Moonman - may I join you?

Recent weeks have indeed seen the departure of Earl Moon and Brian from our forum. We recognize that both were valuable contributors to our growing community, and regret their decisions to apparently move on.

The staff at SMTnet has worked hard to build and maintain a site that is valuable to the electronics manufacturing community. The past six weeks have been a period of transition here at SMTnet, a brief period while our small staff has been focused on many �backend� issues related to the site. During this time, we have admittedly not been our usual proactive selves. Again, we regret that we have not been as communicative with our users as we have in the not-so-distant past. Fortunately, other aspects of our transition have gone more smoothly.

In October, we expanded the forum section to include a broader array of participation from the electronics manufacturing community. We are taking a major step in moving the site onto our own dedicated server, offering better performance and the potential to access more bandwidth than ever before. We expect to go live on the new server next weekend. We have secured the support of our major contributing advertisers for 1999/2000, and are introducing an innovative new strategy we are confident will make the SMTnet forum more popular than ever (more on that to come!). After more than three years, we are finally in a position (both in terms of hardware and finances) to market the site to new users, improve our services and manage the business operation of the site simultaneously.

Clearly, there is much to be excited and upbeat about at SMTnet. We recognize that our first priority needs to be our loyal users, and with some major developmental milestones behind us, you can now expect our usual form. It is unfortunate that Earl and Brian could not bear with us through this period; given ample time to reflect, they are welcome to return to the flock. And so we move on, rededicating ourselves to the cause at hand.

SMTnet is a company that runs largely without traditional titles. Cunli Jia, who�s title was alternately �Manager� and �Product Development Director� left the company in early September to pursue other opportunities. The parting was amicable, and we continually reflect on his vision for the site�s development as we move forward. I will be stepping into Cunli�s role as �Content Manager� and working with users to improve our site through a process of constructive and open dialogue.

Our goal is to make SMTnet a resource that users will enthusiastically recommend to their colleagues. We owe much of our success to the referrals of other users. I look forward to working with you to make SMTnet just such a place, and appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.

Thank your for your patience.

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