Milestones in HWI forum history

[comet]

Nov 6, 2018 12:24:05 GMT martindn said:

Well, at least one prominent member has disappeared without trace. Others have perhaps passed away or lost interest, hardly surprising with so little Hayley news these days. It would be interesting to see how the rates of gain and loss of members has varied over the years.

I think you have to deliberately click on "Delete forum account" in profile > settings > Delete forum account to terminate your membership, it does not happen just because you have not logged in in a number of years.

various people did it for a variety of reasons over the years.

[Dave]

I'm keeping out of this, it's complicated!

Dave

[Joe]

Nov 6, 2018 10:22:33 GMT comet said:

Nov 6, 2018 7:05:38 GMT John H said:

I don't understand - the home page is telling me that we have 902 members.
Are there some 'hidden' members that are only visible to moderators?

Hi John, I imagine 100 or so members deleted their accounts over the years.

Hello Paul and John...

It is likely the thousand member count might be a conservative estimate, When ProBoards who host this forum upgraded all forums to their version 5 several years ago, they assigned each existing member a user number...based on date registered. So there were ten years of deleted accounts not given a user number. I would think ProBoards’ reasoning for this was that members who changed their username would have thrown a spanner in the works, so ProBoards now use numbers.    You can see your number if you click on your name which brings you to View Profile, then look at the address URL at the top. 

I think most of that deleted 88 were spam members! Indeed some have sadly deleted their accounts. 

Some members choose to hide their presence except for moderators...which is fine. 

To me, our age and our forum user number is just a number! Whether 5 or 50 or 500...

[Joe]

Hi all 

just wanted to announce that we are very close to receiving our 1,500,000 visitor to the forum!  Our web counter can be found at the bottom of the page. 

As always, thank you for your support! 

- Joe 

[scoobedoo]

Good to know we're still hanging in there despite it being somewhat quiet to what this site has been in the past.

[Joe]

Aug 31, 2019 0:52:27 GMT scoobedoo said:

Good to know we're still hanging in there despite it being somewhat quiet to what this site has been in the past.

Yes, all very true!  

Yesterday morning (7 September) we surpassed one and a half million visits! 

[scoobedoo]

Excellent, long may it continue.

[Dave]

Hi everyone,

HWI 20th. Anniversary

The 20th. anniversary of the HWI website - at least the oldest page I can find - is today, 23 May 2023! The domain name was registered by the late lamented Simon on 20th. March 2003 and the website created soon afterwards, but it will of course have taken him some time to get the site online.

The HWI forum was created a few weeks later and I know we'll have more to say about that when its anniversary comes around!

Meanwhile, here is that earliest HWI website page that I can find:



Cheers,

Dave

[Joe]

Hello Dave and everyone! 

Twenty years is a remarkable achievement for the duration of any website. The HWI website was created with purpose; a wishful intent to share the news of an amazing 16-year-old singer from New Zealand. 

Very soon we shall also mark this forum’s twentieth anniversary…stay tuned!  Then in November I will observe my 20 years as a forum member! 

[Joe]

Hi all,

As you've seen from the previous post, the HWI website turned 20 last May.  And soon after was the creation of the HWI Forum...which was 20 years ago today, July 24, 2003.    In fact, the very first post is still visible!  Posted by one of HWI's founders, administrator Keith Sheel set out to inform the world about this child singer from New Zealand!  hwi.proboards.com/thread/77/welcome

Please look at the many other posts in that Welcome thread.  I found and emotionally read my very first post there; I was eager to discover more about Hayley.  Just who is this girl and what is this song... in Maori ?!  

My friends, will you look back on these last twenty years on the forum with me... and share your forum memories?   Have you met any fellow members or perhaps traveled just to meet them? Do you have a favorite Hayley concert that you've attended, and had the pleasure of sharing a meal with a fellow HWI member?  Happy moments to be sure!

Let us also pay tribute to members who have passed on; in particular those who helped to moderate this forum and those who created the website. 

You, dear member, have done a lot to help share the good news and the good voice that is Hayley Westenra.  

~ Joe 

P.S. we have added a "20 year anniversary" medal to the forum banner at the top of the screen! 




  

[comet]

I had a quick read (ha ha) of the welcome thread, the first 50 pages, clicked on various links and detours to other threads, took about four hours. Saw the names and screennames of so many people who just stayed a while, the Celtic Women phase, or the Jonathhan Ansell phase, the Karl Jenkins phase. Flight paths making crisscross marks in a blue sky. But others arrived and stayed, some posted a lot, some only occasionally. I suppose I have met about a hundred of them maybe more at different venues of Hayley's concerts, some at All Angels or Katherine Jenkins concerts.

With hindsight Shepherds Bush is the one that stands out, it was then that we collectively agreed without much discussion that YouTube was the way forward, that it was the best way to document Hayley's journey with us, the fans, never quite knowing which direction we were heading.

[Dave]

So much has happened over the last 20 years and yes Paul, the different phases - which started even before our website or forum. Some for example were on Charlotte Church forums and discovered Hayley from there, I learned about her from an Eva Cassidy forum and never looked back, it would be interesting to know how some other members 'discovered' Hayley.

But wow, 20 years - that's a generation - we've been around longer than Youtube and even though Hayley has stepped back from public life in recent years, we have no intention of stopping any time soon.

In the beginning, without the late lamented Keith and Simon, there would have been no HWI forum or website and we remain, in their debt. But without you, the active members both now and in the past, we might have all packed our bags long ago. So for those of you who remain - you know who you are - many thanks, and please don't stop!

There have been quite a few members over the years who have gone 'above and beyond' by making not only regular posts to the forum but also by reporting concerts and other events, taking videos and photos for us, as well recording for posterity some of Hayley's TV appearances going way back to her youth in NZ. Not forgetting all who have helped with the forum admin too, many thanks to you all. There are too many to mention here by name without inadvertently leaving out someone I shouldn't, so (for now) I will leave it to others to do that if they wish, please do!

I can't finish without a special mention of our most prominent member of all, one who from time to time even this year has taken time out of her day to post on here to thank us, and who did of course let us in on that very special 'secret' back in January, long before anything we could find on Social or other media. Thank you Hayley - and wherever you do it, in public or at home, keep on singing for yourself - and your family![/i]

[Libby]

I have had many enjoyable experiences on this forum, reading concert threads and seeing photos, discussing new albums, social media posts, and all sorts of other things. Creating polls for Hayley's dresses, shoes, and earrings. One of the most exciting memories for me was in July 2009 when her performance of The Moon Represents My Heart at the World Games in Taiwan launched her to super-stardom in Taiwan. The song was so beautiful, her hair was gorgeous, and the audience's reaction gave me chills. I seem to remember feeling later that time seemed to pass so quickly for me in my life after that... I think I would use this event as a reference in my mind. Like, whoa, it's already been a year since that performance! I didn't have much else going on in my life at the time, and so things like this were very exciting for me, and made me excited to see what Hayley would do in the future.

Yes, I have been to 1 concert, so that is my favorite Hayley concert! Watching her perform live was a very emotional experience. When she first walked on and began singing Amalia Por Amor, I became very emotional. Just seeing her and hearing her sing, only mere feet away from you, under stage lights and not through a computer screen, and through the theater sound system and not through a computer speaker, was an indescribably extraordinary experience. The colors of her dresses became so rich and vivid, and her pure, ivory skin was illuminated beautifully. It was simply breathtaking. You thought her voice was pure before? It was even more so now! You thought she was pretty before? She was the most beautiful person in the world here! More than just her voice and appearance, it was the heart and emotion that exuded from her through her facial expressions and movements of her body, something that videos have never quite been able to capture.

And when I met her, she was so kind, welcoming, and appreciative of her fans, and gave me one of the most wonderful, exciting experiences of my life. Literally, at that time in my life, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me.

Meeting other HWI members was definitely a highlight for me in Madison. Travelling on my own for the first time was a little nerve-wracking, and I was not able to focus on the fact that I was actually going to meet my favorite singer in the world. But once I arrived at the hotel and met up with everyone there, I immediately felt better, and the reality of seeing Hayley began to sink in, and I started to get excited. Everyone was so very nice, and it was such a unique experience to be able to talk with other people who loved Hayley. Forum discussions cannot compare, to speak nothing of trying to share things with less-than-enthusiastic family members. In fact, I almost wished I never had to leave, and could talk with them on a regular basis. Most of the members were not regular members... in fact, the only member who still occasionally posts here is Alicia. But Bob and his wife were very kind, pleasant people, and they drove us all to the theater. There was also Pete, who was more active on the official forum, and a young guy whose name I cannot remember, or what his forum name was. But everyone was very nice, and we had a very enjoyable time together.

I will always be glad that I made the effort to travel across the country to see Hayley, not knowing if another opportunity to see her closer would come along. I can't remember if I revealed this to everyone before, but at some point previously, I can't recall when exactly, I had written an email to the Madison orchestra requesting that they have her come back to perform sometime. It was recently enough beforehand that I felt positive they had read my email and invited her back because of it. Whether or not that was the case, it still felt as though she was coming there because of me. Also, I have relatives in Wisconsin, so I have some connection to the state. Initially I had hoped that I could coerce my dad into going along because of this, and also because he was the one who discovered Hayley before me. But he declined, so I was on my own. My family tried to discourage me from going alone, but eventually gave in and helped me plan my journey. Now, knowing that another Hayley performance in the US is likely never to be, I am even more happy that I did decide to go. I value the entire experience tremendously.

Nowadays, part of me is a bit disappointed that we still know nothing about the new album we anticipated for so long, and even whether it will ever be released at all. But the other part of me is very glad that she is just living life now and being happy.

[Libby]

I just wanted to make a correction to my post. I believe the forum member who drove all of us around was named Bill, not Bob. His wife was named Susan, I'm pretty sure. I suppose I probably could find out who everybody was by searching the concert thread. But I don't think they've posted anything since.