Happy Belated 10th Birthday to Harp-L

[Chris Pierce <cpierce1972@xxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings and Happy New Year to everybody!

I was going to post this message on Harp-L's 10th
birthday (Oct 6, 2002), but untimely technical
problems prevented it.

Fortunately, the great bunch of people we have running
the list managed to get things running again (and
under a much better domain name).  #:)

My birthday message follows.  Please forgive the
formatting if it comes out ugly, I'm using Yahoo!
mail.

- ----------------------------------------

Back in 1992, Harp-L began as a forum for a small
number of harmonica enthusiasts to discuss the
instrument and music they loved.

Soon the electronic mailing list had hundreds of
subscribers from all over the world.

In the years that followed, as the internet was
rapidly expanding, electronic harmonica resources
began to grow.  An internet Gopher site served as the
first supplement to the list.  The advent of the World
Wide Web brought numerous pages devoted to the
harmonica and related topics.  Soon after, WWW
discussion boards, USENET newsgroups and other
harmonica mailing lists emerged.

Although there have been slow periods, times of
instability and technically difficulties, Harp-L
has persevered.  A decade after the first email was
sent, Harp-L is still going strong with well over 1000
members.

I started to make a list of everyone I wanted to
personally thank, but it quickly became too large.
Plus, I was afraid I may leave out too many people
(time and age have affected my memory).

That being said, I must still mention a few people who
have been key to the survival of Harp-L.

First, thanks to Hugh Messenger (where ever he may be
these days).  If not for Hugh, Harp-L may well have
died when Western Kentucky University decided to get
rid of all student-run mailing lists.

Second, thanks to all the wonderful people at SPAH,
for their financial and moral support of Harp-L and
all the great things they do (and have done) for the
Harmonica community.

Third, I want to thank Michael Polesky and all of
the Harp-L administrators, workers and helpers.  As
with Hugh, if not for them, the list would probably
have died long ago.

Finally, I want to thank all the members of the list
over the years.  Whether active contributors or
quiet lurkers, each and every one has been a part of
something special.

Hopefully, the next 10 years will be even better than
the last.

Keep on Harpin',

Chris Pierce



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