Those are good observations, H1tM0nk3y.  This is generally the time of year when I reflect back, as well, and the informative threads, here, are often motivators for me, as too.

In honesty, while I've never met ANY of the folks here, outside of the threads, or PM's, or in some cases, Instant Messenger, I have closer friends here than many of my personal friends, because here, there are folks who understand where my head's at.  That isn't to say everyone here is 'close', but it's a place where you can learn, you can have intelligent conversations, and if you get off course, you can actually be 'schooled' (which sometimes becomes necessary to keep us focused and on track.)

As a lot of us found, early, there aren't 'many' places / forums, online or otherwise, where we can interact on the levels that EH-Net affords us, on a regular basis.  Personally, the area where I live is a minimum of an hour (generally more) from any larger metropolitan areas, so 'professional networking' opportunities don't come often, especially with family time and my job (that's right, I don't work in infosec for a full-time living, but rather, it's a side venture.  Often wish it WAS full-time, and perhaps, when the stars align in a couple of years - long, unnecessary side story - it will be).  So EH-Net becomes my landing place, to wind down, share information, get perspectives, and just regain a little focus, in general.

But, long-winded post coming to an end, I agree.  don has a good thing going here.  

It's posts like this that in turn motivates me to keep doing what I do. We're all open, honest and helpful here on EH-Net... at least that's the type of community I've always strived to create and maintain. This thread shows me that my efforts continue to work. It's often that a project takes on a life of its own, and the original intent goes astray. I'm proud that we've kept something going here that is not just a technical resource but also a career minded community of helpful people.

In light of you being honest, I must also admit that there are times that I lose the energy. There's a lot to running this site from getting content, prizes, advertisers, do promotion, make appearances... it's a lot. Sometimes it only feels like I'm here to "make the donuts."

Then I look around and see threads like this one, and it reignites the fire under my a$$.

So thank you. And I mean that honestly. I don't make a million bucks running this site. But I've become rich is so many other ways. Sounds quaint, but it's the truth.

Look out 2013, here we come!

Don

Well, it's forum like this one that motivates me to keep posting! 

Another thing I really like, is that you don't feel stupid asking a question on EthicalHacker.net. Even if the answer is in the previous post, nobody makes you feel bad about it.

I am like Hayabusa, I don't work full time yet in information security. But the better I become, the more chances for it to happen. But I do get little contracts here and there, so I try to stay focus on my goal.

I have almost been away from EH.net for a year after failing an exam (I have never failed an exam with a mark below 60%, but when you need 70%...). So I was very disappointed at one point... But I passed the GWAPT certification last November and now, I am back on track! I have invested a lot of money and effort in training and I can't wait for it to pay off. But like for anything worth in life, we have to be patient...

So all that to say, this is a great site. Thanks again Don, this site is bigger than all of us now!

Tossing my hat in the ring. I love this place for the friends I've made, on line.  it was great to meet some of them in the real world.  (YAY! Bsides-Chicago and DerbyCon, grrcon fell through, no phone signal to meet up with the person).

The thing I like the most, I get to find out about the neat little challenges (like the Christmas, and Halloween ones), even though I don't have to time to play with them. It's nice being able to read through the answers at the end, and gain a little skill that way. Since I'm working mostly in network design and auditing designs now, this forum is one of the two ways I keep my fingers in the technical pie.

We probably don't say it enough, but thank you Don, for everything you do.

This site is great, and one of the things I like most is the fact I feel comfortable asking questions and know that I will not get flamed.  I still consider myself new to the field, and I was always hesitant to post in past forums as I would see how others would get shot-down quickly or told to go somewhere else - that has never happened here

I too like the contests/challenges!

Thanks for all the hard work you put into this site!!

I second/third/fourth everything that's already been said.  Cool people, fun/interesting topics...awesome combo.

The motivation I get from the forums has been huge for me.  Since I've been a member here, I've taken and passed both the eCPPT and GSEC certs, and had the direction/courage to switch to a new job!  I'm not working in a full-time security job yet, but I'm on my way

If you have taken a look or even a glance at all the credit card advertisements in the newspaper, magazines, unsolicited emails or even bulk postal mails, you will probably notice a common trend. More and more of them are stating that their credit cards do not carry any annual fee. This certainly looks like good news to all of us.But are there any real benefits to owning a no annual fee credit card?First of all, you need to understand that the bulk of the revenue from credit card companies come from the finance charges and annual fees associated with the card.  If you do not pay off your credit card balance in full, you will need to pay interest. On top of that, if you exceed your card limit or do not make your monthly payment on time, you are slapped with an extra finance charge.   And if you withdraw cash from your card, you also need to pay some form of surcharge. These are just a few common ways that credit card companies make money from you.For credit cards that do not carry annual fee, the interest rate associated with them is likely to be higher than those with an annual fee. This makes sense, as the card companies want to offset their revenue loss from the annual fee by charging a higher interest rate. In fact, the gain from the higher interest rate can even be more lucrative than the annual fee alone.However, there are still some benefits to owning such a card. If you are one of the minority of people who pay off the entire outstanding balance in full each month, a no annual fee credit card is actually going to do you a lot of good.   There is no need to pay any additional fee to the card companies or go through the trouble of asking for a waiver of the fee at the end of the year. You can use the extra money for other purpose.This type of card can also benefit those who carry very little outstanding balance. Typically, if you roll over less than fifty dollars each month, you can still gain some benefits from such a card. The interest you pay is likely to be less than the annual fee.  However, you have to do some calculation here based on an analysis of your spending habits. Make sure that the total interest you will be paying in a year is less than the annual fee of similar card.For those people who like to roll over large amount of balance to the following month, it probably makes more sense to a use a low interest rate credit card.   As interest is compounded every day, the saving gained from not paying annual fee will be eliminated in a very short period of time if your card comes with no annual fee but high interest rate.Ultimately, you have to understand your own money management style in order to determine if a no annual fee credit card is for you. It is great not to pay annual fee but if you are unable to manage your money well, the little saving from not paying annual fee is not going to help you.
 
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