and asking you to change your temporary password).

If you signed on at those conventions and have NOT received an email notification, please get in touch here.  We’ll get things sorted out.  If you were already registered on the site and received a notification, let us know so that we can upgrade your existing membership.

There were also a handful of sign-ons who either did not provide complete enough information or whose chosen username was already being used on the website.  You will be receiving an email over the next few days so we can sort things out for you.

Thank you all again:

Post Script:  10,000 members/subscribers is great!  Next step – 100,000!