Entry posted by wimg
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Dearest Members & Visitors of the little Fountain Pen Nut house on the digital prairie,
Since its inception in June 2004, the Fountain Pen Network has always been a refuge for the fountain pen lover, hobbyist, and collector. Over the years we have seen participation by pen businesses, retailers and providers of services, grow here, and we have also seen budding entrepreneurs grow up, quite often because of or thanks to this site.
We have never offered any advantages or real possibilities for these traders and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses here, there was no space for it, and the rules did not cater well for such enterprises either. We now live 9 years later, we are growing up, still growing bigger at a fast rate, and we have become the #1 site worldwide in size and visits in the pen community. In fact, in October 2012 we achieved a remarkable feat: the Fountain Pen Network ended in the top 100,000 busiest sites in the world, at spot number 84764. This is even more remarkable because we are a totally non-commercial site. We now are allowed to carry the gold seal below 
:
FPN is very highly ranked with regard to website traffic, within the 99th percentile, and FPN's site rank is well below the 100,000 mark when considering all sites worldwide (based on a survey of 25,511,510 domain names):
The Fountain Pen Network Ranking Score
So, a big thanks to our wonderful pen community, which made this possible.
An event like this also makes one stop, look back, and wonder about the future. We do think we need to incorparate and embrace the possibilities our entrepreneurs provide, and somehow balance that with the needs and wants of our hobbyist member community, while still providing the cosy warmth, friendliness and protective shield we have always offered here.
We do think we have found this balance. A new forum for traders and entrepreneurs, who now finally have the opportunity to communicate and discuss their products and services in this community directly - a unique opportunity to showcase their products and services to a, let's be honest, a rather captive audience . This forum will be available for advertisements and announcements by paid subscriptions only. Adverts and product and/or service show cases will be restricted to Classifieds, the new forum, aptly called The Mall, and potentially some blogs here, depending on the account subscription selected.
Rules for posting, specifically those for Classifieds and Market Watch, with new rules for The Mall, will be tightened a bit, but "normal" members won't see or feel the difference. Exisiting traders will notice the difference, but they will receive a lot in return for their contribution to the growth and continued existence of our Fountain Pen Network.
Warm regards,
The FPN Moderator and Admin Team
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