Happy New Year, and thanks!

Just wanted to say, first of all, thank you all of you who post in this forum (or lurk!) for helping to make 2014 our best year ever. As those of you who follow Mike on Twitter (or who pay attention to the feed on the left-side of the page, come to think of it) we topped 15.4 million pageviews in 2014, a record for us, by far, and that in a season in which the MLB club sucked to boot (we've found, interestingly, that as the big club's fortunes go, so does our readership, to some degree). Our readers and posters are why we run this site, so thank you all for making it a fulfilling enterprise for us.

As a member of the site's brass, I also wanted to give a shout to our staff - writers, scouts, editors, web editors, forum moderators, and anyone who maybe doesn't fit snugly into one of those labels. We've got a great crew of people who work for the site, and literally none of them get paid for that; they're all volunteers. Given the level of work product they produce, that's incredible to think about. Seeing what this staff has been able to do over the past 12 months makes me feel like a proud papa, and has me energized for an even better 2015. We've already got some neat things in the pipeline that I can't wait to bust out.

Specific to this forum, I also wanted to thank you all for helping to make this such a great place for intelligent, interesting discussion on the team. As a general rule, I hate most discussion on the internet - be it on forums/message boards, comments on articles, etc. However, thanks both to our posters and to the mods, this forum steers clear of a lot of that garbage.

One thing I did want to note: As you can all see in the forum Ground Rules, the first rule here is do not talk about the SoxProspects Forum* "Be civil to each other." As tends to happen during the offseason, it feels like folks are getting a bit antsy now that things have slowed down. This is natural and happens every year. Still, just remember to keep that ground rule first and foremost in your minds as you post. We aspire to make the SoxProspects Forum a welcoming place for intelligent discussion, and personal insults, unnecessary snark, or ridicule go against that. Posters will not agree on everything, and nor should they - that'd be boring as hell. But there's no point in which derision or insult is an appropriate response to another poster. I'm of the mind that the next person who wins an argument on the internet will be the first. Sometimes, we just need to agree to disagree. And that's ok. Make your point, discuss, but know when to get out and keep things civil. If we all do that, then things will stay groovy.

Thanks everyone, and cheers for the coming year!
Chris



*If you're reading this on the app, that reference is struck through.