Jul 24 2005, 09:00 AM
Dear Cuz –
I have often thought that you underestimate the importance of the Arsenal website & forum you created to its users.
So to prove the point I sent an email to some forum users asking if any of them wanted to write a note about their enjoyment of your forum. I have long realised that some regarded the forum as an essential part of their support for Arsenal, but even I was shocked by the sheer volume and depth of feeling expressed in them.
It is obvious from their replies that the impact your forum has on users is much more than ‘enjoyment’. It plays a genuinely important part in many of their lives. Moreover, this wasn’t simply the view of a few internet geeks with too much time on their hands, but was expressed by people from a broad range of walks of life, all of whom wanted to craft a heartfelt letter to explain what the forum meant to them. If you type almost any first name followed by “Gleiber” into google you get a googlewhack… when you type “Steve Gleiber” into google you get 700 hits (which as you may already know is twice as many hits as you get when searching for “big and bouncy boobs”) and when you visit your homepage the hit counter shows that there have already been a massive two million viewings of your site.
Any website which has generated years of loyalty from its users and has received over a million hits in the past year alone is obviously doing something right. Your ingenuity and perseverance have made the site, and especially the forum, an enormous success. However, the forumites’ letters testify that the volume of interest is only one dimension for measuring its success. Another is the human dimension. It seems strange that a website could impact on ‘real’ life, yet it is the single most consistent thing that forumites wrote about; the tangible way your forum has affected their everyday life. =================== Jul 24 2005, 09:00 AM
... known on the web by his handle Nobby the Moose, died March 16th 2005, aged 41. Few people live life with more verve than Steve. He had an effortless generosity of spirit that resulted in him becoming engulfed by friendships. His funeral was attended by hundreds and hundreds more from across the globe have posted condolences. There was nothing that Steve couldn’t find the funny side of. Even when he was dying of brain cancer, he told me that it was such a pity that doctors couldn’t do a brain transplant as his much loved father, had an 'unused' one. He was not only a loving & affectionate person but a passionate Arsenal fan. When he lived in England he went to every single home/away match and in the 80s he was the match reporter for Gunflash. He told me about an away game he went to where the fog was so thick that they couldn’t see even yards in front of them, when he got home he sat down and completely made up the match report. Steve Gleiber (1963 – 2005)
In 1996 when selling books over the internet was still considered to be a mad idea, Steve set up a website for Arsenal fans – ten years on the concept of weblogs have finally caught up with his vision.His site and especially the forum on it are one of the most effective and popular fanzines on the internet.
Over 2 million people have visited it. A thousand fans post every week. The quality of postings, discussions and debate remains high and it is used by thousands from all professions and walks of lives. As Steve’s sister said, he in turn was truly loved, respected and admired by so many spanning the globeOne of his dying wishes was for the community to continue and it is of course our honour to ensure that it will. A few months ago we asked forumites if they wanted to send in letters on what the forum had come to mean to them and how it had become integrated into their lives. We received so many long and heartfelt replies that we bound them into a leather book and presented it to Steve. I know from his family that he treasured this. He was a devoted Arsenal fan. He leaves behind a community of thousands who know themselves as SG Gooners (Steve Gleiber Gooners) and a web-based legacy that will outlast us all. We love you Steve. Rob Keve
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