I’d love to say that things were winding down for the year, but somehow it doesn’t feel that way. Quite the opposite, in fact. I feel like I’m busier than I have been all year. Between keeping you up to date with our Christmas sale, and organizing the Community Awards and the holiday photography competition, things are a bit crazy. That’s all good though – I love the energy of this time of the year.
Last week I blogged about my new Mac and it caused quite a frenzy of comments. Thanks to those of you that offered me tips – I’m starting to feel comfortable with this thing now.
So… the community. Voting has closed in the aforementioned awards, and we’re in the process of tallying the results. Keep your eyes on the News and Announcements forum over the next week or so for the results. I’ll be awarding the badges just as soon as we have the results finalized and any double badges created (for those people who win two awards). Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.
The photography competition is still going strong. If you want to take part, you have several weeks in which to snap some holiday pics. We have just released the second set of subjects, with one more due in mid-January. You can check out the rules and subjects here.
Our Facebook page is looking pretty at the moment with all the presents from our sale, along with Christmas party photos and festivities from HQ. I have plans in the new year to get familiar with iMovie, so keep your eyes out for some entertaining footage of office antics. In the mean time, if there’s anything you’d like to see on our page, please let me know – I’m always open to feedback.
I guess that’s it for today. Whether or not you celebrate Christmas in your part of the world, I hope you have a fantastic day next Saturday. I plan on eating and drinking more than a single person should.
Hot Topics This Week
Two of the most interesting posts (in my opinion) this week can be found in the General Chat forum. The first of the discussions that I am referring to is all about leaking confidential information via the internet.
The second of those discussions is all about ad blockers. If sites rely on ads to make income, is it fair to allow people to block them? Do you have an opinion?
Another interesting thread this week is in the Web Page Design forum. Do you have an opinion on the best way to animate an image without using Flash?
In the Social Networking and Communities forum there is a great new thread about dealing with ISPs that don’t allow mass emailing.
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![Sarah Hawk](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_2616-96x96.jpg)
Formerly a developer in the corporate world, HAWK (known as Sarah by her mother) said goodbye to the code and succumbed to the lure of social media to become the Community Manager for the SitePoint network. Now Hawk is working with Discourse to build their product and community.