hi everyone,

wow. What a huge year it’s been! The third year of Delimiter’s life was a huge one. This, in my opinion, was the year where the site really grew up into its teen years and out of its infancy. Some quick stats. In calendar year 2012 (so far), Delimiter has had:

• About 1200 articles
• About 29,000 comments
• About 2.5 million page impressions
• About 906,000 unique visitors

In 2012 we also grew our email mailing lists substantially (especially as we added a new weekly newsletter), and our followers on Twitter continue to grow as well.

Right now, the way that I feel about Delimiter as a site is that its launch period is over and that it is now more than viable as an ongoing concern. The concept of just providing technology news, views and reviews centred on Australia, eschewing the flood of international news that so many Australian sites plaster their sites with, has clearly resonated with Australian readers, and as testament to that, Delimiter is now a larger (and much more influential) site than quite a few of our local competitors who do take that international approach.

Much of this success is owed to the many readers (there are usually about 100,000 of you each month!) who continue to read articles, comment and debate issues and post new topics in our forums. Without the constant feedback we get from you guys on a daily basis, Delimiter wouldn’t be half the site it is, and I like to think that it’s a more ‘reader-driven’ site than some of our competitors. If 2-3 of you guys tell me you’re interested in an issue, I will usually follow it up; because if 2-3 readers ask me about something, odds are there are thousands more interested in exactly the same thing.

Aside from the stats, informally I also hear a lot of good things. We are on close terms with all of the major political parties, with most of the major technology and telecommunications firms (including many of their managing directors and chief executives) and of course with many, many individuals in the IT industry, at all levels, from IT support techs to chief information officers. In other examples, Delimiter’s articles are cited in Australia’s federal and state parliaments more regularly than you might think now, and sci-fi author and BoingBoing.net founder Cory Doctorow recently mentioned us as an Australian site of note during a recent trip Down Under.

Commercially the site is also a success. Over the past year we really ramped up the engagement with many of the largest technology firms in Australia, and at this stage the feedback is quite positive. Most already know about us when we approach them, and quite a few have chosen to become repeat advertisers after the success of initial campaigns. The assistance of our commercial representation, HS3 Media, and our accountants AKA Group has been critical in operating the commercial side of the business; thanks guys! In addition, you may have noticed that Delimiter’s web hosting has become rock solid over the past six months — that’s thanks to Bulletproof Networks, our hosting partner.

With all of this in mind, it’s time to wind down a bit for the Christmas season after a huge year. I wanted to post this article as a quick heads-up to how we’ll be working over the next few weeks and what you can expect from Delimiter.

• Over the next two weeks, from today (3 December) until Friday 14 December, Delimiter will be working on a “work slow” basis. We’ll still be posting between 2-3 articles a day — just the most important news mixed with some reviews we’re still to finish — but our coverage level will be reduced. It’s become obvious anyway over the past several weeks that there just isn’t enough happening out there in Australia’s technology sector to sustain a full complement (6-7) of decent stories each day right now, due to the end of the year approaching. Newsletters (weekly and daily) will still go out during this period.
• Over the Christmas and New Year’s period, from 15 December until 6 January, Delimiter will halt publishing and newsletters entirely, unless there’s a really urgent story (such as happened last year with iiNet buying Internode). Over this period, our forums will remain open and continue to be moderated, but we’re not planning to publish any stories in that period.

Of course, if you have any queries or issues during this extended holiday period you can always continue to drop us a line through our contact form.

One last thing: I just want to specifically give a shout out and thanks to the hundreds and hundreds of readers who sent in anonymous tips to Delimiter this year via our anonymous tips form. It’s something that not everyone is aware of, but Delimiter normally gets between 2-3 tips per day through this form. We follow up every one, but we can’t always verify the information received, so not every tip becomes a story immediately. However, this avenue is where some of our best stories arrived this year, and during the height of some stories (such as CommBank’s SOE disaster in July, which the bank flatly refused to talk about), we were receiving 5-6 tips a day from different sources about this kind of specific issue.

One of the main things which Delimiter has always been focused on is accountability: Holding politicians to account for their promises and fact-checking their statements, making sure that vendors don’t screw Australian customers, disclosing facts that powerful interests want to keep hidden. Without our tipsters, we couldn’t do this job half as well, and so we wanted to say thank you for a glorious 2012 full of tips. We don’t always know who you are, but we always highly respect your integrity in doing what you do.

Anyway, that’s enough from me — thanks for a great 2012, here’s looking forward to a great holiday season, and let’s make 2013 even bigger!

Cheers,

Renai LeMay
Editor + Publisher, Delimiter

Tweet

1. Michael Wyres
   Posted 03/12/2012 at 10:57 am | Permalink | Reply

   Does your editor know you’re slacking off like this?

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 03/12/2012 at 11:09 am | Permalink | Reply

     We’re currently in negotiations involving the union.

     • Tinman_au
       Posted 03/12/2012 at 11:40 am | Permalink | Reply

       Make sure they hit him up for a pay rise next time to negotiate the EB with yourself!!

2. Trev
   Posted 03/12/2012 at 11:07 am | Permalink | Reply

   Whoa, anonymous tips!?

   Look out for .. ire of US government -> JG calls your activities illegal -> terrorist organisation -> South American embassy.

   Hope you’re on good terms with some benevolent dictator somewhere. ;)

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 03/12/2012 at 2:18 pm | Permalink | Reply

     I have certain … connections :)

3. Tinman_au
   Posted 03/12/2012 at 11:38 am | Permalink | Reply

   Enjoy your slow down Renai, you’ve earned it :o)

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 03/12/2012 at 12:17 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Cheers, much appreciated!

4. Dan
   Posted 03/12/2012 at 11:41 am | Permalink | Reply

   Commercially the site is also a success.

   That is great news. I’m glad Delimiter will be around for a little while longer; it’s now one of my ‘everyday’ reads, nested in my app tabs right there beside whirlpool.

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 03/12/2012 at 12:18 pm | Permalink | Reply

     High praise — cheers, much appreciated! I will try to keep the quality high next year.

5. Stephen Collins
   Posted 03/12/2012 at 12:01 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Deserved break. Take it.

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 03/12/2012 at 12:18 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Cheers, will do! :)

6. Bob.H
   Posted 03/12/2012 at 12:25 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Thanks for the hard work during the year Renai.

   Enjoy your rest and I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and that the New Year brings even more success and satisfaction..

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 03/12/2012 at 2:17 pm | Permalink | Reply

     No worries — you too!

7. PeterA
   Posted 03/12/2012 at 1:34 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Thanks for the heads up Renai, I’ll still check back daily regardless of your blatant attempt to reduce traffic during the Christmas holidays.

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 03/12/2012 at 2:17 pm | Permalink | Reply

     No worries. I know, right? Despite my attempt, people are apparently still reading. *sigh* :)

8. TechinBris
   Posted 03/12/2012 at 3:25 pm | Permalink | Reply

   All the best for the Silly Season to you Renai and your family. Knock the socks off and throw the feet up and sweat happily in the Summer heat with all those who get the time off at this time of the year. Enjoy it, you deserve it. Good work.

9. Shannon Pace
   Posted 03/12/2012 at 4:03 pm | Permalink | Reply

   enjoy your break, renai. your young family should make this christmas extra special.

   see you in the new year…

• • Topic
  • Voices
  • Posts
  • Freshness
• • Microsoft rolled over on XBox One

    Started by:  midspace in: Gadgets

  • 1
  • 1
  • 3 hours, 48 minutes ago

     midspace

  • The Register crowdsourcing Independent study of NBN

    Started by:  posty in: National Broadband Network

  • 1
  • 1
  • 8 hours, 19 minutes ago

     posty

  • Delays.

    Started by:  Sputnik in: National Broadband Network

  • 1
  • 1
  • 1 day, 9 hours ago

     Sputnik

  • iPad mini giveaway draw

    Started by:  midspace in: Everything else

  • 2
  • 4
  • 2 days, 8 hours ago

     midspace

  • PolitiFact goes out of its way to support Turnbull

    Started by:  Karl in: National Broadband Network

  • 1
  • 1
  • 2 weeks, 1 day ago

     Karl

  • Article on 'Ultraviolet'

    Started by:  ray73864 in: Everything else

  • 3
  • 4
  • 2 weeks, 6 days ago

     ray73864

  • 77TB a month on fibre

    Started by:  Karl in: General telecommunications

  • 1
  • 1
  • 3 weeks, 5 days ago

     Karl

  • Malcolm Turnbull, Time Traveller

    Started by:  quink in: Everything else

  • 2
  • 4
  • 1 month ago

     Karl

  • Surface sells out … of its tiny amount of stock?

    Started by:  Renai LeMay in: Gadgets

  • 4
  • 4
  • 1 month, 1 week ago

     douglasrose

  • Coalition fraudband plan summary…

    Started by:  Hubert Cumberdale in: National Broadband Network

  • 4
  • 5
  • 1 month, 1 week ago

     JamesH1

  • NBN Is A Question Of Reliability

    Started by:  JamesH1 in: National Broadband Network

  • 1
  • 1
  • 1 month, 1 week ago

     JamesH1

  • Renai asked:

    Started by:  Tinman_au in: National Broadband Network

  • 1
  • 1
  • 1 month, 1 week ago

     Tinman_au

  • What Happened to Whirlpool posts

    Started by:  MikeK101 in: Everything else

  • 2
  • 2
  • 1 month, 3 weeks ago

     Bob.H

  • Conroy/Turnbull NBN Debate Next Week

    Started by:  zephram in: National Broadband Network

  • 1
  • 1
  • 1 month, 3 weeks ago

     zephram

  • Blocked from posting? Let me know

    Started by:  Renai LeMay in: Everything else

  • 2
  • 2
  • 1 month, 4 weeks ago

     Abel Adamski

•